Red-winged blackbird makes his case

[David Stephens]

The females aren't in Colorado yet, but this guy and a bunch of his competitors are working hard on their songs and posing. I'm having trouble getting a blackbird shot that I'm toally happy with, leading to a lot of messing with EV and post processing. This one's pretty close to what I want, and given the strong light, may be close to the best I can expect in this strong light:



Technicals:

Canon 7D with EF 400mm f/5.6L, hand helded, resting on my arm on the car window. ISO 800, Evaluative Metering, aperture priority at f/8 and +1-EV resulting in 1/1000-sec. RAW conversion and post processing was done in DxO's Optics Pro 6.x.x where I pushed the contrast up to +30 and pulled the RGB line down a little in the middle and up a little at the bottom, cropping around 50% from the original. Saturation was less than +10 to avoid any blown out pixels.

Thanks for your help.

Dave

[Lance Peters]

Hi David - like the open beak pose and the BG.
Blacks are blocked as indicated by the histogram (No Detail) softer light would or some fill flash (doubt it would have been any use depending on the distance to the subject) would have been the only option.
Looking forward to seeing more :)

[Julie Brown]

David, I agree that these guys are hard to photograph. I like the HA and eye contact, as well as the behavior. Lance covered the techs for getting a better capture, which will help us all!:D

[Alfred Forns]

Hi David

Agree with advice !! Crop wise you want to get bird out of the center frame! Did well with exposure just needed the light at your back, with dark birds like these is about the only way.

btw your lens will be sharp even with the 1.4X .. will have to manually focus. Might want to test on a newspaper of similar to see what you can do !!! Might surprise you !!!

[David Stephens]

Thanks Julie.

For some reason this reminds me of one of my first posts to Eager to Learn. That time it was a black, white and blue magpie in bright sun. The primary bit of advice that I received back then was, "take the image in softer light." My reaction at the time was, "but this was the light that I had at the time."

In the several months that have passed I've realized that if I keep trying over and over, then I'll ultimately get the "ideal" light for each subject. Even as I continue to stalk a subject, looking for ideal pose, light, exposure, etc. I can still make some "nice" images that my friends, family and many others will enjoy, despite the lack of "perfection."

Here on BirdPhotographers.net the assumption is that we're all seeking "perfection." All advice given here is in that spirit and noobs shouldn't be too discouraged. If you love this hobby then you WILL go back again and again and keep trying to get the right combination of "perfect" condition. Lack of perfection does not invalidate the beauty of a given image and we shouldn't take offense about how it might be improved. Everyone giving the advice has tried over and over to finally get things right.

Dave

[David Stephens]

Hi David

Agree with advice !! Crop wise you want to get bird out of the center frame! Did well with exposure just needed the light at your back, with dark birds like these is about the only way.

btw your lens will be sharp even with the 1.4X .. will have to manually focus. Might want to test on a newspaper of similar to see what you can do !!! Might surprise you !!!

Thank you Alfred.

Tell me more about manual focus with my 1.4X on my f/5.6 lens. I've tried it in the field and often found that what looked in focus in the viewfinder wasn't in focus when I previewed it on my computer. Yes, I realize that this particularly subject was relatively static and that I couldn't probably get good focus, particularly stopped down a little. The viewfinder just doesn't facilitate manual focus like my old Pentax Spotmatic did.

Are you saying that newspaper practice will get me there? Maybe diving right in and trying to do it in the field was my mistake.

BTW, I plan to buy the EF 500mm f/4L IS within the next few months and use it a lot with the 1.4TC. The extra reach and IS are two things that I'm really looking foward to.

Dave

[Julie Brown]

David, I totally agree with your sentiments regarding the pursuit of "perfection". Well said!

To me, that is the fun part of this hobby, not to mention the experience of being in nature. Although I may keep images that others would trash, the challenge to me is to continually improve my technique and to maximize the potential of my equipment.

BTW, I have also experimented with manual focus in the field (300 f4L IS + 2X TC) and would love to see some tips offered by the experts. What really helps me is the bigger, brighter viewfinder in my 5D MK II.
Congrats on your upcoming purchase of the 500mm f4L IS!:)