Canon 40D, Tamron 200-500, monopod
@427mm, ISO 800, f6.3, 1/160 shutter speed
Post processing includes burning foreground and background plus sharpening
any comments appreciated
Hey Allen, Love the comp/singing display. Could use some sharpening on the subject. Sharpening is a hard one, because we each use different equiptment. I have yet to solved the Sharpness subject on my submissions.
In my experience these are jittery little guys and can be hard to get an open shot of. I have one that's a regular at my feeders, but refuses to perch where I can get a nice, natural shot of him. The ones I see in the woods always put at least one limb between them and my lens. Good catch.
It looks to me like focus is on the beak and possibly the breast. For any image of a living thing the eye(s) need to be tack sharp. You might try selective sharpening on the birds eye. I'm seeing some blown highlights but considering the subject is backlit you did a decent job on exposure. Keep shooting and posting.
Last edited by Bob Decker; 12-24-2009 at 07:43 PM.
Welcome to BPN nice post, as Bob mentioned the light angle was working against you but you still produced a nice image. Sun at your back with shadow pointing at subject will help bring things to life. A nice head angle (parallel with lens) with soft light and a sharp eye will do it.
Thanks for sharing, I love the open beak and the C. Wren is a cool species - Happy Holidays.
Hi Allen,
A big warm welcome to our BPN family...I like the capture and composition. The open bill is a plus. The focus point is not on the eye, thus its a tad on the soft side. I would suggest on setting your black point and adjusting your mid-tones just slightly. Also can use a slight saturation and contrast boost to make the little fellow pop. The eye area can be lightened a little and selective sharpen...looking forward to your next one...once again welcome to the family...Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...:):cool:
Allen,
Welcome. I like the subject and composition, as well as the action, but agree with Gus. It looks like the focus is in front of the bird. Were you using multiple focus points? If so, perhaps the camera locked on to the contrast in the rocks in front of the bird. If so, try selecting one focus point and keeping it on the eye of the subject.
Thank you for all the constructive comments. My camera was set to center focus. I imagine all the hopping around he was doing contributed to the focal point being off the eye. I usually focus on the eye and then recompose the shot for composition. And yes, this was taken deep in the woods and the little guy popped up between me and the sun...I would have much rather him shown up on the other side of the trail but he had different ideas. Thanks again for all the feedback.
Hi Allen - another big warm welcome to the BPN family, great advice from all above.
Keep a eye on your shutter speed - as a general rule you want to be at 1/your focal length as a minimum, so here 1/400th as a minimum, maybe even a bit faster when using a monopod just to ensure image sharpness - not saying its not sharp but keep in mind the more the magnification the greater the effects of vibration etc.
Welcome to BPN Allen.
Love the calling pose and how manage to get both feet and tail in the shot. Agree about the focus point and very good advice given about the light, need to watch the sun position, usually best to have sun behind you.
Allen,
Sounds good on the focus point, now how about AF mode: one shot or AI servo? With the bird jumping around, or swaying with the monopod, the focus point needs to continuously move, so AI servo is best in that situation.
Carolina Wren
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