{"id":4793,"date":"2011-03-27T11:58:36","date_gmt":"2011-03-27T15:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/?p=4793"},"modified":"2011-03-27T12:00:19","modified_gmt":"2011-03-27T16:00:19","slug":"what-makes-a-great-bird-portrait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2011\/03\/27\/what-makes-a-great-bird-portrait\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes a Great Bird Portrait?"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tr>\n<td>ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>This image of a perched adult Bald Eagle was created with the Canon EF 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X III TC and the EOS-1D Mark IV.  ISO 400: 1\/500 sec. at f\/8 set manually after histogram\/flashing highlights check.  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<h3>What Makes a Great Bird Portrait?<\/h3>\n<p>Today we will take a closer look at the image above.  It was featured in a recent blog post<a href=\"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2011\/03\/22\/finally-finally-and-finally-in-homer-2\/\"> here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What makes this an outstanding portrait?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The subject is beautiful.  Even in Homer, adult eagles with clean white heads are tough to come by.<\/li>\n<li>The perch, with its yellow lichens, has character. <\/li>\n<li>The perch is angled.  Introducing diagonals into your images is always a plus. <\/li>\n<li>The soft blue background complements the subject perfectly<\/li>\n<li>The out-of-focus background does not have any distracting elements. <\/li>\n<li>The soft blue streaks at the bottom add to the image.<\/li>\n<li>The very soft o-of dark band at the top serves as a frame.<\/li>\n<li>The three quarters facing portrait shows off the bird and its breast feathers nicely.<\/li>\n<li>The 45 degree head angle is perfect for this pose. <\/li>\n<li>The feet and the talons are clearly visible. <\/li>\n<li>The soft light is quite pleasing.<\/li>\n<li>The image is sharp and properly exposed. <\/li>\n<li>The WHITEs are bright yet detailed. <\/li>\n<li>With the bird a bit back in the frame, the composition works well. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Can you add anything to the list?  All of the principles detailed above (and tons more) are discussed in detail in <a href=\"https:\/\/store.birdsasart.com\/shop\/item.aspx?itemid=19\">The Art of Bird Photograph II<\/a> (916 pages on CD only). <\/p>\n<p>Here is a challenge for eagle-eyed readers.  Can you find the difference between the image above and the nearly identical one that I posted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2011\/03\/22\/finally-finally-and-finally-in-homer-2\/\">here<\/a> originally? <\/p>\n<h3>Shopper&#8217;s Guide<\/h3>\n<p>Below is a list of the gear that I used to create the image above. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper&#8217;s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins.  Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.birdsasart.com\/shoppers-guide\/\">Shopper&#8217;s Guide<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/c\/product\/542293-REG\/Canon_2746B002AA_EF_800mm_f_5_6L_IS.html\/BI\/6633\/KBID\/7226\">Canon 800mm f\/5.L IS lens.<\/a> Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/c\/search?Ntt=canon+EF+Extender+1.4X+III&#038;N=0&#038;InitialSearch=yesBI\/6633\/KBID\/7226\">Canon EF 1.4X III TC<\/a>. This new TC is designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhphotovideo.com\/c\/product\/656378-REG\/Canon_3822B002_EOS_1D_Mark_IV.html\/BI\/6633\/KBID\/7226\">Canon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body.<\/a> The very best professional digital camera body that I have ever used.<\/p>\n<p>And from the BAA On-line Store:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/store.birdsasart.com\/shop\/item.aspx?itemid=20\">Gitzo 3530 LS Tripod.<\/a>  This one will last you a lifetime.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/store.birdsasart.com\/shop\/item.aspx?itemid=274\">Mongoose M3.6 Tripod Head.<\/a>  Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with lenses that weigh less than 9 pounds.   For heavier lenses, check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/store.birdsasart.com\/shop\/item.aspx?itemid=35\">Wimberley V2 head<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/store.birdsasart.com\/shop\/item.aspx?itemid=5\">Double  Bubble Leve.l<\/a>  You will find one in my camera&#8217;s hot shoe whenever I am on a tripod and not using flash.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/store.birdsasart.com\/shop\/category.aspx?catid=15\">Delkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card.<\/a>  These high capacity cards are fast and dependable. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> ngg_shortcode_1_placeholder <\/p>\n<p>This image of a perched adult Bald Eagle was created with the Canon EF 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X III TC and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400: 1\/500 sec. at f\/8 set manually after histogram\/flashing highlights check. <\/p>\n<p> What Makes a Great Bird Portrait? <\/p>\n<p>Today we will take a closer look [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-90","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}