painted bunting

[Sid Garige]

My first attempt with setups.
D300s, 200-400mm VR
F5.6 1/200
SB800 @ -1

[Tony Whitehead]

I like the curve of the perch and the pose here, Sid. Not sure of what ISO or metering you used. Looks like a well shaded area. My approach in this situation is often to use manual exposure to achieve the BG look I want and then use flash EC to get the bird exposed as I want. In this case I would have probably exposed a bit more to brighten the BG and maybe a bit less on the flash to reduce the "flashed" look. As it stands I would probably burn in the perch a bit. Looks nice a nice setup to work with.

[Greg Basco]

Hi, Sid. The composition and sharpness are great on this one. I have to agree with Tony that the flash is a little much. Bumping up the ambient exposure so that the background is lighter and the flash has to do less work, as Tony suggested, is one good solution. On the other hand, I do like the dark background. If you wanted to keep the dark background, I would think about getting your flash off-camera as it's not so much the amount of flash but the fact that it's directly from the front that makes it look overflashed. Since you are working at a setup and have the D300s, you could set its pop-flash to Commander and then move your SB-800 to a tripod or light stand and trigger it wirelessly. You should be able to set the pop-up flash so that it doesn't fire but just acts as trigger. I would try placing the SB-800 about 45 degrees to the head side and slightly above in terms of height. Just a thought but I think you'll find it's fun to play around with this.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

[Sid Garige]

I like the curve of the perch and the pose here, Sid. Not sure of what ISO or metering you used. Looks like a well shaded area. My approach in this situation is often to use manual exposure to achieve the BG look I want and then use flash EC to get the bird exposed as I want. In this case I would have probably exposed a bit more to brighten the BG and maybe a bit less on the flash to reduce the "flashed" look. As it stands I would probably burn in the perch a bit. Looks nice a nice setup to work with.

Tony,

Image was shot at ISO 640 in Manual mode. Yes, it was a well shaded area. When I metered on the perch my reading were at F5.6 and 1/80 at ISO 640. To gain more shutter speed, I had to rely on flash as main source of light. I shot from a blind around 12 feet from feeder. I used SB800 in manual mode at -1 to light the subject and not the background.

Agree with you on perch. Next time I will give another show with diffuser.

thanks
Sid

[Sid Garige]

I would try placing the SB-800 about 45 degrees to the head side and slightly above in terms of height. Just a thought but I think you'll find it's fun to play around with this.

Cheers,
Greg Basco

I am getting another SB800. I will give another try next week.

-sid

[Harshad Barve]

Sid
I think techs covered very well here , but this species is too good and you have very well here , nice perch , BG and details
TFS

[subramanya_ck]

Wow, what a colorful bird. Nice Shot