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Crested Pigeon - f8
Crested Pigeon - Ocyphaps lophotes
This little pigeon decided to sit on a stick I had for the Butcher Birds, and caught me by surprise. He is quite a bit smaller than the Butchers and quite twitchy. A very common little bird that has adapted well to suburbia. Because he is so common, often overlooked in the beauty department. Soft pastel greys and pinks to iridescent greens and magentas in the wing. (Which, unfortunately, is not shown here.)
Once again struggling with the light.
In ACR - Increased exposure 1/5 stop. Lightened shadows
In PSC6 - Added canvas front and rear of bird. Cloned out larger, lighter coloured OOF branch. HS Adjustment layer on BG. A little NR on BG. Smart sharpened for web posting.
Canon 5D2
Sigma 150-600mm @ 250mm
Manual
1/200 @ f8
ISO 800
Evaluative metering
Tripod
C&C Always welcomed and appreciated!
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I love the composition and the color on the bird. I think the lighting works to bring out all the details in the feather, but I am not a big fan of the specular bokeh. But what can we do about that? Good job on the canvas extension, Glennie. My only comment is that the branch to the rear of the bird is a little weird.
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"A very common little bird"? Indeed! Not only does OZ possess the most gorgeous 'common' birds, it seems to have many of the really good photographers, including one Glennie Passier. Well done once again, Glennie
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Definitely! Exposure seems perfect here with wonderful sharpness and detail. Good job fixing the brighter branches behind him!
This might have been one for a quick rotation of the camera to horizontal, but it looks like he landed too close to an intervening branch, or post, or something. Not sure I see the need to extend anything on the left, but that's artist's choice, and you did a good job of it!
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BPN Member
Hey, Glennie. Beautiful bird, beautifully captured. Beautiful light, beautiful color. Okay I'm repeating myself, but with good reason. TFS.
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Adhika - Yes. You are right, The perch looks a bit weird. I'll make that better. Thank you for pointing it out!
Jess- Thank you. You are too kind!
Diane - Thank you. I love it when you say "quick rotation". I'm getting better at the rotation, but then fumble with with active FP. (I've always got an excuse!) Yes. He landed very near a pole I have rigged up to hold the perches...and then he was gone.
Jim - Thank you...where are you?!
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BPN Member
Home with the worst cold of a decade. I'm glad I don't complain. Thanks for asking.
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Changing the focal point with rotation isn't easy. With the 5D3 Canon added an option so you can set a separate focal point for when you rotate, but of course the last setting you had may not be appropriate for the image you're looking at, so there is usually some fumbling anyway.
Jim -- be better!! We're missing your images here!
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Beautiful shot, I like the BG, very nice details on the bird.
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Forum Participant
Very nice Glennie. I like the colors, Bird and perch. Looks like one of our Mourning Doves sticking its tail in a light socket! Again very well done.
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I agree with most of what has been said. Nice background (minus the bright circles), great colors and a beautiful bird. I do feel that the bird could be sharper. The branch seems to have sharper focus than the bird. Feather detail is nice but I think the lens is capable of better fine feather details. Even though you were on a tripod, a shutter speed of 1/200 was not fast enough to achieve a perfectly sharp shot. Even pressing the shutter will cause movements that are exaggerated by such a slow shutter speed. Branch needs work on the right as discussed. Looks like you did a cloning job. My biggest complaint and to me the biggest issue with this picture is the head angle on the bird. Bird is not facing you or making direct eye contact. Although the rest is sharp, it would not be a shot that I would keep for myself. Personal preference of course. There are times when a shot is properly composed that show the subject looking away where it works. For instance, a sandpiper roosting on a jetty and looking out over the water. Or an owl watching the sunset.
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Hello Isaac. Thank you. I'm not sure why the branch would appear sharper. When posting for the web, I smart sharpen bird and a portion of the perch the bird is sitting on. Something to consider. Here I am in that loop again of not enough light. I was determined to keep the aperture at f/8. Maybe I could have pushed the ISO a bit more? I added canvas front and rear of the bird, so obviously a bad cloning job. The pigeon caught me by surprise. First time landing on my perch. But landed too close to a support pole. I have a few more frames where the bird has eye contact, but the pose is ugly. What should come first? Eye contact, pose etc? I just think of it as a pigeon watching out for a butcher bird. I think he will be back, so fingers crossed he's read the book on modelling.
Thanks again Isaac. Your comments are much appreciated.
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Slight movements from the bird will cause it to be sharper than the branch which was not moving. Unless it was windy in which case it could be a number of things that made the bird softer than the branch. Keep in mind that I am just giving you a best case scenario on the eye contact. Perfect world kind of thing that is not always possible.
With regards to your lens I view all 3 of the 150-600 zoom options as f8 lens 100% of the time. Needed to get the lens as sharp as possible. Therefore it is best used in good light or with a camera with excellent high ISO capabilities. When not under one of those 2 conditions then image quality will suffer. Not saying that good photos can not be obtained but that they will not be as critically sharp as they could be.
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Head angle on this one isn't a big flaw for me -- he's apparently staring at something although we don't see what it is. Of course eye contact is good but not always possible.
At 250mm I would expect that the lens should be sharp. It may drop off at 600, but maybe not with that lens -- I don't know it. The review on Lenstip.com looks good : http://www.lenstip.com/index.html?te...wu&test_ob=417
The steadiness of a camera on a tripod can be quite variable. The best practice is to push the camera firmly against your forehead and grip it firmly. Press down to put some weight on the tripod, and make sure the legs are fully splayed. Use enough force to steady things without causing shake from too much force. (At very slow SSs, you would induce shake by this, but at somewhere around 1/100 or faster I would guess you should be OK.) You want to try to minimize any vibration from mirror slap, which I'm guessing could be at a frequency that might blur shutter speeds in the 1/100 to 1/200 range. But how much you can do that externally is open to question. Newer cameras advertise more cushioned mirror slap and a "silent" shutter mode with less vibration, but I haven't seen information on how much difference this makes in shake and at what shutter speeds.
With steady technique and minimal need to crop, mirror slap shouldn't be a big factor, or we'd hear a lot about it.
Focus error is also another factor. Every time you focus the camera will make a slightly different judgment. It should be insignificant most of the time but is another consideration. Reviewing the initial raw files at 100% will give you an idea of what is sharp for your rig. If it's consistently off you'll know to start looking for a problem. But of course you need to get some truly sharp ones for comparison.
Just some random thoughts before running out for the weekend.
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Isaac- Thank you. I believe I understand your comments. From reading your comments on this, and various other posts, I feel you have a great understanding of this wonderful craft. Whilst I am plagued by unkind weather, flighty birds, murky water and bog like creeks, I take my chances whenever I get the opportunity. I am not, not going to take the shot because all my ducks aren't in a row. I think all these things are making me think harder and I'm learning faster.
Diane - Thank you. I am happy with the lens. I have some frames where I can see the sharpness jump out at me. Of course, they are the ones where a mongrel duck has swum in front of the subject. My cull rate is much higher because I am looking at them at 100%. That has been really, really good advice. Finding steady ground in the depths of water is not easy either, but I know the importance of a firm base. I do press down on the tripod.
I hope you've had fun on the week end!
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Originally Posted by
Glennie Passier
... I can see the sharpness jump out at me. Of course, they are the ones where a mongrel duck has swum in front of the subject. ...
Glennie, I'm probably barking up the wrong tree here ----- Nikon bodies feature something they call "focus lock-on," used a lot in sports (e.g., when another player runs in front of the player you're focused on). In Lock-On, one sets a -- relative -- delay time for holding the focus even when the focussed subject is occluded momentarily. Granted, ducks move more slowly than football players, but I'm hoping your Canon has a similar feature you could try.
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Thanks Jess. I think on the Canon it's called "back-button" focus. I need to grow longer thumbs to operate it! I really do need to practice it; it seems to be the bees' knees to a lot.
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Glennie, I'm betting it's not the back-button focus, which is also a Nikon feature. I've found that one very handy. Rather than pushing the regular release halfway to hold the focus, you program the camera to use the AE-L/AF-L button on the back of the camera body to execute focus.
OTOH, With Nikon's Focus Lock-On, the camera "ignores" what passes between you and what you've already auto-focussed on. Depending on how you set it, AF will NOT shift for a set delay (Long, Normal, or Short) even if the camera's view is occluded during that delay time. I'll admit, I've not used it
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Well Jess you can see how much I know about this stuff. I'm going to do some more research on the focus lock on. Thank you!
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I'm playing catch up here after a busy (excellently so) weekend. Back button focus is just an ergonomically different way to manage a balance between One-Shot focus and AI Servo (which is continuous focus on a subject whose distance is changing, such a bird flying toward you). Some very good photographers like it and others prefer the more traditional shutter button focus. In the latter case, you would hold continuous focus on a moving subject by setting the camera to AI Servo (for Canons) and hold the shutter button halfway down. Then when you are ready to fire the shutter you are focused. And a burst will follow focus -- if you are in AI Servo. For a still subject you set One-Shot. (Nobody seems to trust AI Focus, which claims to be One-Shot for a still subject and switch to AI Servo if the subject moves.)
To use back button focus you always have the camera set to AI Servo and use the back button to focus independently of the shutter button. You hold the back button down before you hit the shutter and if the subject is still you are focused, effectively the same as in One-Shot. You can move the camera to put a focus sensor on the desired area and hit it to focus, then let go and recompose and fire the shutter without the camera re-focusing. But you can do the same by holding the shutter halfway down as you recompose.
It's more of an ergonomic preference than a different capability. No need to worry about it until you get basics sorted out.
You can set either the * button or the AF-ON button as the back button (or both). And there are choices as to which will do the metering -- the back button or the shutter button. That is, when the metering will occur. If you recompose the light at the chosen focus sensor point could change. If you are using an autoexposure mode that would change your exposure.
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Glennie the feather detail and the natural sharping on this is superb,very well done getting a bird at such a high standard.
Keith.
