We'd just moved the suet out into the open for better BG. The sun came out (!) but we could see the clouds forming up again. Then this big bird lit on the suet and began wolfing it down. I could see that he was not going to move before the sky darkened, so i fired one off when he raised his head.
PP: LR Develop -- had to raise E by 1.65 stops. (Condx looked like sunny 16, but not) Almost no cropping. NO OTHER PP for this image. (I later processed further using NIK Dfine and Output Sharpening with some improvement)
Jess, All I can say is...what a pity this bird was sitting on that beautiful branch behind him! The bird looks well exposed and sharp although focus may have been on his tail.
I would clean up the little twiggy things on that branch behind and lower the suet cage so he has may want to sit on the branch before landing.
I'm waiting in anticipation for the killer BG shot!
Thanks, Glennie. I hope that means you like the BG in that shot. There's another, against evergreens, to the left.
Yes,I want to escape the suet, but the choice in this instance was to wait--and hope -- for him to jump up on the branch. If the wx were not about to go out I'd have waited.
I aimed the viewfinder focus spot on his eye, and still the tail took over. Actually, as a birder, I'm a bit happy to see the bottom of the tail, which is not so obvious in most shots.
I agree about the twigs. Birds like to hide in them, so I'll be pruning judiciously.
BTW, can't lower that suet too much, as our bloodhound is already plotting to snatch it.
Last edited by Jess M. McKenzie; 01-27-2016 at 12:00 AM.
Thanks, Doug and Jack. I'll try lowering the suet a bit first, but placing suet into a small container among the branches and hiding it camera-side with some foliage would be the next step. Main concern is keeping the birds from knocking the suet onto the ground (Chickadees are notorious for that) where Hubie (the Bloodhound) would make short work of it. BTW, so far, we've had Nuthatches, Chicks, Juncos, and Bushtits jumping on the suet, so it's worth the effort to try hiding suet from the camera. I do appreciate the advice.
Jess, just by looking at your image I think the BG would be OK. If you look at where that branch is, there is probably a whole lot more of that lovely orangey, yellow stuff happening above the frame. Don't forget to prune out those little twiggy bits.
The feeder dominates the image. These are beautiful birds -- get them in a natural setting. No need for f/16 -- you'll be getting diffraction softening there. Try f/8 (with a lower ISO, maybe 400) and focus carefully, with the bird in a pose where most of the body is in the same plane as the head. Also avoid going to 600 if possible for a little more sharpness. A good bird shot is all about sharpness, which is making the most of your equipment with technique and lighting.
Contrast is high here, too. Try to work with softer light. It's soft twice a day...
Thanks, Diane. I used 500 mm all day today, but the light was flaky -- rainy, sunny, rainy, sunny, cloudy ... and then i quit.
Captured a few birds that look pretty good, but I'll need to go over them tomorrow.
BTW, when i follow the sunny f16 paradigm, I almost never set the aperture at f16. Usually, it's f8, and for ISO 800 the SS is 1/3200s.
My reasoning is probably the same as yours: most of my lenses are better at f8. At 600 mm, the Tamron's sharpness is lowest. This review, e.g: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/tamron-150-600-5-6p3
says
"Sharpness is highest at 150mm, and progressively decreases as you zoom in; by 600mm the lens isn't especially sharp at all. In general you'll get the best results on stopping down to F8, light permitting. In context though, the Tamron's performance isn't too different to the other lenses of this type aside from the Sony 70-400mm, which is unusually good at the telephoto end."
We've had the same light down this way. A total waste most days.
Good on the aperture. A caveat I probably didn't mention is that the bigger the bird is in the frame (whether from getting closer or a longer focal length) the more DOF you will need, and the more careful you will have to be about where focus hits and in what areas you will sacrifice sharpness. The mantra is focus on the eye and get a pose that puts most of the body in the same plane.
If you can shoot a number of exposures and "bump" focus each time, the camera will often hit it just a little differently (there is more error than you would like to know about in AF) and you might find one better than the others.
If you are using a tripod you can get away with a much lower SS and therefore more DOF and exposure to the right.
Lenses are very frustrating in that sharpness at the long end comes at a premium price (and weight).
Northern_Flicker (western plumage)
