While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

[Paulstw]

I don't know if Buzzards are like Vultures with respect to knowing when an animal is on it's last legs or not but during my climb I noticed this guy circling above so I quickly changed lenses to my very disappointing 75-300 and shot this.

It's cropped in a bit but I managed to save most of the details as the original is quite under exposed.


Buzzard by Campsie Photography, on Flickr

I've always wanted to get one of these 'in the wild' shots and all my Christmas' came at once yesterday.

[colin C]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

Well done Paul.

You have your first Buzzard shot under your belt. With birds in flight photography, if they are shot against the sky, the very brightness of the sky is telling the camera metering to under expose, to make the sky come out "right". You and I know that we aren't interested in the sky, so we need to over rule the camera's electronics and exposure compensation of +1.5 will generally do it. If the sky is dull, then +1, if it is very bright, then +2.

The more you nail the exposure, the less you have to correct and the cleaner the image with less digital noise.

[AndyL]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

An evocative shot. As Colin says, shots against the sky are always difficult, but as an alternative to his method (which is perfectly valid) try )if you have a camera capable of doing such) shooting with centred point focussing, and spot metering on the bird, which will always bring out the details.

Onward to your next shot! Good luck.

[tesarver]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

Paul

Tom

[colin C]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

shooting with centred point focussing, and spot metering on the bird

Or, do it the way I do and take a greyscale reading for the ambient light, or use skin tones, or grass and use that as the manual exposure. That way, whether the bird is in the sky, against hedgerows, or on the ground, the exposure will always be right ......... until the light changes, then you have to measure again.

Lots of ways to skin dat cat.

[Nathaniel]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

Quite a nice shot & nothing wrong with the lens IMHO.

[Paulstw]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

Thanks everyone for the tips, I did have spot metering set ( i use it all the time) however I did quickly switch it to Av to just grab the shot. I was tracking the 3 birds circling, then as they passed back into where the light shone underneath them I shot. I had AF tracking on too, however sometimes it can really mess up is you slightly miss and hit the sky, it hunts around for a few secs then boom you're back in the game. They circled for about 3-4 times then glided off out of sight. Exposure compensation is something I haven't quite got around to nailing quickly enough, and probably due to me always shooting static objects or people, that's why.

Least I know now where to go to get them :) and only 5 mins from my house in the car.

[Hereford_EOS]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

Well done Paul

[Alan Campbell]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

To remove noise on the sky try running the Blur tool in photoshop over the background,zoom in on the bird and resize the blur tool to suit.
It actually makes a big difference.
I like the detail in the Buzzard.

Alan

[Paulstw]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

Taking on board the tips I have touched the original up a little and kept it close to the original picture.


Common Buzzard by Campsie Photography, on Flickr

First one was one of those excited, lets just lighten it and fire it out ones.

[paulr5604]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

Nice shots Paul the second one is my favourite out of the two there appears to be slightly more detail in the bird

[AndyA]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

Well done Paul, I like your 2nd version.

[digiman]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

Great shot. Should be well pleased with that,

Garry

[Paulstw]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!

Thanks folks :)

[tesarver]

Re: While I was up the hills I.....BUZZARD!!



Tom