All comments welcome, thanks in advance.
Canon EOS 700D
EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
1/160th, f/13, ISO 800, 400mm, flash
Thanks for looking!
Jim
Louisville, KY
You caught a cool beak position, Jim, and the feather detail is excellent. The image has on obviously “flashed” look that most of us try to avoid when using flash. If you’re using flash as your main source of light, it usually takes multiple flash units that are carefully balanced to make it look realistic. With a single flash, it’s best to use it as “fill flash” with roughly a negative two to three stops of compensation on the flash. That livens up the subject, but it doesn’t darken the background and create the “deer in the headlights” look to the image. I don’t know about your camera model, but my 7DII came with just a basic abbreviated manual. I went to Canon’s website and downloaded their full manual for the camera and it had a very good discussion of how best to use the on-camera flash and even off-camera flashes. Glenn Bartley, who used to post on the old NPN years ago has a nice ebook called Flash Simplified that I’ve also found to be helpful.
I was thinking that might stand out. I’m still learning everyday and all suggestions are helpful. Yeah I need to do some further study and you’ve given me some good information on where to look. And goes without saying I appreciate your suggestions and thank you for taking the time Dennis.
Hi,
Set up your camera’s meter to read out a good midtone exposure and then set your flash to -2.7-3ev. You also need to move the flash to an off camera position which will get rid of the eyeshine. You just want a small catchlight in the eye and you also want to see some shadowing on the lower parts of the bird. It takes practice and once you figure it out, you will see a dramatic improvement in your shots…………………Jim
Thanks Jim, I appreciate your suggestions! Good advice!
Jim
Thanks for posting this, Jim, because, I, too, have no idea about flash setup. So, I am learning here!
If there is anything, I think what’s worth looking into is the splotchy background in the image. I am not sure what’s causing that. Is this from a big crop perhaps?