Imm Gr Heron/redox2

I'll try to answer a couple of your questions:

The files from the 7D II are larger (more megabytes on disk) than the 7D because it has more resolution (more pixels).  By the time you resize for the web as a jpeg at 720 pixels for the small image and 1600 for the large image the sizes shouldn't be much different.  Each image is different because of the content.

I don't understand the trouble switching from Manual mode to Aperture priority.  Push the lock button in the middle of the dial and turn it.  

Safety Shift:  I'd turn it off.  I hate options that decide to change camera settings to "help me".  It will take effect if the subject brightness changes  and the metered exposure can't be obtained by changing some other parameter like ISO.  

No your image was at f/8 because you were at the 400mm end of your lens which is f/5.6.  Then you used a 1.4x converter which makes the largest possible aperture f/8.  You may have seen f/7.1 because you were zoomed out further at some point.  Remember the lens you have is a variable aperture lens changing as you zoom from 100 to 400.  You said you forgot to change aperture to get the bokeh you wanted for the whole weekend.  You CAN NOT open up further than f/8 at 400mm with the 1.4x TC.

ISO:  You achieved 1/640 at f/8 with ISO 200.  If you would have moved to ISO 400 you would have had 1/1280 at f/8 and the picture would be identical for exposure since you were in AV mode.  

Yes your picture is underexposed:  The light colored background fooled your meter into  underexposure.  You needed to add exposure via exposure compensation in AV mode.  Simple enough, turn the big dial on the back of the camera 1 click to the right for 1/3 stop, 2 clicks for 2/3, etc. (assuming you've set your camera to use 1/3 stop increments).  

I was waiting to see some of your work with the new equipment.  Not bad, Barbara!  It is a learning curve, for sure, any time you get new equipment.  I am impressed with how sharp it is, given that you were at 1/640 on 560mm, and handheld, I am assuming, since no mention of a tripod.  So it looks like you have a study enough hand with that lens that you will do just fine.  I think Keith has answered your questions.  I too keep the camera from making decisions for me as much as I can.  I even shoot manual exposure a good bit of the time, for that reason.  If it is sunny, you can meter off of the blue sky and take that metering to the bank!  Best grey card out there. I keep an eye on the histogram, of course, and usually make my changes in the ISO, and leave my other settings the way I like them for the type of shooting I am doing.  I just don't want the camera changing my DOF, or the shutter speed without me having some say in it.  Just a personal preference.  I am excited for you, and looking forward to many more shots.  Oh, and I do like the way the grass frames the subject too. 

Thank you, Keith and Shirley. 

Hi Barbara
You can get all your file Info by down loading Digital Photo Professional 4 form Canon.  Go to Quick Check and click on Info, then past it into Word. Nice shot.
Peter

I think you can go a little lighter on the bird, Barbara. 

I'm afraid I can't help with the file information aspect as I've never used that feature. 

For what it's worth, I don't have Safety Shift enabled on mine, but there wasn't any really good reason for that decision.

I agree that sio 200 is pretty low for early morning.  I usually start my mornings at 1250 and rarely get below 500 even in the brightest light.

A very nice shot of the heron, especially for the first outing with new gear, which always makes things difficult.

62% of full frame does need to be looked at in the context of the number of pixels the camera has.  That's why I gave up on it and just report a pixel count.  File size, as in your 258.41 MB means little or nothing since most of that comes from the processing you've done rather than the number of pixels in the image.

Barbara, this looks fine in detail, comp, pose and perch. I would suggest brightening by about 1.3 or 1.4 EV. Maybe also a little warmer on the WB. You have my sympathy on the forgotten settings; they are the bane of my photographic experience!

Keith is right about the change to f/8. It is due entirely to the TC.

I'm going to post this redo to see if it looks different/better.  If it does I'll leave it, if not I'll delete this comment.

If I do leave it, what do you think?

I think the shot is very good, with excellent detail and a good composition.  Keith answered all of your questions very accurately (in my opinion) so the only thing left for suggestions is to brighten the shot even more than in your repost.  It's very clean with good detail in the shadows so it can stand to be brightened quite a bit without losing any highlights or overdoing the sky.

Barbara:  I agree with Gary that the repost is still not bright enough.  Are you working on a color calibrated monitor?  Here is a screen capture of the histogram for this image.  Pushing the white slider in to a value of 224 is the first indication that anything in the entire image is beginning  to get to a level before it begins to clip.   While that is not a measure for ever image, in this case it works very well.   Looking at that image with that adjustment looks much better to me.

 

Keith, thank you very much.  I think what I'm going to do is make a checklist of things to look and change or not before I finish with an image.  Maybe I'll make a checklist for the photography itself, too.  With all the help you all have given me, I should have everything I need to make a good list.

When I first joined NPN I bought a Spyder (I think that's the name of it) calibration....whatever it was.  But I don't know where it is now, and so I haven't color calibrated my monitor in a long, long time.  I will look and see what they have available now.

Here is a redo with the right-hand Slider in Curves at 225.

The second repost came out much better, Barbara.  Calibrated monitors are a great help, but even then, I find brightness to be a judgment call, so I always use the histogram to bounce off what I think it looks like.

When I'm in PS I always keep the histogram showing in the panel, so I can see where I am on the brightness curve.