Show your Bird Portraits

Beautiful, Alan. Thanks for sharing! Here is a bee eater, spotted Saturday in our local Zoo.
Greetings Andy

Hi Andy, I like the picture - and the bee-eaters; but at the risk of being considered pedantic - you might try to reduce the exposure and/or contrast a bit / pull back on the highlights... These bee-eaters have beautifully coloured plumage which doesn't optimally show in your picture with the bird in the bright sunlight - all its colours are in the upper part of the histogram causing them to loose some of their brilliance. Pulling back a little bit could enhance the brilliance of the birds plumage and lift your picture to an even higher level.
Hope you don't mind my giving this advice, certainly no offence intended...!
Wiebe.
 
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Berowne

... they sparkle still the right Promethean fire.
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Hi Andy, I like the picture - and the bee-eaters; but at the risk of being considered pedantic - you might try to reduce the exposure and/or contrast a bit / pull back on the highlights... These bee-eaters have beautifully coloured plumage which doesn't optimally show in your picture with the bird in the bright sunlight - all its colours are in the upper part of the histogram causing them to loose some of their brilliance. Pulling back a little bit could enhance the brilliance of the birds plumage and lift your picture to an even higher level.
Hope you don't mind my giving this advice, certainly no offence intended...!
Wiebe.

Thanks for the hint, Wiebe. Your comments are always welcome!
Here are two more shots, the first without any changes and the second with camera calibration set to "landscape" and the Gradation curve set to medium contrast. Our "Fächertaube" is BTW always sitting in her nest in Darkness (ISO 6400).CRF-1-30.jpgCRF-2-7.jpg
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
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I have a confession to make. For our big upcoming safari in November, I bought a Sony RX10 IV to accompany my 5DIV + 400mm DO II and my wife's 5DSR + 100-400mm II + M5 and 18-150 etc so we can both do birds and far away wild life with our favourite Canon gear but also have a compact wide range zoom at hand if the big animals come close and not have to change lenses. My current travel to the Far East has had me going through 6 airports in the past 5 days with another 2 this week and so I brought the Sony with me and used it for all the last 5 days postings (apart from the one old shot). No 8.8-220mm zoom has the right to be that sharp and CA free, as well as having low disortion, giving the 24-600mm FF equivalent, and the AF is spectacular. At isos of 500 and below it gives the 5DSR and 100-400mm II a run for its money. Of course my Canon gear wins out when comes to high iso work and the ability to AF in low light, which is essential for a lot of the time, but in reasonable light, you can do a lot with the 1" sensor. I bought a G3X 24-600mm equivalent when they first came out hoping to use it for travel. But, the lens was never up to it as was the AF for bird photography and cropping.
 
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Jul 29, 2012
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Congrats on your new acquisition.
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Berowne

... they sparkle still the right Promethean fire.
Jun 7, 2014
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The second has more oomph, but I don't mind the first if the colours reflect reality. Some people like to enhance colour saturation and vibrance, and it can look spectacular, but I am happy also with the genuine natural dull colours.
Alan, you are right and I understand the argument, to be as honest as possible, when showing the pictures.
 
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Thanks for the hint, Wiebe. Your comments are always welcome!
Here are two more shots, the first without any changes and the second with camera calibration set to "landscape" and the Gradation curve set to medium contrast. Our "Fächertaube" is BTW always sitting in her nest in Darkness (ISO 6400).

Hi Andy, nice shots again :). As these birds are at an average exposure level within the picture their colours come out very well (no matter which camera selection you use - that is more a personal preference).
When however the birds are in the full sun while background is in the shade, as with the bee-eaters, the camera's automatic exposure will "push" the sunny parts up on the exposure scale to avoid the shaded parts from getting too dark. In that case under-exposing in the camera or pulling back highlights in post-processing will help in showing the sunny bird in its full colour. So my earlier comment was only relevant for the picture where you had this high overall dynamic range to cover...
Please don't let my comments stop you from posting, as I really like your contributions! (y)
Wiebe.

P.S.:
Advice given in good spirit is useful and welcome. I got knocked into shape by a bunch of Dutch guys, and the Dutch are famous for being direct.
Similar to Alan's remark - I learn most from other photographers; looking at their pictures but also / especially from the comments they give evaluating mine...
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
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Thanks Click!
You are invited to also give pointers on what to improve btw...; seeing the proficiency with which you are taking your pictures, there must be some areas that you identify can be improved in mine :unsure:;)
Wiebe.
Your camera doesn't look quite level so a few degrees clockwise revolution! But, still a very nice shot.
 
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