Hi everyone, my first posted image but nothing too special, but hopefully I can just blame the lens for that... I used an EF 75-300mm III on my canon 40d and crawled on my belly for 15 metres and took this pic. Heres the details:
ISO- 100
focal length- 300mm
F/5.6
1/500s
Photo cropped and colours slightly enhanced on iphoto
-should I have stopped down to increase sharpness as there was plenty of light??
Please comment as I have lots to learn and lots to work on
A big welcome to BPN. You have come to the right place to learn and grow as a wildlife photographer.
Good self critique here. A smaller f/stop would have improved your sharpness and depth of field. In general, for a look back image like this, you want the head as close to parallel to the back of the camera as possible. Sometimes you can make a slight noise to get the bird to look towards you a bit more.
The light had enough contrast that the blacks are blocked on the left ( no visible detail) and the whites are perhaps a little overexposed. Generally, with black and white birds, you need the softest possible light to capture the full range of exposure they encompass.
I applaud your efforts to get close. Oystercatchers aren't always the most tolerant of birds.
Gulls and other more tolerant birds are great to practice on, hone your technical skills.
I like the low angle of capture and the backgorund/
Good comments/advice from Randy. My only other comment concerns the composition. It is my personal opinion that the bird is centered too vertically. If this were mine I would reduce the amount of out of focus foreground. This would move the bird lower in frame and eliminate the amount of undetail space in the image.