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Thread: Western Scrub Jay

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    Default Western Scrub Jay

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    Not exactly an exotic species, but I haven't had time to chase birds for a while so I'll go for the easy ones to start, and especially while I get down the muscle memory of a new body. Attracted to seed I scattered on the ground. They seem to know me and are tolerant of my sitting behind the tripod.

    1DX2, 600mm II + 1.4X III, ISO 1250, f/13, 1/400 sec. Sturdy tripod, Wimberley II head. Daylight WB in camera not tweaked in post. Cloudy bright late afternoon light.

    Shadows lifted slightly in LR and a little Vibrance; no other adjustments. Into PS to composite more of the perch from a subsequent frame and add a little canvas on the right. With some slight cropping from the left, basically full frame. Sunflower seed cloned out. No sharpening or NR.
    Last edited by Diane Miller; 05-24-2016 at 04:03 PM.

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    Great looking bird Diane. Good job on the perch you did.

    Nicely placed in frame and a |BG with just a hint of something(as you know I like)
    Cheers
    John

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    Hi Diane,
    Love the pose and dof here, nicely done. The colors against the neutral BG are wonderful. Perch is great too, congrats on your new rig!

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    BPN Member Glenn Conlan's Avatar
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    Well composed frame, like the perch and the perfect head angle

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    Very nice Pose, perch, and background. I like the bill being slightly open, amazing sharp detail on the head and eye!

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    Diane you have got some super sharp and natural feather details on this smashing looking bird,colurs nicely toned and all on a nice clean bg .

    Keith.

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    nice image,good pose perch and BG,good detail in the feathers.TFS.

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    Very very beautiful, Diane! One question: Do the wings and crown have different shades of blue? For what it's worth, that 1DX2 really shows its prowess in high ISO.

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    Thanks everyone!

    Adhika, the much smaller feathers on the crown often have slight flecks of white and gray, as in this one, and sometimes appear a little different just because of the "texture" of the smaller feathers, but in some the color of the crown is as vivid as the wings. Juveniles have all gray heads, so the blue grows in at some age. I don't know if there is a difference in M vs F.

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    I really love those shiny blue feathers, and the rest of the details on this very nice bird - which is quite exotic to me, we don't have these in our part of the world.

    Thank you for sharing, regards,

    Robert

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Very nice indeed Diane, my only reservation would be a slight lack of DOF, on reflection was the 1.4TC really essential i.e without it there would have been more DOF. Easy for me to suggest of course, I wasn't there and I don't know how close you can be.

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    Robert and Jonathan, thanks for liking it! I wish more DOF was simple... If I had removed the TC I would have a focal length of 400mm instead of 560 and thus more DOF. If I stayed in the same spot, the subject would be smaller in the frame so the DOF would cover it better on two fronts. But I would have to crop a lot and I always want as many pixels on the subject as I can get.

    If I moved closer so the subject was the same size in the frame as it was with the TC, the DOF would cover the subject the same as bring farther back with the 1.4. If the magnification is the same, so is the DOF.

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Diane Miller View Post
    Robert and Jonathan, thanks for liking it! I wish more DOF was simple... If I had removed the TC I would have a focal length of 400mm instead of 560 and thus more DOF. If I stayed in the same spot, the subject would be smaller in the frame so the DOF would cover it better on two fronts. But I would have to crop a lot and I always want as many pixels on the subject as I can get.

    If I moved closer so the subject was the same size in the frame as it was with the TC, the DOF would cover the subject the same as bring farther back with the 1.4. If the magnification is the same, so is the DOF.
    Yes Diane that is precisely the point I made, it is a compromise and I wasn't there, all I was suggesting was a little more DOF would be ideal but that would require a change of circumstance and there would be repercussions, you were there and I don't think your decision was "wrong". When you have a subject that large it is difficult to get it all in focus because the initial magnification is relatively high the only way to reduce that magnification is to shorten the focal length or increase the distance with the same focal length, you correctly point out that magnification and depth of field are interdependent something I have been talking about for the last few years. You had a lovely subject in that dilemma as it were and I think you did a pretty good job, I suppose the big decision is how much quality would be lost by cropping - you have some pretty sophisticated equipment there I wouldn't be too concerned over cropping a little but we all have our preferences and I respect that.

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    This guy was in fairly heavy shade. I'm still finding the limits of ISO I'm comfortable with for the 1DX2, so very reluctant to crop much at all for anything with fine feather detail. In my limited experience I'd say it's not much more than a stop better than the 5D3 and 2 or 2.5 stops better than the 7D2. For presentation here I do think more crop would usually work, but I'm always challenged to get the best master file I can.

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