Goldfinch+Original

Gallery: AvianPosted August 22, 2010135 views10 comments

American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis)

There are so many of these pretty little fellows around here these days. They just love the thistle seed. However, for some reason I haven’t had much luck obtaining a reasonable image in good light. This photo was taken on a cloudy day with the help of a flash. However, it’s the goldfinch image of mine that I like the best so far this year. I think it’s the colors and that I find particularly attractive.

Since this is a hand held shot I needed a fast shutter speed. However, this meant using high-speed synch (FP flash) and a fairly high iso because this little fellow would not let me approach very close. The noise reduction program used here is Topax Denoise 5.

All comments very welcome as usual.

7D, 400mm f/5.6, 580 EXII: ISO 800, 1/500 s, f/7.1, 3.9 MP, NR, fill flash, exposure adjustment, flash catch light removed, sharpening).

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Gary Yeoh on August 22, 2010 at 11:06 PM

Lovely color on this goldfinch. Nice pose and also colorful perch and clean bg.

Registered on September 1, 2009, 588 Posts, 8184 Comments

Comment posted by Darren Colello on August 23, 2010 at 1:04 PM

Amazing setting! Very vibrant colours, great work Steve.

Registered on July 27, 2009, 175 Posts, 1100 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on August 23, 2010 at 5:40 PM

Steve, I too like the colors. In the larger version, the bird's head area looks a bit soft and noise is evident. This is most like due to the large crop as 3.9 MP is only 22% of the original image. I try hard to keep my images over 50% of the original frame, as the detail and image quality really shine in smaller crops.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on August 23, 2010 at 9:21 PM

Thank you for your comments, everyone. I especially like that you all also enjoyed the colors in this image. Ron, your comment about a "large crop effect" really opens the question as to the effect of crop size. It's an important question. In recent weeks I've been purposefully pushing the traditional limit of 50% with smaller percentages. I've just now posted a topic on the Digital Imaging forum giving my reasoning. It will be interesting to see if others have been thinking about this too.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on August 24, 2010 at 12:28 AM

Nice feeding pose and I like the colors here Steve. I'm curious if you dialed in any negative compensation on the flash as it looks a little strong to me here.

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

Comment posted by Steve Balke on August 24, 2010 at 2:14 PM

Thank you very much for your comment, Nate. Regarding your question, I did not dial in any flash compensation. However, the original is darker than this post; I increased the exposure in post-processing (Lightroom 3 and Viveza 2).

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on August 24, 2010 at 4:24 PM

What metering mode were you using for your camera exposure and did you dial in any positive or negative adjustments to it?

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

Comment posted by Steve Balke on August 24, 2010 at 10:05 PM

I used spot metering, manual mode (therefore no adjustments). Here is the original image, Nate. You can see that, as I stated earlier, I had to remove the catchlight caused by the flash. Upon magnification I could see a faint "genuine" catchlight present and I increased its exposure to show the catchlight in the posted image. If you require any further info on this image I would be happy to supply it. Wow, this image sure aroused your curiosity about exposure! Any further comment

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on August 25, 2010 at 11:29 AM

Thanks for posting the original Steve, I agree it's a bit underexposed. What you have done is really use flash as more of a main light here than fill because you didn't have enough ambient exposure. However because you are handholding and already at a fairly high iso it's kind of a catch 22. If you add more light to your ambient exposure and use less flash you will be at an even higher iso or lower shutter speed. So you may have done about as well as you could have with the situation. In the future if you have the available light, I always try to dial in at least -1.0 on the flash if using it in daylight. This usually avoids an overflashed look.

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

Comment posted by Steve Balke on August 25, 2010 at 1:21 PM

Thank you, Nate. Despite the multiple shots obtainable from high speed continuous shooting and the power of post-processing, I do recognize that defining the right ballpark using camera settings is important. Flash and exposure compensation are two settings that I need to pay more attention to.......in addition to all the other settings...and software.....and, of course, those flighty little birds

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments