My first sighting & capture of this beautiful bird.
50D + 500L f4.5 + non-reporting 1.4x + tripod. ISO 500, f6.3, 1/320 (manual). Heavy crop, some cloning in CS5 to get rid of some clutter, other pp in Lightroom.
Lazuli bunting
My first sighting & capture of this beautiful bird.
50D + 500L f4.5 + non-reporting 1.4x + tripod. ISO 500, f6.3, 1/320 (manual). Heavy crop, some cloning in CS5 to get rid of some clutter, other pp in Lightroom.
Hi Allen, a very lovely bird indeed and congratulations on this nice capture! We have these beauties down here too but I haven't been able to get this close to them. Well done! The heavy crop really shows in the IQ, as this seems very soft to me. I'm a bit surprised that you had to crop so much with all the glass you had on this bird. The shutter speed seems really low to me for the other settings. Did you have to tone down the whites in the conversion?
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
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Kerry:
No - used some highlight recovery in Lightroom, but whites were OK (the stems of the plants were blown).
The non-reporting extender seems to cost 3 stops of light based on my earlier tests - it shows up here again with a pretty slow ss for the light conditions.
Here's the original, uncropped image:
What would you do to it differently from what I tried?
I love the uncroppped version
Hi Allen. For my money the larger photo is a knockout. I love the thistles and would be very proud to have taken such a beautiful shot. Thanks!
Allen, I think Stuart has it right. Other than shooting at a higher shutter speed to lower the exposure, I would suggest a much less aggressive crop. The original is very nice, but you could make a nice composition with cropping too much, maybe 50% and not try to blow the little bird up so much.
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
Please visit me on the web at http://kerryperkinsphotography.com
I like the second shot as well. The beautiful thistles add a lot of interest and are good contrast for the beautiful blues.
Nancy
Allen, here is another vote for having the bird smaller in the frame. The flowers make this a nice environmental shot.
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Throw my vote in for less tight crop. Nice colors from both the bird and the thistle.
Nice capture, Allen, and beautiful bird. Think the habitat helps the whole composition and agree on less tight crop.
OK, you all convinced me.
Here's the looser crop I settled on:
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