Great tit

[Stuart Philpott]

One from that one day of sunshine over christmas where we managed to grab the whole day in the forest of dean. Taken on the edge of one of the ponds although I didn't bait I suspect this little fella thought i might have something many folks were feeding the ducks. Cropped to around 50% my thoughts on the crop were that the branch lhs might lead the viewers eye into the bird . With hindsight maybe I could have moved around him a bit to grab a cleaner background without the hazel running through the head. I have so say my main focus was exposure and not blowing the face and maybe I should have stopped down the f to grab greater dof? 1/2000 f/4 iso 1000. I've pulled back the contrast and highlights just a bit and a slight boost to shadow in dpp4. Canon 1div, 300 f2.8 1.4extiii

_70F0555 by Stuart Philpott, on Flickr

Thanks for all the help on my previous posts

take care

Stu

[Diane Miller]

A lovely bird in a very nice setting! I love the soft yellows echoed in the BG.

If a bird stays parked more than a few seconds, I try to shoot as many bracketed compositions as possible. (Easier said than done, though.) The bird will often change position a bit and you may like one better than the others. Here, ideally one would wish the tail weren't just touching that branch.

It looks just a bit soft, but that could come from posting. I've read that Flickr is not kind to image quality. If you can post directly it may be worth a try to see if it's better. But if you were handholding, and at a 50% crop, it may be that the image is just a bit soft. I shoot a burst, as one may be sharper than the others. And of course, there's no substitute for getting close if you can, to minimize cropping.

Or it may be something was not ideal in processing -- hard to guess.

But all in all, a sweet image. You might experiment with some more off the left, as those branches may tend to pull my eye away from the bird rather than lead toward it. This puts the bird in the center but there is still a lot of weight on the right so the whole impression is not one of centering. I also cloned out a couple of small branches, just to see if I liked it.

Jut thinking out loud...

[Diane Miller]

I just looked at your original file size and it's only 80KB. You can go to 400 KB here, and that difference has cost you some sharpness and detail. I'd leave Flickr out, if it were me, and post directly. (But maybe it was posted to Flickr at that high compression, rather than Flickr doing it?)

This one is worth re-doing -- it is a very lovely subject.

[Stuart Philpott]

Diane,I'm getting so much help I can't keep up,thank you ! Diane,before we go much further, please forgive, I am unsure how to load a file from my computer to here directly,i've only ever used these hosting sites like flickr or photobucket to put pictures on the web is there a simple tutorial here? It seems logical to me to give you the best representation possible that you can assess,basically to give you a better chance to help me.

Diane you make a great point about the tail and trying to shoot more images this hadn't crossed my mind at all but it's another great point for me to take on board. I was really unsure on the crop Diane, and we both spent time moving him about but I did try to avoid a central position. That said i'm not adverse to your crop at all,i'm finding it challenging sometimes to know which way to go. I wouldn't have thought to remove the branches you have either thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on that !!

The moment of capture is sort of frantic for me,at the moment Diane, I have so much I'm trying to get right as I familiarize myself with the camera: time and much practice will help .This in part is why I haven't delved into post so much yet,on all levels i can see how important it will be for me though. I'm a simple guy my camera is a tool I need to build that skillset at using that tool drive it home until it's second nature. With regards to bracketing are you using that term in the sense of 3 of slightly different exposures then shooting bursts to try and capture that "ideal stance" for want of a better way of putting it.

if I can work out how to post direct i'll come back with the full frame direct from the computer Diane please bare with me so much to take in at the moment

thanks so much mate

Stu

Stu

[Diane Miller]

I meant to "bracket" different compositions if possible (and it isn't always). Sometimes exposure bracketing is good, too, but with the subject or camera moving, it wouldn't be to combine them, just to have a better chance of getting the best one.

I post here directly by making a JPEG (sRGB) that is just under 1200 pixels wide by 1000 high and just under 400 KB. (Keep the JPEG quality as high as you can to get the 400 KB, but it isn't super critical.)

Then at the bottom of your new thread scroll down and click Manage Attachments and then click Browse. Navigate to the file (I find it easy to find them if I saved them on the desktop) and choose it and click Upload. Watch for confirmation it was uploaded or check for any error message.

[Glennie Passier]

Stu, This is a very sweet image. I almost missed it because it doesn't have a thumb nail. It's really quite easy to upload an image here. If I can do it, you can.

I know what you mean by the "moment of capture can be frantic". I know my camera well, but get over-whelmed at that moment.

Diane's repost is very nice.

Keep them coming Stu!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Stuart, a cute little fella here! You got him in a sweet pose. The main issue here is the oof tree growing out of the tit's head. Time permitting its a good habit to always be aware of the background when looking in the viewfinder. It can feel difficult at first, but with practice and awareness it becomes second nature to take a step or two right or left to shift items out of the way. If these guys are anything like our chickadees than they will readily go for seed handouts that you can place directly underneath a perch of choice to make it easier to photograph in a more predictable way (unless of course you prefer to let nature run its course without much interference). They will likely let you get closer too - less cropping!

As for your comment of stopping down...I would not worry about that for this type of image. Photograph wide open, or close to it, make sure the eye is in focus, and let the dof fall wherever it does. Photographing with a wide aperture helps in getting those clean smooth oof backgrounds. I only ever stop down when photographing "head and shoulder" close-up portraits.

[Stuart Philpott]

Hi Stuart, a cute little fella here! You got him in a sweet pose. The main issue here is the oof tree growing out of the tit's head. Time permitting its a good habit to always be aware of the background when looking in the viewfinder. It can feel difficult at first, but with practice and awareness it becomes second nature to take a step or two right or left to shift items out of the way. If these guys are anything like our chickadees than they will readily go for seed handouts that you can place directly underneath a perch of choice to make it easier to photograph in a more predictable way (unless of course you prefer to let nature run its course without much interference). They will likely let you get closer too - less cropping!




As for your comment of stopping down...I would not worry about that for this type of image. Photograph wide open, or close to it, make sure the eye is in focus, and let the dof fall wherever it does. Photographing with a wide aperture helps in getting those clean smooth oof backgrounds. I only ever stop down when photographing "head and shoulder" close-up portraits.

Daniel thanks first for taking the time,it's so cool to be able to learn from photographers that I have such deep admiration for, second an apology for being slow to reply, my life is not much my own!!

Buddy cheers for reiterating my hindsight comment that's great to have someone like you reinforcing that!! This skill hopefully will come once I get past the "being competent with the camera" stage.I'm frustrated so much by the time I have to practice in this particular brit winter,our weather has been cruel to togs ,but it just got cold and with that maybe some light. Now I need that when I'm not grafting dawn till dusk.

Great tit's will probably be one of the most easy to photograph of brit birds Daniel. They utilize our garden feeders all across our island I am guessing they fit your chickadee,for me the challenge was not blowing those whites in sunlight ,it's a lovely little bird but like it's sibling the blue tit they are all over. I guess this was one of those chances I just took as an opportunity to practice,that is not to demean them at all but sunlight combined with blacks and whites I find tricky. Simply put I think there is more to be had from this little fella as you have illustrated. I'm not new to my country's wildlife Daniel been studying that since a child,but taking pictures is an utterly different story.Few will have seen what I have here: when i can translate that into a good picture maybe the magic will start for me. Digital tech is a bit of a nemesis for me so I have some graft to do.



Dan, cheers for the words about DOF this bit is massive for me ,knowing snippets of how someone I admire approaches their images is incredibly useful

take care kiddo and thanks so much for both your time and advice

best

Stu

[Stuart Philpott]

I meant to "bracket" different compositions if possible (and it isn't always). Sometimes exposure bracketing is good, too, but with the subject or camera moving, it wouldn't be to combine them, just to have a better chance of getting the best one.

I post here directly by making a JPEG (sRGB) that is just under 1200 pixels wide by 1000 high and just under 400 KB. (Keep the JPEG quality as high as you can to get the 400 KB, but it isn't super critical.)



Then at the bottom of your new thread scroll down and click Manage Attachments and then click Browse. Navigate to the file (I find it easy to find them if I saved them on the desktop) and choose it and click Upload. Watch for confirmation it was uploaded or check for any error message.

Hi Diane,thanks for all your help,I am not a full member yet so I don't think I am able to load direct from my computer. I've been battling with trying to get the image size of the jpeg right for about an hour now,so went back and looked for a tutorial here as my image size when I load 1200 by 800 into the jpeg comes out too big. Which was when I came across a post from Doug Brown which I think confirms this in the sticky up top in ETL. There is more I need to go through on this topic before asking for more of your valuable time,please bare with me. Sorry about all this.

best always

Stu

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hi Diane,thanks for all your help,I am not a full member yet so I don't think I am able to load direct from my computer.
Stu

Hi Stuart, you are listed as "BPN Member" right underneath your name...are you sure you did not become full member?

[Diane Miller]

If the dimensions are at 1200 wide x 1000 high and it says the file is "to big" the problem would be the file size in KB, which is 400 max. Just lower the JPEG Quality slider to get the size down. The appearance won't suffer until you get well below that 400 KB limit.

[Stuart Philpott]

Hi Stuart, you are listed as "BPN Member" right underneath your name...are you sure you did not become full member?

Hi Daniel,my apologies i'm being the village idiot of late,it's part exhaustion and frankly me being me,I'm five cans short of a six pack mate!! I'll shoot you a pm

cheers for this

Diane I'll try that sorry about this guys.
Stu