i got no more than 8 ft from the subject. i am out to redeem myself today, after yesterday's events.
i did the best i could do with the noise. i hope that is ok.
Mike, nice HA and catch light, no blown highlights and just an overall cleaner image than the last. If I were making this image at 1/60 it would be a blurred blob! It does appear a bit dark but that may be my monitor (work).
Good position for the bird Mike Would only take some from the bottom to minimize the branch. You have a smooth bg and closer to the bird.
At the slow shutter speed you had to use a tripod was a necessity Hand holding at those magnifications is not possible even with IS/VR lenses.
Did the slight crop, smooth the bg making a new layer applying Gaussian blur then brushing the effect from the bird leaving the bg and some selective sharpening around the face area. Also color balanced.
Al's repost has some great points in it. There's just nothing like getting that subject properly focused in camera - if in doubt, pull out the tripod!
I would also clone out the small brown blotch of BG in the bottom right corner of the green area. Mike, I think you're making big strides here and we're not kidding when we say the old cliche' - PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT! You are well on your way. Keep improving and learning and you'll get there. You definitely have the eye for composition - now you just need to learn what the limitations of your camera area and what you can do with the available lighting and work within those parameters!
thank all of you for taking time to review my work. Alfred, your view of this bird is much more detailed than mine. my left side of the image and abdomen or lower parts are kind of lack luster, yours is full of detail. is that from more sharpening on your part, or am i not doing something that i should???
thanks for the encouragement Julie.
my pictures are always fluid, showing feathers as integral parts. some of yours are so very perfect down to the hair of each feather. i do use a tripod and am going to use my 50-500mm on its very heavy duty tripod to see if the shake from my hand on my light weight tripod, is the culprit.
Mike you can do the selective sharpening using layers etc but there is an easy way. A program called PhotoKitSharpener You might do a google search or go to the Luminous Landscape and will see a report.
Basically it has brushes so you can work on selected areas of the bird and in varying amounts. I use it often. btw it also has a capture sharpener which you apply at first, then the brushes before saving and finally the output according to size. Neat !!!!
Mike, I am certainly no expert, but having about a million soft photos in my files I can tell you what has helped me, and it may work for you.
1) Your camera's autofocus is good but not very smart and the default setting is to choose from a number of points on the image to set the focus. You can change the camera settings so the the camera will focus only on the center point. If you place that point on the bird, half press the shutter button to lock that focus, then reposition the camera for composition, more often the bird will be in focus rather than a branch or leaf near the bird.
2) Some folks get sharp hand-held photos. I'm not one of them. Carrying a tripod during a hike is a pain but necessary for me to get a sharp photo.
3) I use the burst function when I shoot and hardly ever take a single shot. Your camera will take several frames a second. Often the first shot will be blurry from camera shake induced as the shutter mirror trips, but the second, third and following frames will be sharp. Also, the head angle might improve in one of the shots. You can easily pitch any of the unwanted frames later. Remember, at extreme magnification even a miniscule camera shake is magnified enormously.
4) I try to use a fast shutter speed. I read somewhere that the shutter peed should be the inverse of the lens - a 500 mm lens requires a speed of 1/500 second to get a sharp photo. This was for hand held pictures and without image stabilization, but I try to use this figure even with a tripod. I have no experience with IS lenses. I've heard they have problems when used on a tripod.
5) I try to get as close as possible. I see you are already doing that. I take some pride in trying to get close to my subjects without disturbing them. I have had birds land on me. Generally for me this involves a lot of standing in one place or moving very slowly. It's best if they come to you, which can happen if you have the patience to be still. I get better at this as I get older. I did get a ghillie jacket from Cabela's last year and was able to get closer to chickadees and nuthatches last winter with it. Usually, though, I just stand still for long periods.
6) An extension tube allows me to get closer with some additional magnification and no loss of image quality, with only a small loss of light.
7) You probably already know this, but there's more bird activity in the hour and a half after the sun rises than in the rest of the day put together. The odds of a good shot are much greater then.
I hope this helps. I think I have better light to shoot with in the more open western forests and riparan areas than you do in Pennsylvania.
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