Eastern Spinebill
Shot this guy a few weeks ago. They are fast becoming one of my favourites except for the difficulty of getting ablanced exposure. Shot with 1DMk3 with 500 F4 +1.4 Converter. Reasonably sunny day. ISO 800 1/300 @ F8 (I think) Fair bit of cropping. Canon 58011 flash with better beamer. Be interested to know your thoughts
Nice HA and pose Rob. I find the rear elements distracting and would reduce the noise at least on the BG alone, run some more sharpening on the bird and fix the flashed eye. Still good mate. :) Also, I'd crop off the RHS as reposted. It feels a little centered.
I suggest you put to use the calls I sent you some time ago. In moderation of course. See this little tutorial by one of the moderators here, which is pretty useful and would help me avoid repeating much of what is said.
With the focal length you have available, it will be very feasible a project for you my friend. Try and find the place they are prolific at, set the audio up near a clean natural perch and just take it easy with the calls. I would not use them in the spring time at least. I had them FF at 420mm myself, though not presentably captured. :)
Wish you well! :)
Last edited by Ákos Lumnitzer; 07-23-2009 at 11:26 PM.
Excellent bird, I'd love to see it. Very nice pose, you've got the whites right as you said.
Good work with difficult exposure. I'd put more space on the left and less on the right.
The OOF branch is bit distracting but it is what it is, BG could use NG, bit more contrast perhaps and the eye could be repaired,
Other than that I really like it, congrats!
Akos' repost looks better IMO. Nice species and pose, besides the crop I would try more contrast, saturation, some work to darken the pupil and also some more USM would help IMO.
Congratulations!
Hi Rob!
Hey this is a neat species I have never seen before. Great going on getting this shot!
You know--I like the crop--I can see why Akos went that way but I definitely like your original crop much better with the birds eye dead center. I have been having to think about this for a while for the answer as to why, because usually when your subject is looking to one side you allocate space for him to look into. It would settle the mind for him to be looking at something we can only imagine. But he is actually looking at us and I dont think he needs the space off to one side. His eyeball position looks a tad off but for the most part--at us.
But I'm thinking the real reason to consider the first orignal post crop are the branches. The "X" pattern formed by them in the original I feel has more interest than the truncation of them in the cropped version. The eye dead center in the frame has more commanding power than the offset eye also. X's in a shot are great comp techniques. They lead the eye to more places and they destabilize our balance because they are angled which in effect "rolls" our attention. (The V in the cropped version does this too but that still is not as effective as an X) By truncating this X at the frame our visual journey is halted at a time when it's not appropriate for a visual exit. We should not be leaving the shot when there is still more to be looked at.
I don't know if that makes sense but beyond the crop choice the big thing i feel that is needed is a greater front to back balance. That heavier back branch is very "Heavy" and steals the power from the subject comp unit by tonal overweight and size. If you could lighten it and soften it, and at the same time add selective contrast(the flash stole it) and selective sharpening with masks to the bird, you would then bring front-back balance back in favor to where it should be, and that would be the bird. He would "pop" then right out at us.
I agree on the eye flash comment.
If this were my shot that's what I would be thinking to do.
Paul
Last edited by paul leverington; 07-25-2009 at 07:46 AM.
Thanks for the differing perspectives everyone. Yes, I am tending to like the original crop better actually purely because of balance. Hear what you are saying Paul, Akos & Llijar re the distracting back. Appreciate your thoughts
G'day Rob
Nice shot - I like your original crop better, I prefer a little room around my subjects. Possibly do with a little noise reduction and sharpening but a good job getting these little buggers to sit still.
cheers
Rob
Thanks Rob, Any ideas on noise reduction. Believe that you can do this particularly with isolating the backgroundOriginally Posted by Rob Drummond
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