Cactus Wren

[Fernando Cerra]

This image was created before dawn with a single flash 580EX
speed 1/250sec, aperture f18, ISO 800
Canon 30d, 400mm
Full frame
Jaumave, Tamps. Mexico

[Joe Senzatimore]

Good representation of the subject and it's habitat. I might crop some off the left to get the bird out of center. Nice detail. Perhaps a bit too much flash???

[Fernando Cerra]

Good representation of the subject and it's habitat. I might crop some off the left to get the bird out of center. Nice detail. Perhaps a bit too much flash???

Forgot to mention, flash setting -1 2/3, using better beamer

[Lorant Voros]

Nice species and good split-legged pose; wish for a better HA.Comp is a little centered for my taste, habitat is nice. Congrats.

[Arthur Morris]

Interesting habitat for this species. Sharp. Head turn and the very dark BKGR hurt this image quite a bit. I am totally confused by the exposure and flash data..... How did you come up with 1/250 sec. at f/18?

[Harshad Barve]

Nice looking bird and seems to be fast moving one ( atleast all wren we have are fast movers)
well done here

I am totally confused by the exposure and flash data..... How did you come up with 1/250 sec. at f/18?

+ 1 here and why F18

TFS

[Fernando Cerra]

Interesting habitat for this species. Sharp. Head turn and the very dark BKGR hurt this image quite a bit. I am totally confused by the exposure and flash data..... How did you come up with 1/250 sec. at f/18?

1/250 and f/18 will give a totally dark image at dawn, but when I use these settings with flash on, it gives me an image like this, I don´t remember where I read about this but it works, downside is the dark background

[Arthur Morris]

1/250 and f/18 will give a totally dark image at dawn, but when I use these settings with flash on, it gives me an image like this, I don´t remember where I read about this but it works, downside is the dark background

Fernando, If you ever find the book, consider tossing it in the trash.... The dark background ruins the image for a bird that is active during the day.

If you have a copy of ABP II (916 pages on CD only), go to the "Flash Simplified" section and study the Flash as Main Light Techniques. Once you learn them you will be able to create sharp, well lit, natural looking images in the same situations....

Basically you will set your ambient EXP manually so that the analogue scale in the fiewfinder shows less than two stops of underexposure (about one stop is best), set the flash to zero or -1/3 stop (or learn to use Manual flash), take an image, and check the histogram....