Fundamentals of Birding

[Phoenix_Jackson]

I was waiting for night while figuring out composition of an ugly bridge when I noticed some birds quite afar. I figured I'd try out birding and see if it's something to add to my list of "to learn more". I find it addicting. But so far, I notice most of the pictures posted about birds are either super close up focusing on details, or very much well composed as if it's almost contrived (for lack of a better word. I mean no offense).

I was eyeing on a "parking" bird when another little fellow happen to swoop nearby. So I tried to take a shot. So far, it's a little difficult combining instant change of settings and framing while manually focusing on a moving bird. So along with the image critique, I am hoping to get some basic beginner tips on birding.

I got to crop this picture to almost 1/4. I currently have a poor lens for such a shot but that doesn't bother me for now. But although this is my favorite amongst the random shots of swooping little birds, I find myself unsatisfied. I just don't know why.

Should I crop this a different way? Should I composite and blur/enhance/desaturate the background? Should I increase contrast of the subject? Should I have used a different setting in the first place?

Thank you for taking time for this.


IMG_0530 by phoenix_jackson2002, on Flickr

Canon EOS 60D
Lens Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS
Exposure 1/800
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 250mm
ISO Speed 1600
Exposure Bias +1/3 EV
Flash No Flash

[Jinks]

I'm at a very similar stage so I can't do much except sympathise with your problems. From the neck back he's perfect with some great colours and detail but your small DOF has caused everything forward of the neck to soften which is a great shame. The high ISO is causing some noise in the background but you don't really need any detail there as it just detracts from the bird so yes it's probably worth doing something with that. Nor, in my humble opinion, do you need as much image below the bird for the same reason. I think I'd try to crop a little higher and get rid of the 'straw' to emphasise the contrast and make the viewer concentrate on the bird and have more in front of him so he's flying into something.

Difficult to say anything about the settings as you need the fast shutter speed to freeze the bird in failing light and I'd have the same issues with f stop and ISO. It's a shame we can't train the things to fly through the focus point when we're ready to take the shot.

That's not much help I know but it's a really nice image and so near to something top class.

[sachin_ss]

Hi Phoenix,

I totally agree with Jinks about the noise, cropping and shutter speed. believe me, the same things came to my mind when I saw this photo. Hope, you could get better the next time!

[crockny]

Manually focusing a flying bird is extremely difficult - so well done! In general its more important to get the head sharp (preferably with a sharp eye). I get my sharpest pictures using autofocus continuous shooting AI Servo and spot metering -- which means the bird is centered and the composition requires cropping ... your 250mm is very limited for birds, as I'm sure you know, although I have gotten some good pictures with my Tamron 18-270 - you just have to be lucky. I'm usually using 1000 ISO even in the sun to get the fastest shutter speed possible - my 7D does pretty well about noise as long as the subject is well exposed ...keep trying and good luck!

[JFSanders]

I worked on this in post a little. First I cropped it. Then ran it through focus magic concentrating on the head. Brought it into NX2 and set the grey point and then ran a high pass filter and here it is. If you prefer I can delete this or if you have questions I will do my best to answer.

Jim

[Phoenix_Jackson]

I'm wondering why my reply hasn't been posted yet when it has been a couple of hours past already (about 12 hours I think). But here's the content:

I was looking at the RAW file and noticed that the center part of the whole image stays bright and the rest of the area shows vignetting as I lower down Exposure Bias. I believe I was using spot metering when I took this picture as the subject is almost at the far right of the whole frame.

When I started cropping, the first thing that came to my mind was "the rule of thirds" and thus, that much coverage of the background. But you are right! I see how your suggested cropping works. It is too bad about the noise as it gets worse the more I try to blur, just to compensate. I'm using GIMP since I got used to it for a long time.

Perhaps it'll be a more suitable weather the next time I visit that ugly bridge (with the sole purpose of taking shots of these winged friends). Maybe by that time, I'll have a tripod and/or a better lens meant for birding. It's a fun and challenging field.

Thank you very much for the input. It honestly helped a lot.

[JFSanders]

Yep, the real trick is to use Focus Magic on the bird before you bring it into GIMP. The program is really worth the 50 dollars they charge. It will work as a stand alone, although it may play as a plugin for GIMP as it does for Photoshop.

Jim