Thought you might like to see this behavioral shot though I didnt over expose enough
Caught up with a whole bunch of these today, raring to go but always hard to catch the moment:o
They squeak like theyve been stepped on too!
ISO 1600 f 8 ss1/350 Ev +1 then +1 in PS
Rich, the moment that you captured is great, but the image seems a bit soft. It is also very noisy, particularly in the upper part of the background. I think ISO 1600 may have been pushing the camera a bit. What are you shooting? I think maybe increasing the aperture by a stop and decreasing the ISO by a stop would have created a cleaner overall image.
You also mentioned increasing exposure but I suspect that if you did that you wouldn't have frozen the action as well as you did. You did great for 1/350.
Nowhere to go on larger aperture as 100-400 and extender, was checking out use of ISO as so dull this was the only way to up SS, Should have done Ev 2 or more but probably would have lost the pose anyway
OOC is really dull lookins so I was quite pleased with the shot. Havent had any meaningful sun here for ay least a month
Hi Richard- I agree with Paul, you have caught the moment nicely here. I think there are several signs that the image is a big crop- softness, course noise and some pronounced chromatic aberration. Also you are asking a lot of the lens to shoot wide-open with an extender (at 400mm?). A looser crop and some noise reduction followed by selective sharpening may work for you.
This is of course a very tough bird to expose in anything but the softest of light. The blacks looked blocked on my monitor and some of the whites are on the edge (did not check with Ps). As ISO increases, the ability of your camera to capture a wide tonal range decreases. Given the light you had, maybe it was an impossible task to expose the blacks and the whites correctly?
would have been at 560mm and handheld,not a large crop say 30, as has been previously stated get the whites and lose blacks
a tough bird in these conditions for sure.
Sun might shiine tomorrow so I will try to find them; ironically if the ice melts they will move away from shore haha!
thanks
Last edited by Richard Unsworth; 01-07-2011 at 08:51 AM.
Richard- The best time to photograph birds like this is in overcast conditions with the sun behind the clouds. A nice grey day with flat light would be perfect!
so ideally dont use extender, so I can get 5.6 at say 1/500 @ 400, improved IQ will allow me to crop
ISO of 800 max as higher SS better, Ev +1 or 2 remembering Canon 40 D tends toward under exposure?
I agree Richard, I'd try to get away without the extender. Also at 400mm I would stop down by 1/3 or 2/3 stops from wide open. Finally, in my experience, the lens is very sensitive to filters of any sort, and almost any quality, so I would advise not using one if you do. The lens hood will give adequate protection.
For exposure I would consult the histogram rather than go with a body-specific formula. Try using Manual exposure. Dial in the setting based on the histogram and some tests and shoot away; adjust when the lighting of your subject changes. If I remember my 40D was a good performer at ISO 400 and did pretty well at 800 too. At 10.8 mp and 1.6 crop factor the sensor sites are fairly chunky.
Mating display, Goldeneye
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