Post Your Best Nature Shots!

[Bill M.]

Devsalvi: Ahh, I am at one with nature [] not really, I went to an indoor butterfly garden and part of me thinks that they are just used to having people walk among them, but they are difficult to shoot. I was chasing a particular one around for a long time but it would always fly off when I came near it.


George: I love the 5D II. I moved up from a 20D and it is world's apart in ISO performance. I would never even shoot over 800 ISO before and now I'm comfortable shooting at 3200 with minimal noise. I've always enjoyed the 100mm Macro, with the 20D I had a little more reach and now I have to get a little closer. I would love the 180mm Macro but I think I need a 16-35 II first. The 100 is very sharp, whether or not it's my sharpest I'm not entirely certain. I don't have one of the long primes that is on everyone's wish list but my 70-200 f4 IS is damn sharp.

[Jon Ruyle]

I went to an indoor butterfly garden and part of me thinks that they are just used to having people walk among them, but they are difficult to shoot.

Your experience matches mine: at an indoor butterfly garden, sometimes they just sit there. Sometimes they land on you. No problem at all getting close.

with the 20D I had a little more reach

On the other hand, the 5DII has the same pixel density as the 20D, so you can crop to get the same reach as the 20D and still have just as high resolution (8mp).


You can have your megapixels and eat them, too. Or something.

[Bill M.]

Jon, you are absolutely correct that I do, effectively, have the same reach as I did with my 20D. I'm just getting used to the wider field of view I have now, but I can crop to my heart's content, knowing I canstill get a decent print in the end...


George, your minimalist kit is somewhat similar to mine, I basically carry the 5DII with a 24-105 and the 100-400 to have a pretty good range. I should consider carrying the 500D as well....

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

I want to add these to the "Post Your Best Nature Shots."


It's a thread by itself here. http://community.the-digital-picture.com/forums/t/1059.aspx


American Avocet Courtship and Mating. Taken with 40D and 400 f/5.6L @ San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, highlight tone priority was used.


1. The foreplay...


f/6.3, 1/2000 sec., ISO 250, Exp. Comp. -2/3





2. The love making...


f/7.1, 1/2000 sec., ISO 250, Exp. Comp. -2/3





3. The cuddle after....


f/7.1, 1/2000 sec., ISO 250, Exp. Comp. -2/3





4. I'm done and I'm outta here....[img]/emoticons/emotion-2.gif[/img]


f/7.1, 1/1250 sec., ISO 250, Exp. Comp. -2/3





Thanks for viewing and I would really apprieciate your comments.


Nhut (Nate)

[Jon Ruyle]

Nhut (Nate),


Your last two posts are great. Your bird pictures have great composition, color and sharpness (and I know that a sharp lens is only the beginning of getting pictures with that look... I also own sharp lenses, but...)


You sure get out a lot. Maybe if I got results like you, I would, too []

Nhut (Nate)

Do you prefer to be called Nate, or Nhut?

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

My name is Nhut, I'm sure not too many people hereknow how to correctly pronounce it and no it's not "nut"[], so just call me Nate.


Here is what I did to theOsprey Imagebefore posting,

1. Crop - 3888x2592 to 3347x2281
2. Increase Exposure to +.50 in DPP (to brighten up the shadow, and eye)
3. AWB to Cloudy (It was a cloudy day)
4. Standard Picture Style to Potrait (this also brigthens up the shadows and the eye a bit)
5. Highlight from 0 to -4 (I did this because I want to bring back some of the details on the osprey forheadthat were lost when I increased the exposure +.5 in step 2)
6. Convert to JPEG and open in Photoshop CS2
7. I use the Magic Wand to select the yellow part of the eye and increase the Brightness to 30, Contrast to 15, and Saturation to 15 (If you selectively choose any area in the image it's best that you do it before resizing because the image is larger and you can do so with more accuracy.)
8. If I post at T.D.P. I resize to 750x500, on Photo.net it's 1200x800
9. Increase Brightness to 20 and Contrast to 10 to the entire picture.
10. Sharpening using Unsharp Mask function.

For 750x500 I use Amount 100%, Radius 0.2 pixels, I apply sharpening 4 times
For 1200x800 I also use Amount 100%, Radius 0.2 pixels, I apply sharpening 6 times
11. For Photo.net I also add the border
12. Save and post on web

I'm not a Photoshop Guru, I learn as I go and I learn by reading, viewing, asking questions in forums and trail/error.Each image has different work done to it, I don't have a set editingprocedure. I adjust/enhance to my taste and correct when someone comments.My #1 priority is to get it right the first time and use editing softwares to enhance the image.

Youprobably noticedthat I mentioned about the eye a lot. It is very important to get the eyein focus, brightand visible.If the image is missing the eye, something else has to be significant to take over for the missing eye.


I hope this answers some of your questions, and again I really appreciate your interest in my photography.

If you have time check out http://www.birdsasart.com/, lots of resources especially the bulletin archive.

Take care and God Bless

Nhut (Nate)

[Oren]

Ok, here is mine from yesterday:


It was heavily cropped from 4752x3168 to 1456x1280, then resized to 800x703 to fit this forum. Except the cropping and resizing, 0 (yes ZERO) PP was done.


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.22.41/IMG_5F00_0782.jpg[/img]

[George Slusher]

"Thanks for viewing and I would really apprieciate your comments."


Wow! Is that a sufficient comment?

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

Thank you George,


I went out to shoot some ospreys, most of the birds have gone to breed except this youngter. For this image I like how he holds the fish, looks like he's holding a hoagie.


Thanks for viewing and I really appreciate your comments and critiques.


40D, 400 f/5.6L, f/7.1, 1/1250sec., ISO 320, Exp. Comp. +1, highlight tone priority. The white bg is the overcast sky.


larger version: http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=9080703&size=lg

[Oren]

Hey Nhut, great shot as always... can you send me the original of this (above) picture? But please don't resize it. If the original is RAW, just convert it to jpeg - but please don't resize.


BTW, I was at a park yesterday and tried to shoot *flying* birds for the first time with my new 50D. 99% of what I got doesn't worth it, but I've got 1 or 2 reasonable (relatively speaking) pictures. All I've got right now is the 17-85, so I zoomed all the way in and tried to do the best that I could. Unfortunately, I did 2 serious mistake:


1. I put the AF on AI Focus instead of AI Servo (I was sure I was shooting with AI Servo)


2. After getting dark birds, I thought "well the problem is the sky so I might just switch to spot metering" - but today I read a little bit about bird photography and realized the mistake I did... there is no way that the spot metering will work with such small birds flying at damn high speed very high in the sky LOL [:P]





So Nhut (or anyone else who photograph birds), do you have any suggestions of what are the ideal camera settings for shooting flying birds high at the sky? (except to getting a longer lens lol)


As I see it now, I **guess** that I should use (I assume shooting outside with daylight):


1. Av mode


2. Evaluative metering


3. AI Servo


4. Adjust the exposure compensation to at least +1





But what about the aperture?


What is the minimal shutter speed needed to freeze the bird?


Should I turn on highlight tone priority?


Should I use continuous shooting or single?