I'm not sure I really understand your question, but I'll try to answer it anyway.


1. Your two photos are underexposed, it seems you needed a lower shutter speed. When I'm in a situation when I'm not sure where I'll be and how/what I'll be shooting, I set my 7D to full auto mode. It can be very useful.


2. Yes, white balance has a lot to do with it. Use AWB is you're not sure how to set it; but on a rainy day set the WB to "cloudy". This will help bring out better colors even on bleak days.


3. For Birds in Flight shooting f/2.8 is unnecessary, often bad. At f/2.8 many shots won't keep the entire bird in focus, especially with larger birds of prey. f/4-f/9 are the commonly used BIF apertures. If you're shooting at 1/5000, you need to stop down. Even for stopping the fastest action 1/1600 to 1/3200 is enough.


4. Nobody can bring out good colors in a bird from a picture that is cropped so far. Cropping like that immediately deletes detail from an image. These birds are barn swallows – very small, quick birds that can be very hard to shoot in flight, let alone in a rainstorm. If anybodytried to shoot a flying barn swallow at that distance at 200mm in a rainstorm, they wouldn't be able to bring out good colors too easily.


Quote Originally Posted by andnowimbroke
My big question is how do you guys keep the birds looking so good as far as color goes

(I, at least) select the best White Balance or Kelvin temperature that I can, avoid nasty shadows, and find situations where making a nice image is easier than average. Shooting songbirds in flight is enormously difficult. With a 200mm lens? More difficult. When they're far away and in a rainstorm? The chances of Arthur Morris or Alan murphy being able to make a good image out of that would be astronomical.


IMO Photoshop can improve a good image, but it can't create a good image out of nothing.


Looking at your images of the goose, bee, and dog in your bio it seems you don't have a problem with exposure (they're pretty well executed), but it seems like in this particular shoot you might have bitten off more than you could chew.


I hope I've (sort of) answered your question. I apologize If because of my lack of understanding your question I came off rudely; just trying to help.


Good Luck !


brendan