Posted by Paula Graham on December 13, 2007 at 6:29 AM
Another one from little bird set-up.
Very difficult to get clear, crisp shots...I presume even at prefocused manual focus and f/11 the lens does not have much dof? Or may be the shutter speed is too low?
So I hope the shot looks a bit 'arty'!
Posted by Rob Howard on December 13, 2007 at 7:53 AM
Hi Paula,
Nice idea, I like the movement in the wings. The whole image looks dark to me. (probably the BG) Try and re process it.
Regards
Rob
Posted by John Varley on December 13, 2007 at 8:05 AM
Hi Paula, this is very interesting but it doesn't really work for me. Using available light and the gear you are using I think this will be extremely difficult to do really well. Doing it well with one bird is hard enough but with three - wow. As I see it the problems are DOF and shutter speed.
There was a guy on the main bird forum who did some fantastic shots of this sort a couple of years back but I cann't remember his name. All his shots were with 50mm or wider and some fill flash.Lots of sky in his pics as the birds came into land on the board feeder. Camera very close to the subject obviously using a remote lead and prefocussing. That was his trick and a very very effective one. I'm sure he still had to take loads of shots to get really good ones.
Since DOF depends soley on image magnification and aperture, if you get the subject very close then you have less magnification and greater DOF available (think he was using F5.6-F11) or more shutter speed.
Reckon you will just need a 20-30 ft remote trigger lead. Expect there are long remote leads for the D2X.
Hope this is of some help. Have fun
Posted by Dave Courtenay on December 13, 2007 at 10:04 AM
Looks like the Goldies are chasing off the Greeny-normally the other way around-agree with both comments above-nearly but not quite
Dave
Posted by eric weight on December 13, 2007 at 2:09 PM
I hope you stick with this project for a while. We don't see enough pictures of small songbirds doing anything much. I know there are good reasons for that, but when you succeed, then your pictures will surely stand out from the crowd. 75% there with this one to my mind.
Discussion
4 repliesVery difficult to get clear, crisp shots...I presume even at prefocused manual focus and f/11 the lens does not have much dof? Or may be the shutter speed is too low?
So I hope the shot looks a bit 'arty'!
D2x, 200-400, manual metering 1/400, f/11, Iso 400, Tripod.
Raw, PS CS3.
Nice idea, I like the movement in the wings. The whole image looks dark to me. (probably the BG) Try and re process it.
Regards
Rob
There was a guy on the main bird forum who did some fantastic shots of this sort a couple of years back but I cann't remember his name. All his shots were with 50mm or wider and some fill flash.Lots of sky in his pics as the birds came into land on the board feeder. Camera very close to the subject obviously using a remote lead and prefocussing. That was his trick and a very very effective one. I'm sure he still had to take loads of shots to get really good ones.
Since DOF depends soley on image magnification and aperture, if you get the subject very close then you have less magnification and greater DOF available (think he was using F5.6-F11) or more shutter speed.
Reckon you will just need a 20-30 ft remote trigger lead. Expect there are long remote leads for the D2X.
Hope this is of some help. Have fun
Dave