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Portrait of a bird
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It seems even if I’m not shooting people, I still end up shooting portraits :oops:
Taken today with a 70-200mm f2.8 with a 1.7 teleconverter at the long end. Hand held – VR is great. I won’t embarass myself by definitively naming the bird, but I think it’s a comerant?
Comments welcome.
From the RSPB site:
Cormorant
Phalacrocorax carbo
AKA: Great cormorant
A large and conspicuous waterbird, the cormorant has an almost primitive appearance with its long neck making it appear almost reptilian. It is often seen standing with its wings held out to dry. Regarded by some as black, sinister and greedy, cormorants are supreme fishers which can bring them into conflict with anglers and they have been persecuted in the past. The UK holds internationally important wintering numbers and with its breeding concentrations at a few sites it is an Amber List species.Cormorant indeed as someone confirmed for me a few weeks back. Tremendous shot Ciaran.
brandyman wrote:
From the RSPB site:
Cormorant
Phalacrocorax carboGuess I should have Googled first :oops:
That is a super result for handheld at telephoto range! How much of a crop is that from the orginal frame as captured in camera? He looks like a bird I wouldn’t want to get too close to…..(and there aren’t too many of those!) :lol:
brandyman wrote:
That is a super result for handheld at telephoto range! How much of a crop is that from the orginal frame as captured in camera?
This is practically full frame, I simply cropped to the magic ratio, so lost some sky on top. I know it’s probably over kill for a birdie shot, but old habits die hard.
brandyman wrote:
He looks like a bird I wouldn’t want to get too close to…..(and there aren’t too many of those!) :lol:
:lol: The bird was perfectly still and very relaxed, so I was able to get very close.
Great shot again Ciaran. Iam a big fan of magic ratio. Do you have a template to crop to. For that matter is there a do a mask of something you can get to go over the viewfinder showing the FIBONACCI SPIRAL that you so brilliantly demonstrate on your website. Hope to see you in Portlaoise at the Mike Brown lecture. The entire venue is a FIBONACCI SPIRAL, you will love it.
John Dunne wrote:
Great shot again Ciaran. Iam a big fan of magic ratio. Do you have a template to crop to. For that matter is there a do a mask of something you can get to go over the viewfinder showing the FIBONACCI SPIRAL that you so brilliantly demonstrate on your website. Hope to see you in Portlaoise at the Mike Brown lecture. The entire venue is a FIBONACCI SPIRAL, you will love it.
John, I believe you can get grids for view finders with different compositional aids, including the fibonacci spiral, but I don’t use them. In fact this shot, was cropped more out of habit than for compositional reasons and I guess I just frame naturally now rather than thinking too much about the spiral. That said, I do have a mask which I sometimes overlay on my shots before cropping to make sure I’m putting things in certain sweet spots. If you want a copy of it, let me know and I’ll email it on. Alternatively there is an online composition checker ( http://www.photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/photo-adjuster.html ) which will overlay many of the common composition grids on your picture so you can “check” composition.
As for Mike Brown, I had planned to go down but not sure yet if I will actually make it.
Thanks for the comments.
Good capture for all the usual reasons, sharp, colour etc…
More interested in the lens, was it the Nikon 70-200 as opposed to what I’m not sure :)Must have been reasonably close I’d imagine, even if the 1.7 teleconvertor (Nikon?) ?
Only possible negative comment and its minor is that I’d prefer it without the vignetting,
but as I say thats minor.Welcome to the wildlife forum! You won’t hear “catchlights” or “skin tone” mentioned here.
This is a great way to start off your bird photography. Maybe you’ll become a regular contributor? With shots like this you’ll be setting up a birds website and becoming an ornithologist.
Jeeeezzzz Ciaran
you have far to much talent, share it out dude
First you produce all those fine smoking dudes :lol:
Now you start off with this as a first attempt
anyway, Love the shot, the shot is very sharp, did you do much processing or is that how sharp the shot was out of the camera
Also considering you have a teleconvertor on the lense the quality is superb
I have spent a little time trying to get shots like this and havent come close
Mark wrote:
More interested in the lens, was it the Nikon 70-200 as opposed to what I’m not sure :)
Yeah it’s the Nikon 70-200m f2.8 VR AFS etc etc etc. What little I’ve used it so far, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Mark wrote:
Must have been reasonably close I’d imagine, even if the 1.7 teleconvertor (Nikon?) ?
The teleconverter is also Nikon. As a tip, Berminghams are flogging a lot of teleconverters off cheap. They bought a lot of stock in for the Ryder Cup but they didn’t manage to shift them. I got it at the US dollar price :shock: And yup, the bird was pretty close, perhaps 6 feet or so away? I’m hopeless at distances :oops:
Mark wrote:
Only possible negative comment and its minor is that I’d prefer it without the vignetting, but as I say thats minor.
Another old habit :!: I probably won’t print it with the vignetting.
PeteTheBloke wrote:
Welcome to the wildlife forum! You won’t hear “catchlights” or “skin tone” mentioned here.
Thanks Pete :) As you can see, I left this one in colour becuase I wasn’t worried about skin tones. I did work hard on the catch light though ;)
PeteTheBloke wrote:
This is a great way to start off your bird photography. Maybe you’ll become a regular contributor? With shots like this you’ll be setting up a birds website and becoming an ornithologist.
I can’t see me coming a prolific bird shooter. But I have a nature panel to shoot for the camera club and I’m doing mine on bird portraits, so there’ll be a few more to come yet.
Thanks for the comments everyone.
stcstc wrote:
Jeeeezzzz Ciaran
you have far to much talent, share it out dude
First you produce all those fine smoking dudes :lol:
Now you start off with this as a first attempt
anyway, Love the shot, the shot is very sharp, did you do much processing or is that how sharp the shot was out of the camera
Also considering you have a teleconvertor on the lense the quality is superb
I have spent a little time trying to get shots like this and havent come close
Steve I’d love to take lots of credit for this shot, but I had a few things very much in my favour.
The 70-200mm is a SUPERB lens. The shots are just so sharp and in some cases maybe too sharp. I’m finding that shots without sharpening are almost as sharp as shots I was getting previously after USM. There is minor sharpening applied though. The lens itself is on the pricey side, but I regret not buying it years ago. Today was my first test with the teleconverter and apart from losing a stop and a half, the quality difference is negligible.
The next big thing working for me today was that this guy was just sitting there and completely relaxed and calm. He didn’t budge, no matter how close I got. So it was luck in spotting him and luck again in that he seemed glued to the rock :)
Nice one Ciaran… its always nice when ye get co-operative wild birds… doesnt happen too often I tell ye…! Keep posting Ciaran… its good to have ye here..!
Richie
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