Bird photo 1.0

[SMcG]

Hi everyone, my name is Sandra McGowen and I am from Houston, TX. I am interested in building my photography skills and enjoying the outdoors so a few months ago I purchased a 400mm lens for my 60D camera and I have been trying to figure out how to use it. Years ago I took some photography classes in college but it was with a film camera and was pretty much just general photography instruction mostly centered around people photography.

Shortly after getting my 400mm lens I visited Brazos Bend park which was recommended by several of my outdoorsy friends and during my first trip to the park I ran into two photographers who recommended that I check out a web site called Texas Photo Forum. I looked up the site on google recently and found that the name had changed but hesitated to sign up for quite some time because I felt intimidated by so many skilled photographers. After spending some time with the camera manual and on various web sites I think I have finally gotten to the point where I have gotten a few presentable photos though I am still struggling with the 400mm lens to get clear photos.


I spent a lot of time watching this bird and probably took 40 photos during the hour or so that I spent with it. I tried to keep my shutter speed at about 1/1000 second or faster since I was not using my tripod and I have found that I usually get blurry pictures if I use slower shutter speeds. I also used the center focus point to make sure that the focus was on the eye of the bird. During my time with the bird I tried to get close to the ground in order to get a less distracting background. I felt very lucky that as I sat watching the bird it actually walked very close to me, at one point getting so close that it almost filled the whole frame.

My camera settings were f/5.6, 1/2000 second, ISO 400 and I used an exposure compensation of -2/3.

I found that I had to use exposure compensation to keep the histogram from flashing due to overexposure on the light areas at the front of the bird.

When going through my photos from the session I tried to choose one with an interesting pose. One of the things that really struck me while watching the bird was that it had a very long beak so I tried to get photos that showed this feature off. When I was choosing my composition and cropping I tried to make the frame long and narrow like the bird’s beak. I also chose to put the bird far to one side of the frame to make the photo more interesting.

I am looking forward to learning from the skilled photographers here and would love to read some constructive criticism of this picture. I am uploading the photo as it came from the camera as well as my edited version in case anyone can offer a better composition than the one I have chosen.

Thanks,

Sandra

[houtex01]

Welcome to the forum Sandra...there are many talented photographers on this forum who are very willing to answer questions and offer advise to help you improve your photography skills...reading your narrative, sounds like you have got a good start at improving your skills...your first photo is very nice...nice feather details and excellent eye and beak focus...nice positioning of the bird in the photo...keep shooting...looking forward to more of your postings...

Ron

[sandboa]

Sandra,

Welcome to the forum.
Clearly you have good gear - the details are sharp. You also did a great job of processing from that original.

My only suggestions for improvement might be that you might want to try to get a little lower to the ground if possible. Having more of an eye level view gives wildlife more "personality". Of course, that might have meant swimming in this case.

I also think you cropped this a bit too tight. I like how you have kept the Green Heron looking into the frame, but I think a bit more space on all sides might look a bit less crowded and give it more space to look into.

[Jim Victory]

Very nice shot!

I would have to echo Chris' comments about your tight crop. I would have left a little more room at the top and more room to the left to put the subject just off center. These comments are based on your existing photo and the horizontal framing.

When I look at a subject through the viewfinder I decide if a vertical or horizontal framing will best accent the shot. The position of the Green Heron would have given me the idea that a vertical framing may be more appropriate than horizontal.

I have cropped your original vertically to show what I'm talikng about. It would be much better to shoot vertically than crop vertically from a horizontal shot. As a result my example is not what I would like but it is just an example to show you the difference. A properly framed vertical shot would have postion the bird better in the frame than my cropping shot.

[SMcG]

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful comments, they certainly do offer some food for thought.

I agree that the angle could have been lower. I would have liked to have thrown the background even further out of focus but I was a little uncomfortable Getting that close to the water where I could see alligators. I will have to work on figuring out how to get lower in the future as I think it will make a big difference.

I will have to play around with the cropping some more, I wasn’t really confident with the crop I ended up with but I wasn’t coming up with anything better either so I just went with it. I did try backing off a bit on the crop but felt that the bird got a bit lost in the frame but maybe I was wrong about this. What I was going for was to use the more or less parallel lines formed by the beak and the log the bird is standing on to sort of compliment the more or less parallel lines of the legs that I hoped would lead the viewer’s eyes in sort of a circle around the edge of the frame. I was a bit worried about all of the negative space on the right side of the frame. In the end this may just never be a terribly strong image but it is special for me because it was one of the first ones I got that I really thought was sharp.

One of the reasons that I decided against a vertical crop was that I found the dark piece of wood sticking out above the bird to be a bit too distracting. I was also concerned that the framing might be too tight. I wish I would have noticed the stick in the background when I was taking the picture so I could have tried to move over a little so it wouldn’t have been a problem. I guess at the time I was just too excited that the bird was coming so close to me. A zoom lens would have been really nice in this situation.

I did try a few vertical shots but the bird was quite close and I was having trouble getting enough depth of field. I am attaching a shot that was taken at f/8 and the leg and foot that is in back is almost completely out of focus which I thought took away from the photo. I tried a few shots at f/11 and even a few at f/16 but they came out soft because there wasn’t sufficient shutter speed. I didn’t realize this until I got home and looked at the photos on my computer, otherwise I could have tried going up to ISO 800 or more.

Thanks again -S

[ifly223]

Keep up the good work, you are doing better than me. : )

[scottbuckel]

Just a few things in addition to the comments/suggestions by previous posters.

You really do not need to get the entire bird in focus, but one does need to make sure the eye is in focus. The rest of the bird does not necessarily need to be in focus. The examples yo have posted look good in this respect.

Another thing to think about, is the time of day you take the photos. Many of us in the forum, take the majority of out photos in the early hours of daylight. The light quality is good. Evenings can work as well. For me shooting in the extremes of the day allows one to more balance the background and the subject.

I think you already have a handle on this one. Backgrounds, for me at least, make or break a photo. The simpler the background the greater the chance you have to have the subject really pop out at you.

Keep on posting, and if you have questions, definitely post them and ask. If you are having a question about something and have a photo with the issue, posting the photo, can make it easier for us to comment.

Most important suggestion, have fun while shooting!

Scott

[SMcG]

Thanks again for the additional feedback. As has been suggested here I have read on numerous places on line that early morning and late evening are great times for photos and I certainly have found those to be comfortable times for me to be out lately but one of the issues that I have been banging against is that when the light is getting low I seem to be struggling to get clear pictures with my 400mm f5.6 lens unless I crank the iso up quite a bit which makes the pictures look pretty grainy. Hopefully as I improve my technique this will be less of a problem. I thought a tripod would fix this problem and have been working with one but again I think my technique needs improvement.

For the depth of field I did spend a little time checking out a web site called birdphotographers.net and the impression I got there was that many of the users felt that it was best to try to get as much of the bird in focus as possible for bird photographs. Obviously every picture is different and every person has different taste but I would like to try to produce photos that have a wide appeal if possible.

Certainly more good ideas to chew on here, I appreciate the useful input. -S

[lhdvies]

You have a great start here Sandra!! Just shoot a lot & your settings will become second nature to you.
It is fine to try to get shots that will appeal to more people, but for me wildlife photography is a very personal endeavor so don't forget get the shots YOU like!
We all have different taste in various aspects of the photo so just keep experimenting until you get a "style" you want to work on & GO GET'EM!! Looking forward to your posts.
The "technique" will improve continually as long as you are aware of it! The very best shooters anywhere are continually trying to improve in that category.
Good Luck & Good Shooting!!!