Great Spotted Woodpecker

IanC_UK

IanC_UK

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Ian Cook
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Met up with Matt and Marcel yesterday to take some pics, heres one of Woody from the day :) 1D MK3, 600 Plus 1.4 TC, background is annoying me, but wasnt much could do about it at the time, have better shots of the Woodpecker with really bad backgrounds :( may have to cheat a bit on them ;)

0830-133319-01.jpg


Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Image Date: 2007:08:30 13:33:19
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 840.0mm
CCD Width: 3.38mm
Exposure Time: 0.0031 s (1/320)
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO equiv: 1250
White Balance: Auto
Exposure: shutter priority (semi-auto)
 
Hate to be critical, since I've never seen one of these in the feathers, but it's a splendidly sharp tree trunk and a not so sharp woody ;(
 
Good catch Ian (y)

Woody doesnt look soft to me, though the trunk catching the light does dominate.... hmm! :thinking:
Im starting to question my sight/monitor here!

Had one in my garden yesterday, all I could do was watch ... well Im not going to get a lot on the 85mm am I :LOL:

Where did you guys go?
 
Thanks guys, is Woody really soft ? think i might need an eye test

Glo, myself and Matt went to Moore Nature Reserve, Marcel came along later and we went up to Formby Point, squirrels were plentiful light wasnt unfortunately lol
 
Looks sharper than the first Ian, but his chest looks a little blown now.
I didnt actually think the first was particularly soft!
Perhaps a trip to the opticians is in order for both of us :LOL:

I When I get my zoom, Id like to go to Formby & pop back to Crosby beach too.
Didnt seem much point in going to see the squidgers with the lenses in my bag the other day though.
 
Quite difficult to say exactly at the size it is. The tree trunk is defo spot on, and the birdie looks better. I'd still say it looks a little front focussed if you had the centre AF spot on the woody.

Can you do a close crop of just the birdie and a bit of the tree (say down to the knot)
 
1st looks best to me, but tree trunk does seem a tad sharper. Could be the light, or my dodgy eyesight :)

Mike
 
well SPOTTED!!!!! :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:
 
The (1st enlargement) ohh so nearly pin sharp. :)

However I'm being (uber?) picky/critical here sooo....

The sticky out tree knot is probably a little soft, the scratches in the tree trunk are spot on as is the foot.

but, if you look at the claws on its foot then they have more definition than the beak. Or the feathers under his foot compared to the feathers under his beak.

It looks ever so slightly front focussed (isnt that a param you can faff with on the MKIII?)
 
The 2nd enlargment is better. Its head looks sharper than the its body ('cos its nearer). Whereas the tree is spot on.
Dangling on the edge of the DOF.

You just gotta love that camera and lens combo. :drool:
I'm only a bit jealous.
 
Shoulda gone to Spec Savers. ;)

Kidding aside, there's not a lot wrong with those Ian that can't be put right. It's an easy enough matter to slightly soften the trunk and sharpen the bird to throw the accent where it needs to be. I'd go for a crop something along the lines of your second shot, but leaving more room above his head rather than below.

Nice shots mate! (y)
 
Get out of it! ;)

0830-133236-01_0.jpg


Edit,.

Top tip.

On the 1DMK2n, one of the custom functions enables you keep the active AF spot lit all the time, and even adjust the brightness of it. See if you can do that on the Mk3. It's a lot easier then to keep the AF spot where it needs to be in the heat of the moment.
 
well done mate (y)


nice edit by ct (y)

dave...(y)
 
Good conversion CT. (if a tad over cooked, but proves the point).
You've definitely thrown the tree out a lot and sharp'ed the birdie quite a bit.
'tho I still stand by my picky picky'ness. The tree is sharper than the bird, not that you can't compensate for it, and it is "slightly" front focussed.

Proves that you should always show your finished images not the interim. ;)

I want ONE!
 
Super shots Ian, The Woody looks sharp enough to me..:p
 
Nice pics of woody Ian, very fortunate indeed. I was out for a short 9 hole round of golf recently and didn't take my camera... woes... oh woes.... spotted (excuse the pun) a Green Woody and a Sparrowhawk - both would have been within 'pseudo OK' range of my E-510's 70-150 zoom to have given me at least a glancing shot of them.

The things we miss eh!

Nice shots though Ian. Love birdies me!
 
Very nice but I agree with OG on the focus point ;)
 
I've been struggling with red squirrells, low light, a lot of leaf cover in the trees and ending up with pin sharp trees and slightly off focus squirrels, could do with larger aperture but no light available I'm having a play with flash now to try and get a bit more dof, I think its got to be with the area of the centre focus spot being larger than the actual red square in the view finder, it's certainly frustrating.
 
Ian - they are a pikky lot! Super shots - I have only managed to get them on the feeder so far. CT certainly knows how to get the best out of an image!
 
chrisiow said:
I've been struggling with red squirrells, low light, a lot of leaf cover in the trees and ending up with pin sharp trees and slightly off focus squirrels, could do with larger aperture but no light available I'm having a play with flash now to try and get a bit more dof, I think its got to be with the area of the centre focus spot being larger than the actual red square in the view finder, it's certainly frustrating.
Click to expand...

Had this problem while taking Kingfisher pics at 600mm, focus point lit up but bird not in focus yet reeds close behind focused so i switched to manual and ignored the focus light and used my eye. There was no problem at all when the bird was out in the open. :shrug:
 
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