Post your best bird shots!

[Bill W]

JJ....really nice capture of the Kestrel and the flycatcher ain't so bad either.


Here's my latest of the female Great Horned owl on her nest. I'm relatively sure the egg(s) hatched (last week), but I probably won't catch a glimpse of an owlet(s) for another 2 weeks or so.


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IMO it looks much better in flickr lightbox; http://www.flickr.com/photos/29409592@N03/5595513024/lightbox/


Looks like left overs on the left side of the nest.


Thanks for looking


Bill

[Joel Eade]

Bill, neat shot of the nesting owl, for some reason I thought all owls were all cavity nesters...thanks for sharing!

[Joel Eade]

American Goldfinch....!D MKIII 300mm 1.4TC


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[bob williams]

Joel, Great shot of the gold finch. I have several lesser gold finches that visit my feeders but have yet to catch any good shots on my props, but I have to admit that I have only impatiently tried a couple of times---been dealing with spring preps, yard cleaning bush trimming etc with several days of high winds and generally poor weather.--Anyway a question and a comment: When shooting with this setup, roughly how much are you having to crop? How about with your 500?


Only critique that I have is that this shot looks a tad oversharpened on my monitor---otherwise beautiful subject, background, comp and nice catchlight. I am envious.


Bob

[Bill W]

Thanks Joel....not the "best" IQ pic, but she

[Bill W]

Bob, (correct me if I'm wrong Joel) it's more than likely not your monitor....it's more the result of Joel using a flash.


It's called micro-contrast and it's (simply) caused by more direct light (flash) being reflected back to the sensor, enabling a more detailed pic of the feathers' micro-structure.


But hey Bob....I could be wrong and stand to be corrected by the more technically savvy members and/or Joel's explanation of the PP he used on the pic.


I've been reading up on using a flash(s), for the upcoming HB season, to capture more (ruby gorgets) iridescence of the Ruby-throated HBs and this is where I came across this term.


BTW Joel, another fine capture.


Bill

[Joel Eade]

.--Anyway a question and a comment: When shooting with this setup, roughly how much are you having to crop? How about with your 500?


Only critique that I have is that this shot looks a tad oversharpened on my monitor---otherwise beautiful subject, background, comp and nice catchlight. I am envious.


Bob
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Bob,


thanks for the comments, I usually end up cropping away about 30-40 % of the original full frame image on a small bird like this.


Keep in mind I am using a 1DMKIII (1.3 crop factor)with 300mm + 1.4 TC for overall effective focal length of 546 mm ( if I did the math right) and I am set up about 15 feet away for the small birds.


I don't own a 500 ( rented one last fall in Florida)


In my workflow I crop first, do all my image adjustments or whatever and then sharpen last. It's subjective of course and perhaps I went too far on this one but on my MacBook it looks OK. I keep in camera sharopening at it's lowest setting and if I use my best technique and the light is good usually I need only minimal sharpening settings. I have been using Genuine Fractals (only for it's sharpening, not enlarging) then I reduce the image (in CS5) to 800 pixels, then perhaps a touch of unsharp mask ( around 200% 0.2 pixels 5 threshhold and adjust percent to taste)


Joel

[Joel Eade]

Bob, (correct me if I'm wrong Joel) it's more than likely not your monitor....it's more the result of Joel using a flash.


It's called micro-contrast and it's (simply) caused by more direct light (flash) being reflected back to the sensor, enabling a more detailed pic of the feathers' micro-structure.


But hey Bob....I could be wrong and stand to be corrected by the more technically savvy members and/or Joel's explanation of the PP he used on the pic.


Bill
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Thanks Bill for the kind words,


I think you are right in that the flash does help to some degree with enhancing perceived sharpness by increasing micro-contrast. I am using low levels of fill flash most of the time because the days have been gray will a dull diffused type of light. I use a 580 EXII with the better beamer on a flash bracket so the flash is well above the barrel of the lens and usually have the flash set to ETTL around - 2 1/3 stops (more or less depending on the light needed) I always strive to keep my shutter speed as high as possible. My keeper images don't require a ton ofsharpening in post processing but they all require a little IMHO.


With nice light at the proper angle the flash isn't needed of course, in my back yard this doesn't happen too often.


Joel

[bob williams]

@ Bill, Thanks for the info, I have heard of that but it never crossed my mind and even if it did, I am not sure I would recognize it. Thanks again for the reminder and lesson.


@Joel, Thanks for the info. I am still trying to get the hang of my 500---But even at 20-25 feet I end up cropping about 30%. Of course---some say i crop to tightly, but I just really like the portrait style look. though I use my flash and better beamer alot with hummers, I havn

[Joel Eade]

The oversharpened comment was intended more as information for you rather than a critique. Your shots are almost always perfect, so when I saw this, I thought maybe you had changed the way you uploaded--which has created problems for me in the past --Anyway, it was just for information purposes on what I saw on this end---I hope you took it that way.


Thanks again for your explanations, they are always helpful.


Bob
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Bob,


No problem at all ... I looked at the Goldfinch on my desktop at work and it DOES look a tad over-sharpened on that monitor .... I didn't change my uploading method but probably went just a touch too strong with the unsharp mask at the very last step prior to saving as a jpeg. As I mentioned, I don't own a 500 but I would suggest trying to get a little closer, even 5 feet might make a big difference on small song birds. As far as cropping goes ... I like close up portraits as well because you can see detail that normally is not visible from a distance ... it is more dramatic and interesting to me. I do strive to use the rule of thirds when cropping and try to avoid square images, I like 3:2 size images.


Joel