Teach_Yourself_Photoshop_Elements_2

PHOTO CLINIC

02

The aperture

used is wide

enough to suitably blur

the background

01

Good use of

technique

means the bird’s

whole body is in focus

Stephen says “I’ve been trying to photograph this

woodpecker in my garden for several weeks now,

but it rarely settles for more than a few seconds

before flying off, so eventually I decided that my best

option was to set the camera up inside the house,

and shoot through the French windows. I mounted

my 5D Mk III with 100-400mm lens on my tripod

and attached a cable release. To obtain the correct

focusing distance, and to stop the autofocus system

from ‘hunting’, I autofocused on the coconut shell

and then switched to manual focus. The bird’s

movements are extremely rapid, so to capture a sharp

shot I selected a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec at f/5.6,

which meant I had to bump up the ISO to 800, and

used a focal length of 400mm. In post-processing

I cropped the image at little, reduced the noise and

sharpened it.”

We say “Well done, Stephen – you’ve done a really

good job of photographing a notoriously shy and

skittish bird. Your composition is strong, with the

woodpecker placed on the right of the frame, and

your aperture is ideal for this kind of shot – f/5.6 at

400mm is wide enough to blur the background, but

with enough depth of field to keep all of the bird in

sharp focus. Pre-focusing on the coconut shell was a

good move too, as your focusing is spot on. My only

criticism is that the shot looks too dark – it’s under-

exposed by about a stop, so increasing your ISO to

1600 would’ve fixed this. However, we can easily

brighten things up in Elements! First, I’ve applied a

slight crop, then I’ve brightened the image, and I’ve

also boosted the colours both globally and selectively

• see the walkthrough for the details.”

Canon EOS 5D Mk III

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM

Aperture f/5.6

Shutter speed 1/1000 sec

Woody

BY STEPHEN COSTIGAN