This is an image I captured last year. It was on my first attempt at BIF. It is the only image that wasn't terrible. I shot it with my Canon Digital Rebel(300d) and Sigma 70-300. It was very overcast and I hadn't really learned anything about exposure comp yet, however, I always shoot manual. I still underexposed by about a stop, but since it was only ISO 200, bringing it up a stop wasn't terrible as far as shadow noise(although there is some). There is a little post processing. I added a touch of canvas to the right and completed the tip of the wing. I also cropped a bit from the left and bottom. Exposure was 1/2000th @ f 5.0. The lens was at 214mm.
I don't have a manage attachments in my Additional Options, so I used the image tag with an image from my web storage. If that's a problem, let me know.
Dug, It's a very nice BIF esp. being your first. The HA looks good. I would clone the bottom bird -I don't think it adds to the image. Also I would have added a bit more canvas to the right as it looks a little tight. All said great shot!!
Hi Dug,
Welcome to the BPN family...this is not bad for your first bird in flight capture...you actually did well...you have a good eye contact and good head angle. you have good details around the head and eyes, and I like the wing position and flight angle...I would suggest on adding canvas to the top to give your bird more flight space; and add canvas to the left side of the frame to also give him space to fly into. You can also selective sharpen the eye and run some noise reduction in the background...just keep on practicing...looking forward to your next capture...:cool:
Welcome, Doug! I think you did well here, good head angle and eye contact with nice detail. Gus has some good advice and as for me, I like the out-of-focus bird.
Thanks for all of the suggestions. I had considered removing the oof bird, but i thought the composition would not be anchored as well. Of the 200-300 shots that day, that was the only one that was in focus and had more than 80% of the bird in frame. As far as canvas on the left, I could just crop less from that side. I may have been sticking too strictly to the "rule of thirds" by keeping the eye on the top/left intersection. The top is the actual frame. I did do a little to the eye, but I didn't want to overdo it. I tend to err towards the subtle. That is mostly notable in any HDR images I do.
Thanks again for the comments, I am heading out tomorrow morning for, as of last week, 580 eagles. I am hoping to catch something other than just soaring or sitting. I have several of those and am not to thrilled with any of them.
Dug
Lots of good suggestions and fully agree. Here are a couple of things you might consider !!
Don't know the AF setting you were using but they are crucial to making sharp images. You camera has three settings for AF the first is single shot, second you will never ever use and shouldn't even be there and the third is AI which should be used for BIF or anything that moves. Personally I don't use the single shot much and prefer to hold focus using the button on the back.
Exposure wise when shooting birds overhead you are shooting the shaded side of the bird so one extra stop of light is usually needed. If the light is harsh will be hard since the top part of the bird will be toast. Manual exposure is your best bet for flight since birds will be changing bg. The exposure on the bird will not change as long as the bird stays in the same light !!!
Pose wise you want to avoid shooting birds with wings to the side from the side, it is like going after a pankake from the side :) For gulls best pose is flaring right in front of you which can be accomplished with some bread tossing, always use common sense since you don't want to tire the birds. Good luck with the eagles !!!
Alfred,
Thanks for the tips. I don't remember what I was using AF wise on the dig rebel, but I have since upgraded to a 50D. I have is set on AI and use the back button to focus as you suggest. I don't know how I lived before. This is my 5th trip to shoot eagles and the first to this location. On the rest of the eagle trips, the eagles were always soaring and I never had anything that exciting pose-wise. Unfortunately, yesterday the wind was coming from up river(near the lock and dam) and the sun was coming from down river. Nearly every shot had to be from the side(since I didn't have a boat and wouldn't try navigating the Mississippi my first time out on my own). I'll probably post the best of the shots for criticism later in the week.
Thanks again to everyone that gave suggestions, I will try to keep them in mind both when shooting and post processing.
Dug
Seagull
