I found this guy perched atop the concrete wall divider between southbound 869 and the Parkland neighborhoods at around 5:45 PM under heavy clouds. He was munching on a dinner that was once a small furry critter, so he paid me no mind. I think he's the same juvie RSH I photographed last week 15 miles down the highway near Sunrise Blvd.
On the technical side, I stopped using my 2x because I couldn't get sharp images from it. Meanwhile, I'm down to my 300mm f/2.8 prime until I can find a 1.4x, so this one's a heavy crop. The hawk was in focus but I had to do a good deal of sharpening to bring out those little details after cropping. I shot this at ISO 400, 1/200, f/11, fill flash at full power. While shooting I knew I'd have to crop a lot, but not until after I left did I realize I had enough light to dial down to ISO 100 or 200 for better noise, and stop down for shallower DOF. Needless to say, I had to run lots of NR on the BG plus a little gaussian blur, then clipped and copied it to a new layer and applied multiple layer blend of 50%. Well, live and learn!
I know man-made objects are a sort of unspoken No-No in avian photography, but I was eager to share this one anyway. I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks for looking!
Hi Erich I have no problem with man made objects, at times can work in your advantage. Here I would minimize and take a little from the right side and bottom .
btw I'm confused with the settings and some of the info given. Which 2.8 are you using? Which camera body?
Both Canon and Nikon will produce razor sharp images with a 2X converter ... but it won't hand holding at 1/200 sec Here you only have 1/200 sec and want to lower the ISO to 100 or 200? Even on a tripod you need perfect technique to come up with a sharp image. Stopping down to f 11 brings the bg into play, would shoot wide open or f 4.0 which will increase your shutter speed to a safer level.... and give you a blurred bg !!!
For finding your safe speed just test with a target and see for yourself !!!!
If you fill in the missing info we might be able to give you better suggestion !!! Also listed all under the image makes it easier to read
Thank you for your comments and I apologize for the missing info.
My camera is the Nikon D80, lens is Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 AI-S manual, 2x is TC-301, and I used a tripod. My experience with the 2x is that it simply will not produce razor sharp images. Maybe it will when shooting closeup for a portrait, but w/the subject at a good distance and I have to crop for final, even a little bit, the results are soft and I have to do lots of sharpening. I bought the lens and 2x used, had them checked out, and they're both in good working order. But only when I take off the 2x do I get razor sharp images out of the camera.
As for the 1/200, that is the D80's max sync speed. I had to use FF because the sunlight, although diffused heavily by overcast skies, was high and almost behind the hawk's right shoulder. I was worried too much shadow on his chest, belly, and legs. There was enough light to slow down the ISO 1 or 2 stops from 400 to improve noise, and to open the aperture 1 or 2 stops to compensate and blur the BG more, but like I said I didn't think about that till after.
Thanks again for looking, and please tell me how you would've approached this situation.
Hi Erich,
I like the capture agree with Mr. Forns' good advise, I might add that you can adjust the saturation level just a tad more and selective sharpen the eye...:cool:
If you have an external you can place on hight speed sync which Nikon calls it FP and have to set in the menu. Not sure if you could do the same for the built in flash (I think you can) but the light output would be very a few feet !!! When you go into FP the light output is decreased exp at 1/200 is full but at 1/400 only half ... and at 1/800 1/4 of the light output !!!! One of the reason we use the most powerful light with a BB.
Still would like for you to give the test a try, just set up a newspaper or similar and shoot with the 2X, can do close and at a distance. Make sure your shutter speed is around 1/2500 or so and check in the computer.
Your lens with a 2X plus the camera crop factor has an effective focal length of 900mm !!! That is a lot of magnification !!!!
No I use the SB-800. Thanks for the FP advice. I have already activated it on the D80, so next time I go out I'll be all set. I will have to pick up a BB for myself. I have heard a lot of good things about it.
Juvenile Red-Shouldered Hawk
