Post your best bird shots!

[Richard Lane]

Denise, I noticed that it looks like you stepped up your bird shots quite a bit, you have some really beautiful, colorful, and sharp shots on the previous page. Keep up the great work!


Joel, Your shots are extraordinary! Once again, very sharp, beautifully composed shots with clean, creamy backgrounds!


Jayson, that was very observant of you, I didn

[Fast Glass]

Hi Jason, if you want a birding only lens the 400mm f/5.6 is far superior to the 300mm f/4. The AF is quicker and you don't need as many extenders, extenders GREATLY affect AF also. Bare it's sharper and handles extenders better. The 300mm is more versitile with it's IS and wider aperture but since you are stacking extenders you would be better off with the 400mm.


John.

[ddt0725]

Thanks, Rich! I figured it was time for me to step it up some! Especially with all the beautiful shots posted here!!


Here are a few from Friday, quite a large amount of cropping done since I was quite a distance away but I think they are still ok.

[Joel Eade]

Nice waterfowl Denise... the first one especially....see if you can use the shadow/highlights adjustment to bring out some detail in the momma goose's head and eye.


Here's a Cardinal from this afternoon (in the rain of course)....


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[bob williams]

@ Joel, Great job as usual on the cardinal, ---The bird really stands out against the dark background. Did you use fill flash on this one?


@ Denise, Very nice job on the Canadian and baby. But I agree with Joel, a little adjustment on Momma

[ddt0725]

Thanks for the compliments and advice! I haven't had any time to learn a thing in CS5 since I got it and I know this is an easy process to do but...i opened up the program just now to figure out how and well, I ended up just closing the program back up! I'll learn how to do something in it someday! [:S]

Denise

[Bill W]

Jayson....nice pix. I would have liked to have seen the meadowlark cropped a little more off center, but it's a good capture of a bird I rarely see.


Joel.....to be honest Joel, I've run out of superlatives for your BYBs. I'm going to have invest in a Thesaurus before I can con't commenting on your pix. Also, don't comment on the wx....since I've rtned from FL (week ago Sunday), I've had one blue sky to shoot in and abnormally chilly temps; I'm still wearing my ski parkah when I go to shoot the GHO in the swamp. [] This week's wx; gray, cool and wet.


Denise....nice goose family moment pic. I second Joel's advice and will add a point of my own (for what it's worth); w/relatively static dark headed, dark eyed birds I focus on the birds eye (all birds' eyes are my focal point), not only to ensure crispness of the eye, but to establish proper exposure so the viewer may see details of the eye and it's surrounding head area. Yes, this can cause major conflicts in exposure w/other sections of the pic, but they're not the subject and can more readily be corrected w/out damage to the focal point.


BTW Denise.....I haven't seen one Oriole at my new, Oriole specific feeder [] They con't to visit my seed and suet feeders.


Bill

[Bill W]

female Hooded Merganser


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Opinions wanted; I'm trying the black border around my bright background shots that are posted onto white backgrounds.....is this an improvement for the pic or does it matter one way or the other?


Thanks for looking and expressing your opinions.


Bill

[Joel Eade]

Bill, I think the black border suits this particular image...it brings out the darker tones of the bird nicely, but I am not sure about using it on every image with a light background.

[Joel Eade]

@ Joel, Great job as usual on the cardinal, ---The bird really stands out against the dark background. Did you use fill flash on this one?l

Thanks Bob and yes I used the 580EXII with the better beamer at - 3 stops (ie "fill flash")