I have always been loath to photograph in overcast skies, believing the light to be less than ideal for good photography - especially for the equipment I own. However, I recently read an article on mastering light by wildlife photographer Jared Lloyd, wherein he describes shooting in overcast conditions as ideal for many types of wildlife photography. Today, I was presented the opportunity to practice some of his suggestions. What are your thoughts on the photo quality of this female Downy Woodpecker, shot in very overcast conditions?
Specific Feedback Requested
I especially would like opinions on overall IQ.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon 60D, Canon 70-300 IS USM zoom, f/6.7, ISO 800, 1/1000 sec., processed in Adobe Camera Raw and PSE 2020 for exposure, sharpness and image size. Light AI De-noise applied.
I really like the pose and head turn. Excellent exposure overall but I think the dark plumage just behind the head loses some detail. Noise levels are acceptable. With respect to sharpness, it appears that your point of focus was more on the rear and of the bird rather than the face. The critical area is that around the eye and it is not as sharp as some other areas of plumage. It’s really close but I see some areas that could be better. I’m not familiar enough with your camera to know its limiting factors. It would also be nice to know how much of an enlargement this is which can easily determine where the image quality issues lie. Hopefully that’s helpful to you.
With respect to the overall composition the out of focus diagonal branch on the left side of the frame is distracting as is the almost and focus short branch in the left lower corner. Some very careful cloning could remove these issues.
You are correct about shooting in overcast conditions. Shooting a bird with black and white plumage is quite difficult to get both properly exposed. Overcast light reduces some of the shininess on the dark plumage.
I like your shot, Terry, and this is a nice up close look at the Downy. What is IQ ? Lighting looks fine. Love the good focus detail in the perched branch, but in the larger image some halos are seen on the twigs and the bird itself. Maybe back off on the noise reduction and detail. The feather markings on the bird look a little too smooth.
Personally, I’m a great fan of overcast conditions as long as I don’t have a sky background, Terry. However, I got started on wildflowers and they hate being photographed in the sun. I too would like to know what, if anything, the crop was on this image as that would tell us quite a bit. David gave a careful analysis, which looks pretty accurate to me. I am seeing quite a bit of noise on the underside of the throat/breast, but the 60D is not known for it’s ability to handle low light conditions.
A very good look at the woodpecker. Nice pose and a little head turn is perfect. Although overcast it looks like nice light and a reasonable amount of light. I think with the 70/300 IS you could drop the shutter speed at least one stop and have a corresponding drop in ISO to help reduce noise.
Focus looks off the eye a bit. It can be tricky to get the focus point on the eye and keep it there when in bushy areas.
Exposure looks good.
The crop was large - about 80 per cent. The AF point was right behind her eye, at about her “shoulder” area. @Stephen_Stanton, IQ=Image Quality. @Dennis_Plank Under the birds’ throat is where I, too saw the most troublesome image quality.
Overcast light is fine for many subjects. For this subject I don’t think the overcast light hurt you at all. Helps with the extreme contrast of the black / white in the woodpecker.
I think you are spending far too much time obsessing over noise. This image was at ISO 800. At that setting, I’d never even consider looking into the noise issue. I’m always interested to see how much people are worried about it when in fact the most important part of the image is the story. Have you ever looked at a really great image with a great story at the viewing distance the image was intended for and then said,… boy, it if only had less noise. I doubt it.
Sure you can zoom way in on this image and find some artifacts, but it isn’t the noise that’s hurting you, it’s the focal length that is causing you to have to crop 80% of the image away. Bird photography is a genre that requires longer lenses. At 300mm even on your 60D, your effective field of view is 480. Great for big birds that are close, but for smaller birds, it just isn’t going to be long enough the vast majority of the time.
Big lenses are expensive. I get it. There are some less expensive alternatives from 3rd party manufacturers like the popular 150-600 lenses, or now Canon’s 600mm and 800mm f/11 lenses (I don’t get those at all… at f/11 for my needs they would be nearly useless).
My suggestion… stop spending time worrying about pixel peeping to find the noise and figure out how to get closer to the subject, if you’re really into Avian, save for a longer lens but save until you can get one that is appropriate for your desires / needs.
Yeah, I understand that longer, more expensive lenses and better equipment solves many issues. But what I’m really interested in is, am I getting the best out of the equipment I have? Do I understand all the technical issues that go into making a good photograph? Do I know and understand processing the photo once I have it. If so, and it’s simply a matter of large cropping , that’s a simple fix.
