I have a feeder positioned in front of a window in my house. It is about 10 feet away and a good vantage point. The birds don't notice me when I sneak in for a shot. I plan to try some set-ups in the yard this spring and summer, but for now the house is my blind, and I have captured some of my better images through this window. Shot in morning light.
Canon 5D MKII, 300 f4L IS, ISO 500, f4.5 @ 1/640sec, shutter priority, 2/3 EV, pattern metering, HH
PP: Lightroom 2.6
large crop > 50%
set black and white points, added fill
enhanced clarity and vibrance
adjustment brush: sharpened beak, eye, and tail
Nik plugins: Dfine, Viveza, ColorEfex Pro (applied GND), Sharpener Pro
PSE: resized for the web
Critiques appreciated!
Last edited by Julie Brown; 03-22-2010 at 08:51 PM.
Hi Julie Would try a converter on that lens for more magnification then you would not have to crop as much !! .. plus having a full sensor camera !!
Area under the beak looks a little funny? Not sure what went on there Like the pose and great bg !!! I'm sure you will be getting lots of good ones !!!
Hi Julie - looking good!! Sweet light - Good HA and eye contact - good detail in the eye.
Nailed the exposure!!
You should invest in Alan Murphy's songbird guide.
Thank you Al, Bob, and Lance for the great comments!:D
Bob, I especially like the little songbirds. The feeder is the best place to see them so far.
Lance, Alan's guide is next on my list!
Al, I thought the same thing about the crop when I looked at the Raw file to list the PP data. Then I realized that I had always used my 40D from that window and didn't need the TC. I just got the 5D MKII a couple of weeks ago (love it!) and this time I forgot about the crop factor.
As for the area under the beak, I am not seeing it. Is it a shadow or is it something on the beak itself? I did do some sharpening on the beak.:confused:
Last edited by Julie Brown; 03-23-2010 at 10:33 AM.
Hi Julie. Glad to know someone else is finding good subjects out of the window. Whenever I open the storm door the birds vanish, but they're perfectly happy as long as we have a pane of (carefully cleaned and polished) glass between us. I've recently tried binding some more attractive perches onto my feeder poles, with some limited success. Agree that Alan's guide is the next step. In this case, a slight bit of additional head turn would have done nicely.
Thanks Peter-I just have to keep that window clean! When it gets warmer I am going to try and lower the window to see if I can still sneak up to it without the birds being aware of me.
Bill, I was thinking of doing just what you described with the different perches. Do you think it might confuse them since they are used to the feeder as is? As for the better head angle-I will keep trying!:)
Oscar, thanks for the comment. The big birds are spectacular, but the little ones are just so cute!;)
Bill, I was thinking of doing just what you described with the different perches. Do you think it might confuse them since they are used to the feeder as is? As for the better head angle-I will keep trying!:)
Hi Julie. Funny - just as I was reading your response above, my wife called in to my study to tell me that a Carolina Wren was sitting on one of my perches, singing up a storm (and I was here on the computer instead of at the window with the camera). When I first attached a branch to the feeder pole it didn't stop the birds from coming to the feeder, but it did take them awhile to use the perch. After several weeks, they began to use it more - I saw a lovely cardinal pair in perfect pose yesterday, also when I didn't have the camera out and ready - so I do think it is working. Now that spring buds are beginning to pop, I'm looking for a more springlike perch; I'll keep you posted.
Carolina Wren from window
