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I have lost a number of excellent opportunities to get bird details from birds that have flown into a neighbor's window (Wilson's warbler and Western tanager) or drowned in a pool.  The detail plumage I could have gotten would be similar to what you get on the net from banding sessions. 

I want to set up a postmortem "station" to photograph various aspects of birds found or given to me by neighbors.  It will be set up indoors on a workbench and a tripod.  My equipment...

Cannon EOS Rebel XL

70-300 1:4-5.6 or 18-55 mm

built in flash

Can anyone tell me which would be the better lens and what distance should I use and in general what the settings would probably be?

thanks,  Matt

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Latest Birds: Black-throated Green Warbler, Pine Warbler, Eastern Kingbird, Rufous-backed Robin, Crissal Thrasher

Probably the 18-55... Depends on what the minimum focal distance is for each lens.   The 70-300 may not let you get close enough to get much from the flash.

Try both..

Fraser

I would say you may be better off with a 50mm prime lens they are very good low level light lenses and a 50mm with a fstop 1.8 costs about $70 to $100  one of the sharpest lens that I used when I had my canon also you may find a macro lens would be very helpful

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My New Avatar is in memory of Nancy my darling wife of 10 years who passed away on Monday November the 16th 2009 after an illness

My photo gallery http://thekiwi.org/photography/index.php

you have the kit lens that sells with the Canon XL, that takes excellent macro shots...the 18-55mm... built-in flash  with macros don't work well as it burns out the photo...i think you will find, that 2 lights to the side, and one above will enuough. Target sells a light tent for about 50.00 with the white box, and lights. take a look at it and duplicate it with at home stuff for free....why spend if ya don't have to?

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http://whatbird.com/forums/photos/early_summers_birds/
IM: oldguyrich

A wee while ago I gave instructions on how to make a flash defuser that will elliminate what birdseye is talking about.

you can find it here http://www.whatbird.com/forums/forums/post/95815.aspx

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My New Avatar is in memory of Nancy my darling wife of 10 years who passed away on Monday November the 16th 2009 after an illness

My photo gallery http://thekiwi.org/photography/index.php

you did kiwi, but the added light to the side helps. and the problem with the flash, on that camera is if you get close, the flash from the builtin  flash is blocked by the camera itself.. he seems to want to take really close shots, from what i understand

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http://whatbird.com/forums/photos/early_summers_birds/
IM: oldguyrich

birdseye:

you did kiwi, but the added light to the side helps. and the problem with the flash, on that camera is if you get close, the flash from the builtin  flash is blocked by the camera itself.. he seems to want to take really close shots, from what i understand

As you stated it is true that is why there is a flash known as a macro ring which is used for close work

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My New Avatar is in memory of Nancy my darling wife of 10 years who passed away on Monday November the 16th 2009 after an illness

My photo gallery http://thekiwi.org/photography/index.php

yes, but as i said-- the setup he has will take amazing shots macro.. why spend money?  he can use the things he has and make great shots.. that is my point..( one of the real downsides once you get into DSLRS.. there is always something  bigger and better to buy, when most of the time  you have what you need right there in your fingers)...although the live view mode is normally useless on th XS, he can hook direct to the canon camera window, and manually focus while seeing the shot on  the computer monitor...making sure the shot is right on with DOF, focus,etc before he shoots...good luck Matt...

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http://whatbird.com/forums/photos/early_summers_birds/
IM: oldguyrich

You guys are great.  There is some stuff here I never knew (usual).  Now the million dollar question...  being colorblind I have no way of knowing.  If I use a neutral background and adequate lighting will the color not change so much from sunshine to artificial?  I wanted to do this indoors due to the brutal heat, but it would be a waste if you guys see the first picture and see noticeable artificial light.

 

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Latest Birds: Black-throated Green Warbler, Pine Warbler, Eastern Kingbird, Rufous-backed Robin, Crissal Thrasher

Matt:

You guys are great.  There is some stuff here I never knew (usual).  Now the million dollar question...  being colorblind I have no way of knowing.  If I use a neutral background and adequate lighting will the color not change so much from sunshine to artificial?  I wanted to do this indoors due to the brutal heat, but it would be a waste if you guys see the first picture and see noticeable artificial light.

If you want to use a neutral background use a green or blue screen by doing that you will be able to isolate parts of the image if you need to.

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My New Avatar is in memory of Nancy my darling wife of 10 years who passed away on Monday November the 16th 2009 after an illness

My photo gallery http://thekiwi.org/photography/index.php

Matt:

Now the million dollar question...  being colorblind I have no way of knowing.  If I use a neutral background and adequate lighting will the color not change so much from sunshine to artificial?  I wanted to do this indoors due to the brutal heat, but it would be a waste if you guys see the first picture and see noticeable artificial light.

There will be color differences, but you can deal with most of them by adjusting your white balance appropriately.  The only other thing would be to get the exposure right, so you get the maximum detail and don't wash anything out.  With a still subject, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

The green or blue background that Kiwi mentions will let you separate the subject from the background in a photo editor (provided the bird's plumage doesn't blend too much, of course).  You can then replace the background with whatever color or pattern you want.

The questions I have asked is due to the Western Tanager I showed in the quiz forum.  The bird was dead less than 5 minutes after the shot probably due to a broken back.  So here I sat with a very beautiful bird and am now in retrospect disappointed that I did not document the bird well.  I have seen some Cornell studies that I could very easily have duplicated had I taken the time and knew what to do.  I was also given a dead Wilson's Warbler who had just ran into a window (same neighbor).  What struck me about that bird was how incredibly small it was at only 4".  

Bottom line is I hope the dead birds stop coming, but not likely.  In the case that I get one I will be ready.  I assume that it is against the law to photograph dead birds as it implies they are in my possession.....

 

Totally unrelated, is there a way to get the number of views on a thread?  The reason I ask is that some pages of WhatBird show this information.  There are times where I prefer to write to the smaller group of participants.

 

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Latest Birds: Black-throated Green Warbler, Pine Warbler, Eastern Kingbird, Rufous-backed Robin, Crissal Thrasher

Matt:

Bottom line is I hope the dead birds stop coming, but not likely.  In the case that I get one I will be ready.  I assume that it is against the law to photograph dead birds as it implies they are in my possession.....

Matt photographing dead birds as far as I am aware is not illegal, however I do feel that the authorities would rather that you don't handle dead birds as they may fear an out break of West Nile. Just a thought

Peter

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My New Avatar is in memory of Nancy my darling wife of 10 years who passed away on Monday November the 16th 2009 after an illness

My photo gallery http://thekiwi.org/photography/index.php

Interesting, even though we are in a desert state we had the highest incidence (per 100k) of West Nile in the U.S.  I have latex gloves.  A good heads up. 

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Latest Birds: Black-throated Green Warbler, Pine Warbler, Eastern Kingbird, Rufous-backed Robin, Crissal Thrasher