Tufted Titmouse
D90; 80-400 VR @ 370mm. ISO 1000. f/5.6, 1/200s. -0.3 EV. Shutter priority. Tripod. Built-in flash @ 1/4 strength.
Taken near mid-day in heavy shade, near my water bubbler. I haven't had much experience using flash, and find my flash shots often look very flat. Experimented with lots of settings, and this one seemed to turn out best (luckily also coincided with the best pose). Not sure the settings make much sense; I need to get a proper flash. C&C appreciated.
Hi Bill...I don't shoot much flash but this looks good to me! Nice sharpness overall...eye seems just a bit soft....with nice feather detail. The bg was handled well!
Thanks Bob. Agree the eye (and head in general) are a bit soft. Focus point was on the shoulder, which might have been ok if I had shot at f/7.1 which I usually do with this lens, but using shutter priority to keep the 1/200 max sync speed, 5.6 is where it ended up. Maybe should try manual. Not as many options with the in-camera flash as there would be with a Nikon speedlight.Originally Posted by Bob Miller
Hi Bill, Agree about the softness but good backround with the flash giving the subject even lighting. I'm noticing a magenta cast in the image.
Hi Bill. Lots of good things with this image !! From the tech side I like the settings particularly using shutter priority to stay within the sync speed of the flash ... And btw don't think it had an effect?
Like the pose an exposure, lots of detail at both ends Agree with comments
Thanks Dave and Al. As to the magenta cast, now that you mention it I see it too. In Raw Capture the image looked too blue to me "As Shot", so I warmed it up just slightly. Probably should have left well enough alone.
Hi Bill - agree with the comments above - Also cant really see any effect from the flash - maybe at full strength.
You will get much better results with a off camera flash.
Keep em coming. :)
Nice pose Bill. Techs covered. Like the simple BG too.
One of my favorite yardbirds. I like your pose showing it running it's mouth! so typical for this bird :p
Thank you all. I've reposted here with a green filter on the bird at 20% opacity to try and reduce the magenta cast (might have gone a bit more?), and tried to sharpen up the head without adding noise. (Also added some texture to the top of the twig.) As to the flash, if you could look at some of the images taken that same time without flash (which I have unfortunately deleted) you could see that the flash did make a small but perceptible difference. My goal in using flash was to add a bit of brightness in the heavy shade, without looking like a flash shot. If you can't see any effect, maybe I achieved it???;)
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