This is my first venture to this forum at BPN, previously I have posted only to ETL. This image is my first Red-breasted Nuthatch image that I was even half satisfied with. For a ubiquitous bird they sure are hard to capture at times. This is a significant crop, processed in LR2, then output sharpening in CS4.
Comments and suggestions much appreciated.
Cheers
Gail
Canon 7D with 500mm + 1.4x, pattern metering, 0EV, ISO 400
Hello, Gail. I love these little birds and have yet to add a good one to my files. They are surprisingly hard to photograph. Sure are some nice elements here...the bird is nice and sharp with a cute pose. There is some loss of detail in the head, I believe that the whites are a bit hot and lack detail. Artie has a good lesson in ETL on using a linear burn to modify this problem...worth a try. I really like the tree bark as a background, but I think it either has to be part of your depth of field capture, or more blurred because as it is, I find it distracting. I'd try including it because it is interesting with great elements (the lichen and texture). What were your aperture setting and shutter speed settings?
Thanks Grace - 1/160 @f/5.6. Great advice; I'll check on the linear burn. The whites may be hot as you suggest or it may be that I missed getting the eye spot on for the focus. It is one of the problems often seen in nuthatch images. I like the suggestion about dof; in this case I didn't have much light to play. Could have used a fill flash, but this whole capture was a sudden opportunity that had to be what it was.
Thanks again very much. Most helpful
Cheers
gail
Oh yeah, Gail, you had no room to stop down for increased dof, maybe up the ISO? I'm not familiar with the 7D and how it performs at higher isos. Again, your nut hatch is still better than mine. ;)
Thanks again Grace and Lou- I think where I'm leaning is that I should learn to have my better beamer on my camera rather than in the photog bag, especially during the interminable gray days we have been having. Barring that, the choice could have been to boast the ISO and worry about the noise later. The suggestion about more dof is well taken.
Cheers
Gail
Red-breasted Nuthatch
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