Swan Landscape: I didn't get close enough to get a good detail shot. Critique Please Canon 6D Sigma 150-500@403 ISO 800 F6.3 1/500 second exposure...

Nightski

I didn't get close enough to get a good detail shot.

Critique Please
Canon 6D
Sigma 150-500@403
ISO 800
F6.3
1/500 second exposure

Taking Off

(Download)

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Nightski wrote:

I didn't get close enough to get a good detail shot.

Critique Please
Canon 6D
Sigma 150-500@403
ISO 800
F6.3
1/500 second exposure

That is sooooo close to being perfect. If the swans had just been a little more spread out and perhaps clear of the grass stalks, it would have been an ideal capture. The DOF seems to be just enough to include both banks of the river/lake, which looks just right.

Graham Smith Loc: Cambridgeshire UK

Nightski wrote:

I didn't get close enough to get a good detail shot.

Critique Please
Canon 6D
Sigma 150-500@403
ISO 800
F6.3
1/500 second exposure

A few seconds later on the trigger would have lifted the shot enormously.

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

Nightski wrote:

I didn't get close enough to get a good detail shot.

Critique Please
Canon 6D
Sigma 150-500@403
ISO 800
F6.3
1/500 second exposure

I like the scene and its general,composition. It would be a perfect reference image for a painter or a pastel artist, but, as you acknowledge, it is short on detail.
I have absolutely no doubt that you'll be posting a similar, but detail-rich version in the furure.

Dave

Nightski

R.G. wrote:

That is sooooo close to being perfect.

That's exactly what I thought as I walked away. I do wish I had been able to up my shutter speed too. As it was though, the noise was hard to deal with. Sometimes it seems like if you are closer and get more detail, then the noise doesn't take the IQ down so much.

Graham Smith wrote:

A few seconds later on the trigger would have lifted the shot enormously.

I do have a few of those, but they turned away from me and I have a bunch of Swan butts. :shock:

Uuglypher wrote:

I like the scene and its general,composition. It would be a perfect reference image for a painter or a pastel artist, but, as you acknowledge, it is short on detail.
I have absolutely no doubt that you'll be posting a similar, but detail-rich version in the furure.

Dave

I'm going back today. An hour before sunset. I'm going to lay down in that grass and hope I can catch them flying in.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Nightski wrote:

I'm going back today. An hour before sunset. I'm going to lay down in that grass and hope I can catch them flying in.

Beautiful swans but not enough detail. You'll need a faster shutter. The shot is plenty bright and even lacks detail in the whites so it looks like you had at least a little room to go faster. You have to get detail or noise is irrelevant anyway. It seems like I'm always making these devil's deals. I sometimes get more from a shot that's captured too dark and brightened than a shot with an elevated ISO. I kind of know which ones will work with what compromises. If noise is in the compromise then you can work with noise reduction in post.

I'm jealous that you have my favorite birds close enough to see regularly! Keep sharing them so I can enjoy them from a distance.

Nightski

minniev wrote:

Beautiful swans but not enough detail. You'll nee... (show quote)

You're right Minnie. I didn't have to up my exposure in post at all. I could have upped that shutter speed. I always set my shutter speed before I step out of the car to sneak up on birds .. as if I can really sneak up on them .. lol .. they knew I was coming. I knew they would fly and I was hoping to get a little closer before they hit the panic button. You should see the shots I have of them breaking the ice as they ran before take-off .. I have ice flying!

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

". You should see the shots I have of them breaking the ice as they ran before take-off .. I have ice flying![/quote]

Now you're talkin'! Let's see 'em!

Dave

photoninja1 Loc: Tampa Florida

Nice effort. Decent composition, although there appears to be camera motion blur. 1/500sec is really the floor shutter speed for the lens you're using I'd try 1/1500 or faster to shoot birds off hand. I know that will push your ISO up, but....

Nightski

photoninja1 wrote:

Nice effort. Decent composition, although there appears to be camera motion blur. 1/500sec is really the floor shutter speed for the lens you're using I'd try 1/1500 or faster to shoot birds off hand. I know that will push your ISO up, but....

Thanks, Photoninjia, but I don't think I have to go quite that fast.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-254241-1.html

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

Nightski wrote:

Thanks, Photoninjia, but I don't think I have to go quite that fast.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-254241-1.html

I wouldn't fully trust your experience with gliding birds to guide you in regards to shutter speeds for birds taking off. It doesn't matter how adept you are at panning it won't help freeze flapping wings. Of course you don't always want to freeze flapping wings and swans don't flap as fast as ducks.

Nightski

mcveed wrote:

I wouldn't fully trust your experience with gliding birds to guide you in regards to shutter speeds for birds taking off. It doesn't matter how adept you are at panning it won't help freeze flapping wings. Of course you don't always want to freeze flapping wings and swans don't flap as fast as ducks.

Thank you for making this distinction, Don. I do need a faster shutter speed, but I just cringed at the thought of 1/1500 because I know that ISO will have to be so much higher. The image quality would suffer to the point that I wouldn't be happy with the result. I know I shot the Green Heron at 3600, but I was within 20 feet of that bird. I had tons of detail, and so the noise didn't degrade the photo nearly as much. Of course if I find them on a sunny morning .. but soon I will have to find them where the water stays open in the winter.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

BIF isn't something that I pursue, but what I have done is look at what other accomplished shooters have done, and I can tell you that I've seen a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec used for close-ups of medium-sized birds in flight, and there was just the suggestion of motion blur at the wingtips - which was actually highly effective, and just how I'd want to capture shots like that.

Nightski

R.G. wrote:

BIF isn't something that I pursue, but what I have done is look at what other accomplished shooters have done, and I can tell you that I've seen a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec used for close-ups of medium-sized birds in flight, and there was just the suggestion of motion blur at the wingtips - which was actually highly effective, and just how I'd want to capture shots like that.

1/1000 and some sunshine! :-) That would be great. I am going to set that shutter speed there next time before I even get out of the car.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Nightski wrote:

1/1000 and some sunshine!......

Yes, that helps too :lol: