Finch at Rest in Evening Light

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Taken with a Minolta 800si, Tokina AT-X 304 AF 300mm F4 APO, Kodak Max 800, Camera on Full Program mode, settings not recorded.

-- Ben Lanterman (benl@anet-stl.com), December 08, 1998

Answers

Nicely composed, but the dark areas are too dark for my taste and there is no sign of the finch's reddish to orange color on the head. Fill falsh would have done wonders for this image.

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), December 08, 1998.


The males have the reddish coloration, the females are this plain brown with stripes. The flash photos I tried looked too much like flash photos. I need more experience with it. I was trying for an arty soft look. Apparently I have to wait until next year to experiment with amounts of fill flash. They came, ate my food, and left when it got cold!

-- Ben Lanterman (benl@anet-stl.com), December 08, 1998.

I agree with the above - much too dark. Whether it be the scan or the exposure - the bird's eye blends right in with the shadows on its face. If you are experimenting with fill flash - try using a -1.3 to -1.7 compensation setting on the flash in addition to the ambient exposure. This should help avoid that "flashed" look. There will always be more birds to practice with!

Mark

-- Mark (Grafphoto@aol.com), December 08, 1998.


Thanks Mark and Frank. It has been interesting with the little twitchy monsters. All they do is bicker over my feeder, eat, and never sit still. I have a new appreciation for serious bird photographers. But they do help work out a great number of photographic challenges. It has been interesting going full program with the camera. It seriously reproduces what I see. I need to work on how to modify its inputs. I'm impressed with the knowledge that the chips and wires have. Unfortunately in this case it was this dark (although I profess to like it). I can see a need to bracket the shots I get to the more open f stop. You don't get a second chance with birds near as often as with a mountain.

Thanks Ben

Any more inputs are most welcome, please.

-- Ben Lanterman (benl@anet-stl.com), December 10, 1998.


Ben,

Just one comment on the composition, give the bird a little room to breathe, I find the composition very tight both on the tail side and at the bird's beak, maybe going horizontal and then adding more room in front of the bird would have improved this shot. (although taking away from the vertical branch which is nice.

Cheers, Elbert-Jan

-- Elbert-Jan Achterberg (achterberg@northernlight.nl), December 11, 1998.



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