This was taken at Bombay Hook Wildlife refuge in September. As a result of the drought that we were in there were mainly small ponds of water left. As I was watching this guy hunting, he stopped and ruffled all of his feathers, something that I had not seen before. All comments and critiques are valued.
Peace & Blessings,
Stuart
Date Taken 2007-09-16 10:28:46
Camera Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Exposure Time 0.0166s (1/60)
Aperture f/16.0
ISO 400
Focal Length 400mm (520mm in 35mm)
Photo Dimensions 3888 x 2592
File Name _TU_9859 ruffled.jpg
File Size 9.34 MB
Flash flash did not fire
Exposure Program aperture priority
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Exposure Mode auto
White Balance auto
Color Space sRGB
A) The GBH appears to far left. I would likely have cropped it with it's tail closer to the right and more room on the left so that the bird is looking into, rather than so much out of the frame. It's also too tight on the top for me.
B) Why f16? At that aperture, you're well into diffraction issues affecting sharpness and you've lost what could have been some much improved subject isolation. You're shutter speed would have been correspondingly higher as well. Perhaps cropping the bottom a bit and getting more space at the top would have helped with the vertical position of the subject in the frame.
C) Overall the lighting seems harsh.
Last edited by Jim Fenton; 01-03-2008 at 10:35 AM.
Jim,
First off, thank you for your time. I really appreciate it.
I understand that had I have had a larger f-stop that my image may have been sharper and the background cleaner, however what I don't understand is how to get my brain around the concept of "diffraction or the circle of confusion". I am a self taught photographer and have learned what I know via forums just like this. I understand the result is an image that is not as sharp, what I don't know is when I am out in the field shooting, how do I know what will be best? How do I know where diffraction will begin so that I might avoid it. Thanks in advance for all and any help.
Stuart, you'll find that many lenses have a "sweet spot" right at or around f/8, and with these longer telephotos and zooms that we like to use in bird photography that aperture setting is often sufficient to give a clean blurred background. I will rarely shoot beyond f/10 or f/11 except in odd or exceptional situations.
The "ruffled" look is cool, but I agree with jfentons comments re:composition, and harshness of light.
Hi Stuart,
I can well understand your comment; I am also an almost selfmade Photographer and it took me a long time to understand all the things about aperture, shutter speed and ISO; and now I try to remember al those things, when I a am out in the field, going to create my pictures. And I try to be fast enough, to have the right settings, when the action happens.....
It is a really good idea to use f 16, if you need a great DOF, for example, if you want to have two birds in focus, that are not in the same distance to you. But if you use f 16, a lot of the background will be sharp in focus too. If you want the background soft an blurred, you should use a wider aperture, like 4.0 or 5.6, depending on your lense.
Sorry for my bad english... I'm from Germany and not so used to write in english....
Best regards,
Rosl
I want to thank our other contributors above for the excellent help they are giving Stuart.
Stuart, I will add that I normally photograph at f/8 (Canon 600mm f/4 IS). Sharpness at the f/stop is very good. for bird images I will only go to a smaller aperture if I need depth of field for a specific effect; like the two birds in focus example above. I will not hesitate to go to 5.6 of 4 to maximize shutter speed. When deciding what to do regarding ISO, f/stop and shutter speed, consider what you are trying to accomplish (DOF, action freezing sharpness) and chose accordingly.
Ruffled my Feathers
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