Fat Robin - C&C

Bo4key · Apr 18, 2012

Still working on shooting bird, etc. Here's a fat Robin I spotted last week.

EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

Aperture Priority
f/8.0
1/400 sec
250 mm
ISO 800

I like the focus and bokeh I was able to achieve and the framing. What I don't like is that I cut off his tail and I can't decide if there is aberration around his head or if it was a branch that was very close in the foreground.

Austin Greene · Apr 18, 2012

Birds can be tough to get a good shot of! Besides what you mentioned as far as the tail having been chopped off, there are a couple things add mention.

First, when shooting birds one of the things that can really make or break a photo is the eyes. Unless they've got some natural coloring, you need to find another way of bringing life into them. In the case of birds like your robin that have small beady eyes, You usually see this by people shooting such that the eyes have a glint of sunlight. It adds depth and life.

If I'm not mistaken from looking at the photo, it would appear you were on the shaded side of the bird, avoid that if you can as it makes any sun-glinting eye action almost impossible without adding your own light. I usually avoid this by always walking with the sun to my back. That way I never have to try and sneak around subjects, they're almost always bright, evenly, and well lit. In your case this would have also resulted in more vibrant colors, something that makes all the difference with birds. Had you caught the lit side, we would see the whites standing out crisply, and that beautiful chest would be the point eyes are drawn to.

Lastly, I'd like to see a closer shot. The tree on the left really conflicts. Again, that would be fixed if the bird was better lit.

Still, not a bad attempt! Keep shooting!

Tony S · Apr 18, 2012

Yep, birds are tough, especially when you get them in the limbs like this.

I prefer to see bird pictures that are facing me, not the south end of a north bound bird. It is a bit under exposed and this could have been caught and adjusted for by using a quick flip of the dial for exposure compensation.

I see what you are talking about with the "abbberation" around the head. It looks like it continues across the one branch to the right also, so I would guess you had another branch or something in between you and the scene. It appears transparent and distorted similar to the effect of shooting through a chainlink fence at a longer focal length wide open. It's another of those things to look out for when shooting in brush.

Bo4key · Apr 18, 2012

Thanks for the input. I was thinking about the lighting but this was an overcast day so I didn't have much direct light to work with. Would working with a flash and a snoot work in this situation?

While I agree that a tighter crop would have helped, I was already at the end of my focal range and am afraid to crop too much in post and lose too much detail.

I agree that the exposure could have been increased now the more I look at it.

Austin Greene · Apr 18, 2012

I'm not quite sure how well a snoot would have worked, primarily because im not sure how close you were, but there are range extenders for flashes that do a great job with wildlife.