Screaming for breakfast..............!

Firstly, I had a 2x on my 70-200 and the camera was hand held.

As it was a very bright, overcast morning, around 10am I decided to set my auto-focus metering on "spot" as well as my light metering. The rest of the camera worked on auto.

I hoped to be able to get correct exposure and focus on the subject, without interference from the extremely bright background.

Did I succeed? or could I have achieved a better result by other techniques?

Always willing to learn.

Regards

Please click on the image to see my posted question. Your honest help

is always appreciated.

Regards

Grayham, the sharpness seems a tad off, like the focus is still somehow off. If you look at the low left hand corner, there is one twig that is focused. Now, what is hard here is to have the whole bird inside depth of field, and using a 2 x TC , that is very hard, if possible at all. What definitively does not help is that the bird is seen in full frontal projection, with all negative aspects of foreshortening perspective, including total loss of information on birds length, tail, ...

Not an easy shot by any mean, still great colour reproduction. IMHO, if you could wait untilll the bird turns a bit sideways, this photo would be a true blast. Alll the best!

Hi Grayham,

I like the shot.

However, my laboratory  testing reveals that your lens performs best at 200mm + the 2X converter, not at a point between 70-200.

The main reason is that in any telephoto zoom design, there are specific points where the lens is designed for maximum performance. Having your lens set to 115mm plus the 2X = 230mm was compromised. Using the lens at 200mm without the 2X would have provided much better results.

Now, if the bird could be framed in at 200mm + 2x=400mm F/5.6 the results would be better, too.

Best Regards,  Mike

............ Thanks for the info on the lens. Wow! That rather negates the effect of a 2x in a shoot where some of the subjects are closer than others... to maintain a constant 400mm I'd be continually changing position.

In terms of "better result", are you refering to subject colour, background or overall?

The previous poster refered to soft/out of focus.... but the image in PS is good, with a slight softening towards the outer extremity of the outstretched wing.

Appreciate your input.

Best regards

Hi Grayham,

In my lab testing, I examine the effect of the teleconverter on the lens sharpness (center to edge and diagonal), color aberrations introduced, and overall contrast between the darkest and brightest areas in a scene.

These are rigorous tests for any teleconverter/lens combination.

Best Regards,  Mike

Setting the light meter to spot meter and reading off of the bird was the right way to go and you've got a good exposure. Detail in the shadows and highlights of the bird. The sky is blown but this is inevitable in a back-lit situation like you have here. I almost always use the single focus sensor and move it around to wherever critical focus is most important, quite often the eyes or the face. In this case the image looks soft throughout. Hand holding the set up you're using is a daunting task if you want tack sharp results. You got a fair result from this try. A mono pod is helpful for situations like this if a tripod is to restrictive. When I started using a 70-200mm with a 1.4 multiplier there was a step curve before I could confidently get good focus and sharp results. Practice will be your friend in that regard. Given all the terrific subjects you seem to have available to you that should be interesting and fun to work on.

So sorry that I missed your visit, way back when........ a rare oversight.

Thank you for your observations, info and comments.

These guys hit our backyard from as early as 6am (dawn is 5am) and only stay a short while. The lighting (in general) is not always conducive (the sun is well below the yard-arm) to taking images, however these backyard friends help me get things right (sometimes). My objective here was to get the colour of the underwing, as these birds tend to display as white only.

I have, however, taken on board the comments of the posters and will be mindful during my next shoot of these guys.

Seasons Greetings