Backlit Eastern Phoebe - critique on exposure and post-processing

[bronaldo]

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[Doomrider74]

The biggest thing for me is you can't really see the eye, so I'd try and lift the shadows of the bird so make that clearer. A tighter crop wouldn't hurt as well.

 

[NorthernFocus]

IMO the bird is under exposed. At a minimum as @Doomrider74 suggested the eye needs to be visible. Regarding composition for this clean/featureless of a BG the bird is all that shot is about. So IMO I'd shoot/crop tighter. For this sort of composition to work the BG would need to add to the image. It doesn't need to be sharp/clear like a landscape but at least enough recognizable elements to give a sense of place.

 

[Guy Harr]

While comments that the eye should be in focus is a standard guide for bird photography. If the intent is to produce a nice image telling a story I don't feel you need to show the eye. A tighter crop would help,but not required. If indeed you want the eye. Then a selective bird only shadow lightening would help. The image to me is very pleasing although I would have done a close crop with some post work on just the bird and the perch. Sometime in fact often backlite images just can't and shouldn't show alot of detail but convey a feeling or emotion. Now these are just my view and I'm sure several will disagree. Oh and you will never please all but strive to improve your style and your vision. K÷p up the good work and self critique

 

[bleirer]

You might have needed to blend several shots to capture some detail in the eye area without blowing the highlights. That or sacrifice some of the small highlight areas to overexposure in order to raise the shadows. To get some detail around the eye I think you have to increase exposure, maybe have exposure compensation on a wheel, take a shot as metered then crank up the EC a little at a time until you see the blinkies starting in areas you care about. It could possibly take several shots blended in Photoshop to have it all.

Also you might have done more by opening up the aperture and/or speeding up the shutter, if you had any room left with the tc. You got a good result this time catching the bird while still, but that is still pretty slow as a rule for birds that can be twitching around.

As to composition, I say unbalanced, but not in an appealing way. If the background was amazing or if there was something of interest top right that could balance it. Otherwise I'd maybe keep that strong diagonal, maybe tilt clockwise a couple degrees, and let the stick exit the shot on the right, cutting away much of the area above the bird as well.

Keep shooting.

 

[bronaldo]

Thank you for the tips! I wish I could have opened up the aperture more, but F9 is the widest that lens goes with a TC. Birds in my area are often difficult to get closer to due to the way conservation areas are constructed. With regards to shutter speed, I started at 1/800th of a second and worked my way down, taking a burst of shots at each shutter speed.

 

[bleirer]

Thank you for the tips! I wish I could have opened up the aperture more, but F9 is the widest that lens goes with a TC. Birds in my area are often difficult to get closer to due to the way conservation areas are constructed. With regards to shutter speed, I started at 1/800th of a second and worked my way down, taking a burst of shots at each shutter speed.

That was a good plan with the shutter, worked out for you. Do you have blinkies enabled? That can indicate if you have room to raise exposure a bit. Or you can see if the raw has some room to mask and/or raise the shadows.

 

[bronaldo]

That was a good plan with the shutter, worked out for you. Do you have blinkies enabled? That can indicate if you have room to raise exposure a bit. Or you can see if the raw has some room to mask and/or raise the shadows.

I have blinkies enabled. I could definitely have raised the exposure a stop or 2. I think I can raise the shadows in LR. I will try to work on it a bit later today. Thank you!

 

[Calson]

Better image by using a little fill flash from the camera.

 

[MrFotoFool]

I think the exposure is perfect, the subject is just a little blurry. This is no doubt due to being handheld at such a long focal length. Even with lens and body stabilization, you need a faster shutter speed (or at least I do when I use that same lens and teleconverter).

 

[bronaldo]

I think the exposure is perfect, the subject is just a little blurry. This is no doubt due to being handheld at such a long focal length. Even with lens and body stabilization, you need a faster shutter speed (or at least I do when I use that same lens and teleconverter).

Thanks. I will look through the shots with a faster shutter speed (I think I titrated down from 1/1000). Hopefully one of them is sharp. When I zoom in to 100%, I do notice that the eye is soft.

 

[JoPoV]

I would have used a larger aperture (the larger possible your combo still give sharp enough result - wide open if sharp enough would have be my choice) to get as much possible dynamic range and get as much detail possible in the shadows when in post.
This would have give you more latitude to faster shutter speed too.

 

[MrFotoFool]

I would have used a larger aperture (the larger possible your combo still give sharp enough result - wide open if sharp enough would have be my choice) to get as much possible dynamic range and get as much detail possible in the shadows when in post.

They did shoot at maximum aperture (see post #6).