Show your Bird Portraits

[jrista]

Thnks jrista,

Honest I still remember that recommendation from before but something seems to make me focus on maximizing the bird, for detail I guess. I'll loosen up. How's this Downy?

In case anyone wonders, my recent shots have all been 70-200 F2.8 II with X1.4. The zoom has been handy compared to my 300.

Jack

Definitely better, without question. Your using the 6D, right? With the 6D, you should be getting a TON of detail, even with slightly looser framing than that. If you are not, then I would check your AFMA, make sure IS is kicking in right (or maybe turn it off if you are on a tripod), maybe try a higher ISO so you can get a faster shutter (I have noticed that your shots seem to be fairly dim...I'm not sure why, but if your experiencing softness, you might want to jack up ISO two stops, and shutter a stop, and see if that helps. High shutter, and particularly in winter high ISO, are pretty much essential to getting sharp bird shots.)

 

[jrista]

Nice shots all.

The frost drew me outside before breakfast to freeze my fingers but no complaints. I think this qualifies as a Red Shafted Flicker (I've only seen/shot Yellow Shafted around here). Pretty heavy crop.

And the Chickadee was just too cute - for Don.

Jack

The chickadee is fantastic! The perch is excellent, the pose is great, the looser framing is just right!

 

[KeithBreazeal]

Western Grebe- Clear Lake 28 May 2010 © Keith Breazeal by Keith Breazeal Photography, on Flickr

 

[Jane]

Keith - love the Grebes
Jack - the chickadee is excellent

 

[Click]

Lovely shot Keith.

 

[Jack Douglas]

Click, forgive me, the Chickadee was for you too!

Thanks everyone for the complements and advice. Yes, 6d and sometimes the shutter is a little low but not that low, many were 500th and I've personally found ISO's pushing towards 12800 to be quite noisy and not what I like. Evening or cloudy here is pretty dull and around sunset if I try to shoot at 1000th I'd definitely be at that ISO. I have moved the AFMA around as I was shooting out there and figured I was OK. However with one shot center focus (try for the eye) and recompose with a sometimes moving subject I might be missing focus somewhat.

My sensor could be getting a bit dirty as I have noticed the odd spot in the sky and I guess the X1.4 may affect sharpness a little but otherwise I don't know what to think.

Here's a shot of a stationary nuthatch with center spot focus and full frame just as is. 6D 200X1.4 F4.5 ISO 1250 Manual exposure. The one shot focus point was right on the edge of his eye. Jon, or anyone doesn't this appear to be in focus? What else? Anyway, that's what I'm getting.

Jack

 

[jrista]

Click, forgive me, the Chickadee was for you too!

Thanks everyone for the complements and advice. Yes, 6d and sometimes the shutter is a little low but not that low, many were 500th and I've personally found ISO's pushing towards 12800 to be quite noisy and not what I like. Evening or cloudy here is pretty dull and around sunset if I try to shoot at 1000th I'd definitely be at that ISO. I have moved the AFMA around as I was shooting out there and figured I was OK. However with one shot center focus (try for the eye) and recompose with a sometimes moving subject I might be missing focus somewhat.

My sensor could be getting a bit dirty as I have noticed the odd spot in the sky and I guess the X1.4 may affect sharpness a little but otherwise I don't know what to think.

Here's a shot of a stationary nuthatch with center spot focus and full frame just as is. 6D 200X1.4 F4.5 ISO 1250 Manual exposure. The one shot focus point was right on the edge of his eye. Jon, or anyone doesn't this appear to be in focus? What else? Anyway, that's what I'm getting.

Jack

You definitely have critical sharpness there. I think the issue may simply be not enough DOF. Your at f/4.5, which I understand given the lighting. The 6D has excellent high ISO performance, better than my 5D III. I would jack the ISO up to 3200, and stop down to f/7.1, and see how things go. If you can get the bulk of the bird in the DOF, I think you'll find that any issues with getting the birds critically sharp just disappear. Also, the noise on the 6D at higher ISO cleans up very nicely, so don't let ISO 3200 hold you back. For that matter, don't let ISO 12800 hold you back...it is noisier, but again, it's pretty clean noise, and can be cleaned up very well.

 

[jrista]

Western Grebe- Clear Lake 28 May 2010 © Keith Breazeal by Keith Breazeal Photography, on Flickr

Beautiful shot, Keith!

 

[Click]

Click, forgive me, the Chickadee was for you too!

Jack

Thanks Jack

 

[Click]

Great egret at the local NWR. I know, another wading bird. Still I though this one was kind of nice. 7D2 with the 400 5.6L prime. f5.6, 1/800th @ ISO 800

Great shot. Lovely reflection. Nicely done.

 

[zephir]

Here are a few.

The first 3 are from Canon 30D, Canon EF 70-200 F2.8 L IS USM

The Heron at the hatchery was captured at Capilano Salmon Hatchery, North Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Close-up is from my backyard when living in Burnaby, BC

This bird posed for me on the Mexican Riviera

Lastly "Feathered Silhouette" is from a hike in the Black Tusk, Garibaldi park area in 1986 before moving to BC. It is scanned from slide on a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000ED.

Zephir Photography​

 

[Click]

Here are a few.

The first 3 are from Canon 30D, Canon EF 70-200 F2.8 L IS USM

Very nice first post. Welcome to CR

 

[KeithBreazeal]

Western Grebe- Clear Lake 28 May 2010 © Keith Breazeal by Keith Breazeal Photography, on Flickr

Nice reflections.
I think I'd call those Clark's Grebes.
If you took the photo in May they'd be in breeding plumage and the black on the head covers the eye on the Western Grebe.

Thanks Yes, most are settled on Clark's. They were courting the whole time I was shooting.

 

[jrista]

Western Grebe- Clear Lake 28 May 2010 © Keith Breazeal by Keith Breazeal Photography, on Flickr

Nice reflections.
I think I'd call those Clark's Grebes.
If you took the photo in May they'd be in breeding plumage and the black on the head covers the eye on the Western Grebe.

Thanks Yes, most are settled on Clark's. They were courting the whole time I was shooting.

I agree, those are Clark's.

 

[candc]

it's been overcast and bad light here since i got the 7dii but i have been doing a lot of shooting with it anyway. here is one with the sigma 120-300 + 2xiii at 600 and about a 50% crop sooc jpeg

 

[wyldeguy]

 

[candc]

it's been overcast and bad light here since i got the 7dii but i have been doing a lot of shooting with it anyway. here is one with the sigma 120-300 + 2xiii at 600 and about a 50% crop sooc jpeg

That's a nice one. Man that is sharp for a 2x tele. That Sigma seems like a nice lens. Wish we had cranes here on the east coast. I rarely get to see one.

it is good with the canon and kenko tc's. the lens gets a bad rap for not working well with tc's because all the test chart shots online are with the sigma's which are crap. i pre ordered the new sigma tc2001 i am interested to see how that works.

 

[ooF Fighters]

Spotted in the wilds of Southern California - (the local park)

 

[Northbird]

A Great Blue Heron shot with the 7D Mark II.


Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) by Tony Varela Photography, on Flickr

 

[Click]

A Great Blue Heron shot with the 7D Mark II.

Very nice shot Tony. Well done.