These little guys move so fast they are hard to get, I set up on this tree just for this photo and I have lost some focus due to some veg close to the lens. Tried to crop most out but it's still visible. Unfortunately a close crop and you can see the oof on his wing. Harsh light but I can't get them all before 7 AM.
Canon 7D, 100 -400 5.6L at 285
F 7.1 1/400 manual, tripod, ISO 400,
crop, sharpening, selected eye and brought some life to it, and burn the bill to darken more. added 1/3 exp.
I'm at the limit of my PS skills, doubt if I can do any thing but you guys often make some great suggestions.
Stan, I've had a heck of a time getting a decent image of a Verdin. They move quickly and, it seems, they like to go right behind a branch just as I squeeze the shutter release. I think the trick is to get your sensor parallel to the bird so you don't need to stop down and keep your aperture at f/5.6. This should blur your BG better. I await other comments. I'll also admit that I almost always handhold rather than use a tripod for the little guys in the trees.
Last edited by Ian Cassell; 04-24-2011 at 06:54 PM.
Stan, it appears that you are on the right track getting little birds in trees, maybe only lacking experience and practice.
If I were using my 100-400 in this situation I probably would have opted for f6.3, ISO 640, and whatever SS I needed for correct exposure, I also use a tripod whenever possible. My settings would have been very close to yours probably yielding a slightly sharper subject and slightly more blurred BG. I cannot see where your focus point was, mine would have been on the eye.
I think where my center point was/is a major problem. I tend to always keep my 100 -400 at 7.1 or better John. I just have not been happy with the results at a larger opening, and I'm on a tripod or bean bag 99% of the time.
The reality is a I juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuusst missed him. But Verdin's don't sit still till they quit breathing. I have a few keepers of them just was excited about this one on the LCD screen and was hoping some one might have a suggestion or 2 with PS.
What a treat to see a Verdin Stan! I think the image has potential but it's suffering from a heavy crop and so is a little soft. Maybe the answer is to loosen up the crop and deal with the veg. Could you post a looser crop so that we can take a look. I agree with Ian BTW, hand-held is often the way to go with these fast-moving birds. regarding focus point and as mentioned, the eye is critical but you can sometimes focus on some other part of the subject in a similar plane as the eye and get the same result. Here the cheek of the bird or the ear area would have worked and your DoF would have taken care of any slight differences in distance.
Here you go John, you were the first person I thought of when I mentioned those wonderful with PS skills.
The amount of Palo Verde out of focus was bothering me. And unfortunately as I'm sure you know, most of our desert trees are nothing but branches. It's challenging for sure.
And I hope I'm not violating any rules but since I'm asking for similar PS advice, this is another original I took last week. I've been trying to get one drinking nectar, finally got one with the ocotillo flower in perfect light. Unfortunately he was shaded.
I know some have mentioned this is preferable as you can then select the bird and lighten it. I've pushed the photo 2/3 stop, but any more I will blow out the reds on the flower. When I selected the bird, several times, it doesn't seem to matter how many diff ways I refined the edges, you could still tell a slight exp difference around it's body.
Any and all suggestions are appreciated.
Hi Stan. Both of your images would have benefited greatly from some fill flash/highspeed sync/better beamer lighting, filling in the shadows a bit! I use my fill at -2 most of the time. I have also opted for ISO 800 at f7.1 or f8. As for blurring the foliage, when you are shooting a little bird in a bush, good luck!
Having said the above, on to you OP. In my repost, in CS3, I cropped your second post a little, applied shadow/highlight filter to the whole image, selected the eye and brightened it, applied a curves layer to the whole image. Next, I selected the hot right thigh of the bird and applied S/H heavily to it. Then, I selected the lite yellows of the head and upped the saturation a bit, then reversed the selection and desaturated the bg. Finally, I selectively sharpened the well lit areas of the bird, the eye and part of the bill. Thats it. All of the above tweaks would do a much better job on the raw file but I think they are an improvement
I too use high speed sync fill flash w/better beamer quite often, anywhere from -2/3 to -2. My experience has been fill flash would have worked very well on the bird in the tree and not well on the bird on the cactus flower. Vegetation in front of the subject often lights up too much with fill flash.
Thanks guys, I think the fill flash is a good idea. I always use it early morning in forests, and I don't think of the desert as a forest. However, the middle of many of our trees and shrubs are, so I will try that.
Dan, I will try the suggestions when I get home, nicely done and I really appreciate the time you took to help me out.
Stan
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, any suggestions?
