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

[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!

[HiFiGuy1]

Nice job on the second set. I really like the composition on both of them. The branch end being visible on the left is a great touch in the first photo. It seems on my monitor to be slightly OOF or soft for some reason, but I like how the bird is looking towards the other end of the branch. The overall shape and composition are excellent on the second, and there's even a soft catch light in the left eye. Well done overall.

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

Nice job in this set, I like the all the clean bg you have here. I find the images to be a little on the soft side, you need to apply some sharpening. Keep shooting.

[Brendan7]

good to know. I should be able to shoot some more tomorrow and possibly monday.

[Brendan7]

good to know. I should be able to shoot some more tomorrow and possibly monday.

[Brendan7]

Here's one more from this morning. I have no idea why, but my photos are a lot less sharp on TDP. anyways.


Canon 7D at f/5.0, 1/200, ISO 400. Manual Exposure, Handheld.


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[Jordan]

Very nice!.... maybe run through a noise-reduction filter? There isn't much though so it's not a problem, just perhaps might make it look a little richer. You know... I'm bored off my a*s today - so I think when I return the 5D MK II and 14mm f/2.8 that I'm renting now, I'll pick up a 300 f/4 and a 1.4x converter and go to this little garden area nearby and shoot birds. I have the 7D (same as you right?) and I'll see how I like that lens. I own a 100-400 which I LOVE but..... it's not the sharpest tool in the shed. Very versatile though. I'll take some shots with no converter and with the 1.4x and see how it looks. I own a 2X converter... but I think that's too long and too slow for today. Maybe I'll bring it along just for the hell of it.... Oh yeah.. and I can take Macro shots with my EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro while I'm in the gardens.... yay!

[Brendan7]

have the 7D (same as you right?)

yep. awesome camera.

14mm f/2.8 that I'm renting now,

Based on your experience, do you like it? I've heard that it's extremely soft AND i've heard it's extremely sharp.


it's pouring rain today so the bird photography has come to a sudden halt []


brendan

[Jordan]

I think the EF 14mm f/2.8 L USM is extremely sharp! As is the EF 24mm f/1.4 II L USM! The 14mm is EXTREMELY wide on a full-frame body (which I was renting today: the 5D Mark II) but even on my cropped body isn't quite wide!


I'm going to leave in a few minutes to go get that 300mm f/4 L IS ! I'll let you know what I think of it!


The included photo was taken about two hours ago. It's a bracketed exposure taken with the 5D Mark II and the 14mm f/2.8. It's quite sharp and anything that isn't perfectly sharp is actually coming from the editing process (Photomatix, Photoshop, Lightroom etc...). Thought you'd enjoy