I have often said what a challenge, timing and fun it is to capture the perfect take off. Its also fun to wonder what posture you will capture too. This guy was posed to take off left, fly across my frame with space to fly into. Well he didnt. The moment he twitched to take off, he decided to take off towards me. This is the result.
Canon 50D
100-400 L IS USM @ 180mm
1/3200
F/5.0
ISO 640
I like the pose, sharpness, perch and BG. It looks as if there is a slight color cast. Because of the head angle I might put the bird further to the left in the frame.
Pretty cool incoming takeoff pose! Excellent timing. In a perfect world the shadow at the tip of the perch wouldn't be there. I agree with Axel about placing the bird more to the left, or at least cropping some off on that side. Looks like you were pretty close at 180mm...is this a largeish crop?
nice capture. I liked the symmetry in the wings. As a kid, we used to paint one half of paper and fold the paper along the center line while the paint was a little wet. It used to create such a design. reminds me of that.
Specacular pose and a loverly repost. Are the eyes as sharp as the wing coverts?
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Agreed re: more sapce to the right. Boy, you love your KFs don't ya? :) I was also wondering where the critical focus point was. However, I think you nailed it well considering. :) Thanks for sharing mate.
Very nice capture! Almost looks like a "flipped image" from OOTB! I think that adding a little canvas on the right of the original post would strengthen the image but it rocks as posted and reposted!
The bird always has his own flight plan, doesn't he! I've had similar experiences with my Red-breasted Sapsuckers: I set up to anticipate a take-off to the right, and instead the bird dives straight for my forehead! Almost made me duck. The Pied KF is a terrific bird -- enjoyed photgraphing one on Lake Eyasi in N Tanzania last Dec. I like your original image and the repost -- beautiful wing symmetry. I appreciate how hard it is to hit the button and maintain a steady camera with such sudden action.
Hi Stuart! In the frame of mind that this is a critique site, I thought I'd make a few observations. (opinion, of course) I think the biggest problem was due to too narrow a depth of field. To me, at least, there seems to be substantial focusing errors, and it is quite possible that at F5 these were unavoidable. Although the eye on the left side is in good focus, the other is not. There is a lack of detail on parts of the bird that should have been captured and this can't be explained by too slow a shutter speed, for that certainly wasn't the case.
Using a greater depth of field, like F8, would have been necessary to compensate focusing errors. Uping the ISO to 800 might have been necessary as well. Even though the bird may not be large, the closer you are to it requires an even greater depth of field to at least get the most important features, i.e. the head, in good focus.
However, it is also possible the areas that lack detail were underexposed, especially likely if the feathers are very dark. In this case, the solution would require either soft lighting conditions or a fill flash. Soft, lower contrast light undoubtedly the best, but often we have to deal the cards that have been dealt. The fill flash option should be immediately available on those bright sunny days.
The difference in sharpness of the wings, though not extreme, is hard to explain as well. IMO, either showing motion blur or sharpness is fine, as long as they are the same.
regards~Bill
All this said, you did very well in capturing the event! regards~Bill
Bill, With all due respect, while recognizing that the point of focus may or may not be just behind the eyes (we are only looking at a small JPEG), I do believe that your comments above are a result of over-analysis. The image is a spectacular one. There certainly are no "substantial focusing errors." You yourself stated that one eye is sharp. How could there be sustantial focusing errors if one eye is sharp???
Your statement concerning detail in the darker areas are equally puzzling.
In addition, you failed to note a single positive.
Stuart, can you let us know the distance to the subject (it's in the EXIF but not all programs show it) or give us an estimate?
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Morkel, Craig, Bill, Artie, thanks for your feedback and kind words.
Artie, I looked in my Exif in bridge and could not pick up the actual distance. My focal length was only 180mm, and to judge, he wasnt more than 5 metres away, thus me zooming out to 180mm. Hope that helps.
I agree with Artie! It was over analysis. Sorry, and I did say he Stuart did very well in capturing the event, which seemed positive to me at least. There are many previous posts that pointed out the great qualities of the image. I didn't want to be redundant, and I did say it was an opinion. However, although it is quite likely I was incorrect with what I perceived as causing problems (this has happened before), the fact is that although the image is great, I did see problems with it.
Indeed, I couldn't have done better at capturing this image, and I would have confronted the same problem of a stationary bird, in which F5 is perfectly reasonable, taking flight, and been caught with too shallow a depth of field. Yet the analysis is to try to figure out how to confront the situation in the future and take a better image. My solution may very well be incorrect, and if so I would like to know why, and I would guess Stuart would as well. On the other hand, it is a spectacular image and leave it at that? regards~Bill
One more thing. Why is the right eye of the bird in sharp focus, and not the left?
Last edited by WIlliam Maroldo; 07-10-2009 at 07:30 PM.
Pied Kingfisher take off.
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