Post your best bird shots!

[Richard Lane]

Joel, Thanks for addressing each one of my questions!


Your contribution to this thread is greatly appreciated. I was using a 300mm lens with a 1.4X extender (420mm) and I put 2X in my post by accident, so I will edit my original post. Your concerns regarding the extenders impact on AF and IQ are duely noted. I

[Joel Eade]

Richard,


I imported your last image into CS5. Looking at the bird, the front edge of the wings are clipped (ie overexposed) but the rest of it is good. With BIF make sure you use manual mode and expose just for the subject and not the background.


I also did the following


1. an adjustment layer for Levels adjustment


2. shadows/highlight adjustment


3. 2 rounds of smart sharpen filter 180% 0.4 pixel radius


4. noise reduction on the background


5. crop to get the bird out of the center


Hope you don't mind me messing around with your pic, but I think it helped some to bring out detail





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[Richard Lane]

Thanks Joel, it looks great! No, I don't mind at all. I don't have Photoshop but it's something that I would love to learn how to do.


I will post 2 Screen Shots which also contain the Histograms. The first one is the original, and the 2nd is after I tweaked it in Aperture.


Both are Un-cropped.






[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/53022431@N03/5185424091/][/url]





After post processing: If a setting wasn't used I closed the feature, but you should be able to compare the two.






[url="http://www.flickr.com/photos/53022431@N03/5185450741/][/url]<span style="font-size: 11.6667px;"]


In reality the field in the picture looks more like the 2nd one than the 1st one.


<span style="font-size: small;"]Comments are welcome by all,


Rich

[Joel Eade]

Richard,


On the original you can see on the histogram that almost all the data is pushed to the left, this means that the image is (in general) underexposed. This definitely reduces the ability to get maximum detail. There might not have been anything you could do if the light was low. You could have tried a higher ISO and lower f-stop. Usually I take "test" shots and check the histogram if I can. You want more data pushed to the right side without going to the edge. The image on the LCD may even look a little washed out, but if you do this you

[Joel Eade]

Here is an example where you can see the histogram pushed away from the left with some data over to the right but not clipped.





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[Richard Lane]

<span style="font-size: 11.6667px;"]Hi Joel,


The light was varying, in out of the clouds all afternoon. I certainly could of used ISO 800. I was also using a Circ. Pol filter which loses a 1.3 stops and may explain the slightly blue color in the original that you had noted. I'm torn between not clipping the whites and underexposure, (great example) so I'll try pushing the histogram to the right more, without clipping the highlights. I do that with white uniforms too. The 7D does have highlight alert, but I have it turned off, so I'll give that a try as well.


I always shoot in RAW, so I'm onboard with that too! Thanks about the TIFF tip, I was aware about it, but I haven't been saving in TIFF. I didn't see any large BIF today, so I guess I had beginners luck previously. It was very windy today, probably about 25mph so, I guess they were all hiding.


Thanks Again Joel and<span style="font-size: 11.6667px;"]have a Great Night,


Rich

[HDNitehawk]

Maybe not the "best" but I thought it was a good catch.


Two adult eagles just battled an Osprey. The baby fled to the ground. After the battle they came in and hid the baby in the bushes.


5D MarkIi, 500mm F4L...and croped





[View:http://community.the-digital-picture...neric/utility/]

[Joel Eade]

This an Egret, taken in early Sept. in Florida


1D MKIII


500mm f4L + 1.4TC


f/10


1/1250


iso 400


manual mode


evaluative metering


processed with ACR and CS5





[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/15/0474.343V1216.jpg[/img]

[JJphoto]

thanks Joel for all your informative posts, really appreciate it.


BTW, may I ask how to post screen shot? thanks!

[Kayaker72]

Hi Everyone.


I love this thread. Great pictures everyone.


I hada littletime in Florida a week ago, but here are a few that I think now qualify as "my" best bird photos. All shot with a Canon 7D and the 100-400L:


400 mm, ISO 400, 1/1000th, f/11....this picture represents my first real attempt at post processing. The original was underexposed on the Osprey but perfectly exposed for the clouds. I've adjusted brightness, contracts and "mid-tones"


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/800x0/__key/CommunityServer-Components-UserFiles/00-00-00-46-64-Birds/Osprey-2.JPG[/img]


360 mm, ISO 400, 1/1000th, f/11


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/800x0/__key/CommunityServer-Components-UserFiles/00-00-00-46-64-Birds/Pelican-1.JPG[/img]


250 mm, ISO 400, Exp Comp+2/3, 1/1000th, f/10...this may be my entry into Assignment 14....still debating.....


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/800x0/__key/CommunityServer-Components-UserFiles/00-00-00-46-64-Birds/Bird-1.JPG[/img]


400 mm, ISO 400, 1/1250th, f/13


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/800x0/__key/CommunityServer-Components-UserFiles/00-00-00-46-64-Birds/Sandpiper-1.JPG[/img]


Thanks for viewing and C&amp;C are welcome....