First real attempt at taking some bird pictures

[wsmith96]

I just started a wildlife photography class and had an opportunity to snap some photo's at the instructors house last weekend. He had a few blinds built and showed us some techniques to get birds to visit feeding areas without them looking like feeding areas.

I took 52 photos and here are the five I thought were the best ones. Let me know what you think! I was using the instructor's 1.4 extender with my 70-200.

-w

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

You definitely aren't up North, we are having some very snowy weather.

 

[wsmith96]

You definitely aren't up North, we are having some very snowy weather.

No, I live in Texas where we have winter 2-3 days at a time. I was lucky last Saturday as it was 75. Sunday afternoon it was 27.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Wesley.
Great shots I really like no3, but couldn't make up my mind after seeing 4 and 5 if it was don't drink the bath water or don't do that we have to drink that!

Cheers Graham.

I just started a wildlife photography class and had an opportunity to snap some photo's at the instructors house last weekend. He had a few blinds built and showed us some techniques to get birds to visit feeding areas without them looking like feeding areas.

I took 52 photos and here are the five I thought were the best ones. Let me know what you think! I was using the instructor's 1.4 extender with my 70-200.

-w

 

[AlanF]

Wesley
Are they the full images reduced to 1024x683 or are they crops?

 

[wsmith96]

Hi Wesley.
Great shots I really like no3, but couldn't make up my mind after seeing 4 and 5 if it was don't drink the bath water or don't do that we have to drink that!

Cheers Graham.

Hi Graham,
luckily he drank the water before the bath. Of course, it is spring and he might be smitten enough to drink the bath water of his true love (for this season)!

Cheers, Wes

 

[wsmith96]

Wesley
Are they the full images reduced to 1024x683 or are they crops?

Hi Alan,
I did crop the images a bit to correct for framing, but I also reduced them to 1024x??? so I could post them.

-w

 

[sagittariansrock]

You definitely aren't up North, we are having some very snowy weather.

No, I live in Texas where we have winter 2-3 days at a time. I was lucky last Saturday as it was 75. Sunday afternoon it was 27.

Have you been to High Island for bird photography? I heard a lot about it, and am planning to make a trip in the coming weekends.

 

[AlanF]

Wesley
Are they the full images reduced to 1024x683 or are they crops?

Hi Alan,
I did crop the images a bit to correct for framing, but I also reduced them to 1024x??? so I could post them.

-w

The first couple are nicely composed, with the bird about 1/3rd in from the left. The last two are not, with the bird straddling the picture - it would have been better to have the bird on the left with some open space on the right. They are also rather noisy - the EXIF says that you were at iso1600 which is rather high for a Rebel. With relatively static subjects and short focal lengths of 200-280mm you would have done better to use slower shutter speeds and have some room for sharpening with a lower iso and less noise.

 

[Jeffbridge]

wow, amazing shots! Such beautiful colors & details...very nice!

 

[Northstar]

I think they're good shots. There are really only 3 images though as the first two and the last two are pretty much the same shot. ( a bit redundant )

As Alan mentioned, the framing could be a bit better on the last two...like he described.

I like the first one the best...sounds like you had fun!

One other thing....you could do some minimal editing to give it some more punch....like this 30 second edit done on my iPad.

Thanks for sharing Wesley....keep posting!

 

[AlanF]

Northstar
What app did you use on your iPad?

 

[Northstar]

Northstar
What app did you use on your iPad?

Alan...I usually use snapseed...but for this quickie i just used iPhoto.

 

[revup67]

@Northstar - not sure I agree with the "little bit of punch" and certainly don't intend any disrespect but it appears the overall color and more notably the feathers have been altered with an unnatural purplish hue. BirdseEye for the iPhone is currently housing over 100 of my images as well as the Mitch Waite group on their upcoming release of iBird Pro. Bird accuracy and their display is paramount as they are reference points for the 1000's of birders using these apps as field guides (I realize that is not the case here but the OP is aiming for wildlife photography). Many birds have similar overlaps such as the Townsend's Warbler, Hermit Warbler and the Black-throated Green Warbler. Enhancing color or saturation as an example could easily portray an incorrect species.

The bird at hand in the first 3 photos is a Tufted Titmouse should that help any and can be researched further here: http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/676/overview/Tufted_Titmouse.aspx (wish we had them here - we've only the Oak Titmouse (similar) and their call is excellent.

Personally, I enjoyed the Tufted Titmouse originals the way they are (display of accuracy and lighting is evenly balanced) and agree with the other poster on the Rebel as with most cropped sensors including the 7D image degradation sets in beyond ISO 800.

 

[revup67]

PS not intending to steal this thread, but here's a female Northern (red-shafted) Flicker. Note the pale colors which are accurate as the male version is far more colorful and with more contrast. One option that may also help is if your camera has a setting which is set to sRGB you may be able to change that to Adobe RGB. if you use LightRoom or Photoshop, sustain this color template during post process which offers greater color depth than sRGB and it may offer further accuracy. You can almost always set your monitor and printer up for the Adobe 1998 RGB color profile so that all match from camera to print.

Keep up the great work on your bird pics..very nice first attempt entry and parts of Texas are a real birding paradise.


Northern Flicker (female) Red-shafted Western by Revup67, on Flickr

 

[Northstar]

@Northstar - not sure I agree with the "little bit of punch" and certainly don't intend any disrespect but it appears the overall color and more notably the feathers have been altered with an unnatural purplish hue. BirdseEye for the iPhone is currently housing over 100 of my images as well as the Mitch Waite group on their upcoming release of iBird Pro. Bird accuracy and their display is paramount as they are reference points for the 1000's of birders using these apps as field guides (I realize that is not the case here but the OP is aiming for wildlife photography). Many birds have similar overlaps such as the Townsend's Warbler, Hermit Warbler and the Black-throated Green Warbler. Enhancing color or saturation as an example could easily portray an incorrect species.

The bird at hand in the first 3 photos is a Tufted Titmouse should that help any and can be researched further here: http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/676/overview/Tufted_Titmouse.aspx (wish we had them here - we've only the Oak Titmouse (similar) and their call is excellent.

Personally, I enjoyed the Tufted Titmouse originals the way they are (display of accuracy and lighting is evenly balanced) and agree with the other poster on the Rebel as with most cropped sensors including the 7D image degradation sets in beyond ISO 800.

Rev, I defer to your expertise regarding the color accuracy. You definitely know about a 1000 times more than I do about birds, and I've admired many of your bird images.

 

[wsmith96]

Wesley
Are they the full images reduced to 1024x683 or are they crops?

Hi Alan,
I did crop the images a bit to correct for framing, but I also reduced them to 1024x??? so I could post them.

-w

The first couple are nicely composed, with the bird about 1/3rd in from the left. The last two are not, with the bird straddling the picture - it would have been better to have the bird on the left with some open space on the right. They are also rather noisy - the EXIF says that you were at iso1600 which is rather high for a Rebel. With relatively static subjects and short focal lengths of 200-280mm you would have done better to use slower shutter speeds and have some room for sharpening with a lower iso and less noise.

Sorry for the delta time for the reply - had a business trip to take.

Regarding the cardinal taking a bath - it was a very overcast day and my goal was to almost stop motion, but not quite. I wanted the viewer to see her motion while she was taking her bath. I had to increase the ISO to 1600 in order to get the shutter speed quick enough for what I was intending to do. I usually limit myself to ISO 800 or under on my rebel, but in this case, I had to increase it.

After cropping the image to focus on the bird, I couldn't get the noise levels where I wanted them without making the picture look like a painting. I included the original picture here so you could see what I was starting with. I understand what you are saying regarding the framing, but in this case, I didn't feel that there was something interesting enough to include in the framing to put the bird off to the side. Perhaps I cropped too much. The Titmouse picture was much easier to frame than this one.

I also included another one I took of another female cardinal. The only drawback here is the yaupon that's in front of her, but I thought this one was decent. In this case, I have the same framing issue as the previous one, not much interesting to put in the picture to move the bird to the side. In this case, I put the eye in the upper corner of the "third."

Thanks for the feedback!

Wes

 

[wsmith96]

PS not intending to steal this thread, but here's a female Northern (red-shafted) Flicker. Note the pale colors which are accurate as the male version is far more colorful and with more contrast. One option that may also help is if your camera has a setting which is set to sRGB you may be able to change that to Adobe RGB. if you use LightRoom or Photoshop, sustain this color template during post process which offers greater color depth than sRGB and it may offer further accuracy. You can almost always set your monitor and printer up for the Adobe 1998 RGB color profile so that all match from camera to print.

Keep up the great work on your bird pics..very nice first attempt entry and parts of Texas are a real birding paradise.


Northern Flicker (female) Red-shafted Western by Revup67, on Flickr

Thank you for the encouragement and tips on color. My system is set up for sRGB, but it's easy for me to switch to adobe RGB and compare.

Regards,

Wes

ps - great picture of the Northern Flicker!