Well, up again at first light to beat the dog walkers to the Heron. Practised my 'stealth' mode and getting closer, thanks for the tips guys. Still can't get him to turn his head though!
Light was grim today, so had to settle on 1/60s.
Nikon d300 + Sigma 500mm
F6.3 1/60s
iso 640
Never sure how much space to leave for a portrait shot.
Comments welcome please.
Hi Stu - love that sharp clear eye - exposure looks good and the HA is O.K. Lookin Good!!
Has a good feel to it - maybe some more room on the RHS seeing as the bird is staring in that direction.
I would have opened right up here - would have increased your shutter speed and blurred the BG a little more - possibly helping with the couple of dark lines across the neck area. (F4.5 on that lens if I remember correctly)
Hi Stuart,
This is very nice, you have fine sharp feather details, a good head angle with a crystal clear sharp eye, also a wee bit more room to the right of the bird and perhaps a tad more on the bottom...looking forward to more...:cool:
Great light Stuart !!! Pays to be up and around early !!!
Agree on comments, do shoot wide open for getting your shutter speed and blurring the bg. Size in frame wise you normally want about 80% of the bird filling the frame .. .just a rule of thumb ... giving a little room makes the bird look better Head angle wise its not bad and can make small noise to get him to turn slightly. btw the idea is not to have the bird looking at you but having the tip of the bill in the same plane as the eyeball ... then both will be sharp. If you look close the area between them could be oof !!!
Thanks for the help and great suggestions. At the moment I can only shoot max 6.3 as the lens has a fault (there since new. going back to sigma soon for calibration) so won't focus properly at 4.5. But understand what you suggest.
Alfred, thanks for the explanation on why h/a is so important. Makes perfect sense now!
Hi Stuart..This is a nice portait with great light and focus. You might consider blending the dark line running through his neck with some careful cloning. very nice work!
Early riser again
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