I’m pretty sure the chestnut back to Chickadee on the left is a juvenile. I didn’t see any feeding behavior but they did face off.
The light on the purchase rather harsh. This was taken in late morning. Not sure if there’s anything I can do to bring out some more of the detail in the shadowed area on the juvenile.
ISO 800, 200-600 at 600 mm, F8, 2000th, fill flash at -2, 60% of full frame, Sony alpha-1
So nice to get the two of them!! Gorgeous BG and the light isn’t bad for obvious sun. I can sometimes pull out more shadow detail with Nik CEP Detail Extractor. A TK mask might work even better.
I’m not a birder but the one on the left does look different.
At 1/2000 I wonder if you’re getting much fill light. If Sony is like Canon, you’d be in high speed sync where the flash fires a very rapid burst at very low power. I never use it and will have to look up the ss limits. Maybe with a Better Beamer or MagMod you could get enough light?
Not only does the shutter speed make a difference but also your distance from the flash to the subject. I believe there is an exponential relationship with respect to distance. The only way I know that the flash is working at 2000th is that I can see flash light in the eyes of the subject. I can tell the difference between an image where I don’t use the flash and image were I do use the flash based on what I see in the eye. If there is more then one catchlight, it must be the flash. But I could be wrong. Look at the most recent posting in human and fauna gallery where I posted a picture of Bewick’s Wren. I had to remove the two extra catchlight’s from this image so I’m assuming it was the flash. And this perch is about 2 feet closer to the camera.
Yes, a catchlight would be there if you are getting any light at all during the time the shutter is open, but for me, I often have a problem for it really giving a useful amount of fill in daylight. You are quite correct that the light falls off with the square of the distance – i.e., double the distance and the light drops off to 1/4. When at a setup I will try 2 or 3 flashes separated a little and at different powers to try to get some modeling, but it is very frustrating to get it set up right. I use a radio trigger in the hot shoe and a Bolt power supply for 2 of the flashes, to save battery changes. I shoot all manual as ETTL fires a faint burst before the main exposure and that will sometimes startle the subject so you get it jumping when the main exposure occurs. The nice thing about the radio trigger is that you can control the power of each flash independently from the camera. (IF you remember your reading glasses…)
All things considered, soft natural light is hard to beat.
Hi David, great to get both birds in sharp focus. I’m okay with the shadows/light given the conditions but I can’t really add to the flash discussion as I don’t use it like this. Nice background and perch. A pleasing image IMO.
