Hi all first posting here and looking for some feed back .im a novice and love to learn.
I'm using a canon 7d mk2 and a canon 500mm f4
iso 400
500mm
f8
1/500sec
its about 50% crop
mono pod
Hello and welcome to the ETL! I am sure you will enjoy this forum as much as I do. It is helpful when posting to include your shutter speed (SS), ISO, tripod? cropped, shooting conditions. If you can include any post processing adjustments is also very useful. Have a look at some of the previous posts to give you an idea of what we post. All these things make it easier for me (us) to understand and learn from another.
This is a very cute little bird on a nice little perch. I am not familiar with this bird so can't comment on his colour. When I look at this image the first thing I notice is the dark green OOF stick on the RHS and the busy BG. Busy BGs are the bane of my life, and I do understand sometimes that's all we can get. I would consider cropping down from the top and the LHS. Did you use a flash? His RH leg looks bright. When shooting birds, I always try and have the eye as the focus point.
Hello, Ian. If you're new to all this, you're in the right place. All of us have been or are right there.
That's an interesting bird, and I like the bird/BG colors near matching. There's a lot of space to the left of the bird, and little behind. What do you think of cropping of a fair amount on the left and adding a bit on the right?
Welcome to ETL. Learning can be a difficult process for me, but I've learned that I'm in good hands here.
Hi Ian, and welcome!! What a cute bird, with lovely colors and a nice matching BG. We can't control the BG most of the time, so it is what it is. The bird looks a little soft for that wonderful lens. The perch between the feet looks sharper, which makes it appear that the bird is a little ahead of the focus point. The tail also looks sharper than the head, but hard to be sure from a small JPEG. Always try to choose a single focus point and put it on the eye.
It may not be the main issue here, but I'd try ISO 800 (about the tops I like for that body) and 1/1000 sec. Keeping shutter speed up can help a lot with sharpness, as can bracing your arms tight against your sides and the camera against your forehead. I use silent shutter mode unless I need high speed burst, in the hope it may reduce vibration a little, although I don't have any evidence.
I'd trim a little more off both sides and that gets rid of the bright spot in the upper right and the two lower down near the right edge. Then a slight trim from the bottom for the two spots right at the edge of the perch, and clone out the out of focus branch to its left. Clean edges are a major plus for an image. The green branch could be cloned out, also.
I see you don't have an embedded profile -- check the tutorials on my web site about preparing an image for internet viewing.
HI Ian another very warm welcome from a very new member and from another brit. Mate it always makes me smile that all over the world there are little iconic birds that mean so much to the folks that live with them,but we are just often unaware of those birds from other countries . Ha, he is a scruffy fella!! I can't offer much in the way of critique really as i'm so early in my learning curve. Your colours look right to me my preference would also be to crop between the two as the repost is a bit central for me.With such a bird noted for it's fondness of us and your gear i'd be trying for almost a full frame of this species Ian,the guys here and else where have urged me not to crop too much because we loose so much detail,I think with this species this goal of mine(personally) might be worth trying for you. Ian I've also found this is making me start to think much more about framing of the subject and also making me use more of all those focus points available to us,in doing so gaining more familiarity with my camera. Buddy as before i'm very much a beginner so am really passing on others wisdom,but I can see the benefits of what the guys here so gracious share and the effect this is having on my thought process,if it's not just blind panic that is Ian most of my blind panic moments are caused because I tend to move about rather than sit in hides,sure I play the waiting game too,but tend to be more of a stalker. My failing is this:I simply get so focused on beastie,I don't evaluate my camera settings regarding iso and shutterspeed often enough. Buddy this might not apply to you,but at the moment this failing of mine is the one I would pass forwards to another especially as light in blighty seems to so often be at a premium and often varies rapidly
Thanks diane for you kind words and knowledge ,photography has gripped me and i can't let go haha so all comment go deep !!!!!! . i see what you mean about sharpness in the lower right of the bird compared to the other half
Scruffy robin
.what do you think of this edit ? i still think the green branch draws the eye form the bird.
Ian most of my blind panic moments are caused because I tend to move about rather than sit in hides,sure I play the waiting game too,but tend to be more of a stalker. My failing is this:I simply get so focused on beastie,I don't evaluate my camera settings regarding iso and shutterspeed often enough. Buddy this might not apply to you,but at the moment this failing of mine is the one I would pass forwards to another especially as light in blighty seems to so often be at a premium and often varies rapidly
Posting Permissions
