Show your Bird Portraits

[Bert63]

So - this nest is three miles from the house, has been in use for 22 years, and weighs approximately 550pounds. The pair that share it traditionally have two eaglets per year.

The tree is in Deception Pass State Park and is located in such a way that getting close to it is impossible. Add to that the location itself sits in full shade until the sun pops over a hill and you get full mid-day glare until it slides behind the adjacent hill.

Great nest though.

 

[Click]

Wild drake woodie in peek breeding plumage.Yes the colors are really that vibrant in real life right now. EOS R with 600III. 1/1000, f/4.5 @ iso 1600. Thanks for looking.

Beautiful shot. Well done, Joe.

 

[Nat_WA]

Yet another pair of pictures of the egret from another day but at the same spot.
Which one do you like more? And why?

[...]

Hi Maximilian,
For me the second one works best, they're both excellent pictures - but I like the slightly softer tone of the second one better than the very high contrast of the first one - let it be clear that this is very much a personal preference though ...
W.

 

[Jack Douglas]

A great bird story.

The Most Dangerous Job: The Murder of America’s First Bird Warden

When the hunting of a profitable bird is outlawed, enforcing the law means dealing with armed and angry lawbreakers.

getpocket.com

Jack

 

[ISv]

It was nice seeing these in natural conditions of being in a tree, slightly covered by leaves, doing what they should be doing. Yesterday, I saw my first Blackcap. It wasn't artistically posed but I was ecstatic at getting any shot of it. And, a rear view is quite good because you can see the cap.

View attachment 189800

I wish they were less covered by leaves... Here I put some shots where one was well exposed but at ~14 meters away - too long distance for such a small bird.
The third one is from the same burst as the posted before (I didn't get a chance for a second burst) but differently PP.
And a photo of Cattle Egret from the same day - after the trial version of Topaz Sharpen AI - it's better than the original and what I got from PL3 but alas, there is no program that can repair my own mistakes! I really like the pose of the Egret! I knew it was going to jump down (there were two lizards fighting on the ground) but instead of changing the settings I was just staring at the scene!

 

[ISv]

Wild drake woodie in peek breeding plumage.Yes the colors are really that vibrant in real life right now. EOS R with 600III. 1/1000, f/4.5 @ iso 1600. Thanks for looking.View attachment 189803

Great shot Joe!

 

[Maximilian]

Thanks for you relpies, Valvebounce , Jack Douglas , AlanF and Nat_WA !

I really appreciate your feedback.

First of all, my question was maybe not precise enough as I was more focussed on the bird itself and not so much at the whole picture.
The egret was quite far away and even with 560 mm FL (100-400L II x1.4 TC) I needed to crop down to 1/3 of the original size.
As for the bright white bird I used spot metering. The first pic was way off and I had to push it by +1,67 ev., the second one by +0,33.
The rest of pp was almost the same. But it seems that pushing had some affect on the WB and the colours as the pics were taken just seconds one after another.
But you have confirmed my thoughts and why I was questioning

@Alan:
You are fully right, composition could have been better, but I wasn't looking at that and did just centre the bird.
@Jack:
You are right, #2 shows slightly more detail. I suppose the AF did it better or I had a firmer hand.
@Graham:
Yes the water reflection in the #1 is better. If you look at the branches you can see that the egret moved to the right and made the ripples itself.
@ Nat-WA:
Funnily to me it looks the opposite: #1 has some more contrast as the BG is darker and without green, but to me the tone is softer there.

@all:
I was looking at the pose of the egret.
In #1 I very much prefer the face, beak pointing a little bit more towards me. And especially more sun in the eye from the left.
Of course the water reflection is also superior here.
If it only had the sharpness of #2. (complaining on a relatively high level)
Somehow the colours in #2 are a bit more natural, but I also like the warm tone in #1.

 

[Click]

Very nice series, ISv. I especially like the second picture. Well done, Sir!

 

[Bert63]

More Harleys.

7D2 / 100-400L II w/1.4X III @ 560mm / F8 / 1/640 / ISO 200

 

[ISv]

View attachment 189754View attachment 189755View attachment 189756

Back Garden birds only now !
Keeping busy going back over old images to see if latest post processing improves images

RGB49 I just notice the third bird from above in your post: Hedge Accentor! Where did you take that photo? I'm asking because I was looking for this bird last summer in Europe and didn't find one. And they are usually very shy. The one on your photo seems to collaborate pretty well?

 

[RGB49]

RGB49 I just notice the third bird from above in your post: Hedge Accentor! Where did you take that photo? I'm asking because I was looking for this bird last summer in Europe and didn't find one. And they are usually very shy. The one on your photo seems to collaborate pretty well?

Hi ISV,
All taken in my garden, South East England in the last week

 

[ISv]

Hi ISV,
All taken in my garden, South East England in the last week

Thanks!

 

[becceric]

I managed to get a few more shots of a nearby Wood Duck, but with limited views, I could not eliminate the small branches in front of and surrounding him.


I decided to remove them in post.


I felt it was a pretty good attempt. here is a crop.


I have some ambivalence doing this as I feel It may be considered a misrepresentation of the scene.
However I prefer to a cleaner image. Pleas pass along your thoughts.

 

[tron]

Well I believe everyone/thing can be happy here. The duck, the trees (they weren't cut they were photoshopped! ) the photographer and … the viewers. I see no harm done in this. It isn't as if you changed the color of the duck!

 

[AlanF]

RGB49 I just notice the third bird from above in your post: Hedge Accentor! Where did you take that photo? I'm asking because I was looking for this bird last summer in Europe and didn't find one. And they are usually very shy. The one on your photo seems to collaborate pretty well?

Like RGB49, I have them in my garden and see them daily. We call them Dunnocks or Hedgesparrows. They are usually furtive and on the ground but they will perch and sing rather nicely. Here is one from a couple of days ago.

 

[AlanF]

I managed to get a few more shots of a nearby Wood Duck, but with limited views, I could not eliminate the small branches in front of and surrounding him.
View attachment 189833

I decided to remove them in post.
View attachment 189834

I felt it was a pretty good attempt. here is a crop.
View attachment 189835

I have some ambivalence doing this as I feel It may be considered a misrepresentation of the scene.
However I prefer to a cleaner image. Pleas pass along your thoughts.

If it's for your enjoyment, then do as you wish. Art Morris on his birdsasart site recomposes scenes wholesale. I am not going to pass judgement. How did you remove the branch from the front of the duck?

 

[Click]

Very nice shot, Alan.

 

[Bert63]

I managed to get a few more shots of a nearby Wood Duck, but with limited views, I could not eliminate the small branches in front of and surrounding him.
View attachment 189833

I decided to remove them in post.
View attachment 189834

I felt it was a pretty good attempt. here is a crop.
View attachment 189835

I have some ambivalence doing this as I feel It may be considered a misrepresentation of the scene.
However I prefer to a cleaner image. Pleas pass along your thoughts.

I have done this and I don't feel bad about it.

If it can be done well and improves the image I don't see a problem with it.

I don't see it as a misrepresentation of the image because all you're doing is making the image more presentable. I have no doubt that if you could get in a position to have gotten a cleaner shot you would have.

I live on an Island. Half of the time alternate positions for me to get a desired shot would require me to have a boat. It also drastically impacts my ability to work with the light.

I shoot for fun and for my own enjoyment. I'm not going for profit. I don't see a problem.

I like your result. It's a good picture.

 

[AlanF]

Here's one today with a twig or two obscuring the bird. But, this photo means everything to me. I have been like an anxious grandfather with the brooding longtailed tits in my garden. First, I thought they had abandoned the nest, then I saw her in it. Relief. Then this morning, there were several small downy feathers on our lawn, and I thought they had been predated. Then later, he flew to the nest with a juicy caterpillar. Joy. The anxiety will continue as their nest is too exposed and there are squirrels and magpies around.

 

[Jack Douglas]

I have done this and I don't feel bad about it.

If it can be done well and improves the image I don't see a problem with it.

I don't see it as a misrepresentation of the image because all you're doing is making the image more presentable. I have no doubt that if you could get in a position to have gotten a cleaner shot you would have.

I live on an Island. Half of the time alternate positions for me to get a desired shot would require me to have a boat. It also drastically impacts my ability to work with the light.

I shoot for fun and for my own enjoyment. I'm not going for profit. I don't see a problem.

I like your result. It's a good picture.

We're supposedly free, living in a democracy with individual rights. Within the constraints of the law and my own conscience I do as I please and afford others the same right. For general public consumption, I think disclosure is the key. A certain certain person was shooting wolves in a glorified zoo and accepting honours as if they were in the wild and concealing the truth when questioned. That I didn't find so very palatable.

Jack