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Today’s featured shot from Bajadreamer has lots for us to learn from. First, take a good look at his image below:
Although he tells us right in the title, “Not a composite”, it’s hard to believe. It certainly looks like one of those images where three different shots were combined into one, but not so. Here’s his description:
” This is an image I took in Scotland at Alan MacFayden’s hides. These are Eurasian Jays. No, this is not a composite or GIF shot. All 3 of these birds were in the frame at the same time. Because I was shooting at f/11 with a 200 mm lens, the BG is not blurred and is a little distracting. I had to put up with this to try to get all the incoming birds within the DOF. Anyway, shot at 1/4000, ISO 2500, EC of -1.3 (can you believe that Scotland was “too sunny” during our visit?)”.
Let’s unpack this a little:
- He was purposely trying to get multiple birds in the same shot. He must have recognized that this was a possibility as he observed the birds coming in.
- He recognized that the birds tended to come in from the left, so he reframed his shot that way (typically one would tend to place the post the birds are flying to in the center).
- He knew that the birds might not all be on the same focal plane (equal distance from the camera) so he set his Aperture to ƒ/11, which has a wider Depth of Field (DOF). This increased the chance of getting multiple birds in focus, but was so wide it also included the background which distracts a bit. A good trade-off, though.
- He shot the BIF at 1/4000th of a second, which assured him the action would be stopped.
- He set his Exposure Control (EC) to -1.3, which decreased the amount of light admitted (because it was too sunny in Scotland!).
The result is a stunning shot! Congratulations to Bajadreamer for setting his camera up for success! Congrats too for getting caught up on all your 2025 pics!
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