American Goldfinch
D90; 80-400 VR @ 360mm. ISO 1000. f/5.2, 1/200s. -0.3 EV. Tripod.
Several days ago near my thistle sock feeder. Taken two minutes after yesterday's Tufted Titmouse post was shot, using the same setup I had been using for flash experiments (1/200s, Shutter priority), but in this case taken with flash turned off. Relatively high ISO and large crop marginalized the IQ, but I like the pose and colors. Should I clean up the bill? C&C appreciated.
Hi Bill - Looking good!! IQ does not look too bad - a little more NR to the background maybe - which sets the bird off very nicely.
I like it.
Ideally this is close to how you would want it to turn out with flash - so that it looks natural and so that you can barley tell that flash has been used. One thing to remember with flash - Aperture controls the flash(exposure) and SS controls the ambient light (Exposure). I use full manual when working with flash.
Keep em coming.
Thanks Lance. I never thought about the difference between aperture and ss in controlling light with flash. I really haven't used it much, but there are plenty of times when I probably should. Useful info.Originally Posted by Lance Peters
I like it and I would not clean up the bill, keep it natural
Like the color and pose. Would not clean up the beak. Appears there is noise in the dark feathers, which I presume the flash might have helped.
Thanks Lance for the info
Ray Rozema
Hi Bill, nice pose along with well muted backround. Agree with comments above and feel it's a bit tight left and right and would take a small amount off the top....
If you don't mind me asking but if this is a large crop why didn't you shoot at 400mm? I like the shot and like the others wouldn't clean the bill. Have you thought about a square crop as the distance from the top of the head to the bottom of the foot is the same distance as it is from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail.
Hi Terry. I've found that with this lens I seem to get sharper images if I back off of full zoom just a bit - just enough to take the play out of the barrel. EXIF usually records this at 370mm. (It also seems sharper at f/7.1, but in this case the low light made me open up further, and I realize this image is not as sharp as I would have liked.) Re. the crop, I'm usually not a big fan of square crops - don't know why. But you and Dave Mills have the same reaction here, and given the diagonal lines and dimensions a square crop would probably work nicely. I'll give it a try. Thanks for the comments.
Hi Bill...love these birds and your image is well handled. I like the sharpness and composition as presented. I would probably clean up the bill myself. great shot....I like it alot!
Thank you all. Here's a version with a square crop. Better composition, I agree. Unfortunately, this enlarges the bird and exposes a bit more of the noise.
I do prefer the square cropping, but I do come from a Hasselblad background.
Terry.
That explains it.
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