This individual posed for me for the longest time, problem was that it was midday and the light very harsh creating strong dark shadows. Flash to the rescue...but the batteries to my flash unit were dead (when will I learn my lesson!!). I tried the camera's built-in flash for kicks, and to my surprise it reached the subject with the long focal length I had (but I had to bump up the flash exposure compensation though)! Only thing is that the camera is locked-in at the 1/250s. sync speed when using the onboard flash, quite slow for the bright light...hence to avoid blowing out the image I reduced the ISO down to 200 and stopped down a bit more than I usually do for birds...the result ended up quite nice I think!
Canon 7D + 500mm f/4 II + 1.4TC, manual exposure, evaluative metering, 1/250s., f/9, ISO 200, flash @ +1.3 FEC, handheld, about 85% FF, darkened the lightest chest feathers via burn tool, eye work (darkened pupil), extra twig in LRC removed via clone tool.
Daniel I belive you did an excellent job and got the most of the gear you had at the moment of capture. Even though you face some difficulties you came away with a very nice image!
A lovely image Daniel.
I like the story behind it and the flash use ( those of us with a 1DX would be dead in the water as we have no on board flash!!)
Your flash work really helped eliminate the feeling of harsh light.
The mottled BG is lovely and you have a perfect HA.
I like the little branch by the left foot and the way the toes are are separated by it.
Tack sharp as always!
Gail
Despite of having trouble with the batteries. the picture turned out pretty good, Daniel. I especially like the top portion of the bird which is well lit and has tons of detail.
Eastern Phoebe + A Flash Tale.
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