Ruddy Turnstone

Would love some feedback from you guys on this photo of a Turnstone, your critique would be appreciated as its the only way i can move forward.

I used a Canon 30D / + 100-400 IS L
AP Priority.
ISO 400
Totally wrong F stop as i cant help getting exited trying to get a shot and keep forgetting to check everything.

Regards brian.

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Looks fine to me .

The bird is focused perfectly. Great DOF. Nice shot.

Thanks guys for taking the time to reply, i wonder if you feel its a bit dark. I liked the background ,it was a trawler, I am fairly pleased with it, but plenty went into the bin for this one shot.

Hi Brian,

no mate, not too dark on my monitor.

Are you shooting jpeg straight from the camera? If so, what settings/picture styles are you using?

Try setting your contrast to its lowest setting (some people actually dial in -ve contrast).

Was this wide open? What shutter speed did you get?

(You can tell I'm missing being able to see the EXIF, can't you? )

It's not dark, but I think a smaller f/stop number would blur the background more, but at the cost of DOF on the bird.

You have some nice, interesting background. Blue/cyan opposes good with a bird and it's legs. That dark horizontal stripe over birds head is a little distractive. The situation itself was extremely difficult. Harsh light from the right side falling on white and dark part of the bird in shadow. I am wondering if you did this in RAW. That could eventually help by adding some information in highlights.

Thanks for the input everyone. Keith Exif as follows,
Tv-1/125
Fl = 340
AV-29.9 big mistake this just did not notice it Doh!
Exp comp -2/3 another mistake as i had been shooting gulls before this
WB auto never know what to do with this.

Canonloader i would have liked to blur the background a bit more, but as you see i made a basic error with the F stop setting.

Begovics yes i see what you mean about the dark stripe, might try cropping as it does give a bit of a frame to the bird. Yes i shoot in raw ,but im not sure what you mean about adding info in highlights.

Again thanks guys, i have already learned a lot from this forum thanks to helpful people like yourselves.

regards brian.

Nice shot Brian - nothing wrong with the bird at all. I like the colour of the background but, for me, there is just a bit too much of it. Just by scrolling down and using the top of my screen to "crop" the background to the horizontal dark line retains the interest in the background colour but puts more emphasis on the bird. But, since we are talking aesthetics, no two people are going to agree on that.

Colin

cannylad wrote in post #2537512
Begovics yes i see what you mean about the dark stripe, might try cropping as it does give a bit of a frame to the bird. Yes i shoot in raw ,but im not sure what you mean about adding info in highlights.

Sorry for not being very clear . In RAW processing, depending on the whole picture dynamic, if you have settings on auto, it is possible that software adds more contrast or over-exposure the image. Then usually highlights become blown-out, or darks too dark. Then you loose information (texture, detail). If you back up on your highlights and/or shadows, it very often gives you a chance to work with it in the photoshop and bring some informations (texture,detail) back-save the image.

Brian, here's something to try that works wonders for me. You've got the 30D, so set the power switch to the line, the second On position. Set to Av, Aperture Priority. Shoot in RAW. Set ISO to 100, to start with. Now, when you look through the view finder and press half way, the EV mark is centered, and the left number is shutter speed. You want this up as high as possible, over 1/1500 if you can manage with that ISO. If you can't get close to that, turn ISO up till you can. Sometimes you just can't though.

Now, take a picture. View it on the back, by pushing the 4th button, then the Info button twice. This gives you the histogram. You want the big spike to be to the right of half way but not all the way to the right. From center to the right side of the histogram is fully 1/2 of all the data the camera is capable of collecting. From the midtones to the highlights. When there is a lot of nothing to the right side, you have just taken a picture that is missing half the possible data you are capable of getting. More on that in a bit.

So the bump is probably in the center for this pic. Now, get ready to take another one. focus by pressing the button half way. Look at the bottom 'right' in the finder and with your right thumb, turn the back wheel so you see the EV mark move to the right by one stop. Take the picture and view it in histogram on the back. Now the bump should have moved further to the right. There should be no blinking areas in the image. Take another one and turn the back wheel so the mark moves one more to the right and check it again.

When you edit these in RAW editer, you now have most of the data in the file that the camera is capable of getting, and you can then adjust with the sliders to tweak the picture the way you want, but now, you should be doing a lot less of that than before. By shooting to the right, at least you have the data, where before, when the histogram spike was in the middle or to the left, half or more of the possible data was just not captured, and if it's not there, no program can put it back.

It's a nice shot Brian. The bird is well in focus, but as has already been said, it's not an easy subject with the bird going from black to white and in full sun.

You might try 'playing' with shadows and highlights in photoshop, or 'do your own thing' by playing with curves, again in photoshop. But the more you can do while it's still in RAW the better, RAW gives you 12 bits worth of dynamic range, but jpeg only 8.

I also agree with the coments on cropping, that diagonal blue above the horizontal bar is rather distracting.

Keep on posting.

Mitch never sleeps.
That was as excpected from you. So much said in few words, and than, very clear and understandable. Very useful information.

LOL, oh, I sleep. Last night I dreamed of histograms.

Thanks guys this response only shows how much i have to learn, i am by nature a birder who has taken an interest in taking pictures.
As time has gone by i have become interested in butterflies, plants, and insects, and photography has become the means by which i would like to record my finds.

I am eternally grateful that you all take the time to explain things to me, but it is such a broad church that i feel out of place among such great photography and i hope i will justify your helpful comments.

Went out today full of hope but gale force winds put paid to my best intentions such is the life of a budding photographer.

thanks guys brian.