White-Crowned Sparrow

Gallery: AvianPosted February 16, 20081,824 views8 comments

This was taken in my backyard this afternoon.

My experiment of the day was moving myself, tripod, and camera into the garage (before I added bird seed to the hanging feeder). I was hoping against hope that the birds would not be aware of me since I was in the garage shooting through an open door. The experiment seemed to work fairly well but next time I'll move the car out of the garage so I have more working room.

Shooting Data:
D200, f/4 500mm lens, Aperture Priority, f/8, 1/800s, ISO 400, Tripod

Post-processing.
I cloned some of the FG debris to cover an OOF area under the bird's tail, and I'll fess up to providing the bird with a new eye. He was in the shade and lacked pupil definition and some sparkle. So I helped ;^)

As I re-look at this image for the nth time, there's one OOF pinkish spot in the UL that I will either tone down or crop; I'm not decided yet.

He's certainly sharper than my first attempts two days ago; I'm shooting at a higher ISO and at a faster speed. It's neat to see sharp talons and a few stray hair sticking out behind his head

Unfortunately not apparent in this web version.

Thanks for looking and leaving your comments and critiques.

Regards,

Carol

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on February 17, 2008 at 12:32 AM

Very nice Carol, I might try to get down a little lower to the ground to get an angle so that he will stand out more against the bg.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Daniel Streifel on February 17, 2008 at 1:09 AM

The detail on this one is great Carol. It seems just a bit bright on my monitor but it could just be me. It does look like the sun was pretty high in the sky by the shadow. With that minor nit said, this is a very fine photo and getting better is why I'm here too.

Registered on October 8, 2006, 77 Posts, 886 Comments

Comment posted by Matt Shellenberg on February 17, 2008 at 4:07 AM

Really nice detail in the sparrow Carol. Looks like you had some really tough lighting conditions which you handled well. My only nit would be that the background seems a bit bright.

Registered on February 6, 2008, 168 Posts, 3118 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on February 17, 2008 at 8:18 AM

Carol

Nice detail on this sparrow, glad you are getting used to your new gear!

It does seem a bit bright on my monitor too, but that is an easy thing to fix.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on February 17, 2008 at 10:26 AM

Nice, sharp sparrow Carol. Looks like you're doing well with the new lens. I agree about the brightness in the background.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Gulash on February 17, 2008 at 11:23 AM

Hi Carol, I like your sparrow. The light on the back is a bit better than on the face area and breast, good comp and detail. Congrats on your entry into the big lens Corp.

Registered on January 28, 2005, 879 Posts, 12098 Comments

Comment posted by Paul Inglis on February 17, 2008 at 1:21 PM

Hi Carol,

Lovely shot! and cracking detail! Looks a little bright over here too! (nothing to worry about though - easy to turn it down).

Nice DOF and sharp too! - Nice one!

Registered on October 23, 2007, 26 Posts, 2832 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on February 17, 2008 at 6:29 PM

One way to improve the lighting in this situation in the future, would be to use fill flash to light up the bird and dial in a little bit of negative exposure compensation to darken the bg.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments