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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

Eastern Yellow Robin

Photographed by

Angela Farnsworth in Jun, 2021 and uploaded on Mon 19th Jul, 2021 .

Resolution

1800x1669

Viewed

446

47181

Comment

Here is another photo of the Eastern Yellow Robin that I thought I would see if this image is better than the image that I uploaded earlier in New Images 47165 that is marked for permanent removal. This image has all of the bird in it and would like some feedback regarding this. Most of the images that I took at O'Reilly's in Lamington National Park are in a rainforest environment where the light is quite low and my Canon lens only goes down to f4.5 but when my lens is extended to 400mm it drops down to f.56 making it quite a challenge to get a sharp focus and I try to concentrate on the eyes. The background is always really grainy and I have been fixing this up in Lightroom using the noise reduction tab. If I was to have all of the bird in focus then I would have to use a higher f-stop right? I have not been using any sort of flash nor do I use a tripod. I also use in Lightroom the Clarity tab as well as the Texture tab to give the bird more definition. Am I better off getting a 70-200mm lens with a f2.8 and then doing a much bigger crop?

Equipment

Canon 1DX 100-400mm lens

Location

O'Reilly's Lamington National Park, Queensland

Keywords

adult

This image is not available for download.

Glenn Pure

2021-07-21 12:18:09

Hi Angela, the sharpness on this photo looks fine in the parts in focus so you I can't see any issue with technique and a tripod should be unnecessary at 1/500 second (by the way, it's a good idea to include the exposure details when you post, as well has how much the photo has been cropped: some of this can be found in the EXIF information but crop details can't be). I note the high ISO of 20,000 which explains the noise although quite good for such a high ISO. Selectively brushing away noise in the background (avoid the bird) should deal with this. If you apply strong noise reduction to the bird, you are likely to smudge out the detail. You could also trial specialist software such as Topaz deonise AI or Neat Image which will preserve detail while removing noise. Another option is to lower your ISO to reduce noise. This will need a lower shutter speed. With practice and by taking a burst of shots, it's often possible to get good, sharp photos at 1/100 second or less. For example by propping your lens against a tree to stabilise it. Your lens image stabliliser will help a lot so make sure this is turned on (setting '1' for that lens).

Yes, if you want more depth of field, you will need to use a smaller aperture (larger f number). I see the aperture for this was f/5.6. The amount in focus looks reasonable to me as the head and eye are sharp as well as the side of the bird. Only the underside, legs, rump, rear wing and tail are not sharp. Another solution is to move back a little. In that regard, I personally find the bird too big in the frame. Depending on the setting and background, a more visually appealing result can often be obtained by having the bird smaller in the frame. Take a look at some really good bird photography (such as on the BirdLife Australia Photography Awards website: past winners and shortlisted entries). You should get an idea what I mean from that. In this case, I'd look for more space on the left and right, and perhaps below. Some negative space above the bird could potentially be cropped out.

Overall, I find the colour a little too saturated in the photo, for example the yellow on the bird. It has probably resulted in the red colour channel clipping/blowing and produced the lack of detail apparent in the yellow area immediately below the eye. Similarly, the thin white area below the eye also looks blown and lacking detail in parts. This can be corrected usually at the RAW processing stage. You can find a video I made on our website on using canon DPP software. The steps you will need to follow will be similar in Adobe Camera Raw which is included with Lightroom (the interface will be different but the tools much the same).

In spite of these 'criticisms', I think the photo has potential, particularly if you have more frame around the bird so the crop can be loosened. It's good that you have most of the visible parts of the bird in focus and a clear view of it in its habitat. They are good subjects to work with as they often sit still and 'cooperate' with photographers unlike many other small birds.

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	213/283 in Critique Gallery
	71/1299 by Angela Farnsworth
	124/239 of Eastern Yellow Robin
	797/1255 of Australian Robins
	22578/34530 Overall
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