Denali NP Alaska (Savage River Basin) -- June 2009
I've finally been going through some images from this trip. I wish I knew then what I've learned since :)
Canon 30D
Sigma 100-300mm f/4 @ 300mm
1/400 sec f/6.3 ISO 100
Crop, S/H, Sharpening in CS5
Willow Ptarmigan -- Denali NP
Denali NP Alaska (Savage River Basin) -- June 2009
I've finally been going through some images from this trip. I wish I knew then what I've learned since :)
Canon 30D
Sigma 100-300mm f/4 @ 300mm
1/400 sec f/6.3 ISO 100
Crop, S/H, Sharpening in CS5
The HA looks good to me and I like the general placement of the bird. On my screen the head and eye are a little soft, and the shoulder of the near wing seems to be the most in focus point. The background is a little busy for my liking. Is that water shimmering behind the branches?
What an interesting bird, Ian. I think Ben pretty much summed up my feelings about the image but I have to tell you - if you stick around here long enough you'll be saying that phrase (I wish I knew then what I know now) more times than you'd care to recount! Every year I look back on last year's images and wonder what the heck I was thinking!
You've got some pretty harsh light going here. You might be able to tone that down a bit and then bring up the dark areas of the head a bit more to even this out. I also like the HA and the placement of the bird in the frame. Be sure to recheck those whites - some of them look blown out and you might be able to recover them if you shot this in RAW.
Thanks for looking and commenting, folks. Yes, Jules, I do say that a lot now! I'm itching to get back to Alaska!
I shot in RAW, but haven't been able to recover the whites any more than I already have (that took a bit of work as it is).
Yep, the guy (and his mate) were on the bank of the Savage River in Denali.
BTW his interesting plumage turns to snow white during the winter. He's Alaska's state bird.
Hi Ian - Agree with the above - as you progress you will find that you start to improve your chances before you start to shoot.
Sun at your back
No Harsh Light
Looking at whats in the BG
Waiting for the HA and pose
Turn on your over exposure warnings in camera and make use of the histogram - Get used to using exposure compensation and you will soon find yourself noticing and reacting to changes in the light as you shoot and making adjustments accordingly.
There is a lot of great info on exposure theory in the educational resources forum.
Looking forward to seeing more :)
Thanks, Lance. All of your suggestions are things I am much more aware of now than I was in June 2009 (thanks, in part, to the kind folks on BPN). Since I often shoot in Manual, how does exposure compensation help me? If I want to reduce exposure, I just crank up SS or reduce my aperture. Isn't that the same thing?
Hi Ian - in Manual Mode - there is no need to use exposure compensation as you adjust the SS or Aperture to get the correct exposure, which in effect is doing the same thing - made those comments so that others reading that use AV mode get the notion that exposure compensation is their friend!Originally Posted by Ian Cassell
OK, Lance , I gotcha now! For a second, I thought I was missing something! I do use Av and Tv occasionally, but tend to lean towards manual for some reason. Interestingly, I use shutter priority with Auto ISO when I'm shooting in low light. I didn't touch Auto ISO for the longest time, but I'm finding it useful in combination with shutter priority automatic when I'm shooting in the early morning light. I handhold my 400 f/5.6 a lot so I have to keep my SS up to avoid motion blur. This is hard to do in that early light. The Auto ISO keeps me shooting to the right of the histogram. I wish the 7D had a way of putting a ceiling limit on the Auto ISO. As it stands, the camera can take the ISO up to 3200.
Regarding the Auto ISO and Manual mode. On some camera (like D700) when you shoot in Manual mode with Auto ISO the camera will try to change the ISO in what it thinks give you the correct exposure for the aperture and shutter speed that you set. So the exposure compensation will have an effect in Manual mode with Auto ISO on some camera. I noticed that you use Auto ISO with shutter priority and use a different camera model, but there a chance that your camera might behave the same and sometimes I can forgot that Auto ISO is on (even there a blinking in viewing finder :p)
Yes, Auto ISO even works in Manual mode on the 7D. You're right, I have to be careful to turn it off! Even when I manually set ISO, I frequently forget to check it and find that I mess up shots!
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