From time to time you will find posts about ways to improve your photography. Here is the first one. It was inspired by a recent encounter with a Sandhill Crane.
I usually associate these birds with winter and the fall migration in New Mexico, but we do have a population of them here in Florida. The other day it was kind of a sunny day and the light was from the side. I compensated for the inevitable shadow with a high ISO. ISO1600 to be exact, on my trusty Nikon D300. While I didn’t eliminate the shadow, it is acceptable. Withou resorting to a flash I used the high ISO to prevent the left of the head from being completely black.
The second “trick” to this picture is have as much depth of field as possible in order to keep that long bill and the eyes in focus. You MUST get the eyes in focus, so get your focus lock on an eye and then adjust depth of field for the bill.
The last trick to the shot was getting the background “clean” and clear of stuff. There was a light tower in the background and by moving just a few inches it was gone and I had this creamy background.
The last was waiting for the Sandhill to stop eating and take a look in my direction!
Got it? Click it!
