American Goldfinch

[Joel Eade]

Taken in my backyard using a feeder and hide.

40D
300mm 2.8L
2 x TC
Tripod
1/40 sec.
f/5.6
ISO 400
AV priority
Metering: spot


Processing with ACR and CS4

HA ain't perfect and I should have used higher ISO to get higher shutter speed but it shows how good Canon IS works and sometimes you get a little luck.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Nice detail for 1/40, of course more shutter would have helped the fine detail but this looks sharp (maybe fill flash). Very colorful and nice pose, try and get him out of the center if possible. Maybe more room in front, nice BG for this pretty baby - well done.

What was your spot reference point - in frame or out of frame?

[Lance Peters]

Hi Joel - not sure about your choice of spot metering??? Most would go with Eval or Matrix.
Why did you choose spot? and what did you meter from??

Agree with Jeffs Comments. Ha aint perfect as you mentioned. Might have increased the ISO to raise the SS a little.
Good show :)

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Joel,
I like the capture...agree on the techs, and giving more room to the left of the frame to off set him a tad...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Very nice colours on the bird, might sharpen the eye/beak area a bit. The HA is pretty close:).

[Alfred Forns]

Fine comments and fully agree !!! You did make a sharp image at that low shutter speed ... mighty fine !!!! Just remember you can get rid of noise but not unsharpness !!

[Joel Eade]

Thanks for all the comments and critiques. To tell the truth I was messing around with different metering settings and left on spot accidently. I was looking at histograms and snapping shots just to try to learn something. I was using the central sensor so I supposed it just metered off the bird. Seems like I always struggle with cropping...oh well, still learning.