(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Attracted to a feeder, shot from a blind. Only basic tonal adjustments in Lightroom and the feeder removed in PS. Foggy morning light, Canon 5D4, 600mm f/4 + 1.4X, sturdy tripod with Wimberley II head. ISO 2000, f/14, 1/320 sec. Cropped from both sides for composition. I wish the BG was more interesting – it is trees about 200 ft away. I could add some artistic-looking OOF elements.
If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.
Hello, Diane, wonderful image. The birds pose makes the image for me, love the head turn ! The mirrored horizon in the eye makes me think the image is not level, but if so, it does not spoil the fun. A fine image to my taste ! Cheers, Hans
Thanks Hans – I hadn’t noticed that! It’s the sloped treeline and hillside behind me, but I really should fix it. Either rotation or retouching would be easy. (I’ll have that problem with a number of bird shots, I’m afraid.)
Diane, this is a terrific shot of a beautiful bird. The head turn is a nice bonus. The bright color of the bird stands out nicely against the smooth background. The perch is placed nicely in the image, curving from bottom to right. I am inclined to think too, that because the bird has his head tilted up, that it makes the horizon line that is reflected in the eye seem more unlevel. For me, I would be well pleased with this image, just the way it is. That reflection doesn’t bother me in the least. Very nice shot.
Welcome, Diane. A beautiful image of a very beautiful bird. The horizon in the eye doesn’t bother me. Not all horizons are level. Detail and exposure look excellent. The composition feels a bit centered to me. I think you could trim a touch off the right side of the image and add the same amount on the left to get a more dynamic composition. I wouldn’t mess with the background. There’s no reason to add something that isn’t there.
I’m a bit surprised at the f-stop you used. Most of us only go that high when we’re trying to get two or more birds in focus. Since this is a backyard setup (I do a lot of this), you might tweak your perches so they’re as parallel as possible with your focal plane. That will minimize the depth of field you need and allow you to go to higher shutter speeds.
Thanks, Shirley and Dennis! Good idea to decenter the bird a little – I have room to change the crop in the original file. I do try to set the perches to encourage the birds to pose parallel to the sensor but they can have their own ideas. The Orioles are especially twitchy. I can usually shoot a high speed burst and get one tack sharp (and without a blink). DOF is especially limited because I’m right at the MFD of the lens. I can’t always keep the focus sensor on the head so the extra DOF is welcome and it gives a little more interest to the BG. I can go to fairly high ISO without too much noise, but I do like to keep it as low as possible.
Hi Diane
Vary nice looking Oriole, head turn and eye contact are vary nice. As for the ISO 2000, f/14, 1/320 sec. If you drop the ISO to 1000, and go to F8, you should be able to a shutter speed close to 1/600.
Nice work.
Peter
But I’d be sacrificing some DOF, both for the subject and for pulling out a little detail in the BG. Nothing is rigid – I change settings according to the light (all M) – but 1/320 generally gives very sharp results in a burst and ISO 2000 noise is usually quite manageable with this camera. I ETTR as much as possible, which helps, and the newest Topaz DeNoise AI is wonderful.
