I had a floating ISO…and didn’t realize it was up at 12,800! Wowser. Seemed to be all right though on the my new Sony A7R4. That alone is kind of amazing.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
I was debating about the bird’s eye being partially hidden and what to do about it? I opted to let it remain, because these birds do this all time…thinking that they are out of view when their heads are behind leaves. Besides, this would have been a difficult fix for me
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Sony A7R4 handheld…Tamron 150-600mm lens @ 600mm, 1/1000 sec @ f/9.0, ISO 12,800
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dougbluntphotos
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You have a pleasant image with the heron and a nice reflection. It is a bit of a shame that the leaf blocks part of the head. Don’t know if a slightly lower angle to avoid that was possible or not. Not a deal breaker by any stretch.
ISO: When I look at the image enlarged, the noise is pretty evident and not helpful. ISO 12800 is certainly getting up there. Auto-ISO didn’t do you any favors on this image. At 1/1000 and f/9 you had far more shutter speed than needed and f/9 was also more than needed. Even 1/500 @ f/6.3 would have provided 2 full stops of ISO reduction (if the camera would have done that in Auto-ISO) and brought it down to ISO 3200 for a far cleaner image.
I am not an Auto-ISO fan. I know folks use it, and good for them if they like it. It tends to create far too many of these unwelcome surprises when the camera decides to alter the ISO.
Hello, Doug, nice framing of the bird, however I agree with Keith on the leaf obscuring the head partly. I have auto-ISO on all the time, but one has to carefully keep an eye on it when out shooting … Cheers, Hans
A pleasant image, Doug. The leaf in front of the head doesn’t really bother me. I don’t use auto iso, but I know a lot of folks who swear by it. I’d be interested in knowing what noise reduction you did on the image, as the noise at 12,800 in the largest image looks manageable to me if you didn’t apply noise reduction to it. If you already did, then that’s probably more than I’d be really comfortable with, though it worked nicely for web presentation.
The rhododendron leaves really set the bird off nicely.
I’m rather new to bird shooting (landscape guy) … so I appreciate these insights on auto-ISO. I’m used to everything manual in landscapes…but birds are usually not staying still very long. I was handholding at 600mm…so I pushed up the SS. Maybe I’ll get better at handholding. Thanks for all the input!
