We generally don’t get a whole lot of snow on the western slopes of the Pacific Northwest. Olympia got 18 inches this past snowstorm with the record being 24. I’ve lived in Western Washington for 30 years and can only think of three snowstorms total with more than 3 to 6 inches in that time period.
This Spotted Towhee framed itself in a Bay Laurel tree in my front yard.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
This is a busy picture with all the leaves from the Bay Laurel. Can anyone think of any alternative crop to make it more appealing?
Any pertinent technical details:
Iso-640, 200-500 at 200 mm, F8, 1000th, tripod behind a camouflage blind, fill flash, D 500, Adobe camera raw 11.2, Topaz Adjust, TK sharpening action at 10%.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Excellent, David. The fill flash worked brilliantly. What compensation were you using on it?
Sorry for the complicated answer here. I set up an L-shaped blind in front of my front door of the house under the roof overhang. This is 2 8’ x 2’ panels with camouflage material. There is about a 6 inch space between the panels which have overlapping camo material. I poked the lens through the opening between the two panels. I set up an off-camera flash on the tripod about 2 feet away from the camera and 3 feet from where the bird was perched. I used a second on camera flash to trigger the slave unit. I don’t think much light was getting through the blind from the on camera flash. I believe the slave unit which provided the most light was set at -1.
Perfect demo of the value and effectiveness of fill flash! The bird is so spectacular, the only suggestion I can make for simplifying the surroundings is a crop to vertical to eliminate some. The subject is so strong, the remaining leaves won’t be a problem, I think.
BTW- Not for mobile subjects like this, but for fill on static subjects I’m hooked on using a “selfie stick” to mount my strobe. With TTL, it’s infinitely “positionable” within arms reach while sustaining your comp adjustment. And zero tripod gymnastics.
Thanks for the explanation, David. Excellent work.
This is busy, but it works for me because the towhee’s reddish brown feathers contrast so nicely with the green leaves. Perhaps just a touch off the left-hand side might be better framing, say, a 5x7 ratio. I am impressed by your efforts to make such a lovely portrait.
This looks very nice to me. The bird has nice contrast with the “habitat” of ice and green leaves. Nice detail on the bird and exposure on the ice. This is a fine keeper to me as is.
