D700
70-200mm f2.8 VR with 1.7 TC
340mm
ISO 800
f5.6 at 1/640s
Manual mode
Matrix Metering
0.0EV
Auto white balance
handheld
Adjust WB, shadow protection to bring out some shadow details, noise reduction, crop and sharpen.
Not an idea light (the shadow cast on the head) and somewhat underexpose, but I like the pose. Next time I'll probably try using fill flash, not sure if my SB800 will reach the bird without BB. Also will I scare the bird away with flash?
Excellent, Thanaboon. Like the HA, exposure, detail in the blacks. I guess the only weakness would be the shadow on the head. Won't scare the birds away with the BB. I have used it pretty close with some swans and it didn't seem to bother them.
I like this a lot - the pose, the excellent sharpness where it counts, the background all work together to make a very fine image.
As far as flash, my limited experience is that most animals, including birds, don't seem to be much bothered by it. If I had to guess, my thought would be that few naturally occurring threats have that sort of light profile. I've known horses that would be spooked by a leaf blowing along the ground, but completely ignore a flash going off a few feet away.
Hi - like the HA - The open beak pose is a plus and your exposure looks good. Good details in the blacks!!
Shadow already mentioned.
Most birds do not seem to be bothered by flash - some are intrigued by it - Had a OWL fly right up to me and practically land two feet away from me to check out what was going on.
Good show - keep them coming :)
Would give the flash a try and agree with Lance it won't bother the bird !! If you try remember to lower the shutter speed if needed, when you go into High speed sync light output is really low !! .... at double its half the light !!! With the Nikon the HS is set in camera !!!
All techs covered. I personally would crop differently as I find the right side a bit too much room there and the top could use a bit more room. Overall, still a job well done !
Nice picture and a challenging exposure.
Agree with Desmond, perch is too dominate IMO.
Flash can be counter productive with black glossy birds, not sure how these look.
Love the image, what are you using to derive the meter settings? In manual mode, Canon does not indicate EV settings, just SS and Aperture, not sure abut Nikon?
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 09-14-2009 at 09:15 PM.
Hi Thanaboon,
I like the diagonal perch and capture. you have fine details in the blacks...agree withe the good advise given...looking forward to your next one...:cool:
The way I derived my exposure setting for this image was kind of a guess work. I set my metering mode to Matrix, exposure mode to Manual and +0.7EV. I used positive EV because my subject (the crow) was darker than the background and I want to push black a little to the right so I can have some black feather details. Then I fired a test shot and check the histogram for lost highlight and shadow. Then I adjust my shutter speed according to the histogram, if histogram showed under I used longer shutter speed, if histogram showed over I used faster shutter speed.
I shouldn't have put 0EV up there since it was misleading. After the test shot I usually put EV back to 0 for manual exposure. For Nikon, changing EV in manual mode will alter where the camera tells you what it thinks as a correct exposure.
For the crop suggestion, I tried cropping more from the right and add more room to the top. It came out kind of squarish, so I used vertical crop instead. Here is the result.
another crow
