Well, actually its the same bird as in the post below. This time, I had the focus right, but the wide aperture (forgot to adjust my settings) resulted in limited sharpness on the bird. I kind of like the diagonals by the OOF tree in the BG, but it is a bit busy. C&C very welcome!
Nikon D7000, Nikkor 80-400 f/4.5-5.6D ED VR @ 180mm, ISO-100, f/5.0, 1/400 sec., -1.7 EV (ooops!).
ACR: exposure, contrast, clarity, vibrance, sharpness, NR, curves.
CS5: burned BG, USM, auto contrast and extra USM on the eye.
The busy background does compete for the eye and forces it to wander, it looks interesting but the image almost has two subjects. When ever is see ISO 100, I thing about the loss of exposure flexibility remember a pro will set his exposure range before taking a picture. For example, I worked with two pros last year both well published and use ISO 400 the majority of the time on occasion 200 with great light (Canon guys). This gives more exposure flexibility that an ISO of 100. As you know, when you double the ISO a stop of light is gained which means you could have dialed up a smaller aperture or faster shutter speed by using 400 ISO and the Nikon can handle higher ranges that Canon. Nice job focusing on the eye and head area, in bird photography a well lit and sharp goes a long way. What direction was the light ideally from the photographers back - having a flash handy can help in situations like this as well providing some fill and reducing shadow. Of course, great shots can occur with different light angles as well. This is an interesting species, one that I do not often see thank you for posting and keep em coming.
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 04-14-2012 at 09:50 PM.
Thanks Jeff! This was a bit of a goofy action. I completely forgot to change my settings from some previous macro shots, otherwise I would certainly have boosted the ISO. The result was a point-and-shoot action. After I reviewed the first shots, I saw my settings were off, but then the bird was gone.
Another Scaled quail
