Downy Woodpecker

Gallery: AvianPosted March 6, 2011107 views5 comments

I am new on this site and I find the photos and the comments very inspiring.

This photo of a male Downy Woodpecker was taken in Hawrelak Park, in Edmonton, Alberta. It was a very cold day. I'm still experimenting with the lens and the camera settings for the birds and I should try running at less than 1250 ISO. And stop down (8 ?) the lens.

The camera is a Canon 7D and the lens a Sigma 150-500.

Exposure: 1/5000 sec, ISO 1250, f 6.3, 500 mm handheld,
Crop: to about 30% of capture
Some post-processing with LR3

I have taken up bird photography this winter and find that much of my photography is now "for the birds".

All comments helping me improve my photos, technically and esthetically, will be much appreciated.

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on March 6, 2011 at 9:48 PM

Welcome to the site.

A nice subject, and I like the directional light and the natural colors in this post. Technically I think it suffers from the severe crop and the rather high ISO used - there are large expanses of white where there is no detail and I suspect one of the steps in post processing was an application of noise reduction that also took out any remaining feather detail.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on March 6, 2011 at 11:06 PM

Hi Roger, welcome to NPN!

Your composition here is good and so is the light. I like the light in the bird's eye and the pose as well. I agree with Rich about the overall lack of fine detail, which is probably a combination of the crop and noise reduction.

I shoot with the 7D, and my personal preference is to keep the ISO at 640 or below. It can go higher, but doing so begins to introduce weaknesses that are magnified by cropping or any in-camera errors with the exposure. In this case, you had a lot of shutter speed even for handholding (and using a support like a monopod or tripod can reduce the shutter speed you need even further) that you could have stopped down to f/8, used ISO 400, and still had a shutter speed around 1/1000.

NPN is a great resource, and I look forward to seeing more of your work. Be sure to comment on others' photos also, you'll learn just as much from thinking about what you like or don't like in others' work.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Mauro Pasquero on March 7, 2011 at 3:15 AM

Welcome to NPN and to the Avian gallery, Roger.

Nice capture this one, yet I do share the Richard and Brian's remarks.
If you keep on posting shots on this site, following the advice you can receive and commenting other' photos as well, you will really learn a lot, at least this is my experience.
Looking to seeing more of your work
Mauro

Registered on January 21, 2010, 650 Posts, 2500 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on March 7, 2011 at 8:29 AM

Welcome to NPN Roger. I like the pose and setting here but do agree with the critiques of Richard and Brian so I won't repeat all that. I also shoot with the 7D and simply will not shoot above ISO 800 because of noise issues. Even at 800 I typically have to use NR on the background (never on the bird). Keep posting here and do comment on the posts of others - one learns at least as much from commenting as from posting and reading comments.

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

Comment posted by Roger Kirchen on March 12, 2011 at 11:51 AM

Thank you all for welcoming me so kindly to NPN and for your specific and to-the-point feedback on my photo. It's very much appreciated. I have reduced the ISO to 400 and closed the diaphragm to f/8 in my custom settings. There might be time later in the weekend to go and try it out. Regards.

Registered on March 6, 2011, 95 Posts, 847 Comments