Posted by Kev Bullock on February 27, 2009 at 3:07 PM
At least I think it is...
My book comments on a slightly larger greyer North European visitor, RSPB website seems to call them Mealy Redpolls.
Several of these have now joined my "regular" Redpolls which I believe are Lesser being slightly smaller, more of a brown tint, warmer red head patch and no red on the chest.
The new ones have striking pink chests, slight blusher on the cheeks and a much brighter red head patch.
1DMkII EF300LIS with x1.4 converter and 32mm extension tubes,(preferred to the 500 as I was trying to get more space around the subject - this isn't far from being full frame).
1/160sec f5.6 ISO800
Usual PP in C1Pro resize etc in PS2 plus I think this one had a branch removed for the top right hand corner.
Enjoy
Kev
Posted by Jeroen Stel on February 27, 2009 at 3:15 PM
Beautifull bird wich i have yet to encounter..
Nice clean shot!
Greetings,
Jeroen Stel
Posted by Greg Hitchcock on February 27, 2009 at 3:23 PM
Nice bird, clean, cool light. Perhaps a bit more DoF to bring the feathers on the back of the head into focus? Otherwise no nits.
Greg
Posted by Brian Davis on February 27, 2009 at 5:34 PM
A really nice little portrait, pity that it wasn’t more side on so we could see the chest, now that would have been icing on the cake. Nice one.
Posted by Kev Bullock on February 27, 2009 at 6:54 PM
Thanks for the kind comments,
DoF, there are several aspects to this;
First this is the second time I've tried the 300 and x1.4 combo on these birds at this close a distance and the first time I felt it was front focusing by quite a bit (no keepers), this time I was much more careful but I still think there is slight front focus compared to my 500 (this one was definitely focused on the eye)
Secondly was the light - 2 very dull mornings in succession, this day was better in that I managed to get the ISO down to 800, but for me I'm on the limit with shutter speed at 1/160th the little critters are moving constantly and I was getting plenty of motion blurred shots
I'd already got some bankers at ISO1600 the day before and didn't want to shoot at that again so settled at f5.6 rather than f8.
Final point on the light was these are obviously passing through and I wanted to get some shots before they moved on, because of work commitments I couldn't wait for what probably would have been slightly better conditions, hopefully weather permitting I can resolve that Saturday morning.
Ray - I do have shots showing the nice bright pink chest and it was a tough decision not to show one of those, but I felt the angles of the bird and perch made this a stronger image. I will follow this up with a more colourful shot though
Posted by Magnus Hird on February 28, 2009 at 7:11 PM
Really nice shot Kev, nice and uncluttered
Think you may be right about the lens - the tip of the tail feathers appears sharper than the back of the head despite them being further from the plane of the eye which is where I'd imagine you were focusing. Given that DOF normally extends 1/3 in front and 2/3 behind the plane of focus you would expect the back of the head to remain sharp. In other words its not focusing where you think.
Hopefully someone will correct me if I've got that wrong so it doesn't mislead other people!
Discussion
7 repliesMy book comments on a slightly larger greyer North European visitor, RSPB website seems to call them Mealy Redpolls.
Several of these have now joined my "regular" Redpolls which I believe are Lesser being slightly smaller, more of a brown tint, warmer red head patch and no red on the chest.
The new ones have striking pink chests, slight blusher on the cheeks and a much brighter red head patch.
1DMkII EF300LIS with x1.4 converter and 32mm extension tubes,(preferred to the 500 as I was trying to get more space around the subject - this isn't far from being full frame).
1/160sec f5.6 ISO800
Usual PP in C1Pro resize etc in PS2 plus I think this one had a branch removed for the top right hand corner.
Enjoy
Kev
Nice clean shot!
Greetings,
Jeroen Stel
Greg
Nice shot. I like Redpolls a lot.
I'm with the 'bit more DoF' gang on this as the oof feathers at the top/back of head draw my attention for some reason.
Regards
DoF, there are several aspects to this;
First this is the second time I've tried the 300 and x1.4 combo on these birds at this close a distance and the first time I felt it was front focusing by quite a bit (no keepers), this time I was much more careful but I still think there is slight front focus compared to my 500 (this one was definitely focused on the eye)
Secondly was the light - 2 very dull mornings in succession, this day was better in that I managed to get the ISO down to 800, but for me I'm on the limit with shutter speed at 1/160th the little critters are moving constantly and I was getting plenty of motion blurred shots
I'd already got some bankers at ISO1600 the day before and didn't want to shoot at that again so settled at f5.6 rather than f8.
Final point on the light was these are obviously passing through and I wanted to get some shots before they moved on, because of work commitments I couldn't wait for what probably would have been slightly better conditions, hopefully weather permitting I can resolve that Saturday morning.
Ray - I do have shots showing the nice bright pink chest and it was a tough decision not to show one of those, but I felt the angles of the bird and perch made this a stronger image. I will follow this up with a more colourful shot though
Think you may be right about the lens - the tip of the tail feathers appears sharper than the back of the head despite them being further from the plane of the eye which is where I'd imagine you were focusing. Given that DOF normally extends 1/3 in front and 2/3 behind the plane of focus you would expect the back of the head to remain sharp. In other words its not focusing where you think.
Hopefully someone will correct me if I've got that wrong so it doesn't mislead other people!