Crimson Sunbird

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Wish I had more eye contact... I have other angles, but this image is one of the sharpest
Shot in the garden of my place close to Karnala bird sanctuary, Maharashtra.
Camera Model Name Canon PowerShot SX10 IS
Mode Shutter priority
Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/125 (should have been higher i think)
Av (Aperture Value) 5.6
ISO Speed 100
Beginning to realise my mistake of leaving ISO to Auto.
Cropping done, no changes made in contrast/brightness/saturation
Please comment, thanks for looking

[AB Apana]

There's a lot of shake in this image. It's an interesting record shot of a lovely bird.

Apana

[Mrudul Godbole]

Hi Abhishek,

Agree with Apana about the shake. To avoid shake you can use a monopod or try different techniques while photographing to minimise the shake as much as possible.

Keep posting..

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Abhishek,
Your camera has a 20x optical zoom ie. from 28 - 560mm. The normal thumb rule is that you ought to click at 1/focal length and that means 1/560. You have image stabilisation. If it helps in reducing vibration by one stop, then that means at least you have to photograph at 1/280.

These small sunbirds are very active and to capture them you need higher shutter speed.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Thanks so much for the comments all, big mistake with shutter speed here, I think I must have clicked without checking what the shutterspeed was. Here's one problem though:
When I need to use high shutter speed, I obviously need to increase ISO, but then noise increases. Does increase in exposure compensation (not very sure what it is called , the thing from -2 to 0 to +2 )help at such times? Also if you have no choice and click a dark image, can the details be recovered in pp? Or are these just drawbacks of a compact camera? Please help...

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Abhishek,
It is a fact that you have to increase ISO to get higher shutter speed with aperture remaining constant. You will definitely get more noise at higher ISOs. A positive exposure compensation helps. The major problem in noise happens in the shadow areas. So give a positive exposure compensation +1/3rd, +2/3rd EV depending upon the situation to ensure that your histogram remains to the right. If your histogram touches the left bar or frame then the blacks get underexposed. If the histogram touches the right then the whites lose details.

Check the image preview. If there is a blinking highlight, that means a part of the image is burnt. If only a small part of the image is blinking then it can be recovered. So always aim for the histogram to be very near to the right of the frame. While processing you can recover. That would control the noise better.

You can recover details from a dark image during pp but the noise will be much higher. If it is a little underexposed ie. about 1/3rd stop, then it is ok.

Compact camera has a smaller sensor and lot of pixels are packed into it. So the low light performance of the compact cameras are not that good.

I always carry my camera manual with me. You never know when you may need to refer to it. To start with one needs to read the manual end to end. Believe me, it really helps. I have seen lot of people with expensive compacts and DSLRs who have never read their manual and I have hurriedly given them operating instructions before entering the forest gate.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Thank you so much for your time for typing that huge reply post! It really is helpful. Ive read the more important looking parts of my manual, and will make it a point to read the whole thing.