Oriole

[David N Smith]

I took this picture at a feeder in my backyard this week. I am looking for critique as to what I could have done to make it better. To me it looks a little soft but I wonder what you think.
I was using a Canon XSi, exposure: 1/250 sec @ F/8.0, ISO 400 Lens 55-250mm @ 250, aperture priority, evaluative metering and manual focus using live view. I cropped and tweaked in PS CS5
Any input will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Dave

[nancy hazen]

Dave I like this picture with the Oriole and the oranges beside him. First, that is one cool feeder. What is he eating in the middle tray?

The Oriole looks a bit soft. I am just learning myself, but wonder if a higher shutter speed would help. Even the slightest of movement from you or the bird will bring some blur. I do like the colors though.
A very pleasing image.
Nancy

[David N Smith]

Dave I like this picture with the Oriole and the oranges beside him. First, that is one cool feeder. What is he eating in the middle tray?

The Oriole looks a bit soft. I am just learning myself, but wonder if a higher shutter speed would help. Even the slightest of movement from you or the bird will bring some blur. I do like the colors though.
A very pleasing image.
Nancy

Thanks for the reply Nancy. The middle tray holds grape jelly.
I was using a tripod and remote shutter release but the feeder cold have been moving just a bit I guess.

[John Hawkins]

I think it is soft also. Maybe because of the crop? The colors are great. Would be nice if he was on other side of dish looking this way but they don't seem to cooperate do they?

[David N Smith]

I think it is soft also. Maybe because of the crop? The colors are great. Would be nice if he was on other side of dish looking this way but they don't seem to cooperate do they?

Thanks for the reply John. No they don't want to cooperate, I guess I don't speak their language.

Dave

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi David, I'm very curious about your setup for this shot. You say you were using a remote shutter release with live view. Was this a shutter release cable? I'm guessing that it was since the IR remote only works from the front of the camera. Or, were you using a laptop with a USB cable? There are a couple of problems either way. Focus is extremely slow with live view and I would not recommend using it this way. Much too slow to capture a moving bird. If you were using the RS60 switch, autofocus won't even work in live view. The bottom line is that your camera did not focus on the bird at all, and I'm guessing that live view was the cause. If you are going to use a remote, you should frame the shot first, do a pre-focus on the subject, and use quick mode (not live view) for autofocus.

The red channel is clipped in most of this image, which is not unusual for the yellow or orange colored birds. Your color histogram in PS would have shown that. You need to check that one as well as the luminance one. The bird looking away detracts from the image, better to wait for a look in the direction of the camera but you would be hard-pressed to catch that moment with live view.

[David N Smith]

Thanks for your input Kerry
I was using the RS-60 release.
I was using live view because I have read that it is so great and everything I figured I should learn to use it. I am pretty much old school I prefer using the viewfinder but if something is better I am not above trying it so maybe live view is not that great. I used manual focus because I was in live view and I zoomed in to focus but with the lag in live view movement in the subject could be my focus problem.
I will check red channel clipping.
Thanks again for your tips I really appreciate them.

Dave