Show your Bird Portraits

[AlanF]

Hi Jack, AlanF, Maximillian.
This is exactly my reasoning for asking, PP is such a subjective thing. I had a notion it was too much after viewing the processed pictures I posted to Flickr on my iPad.
Alan, I was using the 5D, not the 7DII, I guess this would change the numbers you might use, also as I am using DxO 10.?.? I don't know how it would relate to settings from the software you have given. Plus as I said they were harsh crops from the 12Mpix of the sensor, approx 4Mpixel each.
I was also using a pretty mediocre laptop screen whilst trying to be sociable with the misses instead of going and using my desktop (with a better but still not perfect, read less mediocre, monitor) in another room!
I will try again with less sharpening using my better PC.
I was using a bit of +micro contrast, a bit extra lens correction general sharpness, a bit extra lens correction detail sharpness above the preset levels, (both under the same tab) plus some extra unsharp over the preset levels.
The composition was from a slipway, the tide was about half in (or out) leaving me quite high up the slope, I did kneel down to lower the perspective but this was not a planned photo expedition and I was in reasonably smart clothes.
The more distant background is cluttered with decaying pier structure which whilst interesting in itself is not conducive to the improvement of a swan picture!
I will try cutting a bit more foreground off, (but you can see from this how slippery it was!).

Thank you all for your input, I welcome constructive criticism for without it how can we progress.

Cheers, Graham.

Graham
I also use DxO, with PRIME for noise reduction. Any sharpening is done in PS, using the same settings for the 5DIII (now sold) as for the 7DII. Sometimes I do further PP in DxO for lifting shadows etc. I prefer to boost contrast using PS and USM at 400-600px and 10-20%.

My views on processing etc have been coloured by a painful apprenticeship, posting on a Dutch bird site, birdpix.nl, which has the toughest, meanest mods. They reject any image for over-sharpening, being soft, being noisy or having unnatural colours or contrast. (Most of my images from a 7D + 100-400mm Mk I were too soft or too noisy after sharpening to be accepted, which Is why upgraded to a 300/2.8 + TCs.) So, I have been trained to like natural colours and contrast with low noise backgrounds.
Alan

 

[j-nord]

7D + 70-300L


Osprey by Justin Nordgaard, on Flickr

 

[Click]

7D + 70-300L

Awesome. Beautiful light. Great shot, Justin.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Alan.
I only have DxO, don't really want to have aditional software, I prefer to spend my limited budget on improving my kit.
I think to make much headway I would probably need a better monitor too. I specifically asked for thoughts on the sharpening as I would like to have nice detail in my shots which only seems to come with some sharpening, but I understand too much is bad, just trying to find the correct balance.
Thanks for your help, and making my apprenticeship less painful than yours!

Cheers, Graham.

Hi Jack, AlanF, Maximillian.
This is exactly my reasoning for asking, PP is such a subjective thing. I had a notion it was too much after viewing the processed pictures I posted to Flickr on my iPad.
Alan, I was using the 5D,

Thank you all for your input, I welcome constructive criticism for without it how can we progress.

Cheers, Graham.

Graham
I also use DxO, with PRIME for noise reduction. Any sharpening is done in PS, using the same settings for the 5DIII (now sold) as for the 7DII. Sometimes I do further PP in DxO for lifting shadows etc. I prefer to boost contrast using PS and USM at 400-600px and 10-20%.

My views on processing etc have been coloured by a painful apprenticeship, posting on a Dutch bird site, birdpix.nl, which has the toughest, meanest mods. They reject any image for over-sharpening, being soft, being noisy or having unnatural colours or contrast. (Most of my images from a 7D + 100-400mm Mk I were too soft or too noisy after sharpening to be accepted, which Is why upgraded to a 300/2.8 + TCs.) So, I have been trained to like natural colours and contrast with low noise backgrounds.
Alan

 

[sedwards]

The odd couple
5D3_1872 by Stuart Edwards, on Flickr

 

[Orangutan]

The odd couple
5D3_1872 by Stuart Edwards, on Flickr

Leucistic female?

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Justin, Stuart.
Very nice shots guys, well done.

Cheers, Graham.

 

[Jack Douglas]

Hi Alan.
I only have DxO, don't really want to have aditional software, I prefer to spend my limited budget on improving my kit.
I think to make much headway I would probably need a better monitor too. I specifically asked for thoughts on the sharpening as I would like to have nice detail in my shots which only seems to come with some sharpening, but I understand too much is bad, just trying to find the correct balance.
Thanks for your help, and making my apprenticeship less painful than yours!

Cheers, Graham.

Hi Jack, AlanF, Maximillian.
This is exactly my reasoning for asking, PP is such a subjective thing. I had a notion it was too much after viewing the processed pictures I posted to Flickr on my iPad.
Alan, I was using the 5D,

Thank you all for your input, I welcome constructive criticism for without it how can we progress.

Cheers, Graham.

Graham
I also use DxO, with PRIME for noise reduction. Any sharpening is done in PS, using the same settings for the 5DIII (now sold) as for the 7DII. Sometimes I do further PP in DxO for lifting shadows etc. I prefer to boost contrast using PS and USM at 400-600px and 10-20%.

My views on processing etc have been coloured by a painful apprenticeship, posting on a Dutch bird site, birdpix.nl, which has the toughest, meanest mods. They reject any image for over-sharpening, being soft, being noisy or having unnatural colours or contrast. (Most of my images from a 7D + 100-400mm Mk I were too soft or too noisy after sharpening to be accepted, which Is why upgraded to a 300/2.8 + TCs.) So, I have been trained to like natural colours and contrast with low noise backgrounds.
Alan

Graham, just trying to be helpful in spite of lacking the expertise. My perception is that if a photo is either cropped too heavily or has other shortcomings then trying to improve it by sharpening is going to give it a look that is different but not really much better. To me your sample shots were, as you said, not ideal and maybe in that category.

Alternately, if you're starting with a much better original then some sharpening can make a significant difference. In that case too much sharpening presents like a zillion little needles and is not appealing.

Have you tried Canon DPP's lens specific sharpening. I'm convinced from three years of use that it makes a subtle difference and always use it on every worthy photo but I stick to the default level 3 sharpening that is set in my 6D overall. Generally, I've found that I prefer to reduce luminance noise reduction to zero but keep or raise slightly the chrominance when I'm shooting at my preferred max for the 6D which is ISO 1250.

For those of us that are watching our budgets, the recent NIK Dfine2 free software is very impressive for grain reduction in photos that are nice but cropped slightly too much. It really suppresses the grain selectively in the areas such as the sky etc. where the noise is making the shot look more like a painting. Copy the jpg and paste it into Dfine to get up and running.

As a novice, I'm always all ears on this subject and also have held off spending big bucks on PP software. I am now using the DPP stamp tool a little for removing the odd object - free - and it works quite well (once I clued in to the fact that it takes a long time to activate and wasn't actually "broken" ???).

Jack

 

[sedwards]

The odd couple
5D3_1872 by Stuart Edwards, on Flickr

Leucistic female?

yes it is

 

[bjd]

Common Wood Pigeon:
Honey! where are the kids? by Brian Dorling, auf Flickr

Cheers Brian

 

[AlanF]

I am really enjoying the tiny crops that you can get out of the 5Ds R. Here is a tiny wren who was singing her heart out this morning. Normally, I like to see the bright eye of a bird but this shot shows her eye firmly shut as she concentrates on her vocalisation. Taken with the 1.4xTC on the 100-400 II at f/8 and 560mm.

 

[Jack Douglas]

I am really enjoying the tiny crops that you can get out of the 5Ds R. Here is a tiny wren who was singing her heart out this morning. Normally, I like to see the bright eye of a bird but this shot shows her eye firmly shut as she concentrates on her vocalisation. Taken with the 1.4xTC on the 100-400 II at f/8 and 560mm.

Seems you're a 5DSR convert now!

Jack

 

[AlanF]

I am really enjoying the tiny crops that you can get out of the 5Ds R. Here is a tiny wren who was singing her heart out this morning. Normally, I like to see the bright eye of a bird but this shot shows her eye firmly shut as she concentrates on her vocalisation. Taken with the 1.4xTC on the 100-400 II at f/8 and 560mm.

Seems you're a 5DSR convert now!

Jack

I sure am. See: http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=29583.0

And it has cured me of my urge to buy a 400mm DO II to get sharper images.

 

[Jack Douglas]

Thanks for the link!

Jack

 

[scyrene]

Greenfinch and mistle thrush from today. Both 1000mm, f/10. Alas the best birds I've seen recently didn't pose so nicely!

 

[Click]

Greenfinch and mistle thrush from today. Both 1000mm, f/10. Alas the best birds I've seen recently didn't pose so nicely!

Nice shots, scyrene. I especially like the first one.

 

[dpc]

Alighting on a sewage lagoon (thus the colour of the water)

 

[scyrene]

Greenfinch and mistle thrush from today. Both 1000mm, f/10. Alas the best birds I've seen recently didn't pose so nicely!

Nice shots, scyrene. I especially like the first one.

Thanks!

Here's today's best bird, my first common whitethroat of the year.

 

[Click]

Here's today's best bird, my first common whitethroat of the year.

Another very nice shot. Well done, scyrene.

 

[Jack Douglas]

Here's today's best bird, my first common whitethroat of the year.

Another very nice shot. Well done, scyrene.

+1 and previous shots from others as well. Mine is from a brief break from my labours yesterday.

Jack