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Bob Pelkey | all galleries >> Birds Making a Living in Florida >> Mallard >
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19-FEB-2008 Click image to return to gallery

Anas platyrhynchos

Mallard at my residence
Fort Myers, Florida USA

Nikon D80 ,Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED AF-S VR Zoom
1/320s f/5.6 at 300.0mm iso1600, with flash full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Glen Allen24-Feb-2008 11:51
Thnx Bob... I went thru a lot of your pics and noticed that the ISO was what I would deem extremely high (often 1600). I seldom shoot at 800 (mostly 400). If you find yourself using a flash a lot with a long lens you should look at getting a "Better Beamer" which will increase your flash effectiveness at longer distances. This needs to be order on line, as they do not sell retail, check to see if there is a model for your flash (sorry i'm a cannon user) but a buddy uses it with his Nikon gear no problem. I don't post my exif data, i guess i should, but this pis was shot at : 1/4000 iso400 400mm @f5.6 bias 0 no flash day was partly cloudy http://www.pbase.com/gb_eh/image/93334932
Bob Pelkey24-Feb-2008 03:49
Thanks, gb_eh. The ISO in many of my images are indeed higher than I would like. I suspect that shooting in shutter priority mode (typically much faster than with this image) to capture some often quick moving birds is a major contributor to the ISO jumping beyond what you may perceive to be the norm. In addition, I am shooting with an accessory flash (SB-800) which I concede to not be completely familiar with and consider myself intimidated by as I am not very well versed on its features and functions just yet. I've noted that the high ISO is not always a detriment to a shot unless it was taken in low light conditions. In the case of many of the Mallard shots in this gallery, it was overcast with no sign of decent light until the next day when I had the opportunity to re-shoot. I didn't notice, but I would guess that the ISO remained high in the subsequent shots, especially as I felt more comfortable increasing the shutter speed as the lighting conditions were improved although again overcast. The bottom line here is that I may be misusing the flash. The flash was definitely firing until the near end of the shooting effort. I had the camera ISO set at 640, but the flash definitely took priority to that setting.