The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
It was nice to get this skulker out in the open. I recently attended a lecture by Moose Peterson who was advocating shooting birds at slower speeds, so I’ve been giving it a try. 1/80 might be a bit slow, but I think it worked okay. IS does help.
Specific Feedback
Any thoughts appreciated.
Technical Details
Canon R5; 100-500 with 1.4 TC at 700 mm; 1/80 at f10, +1/3 EV; ISO 800
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
It looks like your slow shutter speed worked, Allen. Most birds hold still now and then, but when I’ve tried this, I’ve noticed that my percentage of “keepers” goes down a bit. Still it’s an interesting exercise. I came at it from reading books by the old photographers who thought 1/10 sec was a fast exposure. They managed to pull it off by very close observation of behavior.
Allen, what a great winter image! Lovely bird and red berries spaced nicely around. In this case, I think the centering works fine- I tend to like square-ish crops more than others here.
Excellent!
Just lovely!! There is very nice detail in the feathers and the lighting is about perfect. The pose is very nice – different enough from the “ideal” to be interesting and still has an excellent view of the head, wings and tail. I love the perch as well – a Hawthorn??
What is the advantage of pushing your luck with the SS?
Oh man I am so jealous. I hear and see these scurrying around the yard and various trails, but have NEVER gotten one to sit still, let along long enough for this SS. Fabulous! I also like the perch a lot with the berries and the soft golden background. You can even see the fine hair-like feathers at the base of her beak. Such a sweet creature. Nicely done.
ETA, now I look again (and who wouldn’t?) I see the top OOF branch is a sort of eye catching band of color and I might see about cropping it and adding canvas that is more uniform. These days it’s so easy to do it might be worth it.
The exposure looks spot on and overall very soothing
Was f10 the widest you could use with that combo ? F8 might have allowed for a faster shutter speed
allowing for just that slight increase in sharpness
Re composition, I would place the bird slightly to the left, giving it some space in the front
Hi Diane, Thanks for commenting. I was just playing around with various shutter speeds and this happened to turn out okay. But, it brings up something I’ve wondered about: in your astrophotography the longer the shutter speed, the more light will fall on the sensor. I suppose at some level this is true for any shutter speed, but does it make much difference at these faster shutter speeds? May well be a Hawthorne; there’s a lot on our property.
Good point, Allen. I’m now guessing (duh!) that Moose was getting at slower SSs allowing lower ISOs and thus lower noise and greater dynamic range. With all the amazing NR tools we have these days, getting the best quality to start with is still the best way to go. And yes, those things do make a difference in our daylight images. The best NR will never be as good as not having the noise in the first place. But faster SSs can allow sharper captures, and so-called “sharpening” still relies on introducing artifacts that are far from perfect.
With astro captures, yes, it’s about two factors: Longer individual exposures (more important the dimmer the object, or if filters are cutting down light) and longer total capture time, for reducing noise so the histogram can be stretched to a degree we never come close to in daytime work, even in the darkest jungles. Even with the cooled sensors of special astro cameras (usually -10 to -20 degrees C) there is noise in the shadows. The flip side is not blowing out stars so much as to lose their varied colors. But the colors reside in the halos – the centers are going to be white.
