I've been working the learning curve with ProCapture for about two weeks now and am still stuck on exposure, focus and framing but hope to move to what and where soon … Generally working from about 7am to 12pm local time and on days when I have some sun in the yard .. Today only one session and about 500 frames from which I have found 5 I like … maybe a few more when I examine them closer and ...less critically later …. Here are the five ….
As to Critiques .. with this technique I have problems with exposure as even across the bird shadows can be a problem this time of year … I usually try to expose to prevent blowing out the whites of the feathers, which on birds can be quite bright ...This often leaves the the file underexposed with the usual problems recovering. The bird is never in critical focus as once he leaves the perch he is moving away from the spot where I can focus on him … and if he flies toward me then he is very quickly completely out of focus with no recovery … I'm getting a bit better at judging framing and thus reduced cropping or leaving parts of the bird out of the frame … but it is still a work in progress .. all of these can be improved be spending more time with the birds and finding better locations to shoot from and hoping the birds are more cooperative (read more time required.) My “what” can be satisfied by selecting the bird/species I am interested in and better knowing his characteristics when approaching and leaving a site … the “where” is more difficult as for me it has to be where I can spend some time or get very lucky … not sure this technique lends itself to a quick decision and set up as I take a walk about. Currently, I do have a condition that keeps me in or close to the yard and less inclined to long walks … so the “where” is probably the approaches to the feeders more than around the feeders ...but those are branches that are more difficult to use this time of year ….
Anyway I hope this generates some critiques and discussion that I might benefit from ….
