Post your best bird shots!

[HDNitehawk]

Bob and Joel


When you are talking crop, your really not comparing the same thing with each other. I know you guys know this. Since Joel has a 1.3 crop camera and Bob

[Bill W]

Common Loon, Lake Massabesic, NH


7D, 500f4, 1.4x, f5.6, 1/1250, ISO 640 on a tripod w/a cable release


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/750x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/15/3480.Loon-one.jpg[/img]


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/750x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/15/7115.Loon-two.jpg[/img]


Thanks for looking


Bill

[Kayaker72]

Bill,


Great photos and I am glad to see the Loons are back. You were about 5 minutes from my house.[]


Brant

[Joel Eade]

Do you have any thoughts on proper distance, as close as possible maybe? Far enough to get the right DOF?


Rick
<div style="CLEAR: both"]</div>

Rick,


Another big consideration is how many pixels can you get on your subject at your chosen distance and focal length.....the 7D and the MKIVboth have smaller / more numerous pixels than the MKIII so you will havemore pixels on your subject with those cameras andtherefore the ability to get more detail / resolution and consequently increased tolerance for cropping away more pixels and still retaining image quality. I have tried various distances with my setup and I can get good results anywhere from 15 to 25 feet.


If a small bird is facing you at such close range it's almost impossible to get the head and tail both in focus, a perfect side pose is required. Because of that I try my best to focus on the eye, if that is sharp the image usually doesn't suffer from the tail being out of focus.


Joel

[Richard Lane]

Common Loon, Lake Massabesic, NH


7D, 500f4, 1.4x, f5.6, 1/1250, ISO 640 on a tripod w/a cable release


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/750x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/15/3480.Loon-one.jpg[/img]


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/750x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/15/7115.Loon-two.jpg[/img]


Thanks for looking


Bill

Bill,


These are wonderful! I love the pose and capture of the 1st shot and I love the serenity, exposure, and sharpness of the 2nd one.


You can even see that the bird was tagged.


Nice work!





Rich

[ddt0725]

I second that! Bill, these shots are really beautiful!! [Y]

Denise

[bob williams]

Rick, Unfortunately, I don

[HDNitehawk]

Rick, Unfortunately, I don't have enough experience yet with the 500 to give my impression of "proper distance" etc---I am still learning and have a lot more experimenting to do before I can offer any decent advice. As far as cropping goes---I probably have two definitions that I think (hope) most understand, they are: 1. When I talk 100% crop, that means that I am discussing a "piece" --regardless of size, of a full size image. When I ask "how much did you crop" , I am asking "how much of a full size image did you remove to achieve the comp demonstrated".


Did that make any sense to anyone?

Bob


I understood what you were asking about crop. Hopefully after the thread a while back on 100% crops we won't go back in to that discussion.


What I was getting at is that Joel's 300mm with 1.4ex gives and 1D III gives him the ff equivalent 546mm. With the 7D and 500mm you have the ff equivalent of 800mm. I went back to see how much I have been croping at 15-20 feet with the 1D IV and the 500mm which would be 650mm equivalent. I haven't been taking very much at all off, maybe 10% on larger birds and 20% or so for finches.


The problem I found with the 7D, is it got real close and tight with the little birds and I liked that, but I had to bump the aperture tighter and tighter to get more DOF. When I did this to gain DOF I lost shutter speed, so it always seemed like a battle to balance the two out. It seems to me that the 1.3 crop is working the best of the three for shooting the little birds close up like this, its kind of a trade off I guess.


Rick

[HDNitehawk]

If a small bird is facing you at such close range it's almost impossible to get the head and tail both in focus, a perfect side pose is required. Because of that I try my best to focus on the eye, if that is sharp the image usually doesn't suffer from the tail being out of focus.

Joel


It seems to me its a balancing act to get the DOF you want and how close you can get when your setting up.


Rick

[Bill W]

Thank you Brant, Rich &amp; Denise....I appreciate your compliments.


Brant; better get over to the lake, the ice is melting quickly and the edge is becoming further from the shore; i.e. "Broken Bill" * will be further from shore. S/he was approximately 80 yards when I took these shots. South on 121 (couple of miles) from the circle. We