Bird shots with my new 300 f/4: Take 2, please critique!!!

[wickerprints]

Your previous photos were nice but these, these are leaps and bounds better! Here is what you did right:

1. Correct white balance.
2. I don't know exactly how you achieved it, but the lighting is freaking gorgeous. The position and softness are absolutely perfect.
3. You vastly improved the setup and composition.
4. The technical exposure is much better--I bet these images are sharper and less noisy.

My only critique, and it's a very, very small one, is that if it were possible to frame slightly tighter on a few of the pictures, that would be even better. The reason is because it is not really "typical" to see a single isolated branch with a bird sitting atop it, and the rest of the image is so strongly blurred. Usually, we see other branches, for example, even though they are not in sharp focus, they are still there. Now, bear in mind, this is something I had to really sit down and think about when looking at this series because I strongly preferred #2, but could not figure out why. At first I chalked it up to the fact that the bird is larger/more prominent, but that wasn't really the reason. Only after several minutes did I realize that it was the isolated branch. In #2, it's not an issue because your framing is just right, where you get a lovely background effect yet the bird and branch take up enough space so as not to make it look unnatural.


But really, I want to emphasize that ALL of these pictures are absolutely awesome, really very impressive especially considering they are shot @ 300mm. I think you must have taken Nate's tips to heart and dedicated yourself to these, you should be very proud of your work!


Oh and I do have a question: Typically, how large are these birds, and how much did you crop--if any--the originals? That is, did you find the focal length insufficient?

[Brendan7]

thanks so much, It's good to know I'm improving! []

Oh and I do have a question: Typically, how large are these birds, and how much did you crop--if any--the originals? That is, did you find the focal length insufficient?

The focal length is fine. I bought the 300 f/4 because of its 5' MFD. I have a God-given talent of being able to get ridiculously close to birds. All my photos were taken at about 4-7' away. The first 2 were cropped only slightly to eliminate corner distractions (the birdfeeder). I think that the 300mm focal length is fine. I am never craving for the extra length. The birds themselves are anywhere from 4-8'' long. They are the size of my Rocket Air blower (~about).


thanks again.


brendan

[peety3]

I second the suggestion to not "spray and pray" - if anything, try it for a bit if you need some "data" to figure out what subject angles look best, etc. I think you'll end up with better shots if you apply more control to your shots. I'll admit that I did the high-speed drive thing for a while though. I feel as though the "winning" shot often comes between the first and second shot in a high-speed sequence, meaning that I should have waited a bit for the shot (and X fps wasn't enough, but let's not chase fps at the expense of good timing).


As another learning tool, you might want to read through various bulletins from Art Morris at http://www.birdsasart.com/bn.html. I think he's rather "proud of his work" and it shows in his writing, but he does have excellent results. Amongst other things, I do think he's quite good at interpreting the scene and knowing how much exposure compensation to dial in; I'd consider Av for your bird work instead of manual for the most part, perhaps with partial or spot metering.


Definitely good stuff already!