What’s Your Preference?

FlyingKiwiGirl · #1 (**permalink**) 05-19-2011, 10:21 AM

This Blue Heron allows me to get very close, he lives with his mate in the park below our house. Here he is feeding on worms that have floated to the top of the flooded park.

Other than being cropped this is SOOC, I had inadvertently left my setting on "Vivid" I actually quite like the vivid colour, how about you? I had the flash fire and it's also taken about 1/2 hr before sunset.

I'm thinking someone is going to tell me to crop some of the left hand side off but I just can't!

I also think the focus is a little soft around the eye(see I'm learning big time now

) but I'm starting to think I have reached my lenses' limits. Any and all comments appreciated.

Exif data
Camera Sony DSLR-A350
Exposure 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture f/9.0
Focal Length 250 mm
ISO Speed 800
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash On, Fired

RichardTaylor · #2 (**permalink**) 05-19-2011, 11:23 AM

I like it.

The grass is a little vivid for my taste - I wonder how it looks slightly desaturated.

The eye could possibly be a little sharper.
Are you shooting RAW and sharpening when PPing?

Re the shutter speed. Do you have image stabilisation on? Shooting at that focal length and 1/125 it would be a good idea especially although it won't help with birds in flight.

Re the lens - just run a few quick test pics (shoot a wooden fence or something with a bit of texture) to see how it looks from wide open to around F11, that will give you an idea of what is usable. If it is a little soft on the edges that not matter all that much.

karen_s · #3 (**permalink**) 05-19-2011, 01:03 PM

That bit of softness might be from camera shake. (It actually looks pretty good to me at this size.) Good rule of thumb is to look at your focal length and set your shutter to the same number ... ie. 250mm: 1/250th, 100mm: 1/100th. From there, see what you can get away with. If you have image stabilization in the lens or body, that will allow you to go slower with the shutter speed. If you have great handholding technique, that will also let you get away with slower speeds. (I am average so I stick with the rule of thumb.) And as Richard Taylor mentioned, aperture matters. Test it like he said in a controlled situation and look at the variations as the aperture changes. You could do the same for focal lengths too.

As for color, a bit saturated for my taste but I still kinda like it. I think for me the grass is just more vibrant than the Heron (not hard since Herons are blueish grey) and kinda takes attention away from your subject. But on the other hand, he also stands out from it since he is in contrast with it. Maybe just an ever so slight desaturation of the greens and yellows would do the trick. And I love the light, beautiful bit of warmness on his front side.

Anyway, on to the crop. It's okay. He's got some space he's looking into which is a plus and I can see your mind is thinking rule of thirds. If it were mine though, I would probably approach the rule a bit differently. I'd go for a vertical crop where the eye is close to the intersection of the upper left third lines. Or, if I had more space to the left, I might just stick with the horizontal and extend out that way to give him more looking space. But I really like the wide screen look and try to make it work for everything

Overall, very nice photo as is.

dlambert · #4 (**permalink**) 05-19-2011, 01:29 PM

I like the photo, and fwiw, I also like leaving a little space in front of the bird. It's usually nice to have a little room in whichever direction the bird (or other animal) is looking to avoid the feeling that it's up against a wall.

If you've got a chance to shoot this bird again, it might be worth trying a larger aperture to blur the background a bit more. You can see that happening to some extent already at f/9, but with a shallower DOF, the bird might pop off the background a bit more. Depending on your lens, you could lose some sharpness at wide-open settings, though, so if you've got a chance to do the experiment Richard suggested, you'll know where your lens works best.

I'm also not sure what was behind the bird as far as scenery, but getting down a little lower would change the "background" so it's not the grass at the bird's feet, but rather whatever is back behind the bird. If the background is physically separate from the bird, you should get a nice bokeh that'll really highlight the heron.

It might also be worth playing with your ISO a bit. I can see a bit of noise in the grass, though the bird actually looks quite good. I'm not sure what your Sony does as far as in-camera noise reduction, but most noise-reduction settings will also cause some loss of detail. It's possible that this is contributing to the lack of sharpness you're seeing. A RAW capture (instead of JPG) would let you see what you're starting with, though you'd also have to do whatever noise reduction you want to do in post-processing. In any event, I'd want to try the same shot at ISO 400 or even 200 to see if you see any difference. Lowering the ISO will require you to either slow the shutter or open the aperture in order to keep the same brightness, and I don't think you really want to go any slower with the shutter, so this would be something to try only if you're comfortable with your lens' performance when opened up a bit.

I can't wait to see more shots of this guy - you've got a great subject!

FlyingKiwiGirl · #5 (**permalink**) 05-19-2011, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichardTaylor

I like it.

The grass is a little vivid for my taste - I wonder how it looks slightly desaturated.

The eye could possibly be a little sharper.
Are you shooting RAW and sharpening when PPing?

Re the shutter speed. Do you have image stabilisation on? Shooting at that focal length and 1/125 it would be a good idea especially although it won't help with birds in flight.

Re the lens - just run a few quick test pics (shoot a wooden fence or something with a bit of texture) to see how it looks from wide open to around F11, that will give you an idea of what is usable. If it is a little soft on the edges that not matter all that much.

Thanks Richard, I have yet to move into RAW mode and the one time I did try I found I didn't have a programme on my computer to upload the photos. I will have do some research as I know I should be heading in this direction. I'm also learning post-processing although not very fast as I'm so enjoying learning about taking the photos I haven't had the time to learn what to do with them afterwards.

And yes image stabilisation is on, I assume that is the "super steady shot" in the Sony.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlambert

I'm also not sure what was behind the bird as far as scenery, but getting down a little lower would change the "background" so it's not the grass at the bird's feet, but rather whatever is back behind the bird. If the background is physically separate from the bird, you should get a nice bokeh that'll really highlight the heron.

It might also be worth playing with your ISO a bit. I can see a bit of noise in the grass, though the bird actually looks quite good. I'm not sure what your Sony does as far as in-camera noise reduction, but most noise-reduction settings will also cause some loss of detail. It's possible that this is contributing to the lack of sharpness you're seeing. A RAW capture (instead of JPG) would let you see what you're starting with, though you'd also have to do whatever noise reduction you want to do in post-processing. In any event, I'd want to try the same shot at ISO 400 or even 200 to see if you see any difference. Lowering the ISO will require you to either slow the shutter or open the aperture in order to keep the same brightness, and I don't think you really want to go any slower with the shutter, so this would be something to try only if you're comfortable with your lens' performance when opened up a bit.

I can't wait to see more shots of this guy - you've got a great subject!

Thankyou dlambert for your detailed comments. Next time I will try to get lower down although going by the water, mud and muck that was on the ground I'm going to have to get dirty doing it. I guess it's welcome to the real world of wildlife photography eh?

I did have fun with the heron, I was with him for over an hour as he waded through the grass and water and up in a tree warming himself in the last of the suns rays and preening. I'll post a couple more photos from the same shoot. I shall be back to practice on him with your aperture suggestions soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by karen

Good rule of thumb is to look at your focal length and set your shutter to the same number ... ie. 250mm: 1/250th, 100mm: 1/100th.

As for color, a bit saturated for my taste but I still kinda like it. I think for me the grass is just more vibrant than the Heron (not hard since Herons are blueish grey) and kinda takes attention away from your subject. But on the other hand, he also stands out from it since he is in contrast with it. Maybe just an ever so slight desaturation of the greens and yellows would do the trick. And I love the light, beautiful bit of warmness on his front side.

Anyway, on to the crop. It's okay. He's got some space he's looking into which is a plus and I can see your mind is thinking rule of thirds. If it were mine though, I would probably approach the rule a bit differently. I'd go for a vertical crop where the eye is close to the intersection of the upper left third lines. Or, if I had more space to the left, I might just stick with the horizontal and extend out that way to give him more looking space. But I really like the wide screen look and try to make it work for everything

Overall, very nice photo as is.

Thank you very much Karen! I need to keep the focal length equation in mind, I remember you told me that on the very first photo I posted when I was learning so much. It will stick this time though!

You certainly can see why it's called a blue heron when you see the shot I posted below.

I do have more space to the left so will have a look at re-cropping. Orginally it was a landscape photo but I thought it had too much grass.

Here are a few other photos;

Exif data
Camera Sony DSLR-A350
Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/6.3
Focal Length 120 mm
ISO Speed 400

Exif data
Camera Sony DSLR-A350
Exposure 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture f/6.3
Focal Length 180 mm
ISO Speed 800

Exif data
Camera Sony DSLR-A350
Exposure 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture f/6.3
Focal Length 160 mm
ISO Speed 800

dlambert · #6 (**permalink**) 05-19-2011, 10:44 PM

I *really* like that second shot! The colors are great (though you can see the "vivid" a bit), and you've got a nice background blur in this shot. Notice how the background is separated from the bird a bit -- this helps create that bokeh. I can still see a little noise in this shot, but there's great detail in the feathers, and the sharpness looks good. Easily my favorite of the set.

Nice job!