My first try of shooting birds (with a camera)

[bouwy]

On holidays in Malaysia Pangkor Island. Couple of shots of Hornbill Birds.


5D MK11 - 70-200mm IS - Monopod


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[Iguide]

Hi Wally:


Could you also post ISO & shutter speed & F stop. I'm just curious. I'm not talented enough to offer much of an objective comment, just a personal thing though, I would have liked to see (in the second one) that the palms were a bit more of a subdued background. Don't know if that is possible and still keep the subject clear and sharp. Other than that they look fine to me. Ask Nate, he seems to be one of the best on this forum at bird photography. Best of luck.





Godspeed:


Wayne


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[JJphoto]

I agree with Wayne, if you can post more shooting data, it will help other people to do the C&amp;C.


I like these two pictures, a beautiful bird with blue sky and palm trees, very nice shots specially this is your first trying of shooting birds.


IMO, maybe there is a bit underexposed since you can't see a lot of detail in black. keep trying Bouwy, shooting birds is fun.

[Fast Glass]

I could bet money that you used your 70-200mm.[:P] The first shot looks like you used the telephoto end (150-200mm end) and the second lookslike it was shot at the wide end (70-100mm end) and wide open. Right?


On my moniter they look almost perfect exposure, just aTINY BIT brighter would be perfect.


John.

[elmo_2006]

LOL, to me they look like they were taken indoors or the background is a back drop of some sort.


[]

[bouwy]

Thanks Guys, for your feedback. Still have a lot to learn when it comes to shooting wild life, specially birds. I had a lot of fun trying to shoot these (look like pre-historic) birds, but I think patience is (which I don't have LOL) needed for this type of photography.


Shooting data for pic1



Camera Model Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Author Photographer: Wally Bouw
Owner's Name Wally Bouw
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/320
Av( Aperture Value ) 8.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation +1/3
ISO Speed 200
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Focal Length 135.0mm








Shooting data pic 2



Camera Model Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Author Photographer: Wally Bouw
Owner's Name Wally Bouw
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/400
Av( Aperture Value ) 8.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 200
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Focal Length 100.0mm





Cheers Wally

[Joel Eade]

Wally,


The Hornbills are a beautiful bird, something we don't see in the wild here for sure. The first shot you had a good pose and head angle but you need to crop from the right and add canvas to the left toward where the bird is facing.


The exposure problem looks like you lost detail in the blacks....you might go back to your RAW images (hopefully you were in RAW mode) and look at the histogram to see if the blacks are clipped...if not you can re-convert them with adjustment of the blacks and bring the detail back.


The 5d II is awesome at high ISO so (use the Sunny 16 rule) for birds use your center sensor in manual mode and push the ISO up enough to give you a nice high shutter speed around 1/1000 or faster and around f/7.1 or so for adequate DOF. ALso the 5d II has enough pixels to allow a little bigger crop without losing image quailty.


Those are nice pics....keep going and post some more


Joel

[bouwy]

Hi Joel


Thanks for your input. Will try higher ISO &amp; 1/1000 and see how I go.


Regards, Wally