Jeff's twig

[Dave_S]

Following the successful use of Stan's suggestion, of placing a twig/branch near the bird feeders in the garden, to produce more natural looking shots, the suggestion was enhanced by Jeff, who suggested using a moss/lichen covered twig/branch.

So, here's one using a moss/lichen covered branch, that I cut from one of the Lilac trees in the garden.

Sorry that its another Great Tit, but he was only one willing to perch on the new branch.

To improve the background, over the one in my 'thread' "Stan's twig", I attached the branch lower down the feeder stand, and set the tripod higher, to avoid the bright patches of daylight showing through the hedge.

Such a simple idea, to use artificially placed 'props', to give a more natural look to my garden bird shots, so thanks to Stan and Jeff for their advice.

It just goes to show that you can "teach and old dog, new tricks"

Dave
Great Tit_29 8 14 by Dave_S2, on Flickr

[the black fox]

Re: Jeff's twig

and the next lesson goes ,check your histogram to stop blowing out the whites rofpmsl

[Nathaniel]

Re: Jeff's twig

An excellent idea of Jeff's with the twig and the moss etc. Can't see that it is a "stage prop"!

[Dave_S]

Re: Jeff's twig

Indeed Jeff, as an experienced astro-imager, who works with the histogram all the time, to ensure that the Black Point is not 'clipped', and the white end is not at saturation point, with pixels 'flooding over' into adjacent pixels, I should know better.

Underexposed detail is recoverable, whereas over exposed detail, is gone forever.

I must learn not to trust the evaluative metering on the 5D3, when there is a large dynamic range.

BTW, to show that "slight of hand, deceives the eye", or something like that , here's the whole picture.

Can we ever believe that some of the bird shots we see posted of Flick and forums,, aren't 'setup', like this one was.

Dave

[Dave_S]

Re: Jeff's twig

Here's the Histogram, and it has exceeded the White Point, as the bird image displays.

Note to self: remember to check the Histogram in-camera, and apply exp comp as necessary.

Here enddeth the lesson.

Dave

[the black fox]

Re: Jeff's twig

indeed where its possible i would imagine that well in excess of 50% are if you like managed shots ,or set up whether it be a few twigs or rocks as props ,a bit of seed or peanuts spread to entice the birds in ,or as i do quite often get to know where the birds will be at a given state of the tide and tuck myself in ready a hour or so before .sometimes on walkabout you do fall lucky though and that accounts for the other 50% but you do need quick reactions and a lot of awareness factor ,as my hearing is negligible i seem to have a heightened sense of movement perception yet jan can hear a bird from hundreds of yards away it works well as a team effort i.e we will often see and hear a bird separately at the same time using different methods weird but true .

coming back to daves hi-jacked thread there are various tutorials online about setting up stage managed scenarios and its easy to do and during the winter months my car boot will often be half full of props .and in all honesty the one prop i use most of all is my mobile diesel engined hide

[Dave_S]

Re: Jeff's twig

indeed where its possible i would imagine that well in excess of 50% are if you like managed shots ,or set up

That's my belief shattered Jeff, now I'll never be able to look at peoples bird/wildlife shots in the same admiring way again.

Its all good fun though.

Dave

[Bill53]

Re: Jeff's twig

You have captured a nice pose Dave.

Bill.

[Dave_S]

Re: Jeff's twig

Thanks Bill.

Dave

[wayne2418]

Re: Jeff's twig

Can we ever believe that some of the bird shots we see posted of Flick and forums,, aren't 'setup', like this one was.

Dave

That would be most definitely a NO.

[wayne2418]

Re: Jeff's twig

the one prop i use most of all is my mobile diesel engined hide

LOL, Jeff .... a bit of comfort as well ..

[Dave_S]

Re: Jeff's twig

That would be most definitely a NO.

Can I safely assume that you are completely convinced about that then Wayne.

BTW, as an aside, going back to the Histogram thing, I looked at the image histogram in-camera, and the 'blown out' white areas are not at all distinct on the camera histogram, but as you can see from my post above, they are when viewed in Photoshop's histogram window.

So, had I checked the shot at the time of taking it, I wouldn't have seen that the whites were blown out.

Dave

[the black fox]

Re: Jeff's twig

surely theres a flashing highlight alert you can switch on and off on the 5d3 .which gives a double check .whatever you do your never going to get perfection anyway .thats why i like the spray and pray of the 1D series one of a burst will come out just right

[Dave_S]

Re: Jeff's twig

surely theres a flashing highlight alert you can switch on and off on the 5d3 .which gives a double check

There could well be Jeff, but means that I will have to read the manual.

Dave

[AndyMulhearn]

Re: Jeff's twig

There could well be Jeff, but means that I will have to read the manual.

If it works like the one on the 7D then it's a little bit of a mixed blessing. The problem on the 7D is that the display is driven by the small jpeg embedded in the RAW file and it's a bit oversensitive to blowing the highlights. So you can see blinkies on the camera when the re-processed raw file is actually fine. So I tend to look on a little bit of blinkie on the display being OK but a large area of it is suggestive of having actually blown the highlights.

Of course I could always learn to read the histogram but I suspect it suffers from the same possible flaw...