Goldfinch At Dinner - First BPN Post!

[Emily Norman]

Hello all!
For my first post I thought I'd upload this handsome goldfinch at the Shaw Nature Reserve. He was stuffing himself silly on this flower and I have several photos with his head completely buried in it! I'm not sure about the composition as he is centrally located. I also went for the square crop which I like but I know many don't :-) This allowed me to exclude some weeds on the left of the image.

Nikon d7000 300 f4 at 5.6, SS 1/500, ISO 800 Handheld
PP: NR on background, USM on bird, curves adjustment and cloned out a distracting leaf in the foreground. I also used an orange filter on the wings to get rid of a blue hue, something I read about here on BPN!

Critiques and comments appreciated! I tried to follow the instructions and I hope the size etc. is ok.

[Randy Stout]

Emily:

A big welcome to BPN. It is a great place to learn and grow as a nature photographer !

I like your pose, the perch and flower head is neat, little bits of purple in background add interest without being distracting.

The image looks overexposed to me and washed out. If you would like, please post your original unprocessed image so we can see where you started. You can add the second image by responding to your own thread and hit " manage attachments" to add the original file.

If you have questions, let us know.

Cheers

Randy

[gail bisson]

Hi Emily,
Welcome to BPN! I really like the diagonal line that the flower and stalk make. I also like the square comp. I agree with Randy that the picture looks over exposed. Good head angle.I would reduce the exposure and see what you get. You may want to punch up the blacks in selective color but that would depend on how image looks once you reduce the exposure. What time of day did you take this picture?
Gail

[Jeff Cashdollar]

http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...e-photographer.

Emily,

Welcome, first I want to introduce you to our Education and Tutorial Forum. There is a thread at the top named "Why Don't My Pictures Look Like That" (link above). I have read the thread and the material it references are essential to building the skill set for bird photography. That is more of a long-term strategy, for now there are a few things you can do to kick -start this journey, a fun one too. First, are you reading the histogram and do you have the blinkers turned on. The histogram is key to understanding exposure. For example the image look overexposed. Moreover too much light. Notice how the detail is washed out in the neck area. The histogram was probably clipped on the right side. One way to correct would be to increase the shutter speed. That is logical, the faster the shutter the less light hits the sensor. Adding and subtracting light are key to exposure and must become automatic over time.

Look at histogram and make adjustments going forward. The blinkers are a function that makes overexposed parts of the image blink on and off on the camera's back display, very helpful too. Keep posting and making incremental improvements and I recommend the reading material mentioned in the thread. Sounds like your photoshop skills are strong, keep practicing basic exposure field techniques and it will all come together. Talk to you soon, keep em coming.

ps - this is a beautiful Finch, love the clutching the perch pose too, good eye here.

[Emily Norman]

Thanks everyone for your comments! I do check the histogram and on this one (even going back and checking again as it is still on my memory card) the only overexposed area was the part of his breast that was in the full sun. I will post the original below so that you can see that one. I'm wondering if my efforts to decrease the shade on his face with the curves adjustment caused the image to look overexposed? Gail - I shot this around 7pm and as you can see, the light was sort of weird as the bird was half in the sun, half in the shade. Many thanks for to you all for taking the time to help!

Here is the original:

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I picked up the same areas you did, 255 blown areas along the breast area. The take away for me is to expose for the highlights and the other areas will fall into place. As you might know, the first stop on the sensor contain about 50% of the tonal range, it is important to keep this in control. I learned while shooting Chickadees that I needed to expose for the bright white areas. Kind of like the zone system, where one might meter for the highlights to ensure detail is not lost in that areas. Kind of photography risk management. Note the mixed light/shadows on the lens side of the frame. Looks like the light was on the other side, should be over your shoulder if possible. Light can be tricky, keep em coming and thanks for posting.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Emily, and welcome to BPN and the Eager To Learn forum. We are here to learn with you and hope you will add your comments to the postings of others.

This capture is an example of the problems with mixed lighting, which you have here. When trying to protect the whites, you end up with blocked blacks, and when trying to raise the black levels you get the washed-out look of your original post. In this situation you really can't win, as the dynamic range is beyond the capability of the modern digital SLR to reproduce. I'm surprised that the light is this bright at 7pm, must have been a couple of months ago. I think a lower ISO would have given you better results as you didn't need the increase in exposure value. What was your shooting mode (aperture priority, manual, other)? How did you meter the scene or determine the exposure that you used?

[Emily Norman]

Hi Kerry, thank you so much for your helpful comment! You are exactly right about the mixed lighting. Looking back, I'm definitely feeling that this was a no win situation. I use manual exposure and for this shot I was trying to keep some detail in majority of the bird (the dark wings, yellow head) which caused me to blow out the area on the chest that we discussed above. It also basically overexposed the yellow as well. When I would meter for the yellow, the blacks were too dark! Frustrating. I was trying to slowly move into position to get the sun over my shoulder, but he flew away just as I reached the right spot :-) My quest for the perfect goldfinch photo will continue! I will post one of my better exposed images (at least in my opinion!) tomorrow. I have already been able to put some of this helpful advice into practice tonight when I was out photographing shorebirds. Didn't get anything fantastic, but at least the exposure was better!

Thanks again!

[Gary Esman]

Hi Emily and welcome to BPN. Good advice above, sometimes it gets overwhelming. May I suggest something for a nice American Goldfinch photo. They will actually become pretty tame with a feeder. What I have done in the past is place a feeder out and once they start arriving, slowly move it closer to wear you want it. For me this is right outside our master bedroom window. Once they are tame pick a clean background and place a perch near the feeder. They will most likely land on the perch before they hit the feeder or waiting for another one to move. During this time adjust you exposure and pre focus on the perch to save time in case he is a little jumpy. Also, you can enjoy your favorite beverage, mine coffee, as you wait for their arrival. Good luck it can be very relaxing and rewarding.

Gary.

[Kerry Perkins]

Emily, your assessment is correct - no-win situation! The good news is what Gary has said above, that these birds are very brave and will get to be tame around you. I'm sure you can find a better time of day to shoot and the birds will get used to your presence. I have my finch feeder right outside our front door. They are beautiful birds and make wonderful non-pets. P.S. they will do anything for Nyjer seed! What baffles me is how they find out it is there...