20D, 400mm 5.6, Av mode, 1/3200s, f/5.6, ISO 800, Handheld, (Digital Exposure Compensation +1.2, 3/4 crop of original image).
At the time of taking I had been trying to capture flight photos of House Martins using Manual mode and f/8, so when this bird came along I quickly switched to Av and set 5.6, unfortunately on getting home I realised the shots taken were rather dark so I adjusted the RAW exposure compensation until it looked right.
Please let me know how I did.
Julian.
PS. At current I can not afford a 1.4x teleconverter, so please keep in mind that with small birds (unless I get lucky) I'm not likely to be able to fill much of the frame.
Last edited by Julian Mole; 05-27-2009 at 07:57 AM.
Julian,
I use a Canon 40D and the 400mm 5.6 is my primary setup. Unless I am mistaken, the TC will not invoke auto focus on a 5.6 or > aperture lens unless utilizing a Canon pro body (I could be wrong here). So forget trying to capture Martins in flight with manual focus (smile). Nice shot, good techs and a great low-angle capture,. a couple of questions:
I understand the +1 EV with BIF, were you metering off the sky? Seems like the f5.6 might be a better setup to ensure max-shutter speed. I noticed the 1/3200 shutter when wide open. Of course, you had plenty of shutter anyway so a larger aperture might provide pleasing DoF. In either case, I would decrease the ISO (e.g., 400).
Filling at least 25% of the frame with a 400MM is challenging but you are improving, stay with it and find ways to increase the Human-Zoom factor (a portable hide, research, favorite spots and hope are my strategies). Remember, try to get within 20 feet and use a tripod if possible.
Great advise by Jeff If you place a converter on your lens with the 40D it will be manual focus !
I like the low angle and sharpness The light is coming from your right so the left side of the bird is in shadow while the right is over exposed Not much you can do (fill flash would help but not easy) except getting on sun angle.
Crop wise it is interesting, normally you want more room in the direction the bird is looking but you don't have it here so might go the other way and break the rule !! Have the bird looking out the frame ... might look good Will re post !!!
Thank you for your replies, they proved to be more postive than I thought they were going to be!! (Hence the reason I commented about the x1.4 teleconverter, as I was sure someone would say the bird needed to be bigger in the frame!)
Gus H: Thank you for your cropped version, I like it and shall try it for framing larger birds. Just one question; I thought it wasn't good practice to crop an image this heavily, especially ones taken with ISO higher than 100 or 200?
Jeff C: Thank you for the advice, and no I don't anticipate trying to capture Martins in flight using Manual Focus! :D
As for the metering; I had been using a variation on the Sunny16 rule for the Martins (1600s, f/8, ISO 800) which were to my left with full front lighting from the evening sun. However, when this Wagtail wandered close to me I decided speed was of the essence and quickly switched to Av mode, set 5.6 and started shooting - which was a mistake! Given the sidelighting of the bird the Centre Weighted metering got it wrong and hence I had an underexposed image (which I had to correct with the Canon software). Put it down to my inexperience.
Alfred: Thank you for the positive comments and also for doing the honours with the crop. Strangely I had been under the impression that I should try to maintain the dimension ratio of the original frame, but you prove that this isn't necessary.
Gus C and Lance: Thanks for the encouraging comments. By HA do you mean Height Angle, Lance?
Juvenile Pied Wagtail
