Green Bee-eater

[Sudipto Roy]

Canon 450
EF 100-400
ISO 100
Aparture 8
Shutter speed 1/320
Focal length - 390 mm
Location: Chintamoni Kar Bird Sanctuary; Calcutta
Date 7/3/2010

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice image. The eye contact is nice. You could have increased the ISO to 200, so the shutter speed of 1/640 would have helped to make the image sharper. Is this a big crop, as their is loss in the details. I would have liked some more space on top.
Look forward to more..

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I agree that you need a higher shutter speed while clicking bee eaters. Also, it is important that you get the sharpness right, else there will be less details in the bird. Apart from higher shutter speed, you can use a monopod, tripod or other such support to get sharp images. Is this a big crop? There is a hint of a branch on the top right corner. Avoiding that would have been better as that doesn't add to the image.

With bee eaters being small in the frame, one needs to give positive exposure compensation to get more details on the bird.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Sudipto Roy]

I appreciate the comments. Yes ISO could have been pushed up but I didn't have too long to react. Regarding the drumstick on the left hand side, had thought about cloning it out but ultimately forgot to do it.
I use spot metering for small birds. Do you think I should still push the exposure up one stop for small birds?

[Sabyasachi Patra]

The camera meter is programmed to render images as per the 18% gray. Also, the spot meter in your camera reads from about 3 degrees. So just spot metering won't solve your problem. Please refer to the following tutorials:

http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1970

You can also check the histogram in your camera after clicking the image and adjust the exposure compensation accordingly. Details in this tutorial:
http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2006

Cheers,
Sabyasachi
PS: Members need to login to view these tutorials.

[Mohan Raj]

Good pair of green bee eaters. I think the bird under the shade would have come out better with positive compensation or increasing the ISO. I would normally check the meter and histogram.

Sudipto, TFS.

[Bibhav Behera]

Nice image. Wish both were looking in the same direction. It would have been better if you had got the other one in the light too instead of the shade. Thanks for sharing.