Charlie Yang  


Heron and Ducks by Charlie Yang

April 2018 - Heron and Ducks

April 2018 - Charlie Yang

Original

About the Image(s)

Walking around in the neighborhood, spot this bird and some ducks by the pond, didn't have tripod with me, taken with handheld.

crop in a bit and adjust light, and B/W,

Nikon, F/5.6, S-1/800, ISO-200.


This round’s discussion is now closed!
7 comments posted




A nice clear shot of a large heron. He almost seems cold and grumpy. Perhaps he was. The female mallard is in a bit of an unfortunate position, as she is blocking the view of his feet.

You don't mention your lens, but a smaller f-stop of f11 or f16 would have been helpful in providing more depth of field and perhaps getting the swimming duck in focus. While the heron is the focus point of your composition, the swimming duck provides balance.
  Posted: 04/03/2018 19:46:25
Charlie Yang   Charlie Yang
(Group 45)
yeh, will try that some better days. That day was cold, cloudy, damp, and gutsy wind up to 45mph, higher F/stop will not work that day, :P   Posted: 04/03/2018 21:06:54



 
The heron's eye and feathers are very sharp and he gives me the feeling that he is looking at the swimming mallard and thinking "What are you doing? This is my turf?"

I agree with Rob that additional depth of field to bring the male mallard into focus would have helped. You didn't say, but I suspect this was shot in aperture priority mode.

Some options that would allow the same exposure, but increased dof would be to switch to manual exposure and increase the ISO to 800 at f/11 or ISO 1600 at f/16. As there was not a lot of action or motion to freeze, another option would be to slow the shutter speed by one or two stops, increase the f/stop accordingly and keep the ISO lower; or a combination of slowing the shutter speed by one stop to 1/400, increase ISO by one stop to 400 and use an f/stop of f11.

I tried a slightly different crop to eliminate the female mallard and to try and keep the emphasis on the heron and swimming duck.

  Posted: 04/12/2018 09:24:23
Comment Image
Charlie Yang   Charlie Yang
(Group 45)
Thanks,
I'm new to these types of shots, shots are fluid, one moment it's static, next objects moves or flies, a lot of parameters to change all at once. Still learning and experimenting, any suggestions here.   Posted: 04/12/2018 11:21:47
 
Some things to consider - using aperture priority will lock in the fstop you select and the camera will adjust the shutter speed to allow an exposure based on the fstop and ISO you choose. Shutter priority will lock in the shutter speed you choose and the camera will adjust the fstop based on the shutter speed and ISO.

If you want to "freeze" motion, you will need a fast shutter speed.

You can increase your depth of field by stopping down, or using a smaller aperture (i.e. f/16 will give you greater depth of field than f5.6).

If you have never tried it before, you may want to consider setting your camera to AUTO ISO and manually setting your shutter speed and f/stop. This will allow the the f/stop and shutter speed to remain constant while the camera will automatically adjust the ISO based on the setting you choose.

Here is a link that will help you with setting the AUTO ISO if you don't know how to do that

http://imaging.nikon.com/support/digitutor/d610/functions/autoisocontrol.html

Try playing with that and see how you like it.   Posted: 04/12/2018 11:45:00
Charlie Yang   Charlie Yang
(Group 45)
it's already on auto iso, just some time ISO went high, thus I set max threshold of ISO, e.g. 3200, not ideal :(
I have tried S- or A- priority, but and now a days, mostly on M. wish there's a preset or short cut so be able to switch to a 'bird fly' setting, on the fly,   Posted: 04/12/2018 11:53:20
 
That would make it too easy Charlie, then everyone could do it! ;)

I am not a flying bird expert, but a few things to keep in mind are: generally you need a shutter speed of 1/1200 or faster to freeze motion; stop your lens down 1 - 2 stops from wide open which is generally the sharpest part of the lens; use continuous high speed shutter; AF-C.

Hope this helps. Good luck!   Posted: 04/13/2018 09:32:59