Second attempt at birds: So, thank you all again for your advice on bird photography a few days ago. I went out this morning and tried again. Unfortunately, the rookery I went to was...

Ben's nana Loc: Chesterland, Ohio

So, thank you all again for your advice on bird photography a few days ago. I went out this morning and tried again. Unfortunately, the rookery I went to was roadside and surrounded by fencing, so I still had to crop quite a bit. Most of the pictures were of a mating pair that I had clear shot of. I "attempted" to take some herons in flight and I got about 2 pictures out of 20 which were ok. My sky was still pretty white in spite of my focusing on the bird. I shot mostly at 480-600mm, ISO 250, f 6.3. and had to lighten up some in PS. The light meter on my camera read "0" Is my not getting a more blurred backround due to the distance, and would using a teleconverter help? Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance

Fran

(Download)

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Very appealing series! The type of tree (some sort of nut?) adds interest.

The distance between subject and its background does affect the depth of field. As you can see, some of the more distant elements (such as in #2) are more out of focus than ones closer to the birds.

A handy site:

http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

(I have never used a teleconverter, so will leave that question for someone else)

Would you elaborate on what you meant in your comment, "My sky was still pretty white in spite of my focusing on the bird" so that we can discuss exposure further? Thanks!

Carolina Wings Loc: Flew from North Carolina to Pennsylvania

Ben's nana wrote:

So, thank you all again for your advice on bird ph... (show quote)

Great job and great series Fran!

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

I assume you meant you used spot metering. Looks to me like you have improved, already. To get good background blur you first need a background. These shots mostly have the sky for a background. I like your attempts, though.

Ben's nana Loc: Chesterland, Ohio

Linda From Maine wrote:

Very appealing series! The type of tree (some sort... (show quote)

I did use spot metering on the bird, I guess there wasn't much going on in the sky in regards to contrast. My issue was that even though I focused my light meter on the bird and it read "0" i still had to lighten it in PS.

Fran

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Ben's nana wrote:

I did use spot metering on the bird, I guess there wasn't much going on in the sky in regards to contrast. My issue was that even though I focused my light meter on the bird and it read "0" i still had to lighten it in PS.

Fran

You mentioned that that you had to crop significantly, so perhaps the distance worked against your getting an accurate spot metering reading.

Regarding color of sky: unless it was very dark blue, you are likely to end up with whiter like shown here because of the relative darker color of the birds. If you shoot in raw and are learning processing, you can probably glean a bit more color from the sky, especially since you indicate the shots are slightly under-exposed. Personally, I think the light sky here is an eye-catching contrast to the subjects and that cool tree

tinplater Loc: Scottsdale, AZ

You may want to try and intentionally overexpose by a bit to get the detail of dark birds, then in post use a gradient filter to darken the over exposed background.

northsidejoe Loc: pittsburgh

Ben's nana wrote:

So, thank you all again for your advice on bird ph... (show quote)

Very nice photos thank you for sharing. Are you shooting in raw to bring back the highlights? Saying hello from Pittsburgh.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Progress already!!!!

Your framing and composition seems to be generally good.
Focus is improving a lot.
A bit dark and that hides a lot of feather detail. Try the spot exposure along with the center point AF. Then the exposure and focus are both on the subject.
Next step is working on the Post Processing. We have some PP experts on the UHH.

old man 88 Loc: Palmview, TX when not on road

Nice group of shots.

Look like you are focus on bird body instead of his eye.
Focus on his eye will give you better clear shots.

Ben's nana Loc: Chesterland, Ohio

Linda From Maine wrote:

You mentioned that that you had to crop significan... (show quote)

Thanks Linda

Ben's nana Loc: Chesterland, Ohio

tinplater wrote:

You may want to try and intentionally overexpose by a bit to get the detail of dark birds, then in post use a gradient filter to darken the over exposed background.

I have very basic knowlege of PS. I am taking a 10 week course starting in mid-April, so I hope to have a better understanding of that. Would a light ND filter or polarizer have helped?

Fran

Digital1022 Loc: Holland, PA

Ben's nana wrote:

So, thank you all again for your advice on bird ph... (show quote)

Your focus appears to pretty much spot on. I downloaded the image and zoomed in and the bird was pretty sharp. One suggestion that goes with what Linda said about depth of field especially with a long lens; try closing down the aperture to say f16 or so. That should bring the rest of the tree behind the nest into sharp focus. Depending on light, you may need to adjust your ISO a bit. Doesn't look like you had too much to work with in the sky that day. A trick someone taught me is to take the highlights down all the way and bring the shadows up all the way and start to work from there. If there is any detail in the sky, it should start to appear. Nothing worse than a day with a pure grey or blue sky with no contrasting clouds. Last suggestion; get Lightroom to do your post processing. I have both lightroom and PS and the process is much easier in Lightroom. Unless you are an absolute expert in PS, try lightroom. I think you will see a difference in your processing of images.

Keep on keeping on with your shooting. It's how all of us improve.

Digital1022

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

Ben's nana wrote:

I did use spot metering on the bird, I guess there wasn't much going on in the sky in regards to contrast. My issue was that even though I focused my light meter on the bird and it read "0" i still had to lighten it in PS.

Fran

Good job overall! Concentrate on focusing on the eye of the bird whenever possible.
The light meter is probably reading too much of the sky.
When shooting against the sky I add ~+2 EV or use live view to see how much EV is needed to get the correct exposure on the bird.

I assume you are using one on the 150-600mm F5.6-6.3 lenses.
If that is the case you would probably lose autofocus with a teleconverter.
Most cameras require F8 or greater (f6.3 etc) for autofocus to work.

Ben's nana Loc: Chesterland, Ohio

Thanks John and Rick: great tips. I'm keeping a log of all suggestions... it's the scientist in me!

Fran