Lunch with Suzie

[yakfisher]

Here's one I just took.

[finnbay]

Great shot! I might have brightened it just a bit. I like "Suzie's" expression!

[Dan Thiem]

Nice shot. How'd ya get so low to the water for that angle? Looks like the drake was cheatin on his wife and didn't want the popurazzi to bust him.

[MN Shutterbug]

Nice capture. At that slow of a shutter speed and that low of an angle, you must have been laying down. Personally, I would have opened the aperture at least a couple stops to give myself a faster shutter speed. However, Suzie and her lover turned out nice.

[Steve Foss]

Hey yakfisher, nice picture. I also like the low angle. Makes for nice intimacy. Did you want C&C on the image or were you just sharing for fun?

[yakfisher]

C&C is always appreciated. I just did a quick crop of the JPEG, I actually have the image raw, but I am a little slow with photoshop. I was on the bank of a little pond with the camera on a tripod about three feet above the waterline with the aperture wide open and the polarizer filter on. I shot it with a Nikon 70-300VR at 300mm the birds are about 15 yards away. I agree it is a little dark, thanks for the critique.

[yakfisher]

Here is what I did with photoshop on the RAW image. Let me know what you think or would do differently.

[Steve Foss]

yakfisher, according to the exif data attached to the image, it wasn't shot at a wide open aperture.

Exif shows it was shot at 1/50 sec and f10, and that exposure compensation was used to underexpose it 1 2/3 stops. So I'm sure the f10 was what XT was referring to about shooting more wide open.

It's nice and sharp at 1/50 off that tripod, and a good job getting down to the same level as the ducks.

Since the birds are about the same medium color as the background, however, there was no need for exposure compensation (EC) unless you were trying not to blow out the reflected highlights in the water. If you'd kept EC at zero and aperture at f10, that of course would have slowed the shutter to about 1/15 or 1/20 sec, which would probably have been too slow even off a tripod. But at an EC of zero and aperture opened up to around f5.6, for example, you'd have been back up around 1/50 sec, and and with no - EC the picture would have been brighter and had less digital noise.

For some reason I can't find iso in the exif data, so I don't know about that. You brightened it up nicely in the repost, too, and it looks better.

I use EXIF Viewer version 2.6, which can be downloaded for free by doing a google search to take you to the site. It's a great tool. Since you shot RAW, however, I imagine your software gives you all that info on the preview screen before you actually open the image.

Here's what exifviewer said:

File name: LunchwSuzie.jpg

File size: 198018 bytes (1136x909, 1.5bpp, 16x)

EXIF Summary: 1/50s f/10.0 300mm (35mm eq:450mm)

Camera-Specific Properties:

Equipment Make: NIKON CORPORATION

Camera Model: NIKON D50

Camera Software: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 (20060914.r.77) Windows

Maximum Lens Aperture: f/5.7

Sensing Method: One-Chip Color Area

Color Filter Array Pattern: 778

Focal Length (35mm Equiv): 450 mm

Image-Specific Properties:

Image Orientation: Top, Left-Hand

Horizontal Resolution: 113 dpi

Vertical Resolution: 113 dpi

Image Created: 2007:10:10 13:09:06

Exposure Time: 1/50 sec

F-Number: f/10.0

Exposure Program: Aperture Priority

Exposure Bias: -1.7 EV

Metering Mode: Pattern

Light Source: Unknown

Flash: No Flash

Focal Length: 300.00 mm

Color Space Information: sRGB

Image Width: 1136

Image Height: 909

Rendering: Custom

Exposure Mode: Auto

White Balance: Auto

Scene Capture Type: Standard

Gain Control: None

Contrast: Normal

Saturation: Normal

Sharpness: Normal

Subject Distance Range: Unknown

Other Properties:

Resolution Unit: i

Chrominance Comp Positioning: Co-Sited

Exif IFD Pointer: 252

Compression Scheme: JPEG Compression (Thumbnail)

Horizontal Resolution: 72 dpi

Vertical Resolution: 72 dpi

Resolution Unit: i

Offset to JPEG SOI: 922

Bytes of JPEG Data: 8110

Exif Version: 2.21

Image Generated: 2007:10:10 11:14:58

Image Digitized: 2007:10:10 11:14:58

Meaning of Each Comp: Unknown

Image Compression Mode: 1

DateTimeOriginal Second Fraction: 00

DateTimeDigitized Second Fraction: 00

File Source: Other

Scene Type: Unknown

Digital Zoom Ratio: 1

[yakfisher]

Your right I just looked at the camera it was set a f10. Earlier while shooting I had thought that I had it set wide open. I must have rolled up the aperture and not noticed it. I used the ec because when reviewing the images on the camera the whites were getting a little blown out. The aperture also explains why a bunch of the other pictures with the ducks moving around were blurry. I had the ISO set to 400. Apparently I was overcompensating a little bit. Thanks for the comments.

[Steve Foss]

No prob, man. I can't count the number of times I bumped a setting and forgot about it or never noticed I did it, not to mention how easy it is to forget to set EC back to zero after a specific shot.

[yakfisher]

So when you are making shots like this on an overcast day what shutter speed would you use?

[Steve Foss]

I leave my iso at 400, the camera on aperture priority mode and set the aperture wide open, letting the shutter speed take care of itself. Unless it's VERY dark, I have enough shutter speed to handhold my 100-400 image stabilized lens and get sharp images of ducks like this, which are moving slowly. Steady technique plays a role, but with a tripod you've got the edge on that. Only if, when I quickly magnify an image or two on the LCD, I find they're not sharp enough, I'll bump up my iso. But my camera allows me to do that in 1/3 stop increments, and I'll only bump it up the minimum I need for sharp images so I avoid digital noise as much as possible.

[yakfisher]

Thanks again, as always you are a wealth of useful knowledge.

[Steve Foss]

I live to serve, yakfisher.

Be sure to post more of your work for us to enjoy.

[yakfisher]

You guys should have seen how blurry the images of the flying birds that I took were set at f10. It looked like I was on a merry go round. I do not recommend that aperture with that lens with todays clouds and a moving target.

[Steve Foss]

Until you get used to smoothly tracking BIF, I recommend at least 1/500 and 1/1000 or better is best. I've gotten sharp BIF stuff at 1/125, but your proportion of keepers shrinks noticeably at slower ss.

[yakfisher]

When I first got the camera I shot some bicycle races and played around with the aperture and shutter speeds to show some motion. It worked out well, I just need to pay better attention to what I am doing. I guess trying to shout those flying birds today was exciting, kinda like stepping on that first rooster of the season, firing off a few shots and listening to him (and the dog) laugh at you. I'll get em next time. I'll try to get out in a little bit that pond is about 1/4 mile away.

[MN Shutterbug]

Quote:

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I guess trying to shout those flying birds today was exciting, kinda like stepping on that first rooster of the season, firing off a few shots and listening to him (and the dog) laugh at you.

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I can certainly relate to that.

One thing I do before I put my camera away for the day is, make sure the control is set to av and the iso is set at 200. I also shut it down with the aperture at it's widest and the ev at -1. This way, if I come across something unexpectedly, these setting will handle most situations. If not, it won't take much tweaking to get it to where I want it.