Posted by Nick Railton on April 6, 2007 at 4:05 PM
Was a lovely sunny day to great for taking pics of the birds in the garden, as light was so good I thought I would try my 2.0x Extender attached to my Canon 30D + 70-200 f/2.8IS, not much softness IMO, only a little sharpening on final cropped image.
Canon 30D, 70-200mm f/2.8IS, 2.0x II Extender
1/320th
f/9
ISO400
Large Crop
Cropped and sharpened in PS CS2
I've used a similar setup (but the nikon equivalent) and the 2x converter can definitely give good sharp results as you've shown here. I like the perch too - it's more natural than some of the 'too perfect' ones you see a lot here. My main worry with this shot is the noise which is quite obvious in the background - I think you could probably have got away with a lower ISO and shutterspeed with and IS lens, particularly if you used a tripod. you could also sharpen selectively so you don't amplify the noise in the background.
I think that Graham's right about the selective sharpening (the finch looks great - the background needs to be toned down; if this isn't from over-sharpening then a touch of gaussian blur on the background may help). In another post there was a question about catch-lights in the eye; I think that this is one of those situations where boosting the catchlight will help compensate for the lighting from the left. Nevertheless, these are minor quibbles - it's a great shot!
I do believe in this instance the 'nice' light hasn't been your friend, it is much too harsh for this type of bird, ideally slightly softer light coming from behind you.... the pose is good.
The 30D should be quite clean noise wise at ISO400....
Discussion
3 repliesCanon 30D, 70-200mm f/2.8IS, 2.0x II Extender
1/320th
f/9
ISO400
Large Crop
Cropped and sharpened in PS CS2
I've used a similar setup (but the nikon equivalent) and the 2x converter can definitely give good sharp results as you've shown here. I like the perch too - it's more natural than some of the 'too perfect' ones you see a lot here. My main worry with this shot is the noise which is quite obvious in the background - I think you could probably have got away with a lower ISO and shutterspeed with and IS lens, particularly if you used a tripod. you could also sharpen selectively so you don't amplify the noise in the background.
Graham
I think that Graham's right about the selective sharpening (the finch looks great - the background needs to be toned down; if this isn't from over-sharpening then a touch of gaussian blur on the background may help). In another post there was a question about catch-lights in the eye; I think that this is one of those situations where boosting the catchlight will help compensate for the lighting from the left. Nevertheless, these are minor quibbles - it's a great shot!
Mark
I do believe in this instance the 'nice' light hasn't been your friend, it is much too harsh for this type of bird, ideally slightly softer light coming from behind you.... the pose is good.
The 30D should be quite clean noise wise at ISO400....