3 attempts from this morning

A

astroeddie

Guest
Still learning the art of photography, as you can tell here.

Pretty pleased with these results.
Canon 350D, ISO 400 coupled to an Equinox 80mm Apo Refractor.


Male Blackbird

383649615.jpg


Male Chaffinch
383649630.jpg


Long Tail Tit
383649623.jpg


C&C welcomed as always.

Eddie
 
You should take the fat balls out of those nets and use a fat ball feeder. Many thousands of birds are injured and break their legs getting them caught in the netting.

Apart from that, keep going at it.
 
Good attempts Edward, the Blackie being the best out the bunch, the Chaffinch looks a bit too overdone on saturation but is nice and sharp.Focus looks slightly out on the LTT but please get rid of those nets for the fatballs as they act as a trap especially if birds get spooked and fly off quickly, loss of a limb and death usually follows :nono:
 
Nice shots Eddie. The Chaffinch looks a bit contrasty/saturated. Nice cheeky pose on the LTT. Keep at it, you will get better as your confidence grows.
 
Nice work. Only crit is on the third shot, seems you got the focus on the bag of nuts and not the bird. Apart from that, they're looking tack sharp! Good job.
 
Don't be afraid of boosting your ISO to get a faster shutter speed. Try your hand at back button focusing as well, as Danny said, the third shot is focusing on the wrong thing. With back button focusing you can auto focus on your subject then move the camera without the focus changing. The last one is still my favourite, lovely background and good pose from the bird. So well done on getting them.
 
Cheers guys,

These fat ball feeders are in a woodland park I go to, not my garden. I'll speak to the warden next time he passes by me.

I've processed a few more in CS3, will post in a mo.

Eddie
 
Thanks for the feedback guys.

The camera doesnot work in auto focus as I'm shooting through an astronomical telescope. Everything is manual.
The LTT shot is actually hand held. I focused on the fat and waited for them to fly onto it. Then with cable trigger shot 5 quick frames. Hence the bird being a tad too far back for the correct focus.
As for colour processing, still on a huge learning curve here. Used to astronomy processing so maybe a bit heavy handed to start.

The scope is a Sky Watcher 80mm Equinox Apo refractor. 80mm diameter true colour lens, 500mm focal length. Near focus around 12 feet, focuses to infinity. Images have not been cropped too much, just to tighten the framing of the subject.
Scope weighs around 9lb or so. Needs a tripod.

The shots of the birds on tables, I just focused the camera onto the back upright and waited for birds to land. Shooting brackets of 5 exposures. 285 frames in 3 hours :|

Cheers once again ....Eddie
 
At 9lb shooting birds in flight is going to be tricky, perhaps some weight training needed :LOL: so what is the effective aperture of this beast.
 
Forgive my ignorance here, but, what does effective aperture mean ?

Its 80mm True Apo lens, Focal length of 500mm. Incorpararting my 350D at Prime Focus.

Its a heavy beast, eliminating auto focus means it needs balancing, held in one hand, focus scope with the other then shoot. I have a VH duty tripod and geared head to mount it. This means I can focus and shot virtually similtaniously, I use a cable remote to eliminate camera shake.

Eddie
 
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