Show your Bird Portraits
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Nest of Robins
I took these photos today June 8th, 2014 under my deck in my backyard. I was using my Canon 7D with a 300 MM f4 lens and a 1.4x tele convertor as well. Images were lighted with my 600EX wirelessly as I had it outside on a table at the same height as the nest was. I had to shoot from inside my back door in the cellar so that the mother would show up to feed them all. Enjoy them as I had a blast trying to get these shoots.
Bob
I took these photos today June 8th, 2014 under my deck in my backyard. I was using my Canon 7D with a 300 MM f4 lens and a 1.4x tele convertor as well. Images were lighted with my 600EX wirelessly as I had it outside on a table at the same height as the nest was. I had to shoot from inside my back door in the cellar so that the mother would show up to feed them all. Enjoy them as I had a blast trying to get these shoots.
Bob
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Your starting to get some really great shots, Jack! Your exposures are getting better as well, although I still recommend you boost your exposures more in-camera a bit. Your definitely under-exposing more than over-exposing...a bit more light will really help you bring out more contrast in your final results. One other recommendation...pull back just a bit. It's good that you can get close, but you want to have some negative space around your birds...when they are real tight in the frame, the birds tend to feel a little crowded.
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ERHP said:As I was getting ready to head out of Lee Metcalf for the evening, some of the Magpie Jay fledglings were raising a ruckus.
Very nice! Love that gaping birdmaw!
"Gimme FOOOOD!"
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So, finally got around to picking up a Canon 5D III. Way past due, been meaning to do it forever, just...gotta scrounge up the funds, you know? First it was the 600mm lens, then it was a crapload of astrophotography equipment (kind of unexpected, but I realized I'd been putting off astrophotography for YEARS, way longer than the 5D III, so I decided to just dive in head first).
I'm pretty happy to have the 5D III now, though. Now with almost five hours strait using the 5D III on the kinds of things I generally shoot (I'd only used it by borrowing another guys out in the field, or in stores before), I have to say...compared to the 7D, the 5D III is EFFORTLESS. It just works. No fuss, no hassles, no fiddling with the AF system or anything like that.
For all that people croon (and scream) about the IQ benefits of full-frame sensors, the SINGLE biggest and most immediate benefit I saw with the 5D III was focusing. It is BLAZING fast, locks in instantly, seems to intuitively just know what thing you want focused, even when there are potential obstructions (right out of the box, it was focusing on deer through foreground tree branches and other obstructions without any effort on my part), and it nails it over 90% of the time. I've noticed a little bit of jitter a couple times, but no where even remotely as bad as what I experienced with the 7D. There is the full-frame IQ benefit for sure as well. I haven't noticed it quite so much in my subjects themselves, however background boke is AMAZING. It used to be so noisy with the 7D...and difficult to clean up without greater measures than just the Lightroom NR tool. The 5D III has so little noise in the background, and it cleans up super well.
I do feel the frame rate difference. It sounds a lot slower, and feels a bit slower. I am quite certain I'll miss the 8fps of the 7D. I can also tell that unless I fill the frame more, there is a slight loss of resolution. A number of the birds I shot just ended up so small in the frame (I forgot to take my TCs with me as I never really used them with the 7D, and at the moment I have no idea where they are), and while they don't look bad when cropped, they definitely don't have quite the same detail. I think that will be OK, though...once I find my TCs, I think 840mm f/5.6 will become the sweet spot, and if I need it, 1200mm f/8 will completely close the magnification/resolution gap.
Most of my shots so far are ever so slightly out of focus due to not having run the camera through FoCal yet (I need to move my license over to the 5D III), but I don't think you'll be able to tell at these sizes. Anyway, here are some of my first bird shots.
Snowy Egret
Smallish wading bird, brilliant white with a black bill, yellow facial patch and yellow eyes. Tall, with long black legs and yellow feet.
The sequence of photos here is out of about 1500 I took (the first 1500 with the 5D III). I chose this particular sequence to share first, as it shows the ISO capabilities pretty well, ranging from ISO 400 to as high as ISO 6400. ISO 6400 on the 5D III is easily as good as ISO 1600 on the 7D, and the way the noise cleans up, it's maybe even as good as ISO 800 or somewhere between 800 and 1600.
This particular Egret was a skilled and prolific fisher. It must have caught a dozen or so fish wile I was photographing it. Some of them were so large I was surprised it managed to squirrel them down it's gullet!
Canon EOS 5D III
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS + Jobu Pro II
1/2000s @ f/4 ISO 400
1/160s @ f/7.1 ISO 640
1/500s @ f/9 ISO 800
1/125s @ f/8 ISO 1600
1/400s @ f/8 ISO 6400
^^--- OH HELL YEAH, BABY!! --^^
ISO 6400 kicks ass on this camera. SO much more color fidelity and way less noise. No way in hell could I have ever gotten that shot, that late after sunset, with the 7D (it was probably 15-20 minutes AFTER sunset, so quite dark in the grand scheme of things).
I'm pretty happy to have the 5D III now, though. Now with almost five hours strait using the 5D III on the kinds of things I generally shoot (I'd only used it by borrowing another guys out in the field, or in stores before), I have to say...compared to the 7D, the 5D III is EFFORTLESS. It just works. No fuss, no hassles, no fiddling with the AF system or anything like that.
For all that people croon (and scream) about the IQ benefits of full-frame sensors, the SINGLE biggest and most immediate benefit I saw with the 5D III was focusing. It is BLAZING fast, locks in instantly, seems to intuitively just know what thing you want focused, even when there are potential obstructions (right out of the box, it was focusing on deer through foreground tree branches and other obstructions without any effort on my part), and it nails it over 90% of the time. I've noticed a little bit of jitter a couple times, but no where even remotely as bad as what I experienced with the 7D. There is the full-frame IQ benefit for sure as well. I haven't noticed it quite so much in my subjects themselves, however background boke is AMAZING. It used to be so noisy with the 7D...and difficult to clean up without greater measures than just the Lightroom NR tool. The 5D III has so little noise in the background, and it cleans up super well.
I do feel the frame rate difference. It sounds a lot slower, and feels a bit slower. I am quite certain I'll miss the 8fps of the 7D. I can also tell that unless I fill the frame more, there is a slight loss of resolution. A number of the birds I shot just ended up so small in the frame (I forgot to take my TCs with me as I never really used them with the 7D, and at the moment I have no idea where they are), and while they don't look bad when cropped, they definitely don't have quite the same detail. I think that will be OK, though...once I find my TCs, I think 840mm f/5.6 will become the sweet spot, and if I need it, 1200mm f/8 will completely close the magnification/resolution gap.
Most of my shots so far are ever so slightly out of focus due to not having run the camera through FoCal yet (I need to move my license over to the 5D III), but I don't think you'll be able to tell at these sizes. Anyway, here are some of my first bird shots.
Snowy Egret
Smallish wading bird, brilliant white with a black bill, yellow facial patch and yellow eyes. Tall, with long black legs and yellow feet.
The sequence of photos here is out of about 1500 I took (the first 1500 with the 5D III). I chose this particular sequence to share first, as it shows the ISO capabilities pretty well, ranging from ISO 400 to as high as ISO 6400. ISO 6400 on the 5D III is easily as good as ISO 1600 on the 7D, and the way the noise cleans up, it's maybe even as good as ISO 800 or somewhere between 800 and 1600.
This particular Egret was a skilled and prolific fisher. It must have caught a dozen or so fish wile I was photographing it. Some of them were so large I was surprised it managed to squirrel them down it's gullet!
Canon EOS 5D III
Canon EF 600mm f/4 L II
Gitzo GT3532LS + Jobu Pro II
1/2000s @ f/4 ISO 400
1/160s @ f/7.1 ISO 640
1/500s @ f/9 ISO 800
1/125s @ f/8 ISO 1600
1/400s @ f/8 ISO 6400
^^--- OH HELL YEAH, BABY!! --^^
ISO 6400 kicks ass on this camera. SO much more color fidelity and way less noise.
No way in hell could I have ever gotten that shot, that late after sunset, with the 7D (it was probably 15-20 minutes AFTER sunset, so quite dark in the grand scheme of things).
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Thanks for the suggestions Jon. Actually I was way over-exposed and cut back in raw. A friend has been commenting that I'm usually overexposed and a little on the yellow side of the spectrum. Unfortunately, I think that the monitor is playing a part in this. I have two hooked up and they don't quite agree.
It's been lightly raining and is completely overcase and the sky is washed out in these shots. Not sure exactly how to handle them.
Jack
It's been lightly raining and is completely overcase and the sky is washed out in these shots. Not sure exactly how to handle them.
Jack
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Jack Douglas said:
Based on what I see there, if that is the original exposure, it isn't overexposed at all. Exposure in digital is not the same as with film. You want to shift the histogram as far to the right as possible, without clipping highlights. It is STANDARD course to pull the exposure back down in post. That's how you maximize your use of the camera's dynamic range, reduce noise to the minimum potential, etc.
I think your initial exposure there is good, actually quite ideal. Given that your already exposing well, the trick then would be learning how to stretch the exposure to improve contrast and enhance detail. You might be inclined to just reduce exposure by a stop and a half or so. Instead, reduce it by a stop, then pull down the shadows a little bit more, and push the highlights a bit. That will expand the tonal range to fill up the dynamic range of a 14-bit RAW file, improving contrast and bringing out detail.
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Jack Douglas said:
I think it's perfect, honestly.
Are you willing to share your RAW? I can do some processing in Lightroom, and share it back, just to show you how useful your exposure in the last image is. BTW, when I mentioned underexposure, I was actually referring to Reply #5784 in this thread. It's still the woodpecker, but the exposure was a lot dimmer, contrast was lower. I noticed you posted this latest image before...that one actually looks pretty good, and does not actually look improperly exposed.
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OK Jon,
The previous image you referred to in post #5784 was in my opinion also, darkened too much. This came about due to my friend commenting about the woodpecker being black and me making it look grey. I usually look more at the face and try to ensure that it is exposed the way I recall it looking. My latest shot which you say is OK, I suppose I don't like because of the total blowout of the sky, which is probably unavoidable. If you PM me with the file # of the one you'd like to play with, I'd go back to the original raw settings and forward that to you, no problem.
I should mention, isn't it always the case, that this guy showed up (can you believe he landed on a stool right in front of me on the deck just outside my full glass patio doors and then flew to the prop) when I was on the phone and I rushed out unprepared and unaware that I was set 1 stop overexposure. I was using the upper focus point but of course the exposure is taken from the center on the 6D (black midsection of bird) so overall it was quite blown out.
Jack
The previous image you referred to in post #5784 was in my opinion also, darkened too much. This came about due to my friend commenting about the woodpecker being black and me making it look grey. I usually look more at the face and try to ensure that it is exposed the way I recall it looking. My latest shot which you say is OK, I suppose I don't like because of the total blowout of the sky, which is probably unavoidable. If you PM me with the file # of the one you'd like to play with, I'd go back to the original raw settings and forward that to you, no problem.
I should mention, isn't it always the case, that this guy showed up (can you believe he landed on a stool right in front of me on the deck just outside my full glass patio doors and then flew to the prop) when I was on the phone and I rushed out unprepared and unaware that I was set 1 stop overexposure. I was using the upper focus point but of course the exposure is taken from the center on the 6D (black midsection of bird) so overall it was quite blown out.
Jack
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Jack Douglas said:
I consider you lucky to have those birds at all!
You have a greater variety of birds in your back yard than I do...I'm generally limited to house finches, house sparrows, chickadees, and the occasional goldfinch. At certain times of the year, mourning and eurasian collared doves come through as well. I get the extremely rare flicker or downy woodpecker, but they rarely ever land on my perches. It's just a crowded neighborhood, so I don't think the more interesting birds really like coming through much.Anyway, you should work in stretching your exposures. It looks like you have getting exposure correct in-camera, and pulling down your exposures in post to compensate for ETTR, down well. The trick then, would be to achieve the right colors in the right parts of the bird, but doing so "locally". You can "stretch" down the lower midtones and compress the blacks without affecting the higher midtones and highlights, when you use the tools you have correctly. That allows you to achieve, say, the "black" belly without affecting the red and white in the crest and head.
Before I ask for any files, I'd like to see you give it a try. I'm sure you have the ability...just experiment.
I use lightroom myself...if you use it as well, it is an amazingly powerful tool. The curves and/or highlight/shadow/white/black/exposure sliders can be used to perform the necessary stretching. When you really have to do some major separation of tones, you will usually have to resort to the curves tool, which gives you more fine-grained control than the sliders (note that at the bottom of the curves, you have little triangles, drag those to change the tonal ranges that each part of the curve affects.)
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Thanks for that Jon. The grass is always greener ....... Actually, the birds you mention are essentially what I get and not much more. These big guys were a very pleasant surprise and I really am thrilled at seeing them up close.
I am determined to keep lots of feed out all summer though becasue I may be pleasantly surprised.
Editing is likely going to be a winter activity as I have too many unfinished jobs around the acreage and want to shoot a little in spare moments.
Jack
I am determined to keep lots of feed out all summer though becasue I may be pleasantly surprised.
Editing is likely going to be a winter activity as I have too many unfinished jobs around the acreage and want to shoot a little in spare moments.
Jack
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