I have been working on these birds for a couple of days now. The 50D has a terrible time with gray, overcast skies and a gray bird, at least when I try to up the ISO past 400. Anyway, this is the best so far. The perch is less than I'd like.
All C & C's much appreciated.
Cheers
Gail
Canon 50D with 500mm + 1.4x at 1/90 sec, f/5.6, spot metering, =1 EV, aperture priority, ISO 400
Nice one, Gail. You managed to show the rear-angle view to get the yellow and red signature feathers and still get a pretty good HA. Light looks soft, and a nice clean BG. I think there must be something about waxwings' feathers that makes the image look soft even when it's sharply focused. At least that has been my problem with Cedar Waxwings - I'd love to get a Bohemian.
Gorgeous bird Gail - HA and eye contact is good - exposure looks to be spot on to me - looks sharp on my screen.
Little slow on the SS - but reasons noted doesn't appear to have hurt the sharpness.
Spot Metering?? - Guessing you metered off the gray sky.
The OOF log in the foreground is the only downside for me.
Like it!!
Thanks for the comments and suggestions. The comments about the feather detail, or lack thereof, are interesting to me. I intentionally kept the sharpening subtle. Waxwings are in the family known as Silky Flycatchers, because they look silky. Of course the SS may have eliminated much more sharpening anyway. I'll have to play with it and see what happens.
Can't wait to get Alan Murphy's CD and get more suggestions about percjes etc.
Cheers
Gail
Very nice image Gail, really love the eye of this one. Sharpness looks alright to me. Agree with Al about desaturating the yellow a bit, and maybe red too. As mentioned the perch takes attention away from the bird, so I might crop some off the bottom.
Thanks again for the suggestions. They are much appreciated.
Jeff, if you see this - I am sure sure I understand your comment about not using spot metering on this image? Could you expand a bit?
Gail, I am glad you asked. First of all I like spot metering. I attended a workshop with Chas and he spent 3 day on the different metering modes, each has its place. If you notice, Lance also had questions marks (??) regarding this choice of metering. But, I do not think it is wrong, just the folks I study with. Al, Artie, Chas and Lance and many pros do not usually use spot on images that average mid gray to start with. You mentioned the image above was basically gray (sky, bird and overcast). Study the different metering advantages and disadvantages and you will get a better understanding on this. I use spot when the scene is very bright and bird is large in frame or there is a significant difference in the light between the foreground and background. The advances technology have allowed Eval/matrix-metering to handle many more opportunities than just 5 years ago. When the scene averages mostly gray to start with there is little advantage to use spot and it can confuse the matter. Again, I often use spot when warranted and love it. Just based on your comments about the picture being gray, Lance and I ask what did you meter-off.
Gail, as long as it works for you and the exposure and image come thru, that is the main thing. Your work is fantastic, I am always reviewing the techs, the exposure theory is key to me.
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 11-22-2009 at 10:35 PM.
Bohemian Waxwing
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