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Macro and Flora Moderator
I quite like the composition though as you say the bird is fairly central, if you did a 3:2 crop or current shape, starting top right you would eliminate some of the empty space and enhance composition.
I think you are right to get as much as possible correctly composed in the viewfinder.
Regards re composition use focus lock or rear button on off focus, also don't forget you can move the focus points around whilst still looking in the viewfinder if you use the multi control dial. This can be activated directly so once metering has commenced you are able to move the focus point(s). When in situations like this I often set the camera in advance with a focus point to the left or right of centre and often higher than centre. Hope this helps??
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Super Moderator
Henry, the bird here is far from being centered. If you look at only the head the yes it is centered, but you must look at the whole body placement...look at how much room there is in front of the face compared than behind the tail. As is it is perfectly composed within the frame. When using the central point on the eye many times smaller songbirds are by means of their shape and size already close to being well composed in the frame horizontally. You may just need to raise or lower the lens to place them better vertically. BTW, for fast moving subjects such as warblers my preferred way is the center point and recompose method...I too do not like to crop much and never do just to get the subject bigger in the frame but when it is done simply to help the composition than that is quite fine for me.
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the bird here is far from being centered
But it was centered in the original. As I mentioned "I expanded the canvas to the left by using Content-aware scale in Photoshop"
for fast moving subjects such as warblers my preferred way is the center point and recompose method...
I like the idea, but with my slow reflexes they are often gone if I take the time to recompose.
I'm considering using a sensor other than the center. The newest Canon cameras (5D3 and 1DX) have 61 AF points.
I know that it is desirable to use one of the cross-type sensors rather than a horizontal line sensor because they are more accurate. I believe in some earlier cameras only the center point had cross-type sensors.
The 600 f/4 II lens is in what Canon calls lens Group C. In the manual on the 5D3 they show pictures of the AF sensors and describe their sensitivity (see page 79). In the attached picture the grey squares are all cross-type. The darker grey squares are more sensitive (but it is not clear to me why). Perhaps I could pick one of the other dark grey square sensors.
Thoughts? I believe Ari has deep experience with this. Perhaps he could shed some light on the topic.
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Super Moderator
Hi Henry, for stationery birds you can use either 1) center and then lock the focus and recompose 2) use any other sensor, in good light ALL the sensors are pretty accurate and you don't need to worry whether they are cross-type or not.
When you want to shoot flight, or anything that moves fast you have to track centered so you'll be using the center expansion group. Tracking anything that moves fast with off-center sensor can be difficult with a long lenses as you have to offset the lens while panning. Your line of sight will be off the center of mass for your rig, it is difficult for the eye and muscles to coordinate this way quickly
best
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use any other sensor, in good light ALL the sensors are pretty accurate and you don't need to worry whether they are cross-type or not.
Very interesting! I need to experiment with using other sensors to see if I can perceive a difference in focus acquisition time or focus accuracy.
As always your comments are very helpful. I appreciate your willingness to share your deep knowledge on this!
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Super Moderator
Another reason I like the center point for small active songbirds is that you do not know which direction they will come from. You can set a focus point at left of center for example - but then as if it knows your plan the small little bugger will arrive from the right instead and perch pointing looking towards the left. Now you are stuck with a bird composed squished on the left edge of the frame since you need to focus on the eye. Switch focus point to the right instead then it will no doubt come in from the other way! Center point, recompose, and make sure you the subject is not too large in the frame for room to crop in post is the best recipe in my experience.
I like the idea, but with my slow reflexes they are often gone if I take the time to recompose.
It does not take fast reflexes to do so. It takes longer to place the focus point on the eye or face to begin with...after you have achieved focus it takes a fraction of a second to move your lens half an inch left or right or up or down (you do not need to move the lens much more than that tiny distance.) Practice makes perfect
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Macro and Flora Moderator
In general I would agree with Dan but if you know for example that a bird is coming in from the left or right, i.e. you have baited and provided a perch then you can very often anticipate the position of the bird in the frame and therefore preselect an appropriate AF point thus minimising any composition repositioning.
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Super Moderator
True, in the backyard you can better control the direction of approach with food and perch angle and relative position to one another. Warblers, although they can be setup with beautiful perches too, are mostly another story though (at least with audio)! You never know for sure which direction they will come from. Lots of fun....
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