This is my first post on this forum, so I'm hoping you like it
I took this picture of an Eastern Bluebird earlier in the year, near Hamilton Ontario
I used a 5D Mk3 with a 500 f4 Mk2, combined with a Canon 2X Mk3
Settings were 1600 ISO, 1/1250, f20. I tend to use shutter priority, which in this case was 1/1250, but as I moved from shade to full sun my f-stop closed to f20 (I usually aim for something in the f5.6 area)
Some contrast and sharpening was applied as well as a small amount of cropping and shadow lightening
Anyways, thanks for looking
Bill
I love the Western Bluebirds I see out here on the Left Coast, so this guy got my attention. Very nice image, with a soft BG with colors that match the bird!
I'm also full frame (same camera) and usually try for an aperture in the f/13 range with a subject that fills the frame. Would have gone to more like f/11 at this size, allowing a lower ISO, but I don't see any damage here from 1600.
The lower mid-tones seem just a little dark to me -- how does it compare to your eye if they are lightened just a little more?
Hi Bill, welcome to BPN!! Nice to see another fellow Ontarian here (we have a few already as you'll soon discover). Beautiful subject you present us as a first post. You got him on a nice branch and I like the mottled background. I like the sort of fluffed up pose too. The image seems a tad dark overall to me, and the blacks are especially dark. I would have loved for the subject to have turned it's head a wee bit more towards us.
Tech-wise I see that you had more than enough light to go with a lower ISO to avoid the noise you have in the image. ISO 400 and f/10 would have been good. I've never used shutter priority for birds as I prefer to control the aperture, hence I used to use AV most of the time (now manual pretty much full-time). Anyhow, great start here, and I'm looking forward to more from you!
***I see Diane typed faster than me!! Some duplicate suggestions, but that re-enforces them :-)
Gorgeous little bird Bill and a nice work for a maiden post. Good advice from Daniel and Diane. If you wanted to clean up the background noise, it would be easy to select the bird and perch and apply a round of NR to the inverse selection. In this situation I prefer to use the good old median filter with radius about 3 pixels. Regards, Ian.
Many thanks for all your comments, especially relating to ISO and shutter speed. Shots were taken fairly early in the morning - I usually start off with a higher ISO in weaker morning light, then adjust it back as the light improves. In this case I had moved from a shadowed area into full light so f-stop jumped higher than I would have liked ..... A good reminder to check settings more frequently than I did that day.
Eastern Bluebird
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