White Bellied Woodpecker

Hello All,

This is my 1st post here and Im relatively new to the world of wildlife photography although ive been a birder of the last 2 yrs now. Would love learn from everyone around and i'm expecting to enhance my photography skills so that i present the best in a format that is appreciated by all.

Here i'm posting the best catch from my Bandipur trip , the White Bellied Woodpecker.

Please critique the shot.

Thanks
Supreet

Supreet,
Welcome to IndiaWilds!

Please introduce yourself in the Who's who section so that others can know more about you. Who's Who - Indiawilds: Land of the Tiger. Conservation, Wildlife Photography, Communities

You forgot to mention the camera, lens, ISO, shutter speed, aperture and amount of crop if any. That will help in giving a better critique.

It is good that you have been a birder before starting photography. Your birding skills will come in handy. Knowledge of bird or animal behaviour enhances the chances of capturing a nice natural history moment.

In this image, sunlight is falling on the head of the woodpecker but the rest of the body is in shade. The eye contact is fine. The image is a bit soft. You can reduce the contrast. Which software are you using to process/resize the image?

Will be able to provide better critique if you provide the details.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Hello Sabyasachi,

Thanks for the prompt reply and info , heres the exif data :

Camera Model Canon EOS 7D
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/500
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
Metering Mode Center-Weighted Average Metering
ISO Speed 400
Lens EF70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
Focal Length 300.0mm
Image Quality RAW
AF Mode AI Servo AF
Drive Mode High-speed continuous shooting


Process : Canon DPP & Photoshop CS 4
Resize : Riot (radical image optimization tool)
Crop : around 40 %

Thanks
Supreet

Supreet,

If you are using DPP, then check the focus point. It is important to get the focus right. And since it is a large crop, any deficiencies will get magnified. Critical focus on the bird is important. You may need to use the manual focus to get the focus right. In large crops, the AF sensor falls on a large area. So it can focus on any portion of that. The result is that you wont get critical focus.

Since you are using a rather small lens, it would be difficult to get these birds close without cropping. At times, they may appear close by, however most of the times it would be a significant crop.

If it is a large crop it would be difficult to get details in the subject. You need to be extra careful in terms of technique. Pl see the tips section.

Since the subject is mostly in dark, it becomes important to expose correctly. The shadow portions will have more noise. So track the bird till it reaches a well lighted portion of the tree bark and then shoot.

I don't use photoshop, so can't comment about the radical image optimasation tool. Photoshop geeks here can comment better on that. :)

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Thank you so much for the valuable info , will keep them in mind next time when im shooting.

-Supreet

Nice image .This is a male. Like many other birds this species is known to have favourite haunts which can be easily spotted and if you hand around you will surely get better images.

TFS
Roopak

This was a nice sighting Supreet..memorable too, beacuse it was my first in almost 40 visits to bandipur! Was tough to photograph though, with the light being harsh:( We'll catch up this weekend and see if something can be done in regard to the processing:)

BTW, welcome to indiawilds and do keep posting and commenting regularly..you'll learn a lot.

Bhargava