Red Cardinal

[Hazel Grant]

I know, you're tired of seeing my bird feeder, but given the weather, etc. I don't get out any farther these days, plus lots of feathered friends come here...

A cloudy, overcast day just after two days of ice and snow. 1/1000, f5.6, shutter priority, 300 mm. iso 200. Nikon D40X ,minor cropping of photo, some selective sharpening and minor saturation.

Do you think the background is too dark? The posted version above seems darker than on my computer. On the positive side, it allows the light reflecting off the snow to light up like indirect lighting for a somewhat dramatic effect but do you think it's too dark?

[David Thomasson]

The red of the cardinal looks like it was painted on. And what are these blotches on the otherwise crimson bird?

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Hazel,
I like the capture, but you need to tone down the red chanel...the red tones are super saturated, lacking details and definition on the bird...it does look like you took a paint brush to it...would also recommend on increasing your ISO factor...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Hazel Grant]

I have no idea what those things are. They are not in my copy here at home. no paiintbrush was used. those blotches are not there and they weren't there in the preview before I sent it. Sorry for the problem.

[William Malacarne]

...would also recommend on increasing your ISO factor...

Gus

I don't understand this. She had a shutter speed of 1/1000, so why would she need a higher ISO. I read on a BPN thread about ISO and the consensus was to use the lowest ISO possible as long as the shutter speed was adequate.

Thanks
Bill

[Lance Peters]

Hi Hazel - the reds are over saturrated - all digital cameras do this to the red channel - so it needs to be adjusted in Post processing.

The image looks soft to me - I am away from home at the moment so limited in being able to do any adjustments, was your shutter speed really 1/1000th??

Bill - you are correct at least IMHO - the rule of thumb is 600mm lens, minimum speed 1/600th - 300mm lens - minimum speed 1/300th. 1 over the focal length of your lens.

[Gus Hallgren]

Funny situation the way colors show up on monitor. Her specs match up with her IEXIF with 450mm equiv. lens. Though it doesn't seem to ask for opening up at least a stop or two for full snow. however, it looks more like a disease on my monitor, as I think her settings should not produce such mottling.

Strange things happening with 3 legs showing on a bird in another post :confused:

Interesting

Uncle Gus

BTW: Nice to see Lance as a Moderator ~ Good decision :cool:

[Alfred Forns]

.... Gus you had to bring up that three legged bird :)

Hazel You got some really good advice. Would concentrate on a couple of points. Exposure wise with snow is fairly easy. Meter on the snow (only snow) and open then lens one and one half stop. The meter would want to render the snow light gray so you are giving it more light to render the snow white. Works well.

The digital cameras will oversaturate reds, its usually good to go into the hue/saturation select the red and back down a few points.

Shutter speed wise you are fine. We do like to use the lowest ISO that will give us an adequate shutter speed. With some cameras like the D3 the noise is so low we don't bother going below 400 hardly at all except for some landscape applications.

Last point try to focus on the eye of the bird. It should always be the sharpest point. You should compose on the eye then re frame, couple of ways you can do it with your camera. ...... and btw we don't get tired of bird feeder images. Might want to set up a perch by the feeder !!!

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Folks:

Felt sympathetic for the poor little blind bird in the snow without a coat, so after a quick trip to the White Elephant thrift store for a used coat, and a mercy eye operation I hope he is feeling comfy . . :D

Uncle Gus