Bluebird

[Mark Schack]

I am fortunate to have a pair of nesting bluebirds near my house so real cool photo oportunities abound. Now I just need some more photography skills to get better results. I have taken hundreds of photos from a tripod with remote trigger from about 30 feet away with little success. Now I'm starting to think that my manual focusing ability is making them so soft. Maybe tonight I will try AF but not sure if AF works with remote trigger.

Any way, other than the head anngle I thought this one was one of the better ones.

1/460
F/6.5
ISO 400
500mm
Aperature Priority
0 exposure comp

All comments welcome

[Deborah Harrison]

Based on this shot your manual focussing is working just fine. The eye is sharp and you've caught the light in it which is great. Looking forward to seeing more of you bluebirds as you experiment more.

[Phil Ertel]

I am not an expert but the head angle seems OK to me. I like the background and the capture with the prey is a real plus. I am not the biggest fan of the "hand of man" items in pictures. Have you considered placing a natural perch on the post? I am not sure but the whites seem to have a blue cast. Another opinion other than a remote shutter release is a blind/hide. I some times use a portable blind with success. That way you can keep better control of your rig and use autofocus. One question; was this a crop?

[Mark Schack]

I am not an expert but the head angle seems OK to me. I like the background and the capture with the prey is a real plus. I am not the biggest fan of the "hand of man" items in pictures. Have you considered placing a natural perch on the post? I am not sure but the whites seem to have a blue cast. Another opinion other than a remote shutter release is a blind/hide. I some times use a portable blind with success. That way you can keep better control of your rig and use autofocus. One question; was this a crop?

What? You don't find that nasty rusted post aestetically pleasing? Actually me niether, there is a small tree near the box where they land but it has been so cloudy and windy lately the pics are blurry. Low light so I have slow shutter speeds and moving branches which make the image blurry.

Yes it is a crop. It's probably 50% of original.

[wendell westfall]

I like it, and it's perfectly placed in the frame for me. The rusty post does not bother me, looks kinda nice here. I think I see a blue halo . . .

[Harold Davis]

what camera are you using? most newer ones have great ISO range so you can go above ISO 400 for more shutter speed. the crop hurts the detail on the bird. getting a little closer or using a TC would help. i dont mind the perch, but agree with the others that it does seem to have a color cast. did you use noise reduction here? and if so, did you mask the bird. looks like NR on the bird?

IAC, the pose is nice and the bug is a nice addition!!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Mark,
agree with the techs. and the good advise given...would run a low level pass of noise reduction in the background...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Kerry Perkins]

Hello Mark. Would also suggest that the image is a bit contrasty. Might try toning down the contrast and saturation just a bit, especially in the bg. In this image the contrast seems to add to the loss of detail incurred by the large crop.

Love the bluebirds. I have chased them around the mountains a lot and have not gotten a pose this nice. Thanks for sharing!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Mark How much of a crop is it? Don't see strong details

Do like the head angle and catch Perch wise is always good to have natural but you minimize it and has character :) Wouldn't mind seeing the original just downsized to posting size !!

[Linda Dulak]

I'm wondering why you are using a remote setup. We have a number of bluebird boxes here and the birds are quite comfortable with our presence up to about 15-20 feet. Just stand very still, don't make sudden moves and they tend to go about their business. That allows us to use AF and get good detail. We only shoot about 1 hour at a time (usually early morning when the light is right). That doesn't stress the birds too much.

Linda

[Mark Schack]

Thank you for the comments.

What post processing I did was done to the entire photo in Bridge. I probably should have done the bird and BG seperately, that's why I like the low ISO so I don't have to mess with noise.

So, when you guys post process do you always mask?

Linda, I thought you always use a remote trigger if on a tripod? You must have friendlier birds than mine. It is 1.5 to 2 hours before they come to the box with me there so I don't hang around long worried about the babies.

Al, here is the original