BIF

[single_track]

Pretty tight crops with my 40d, 70-200 and 1.5x tele. How is the sharpness and IQ?

[tonydee]

Pretty tight crops with my 40d, 70-200 and 1.5x tele. How is the sharpness and IQ?

Nobody's going to know without 100% crops.

#1 is badly over-exposed. ISO 500 actually uses ISO 800 electronically - I'd have stuck to 400 to improve IQ. Top couple percent needs to be cropped, as it attracts the eye and draws the eye up and out of frame.

#2 is at ISO 1600 - one can imagine that the IQ may be an issue in the full sized image or a 100% crop, but perhaps not if you've exposed to the right and reduced in post.

Cheers, Tony

[single_track]

Thanks for input. I went with a higher ISO to better freeze motion. I should have gone slower.

In post, I increased exposure to try to correctly expose the bird, knowing the water would blow out. The extreme dynamic range when looking into the sun like this is very tough to cover. I will pull it back it.

I am probably not exposing to the right enough, again, right or wrong, in an attempt to best freeze motion.

I have a ton to learn, and a ton more practice needced. Thanks for your help.

[single_track]

Good point on the top percent crop too. I see that clearly now.

[tonydee]

I went with a higher ISO to better freeze motion. I should have gone slower.

Well, I only suggested slower because it looks like you'd been very successful in freezing it. Many compromises required for these shots, and a touch of motion at wing tip is probably going to look quite nice still, so getting less noise is worth considering (though not necessarily the best bet).

In post, I increased exposure to try to correctly expose the bird, knowing the water would blow out. The extreme dynamic range when looking into the sun like this is very tough to cover. I will pull it back it.[quote]

That's good news... means much or all of the water may not have been blown out to begin with. To do your work justice, you should learn to change exposure selectively. Exactly what you can do depends a lot on your software, but the simplest approaches supported by many packages are to "dodge" (brighten) with a feather-edged brush, or make a feather-edged selection and brighten inside it.

[quote=single_track;8033946]I am probably not exposing to the right enough, again, right or wrong, in an attempt to best freeze motion.

Hard to find time to check the histogram when a bird's winging it past you. No worries. And, as you say, shutter speed is a credible reason not to expose to the right anyway. Needs a bit of trial and error to see exactly what shutter speed's enough but not wasteful, based on distances, focal lengths, speed of flight and angle relative to line of sight etc.. You're clearly doing well.

Cheers, Tony