Show your Bird Portraits

Hi clbayley.
Ahh, my mistake, I used Jeffrey's exif viewer on the image to get the size, so little exif remaining I could not interpret accurately the information I was served up. (of course that may be a limitation of my ability to interpret what was there! :) )

Cheers, Graham.

clbayley said:
Hi All! Thank you for the responses! I am not in any hurry, so I will likely take the best advice I have seen on these boards and rend a FF camera and see how it feels.

Valvebounce - strangely enough, these Coots were literally at my feet, so those images were not cropped at all. I do downsize to 1800 x 1200pix for posting online...I have attached a Sapsucker pic that is more normal for me, both the original out of camera, and the cropped (again, both are downsized to 1800 x 1200). I really don't like this crop, but I was just excited to see a Sapsucker!

Jack D - thanks for the comments. BTW, I think we are virtually neighbours...I live in Sherwood Park and have deduced that you live nearby. Happy Canada Day!

hbr - thank you for your insight.

tron - funny enough I have just started doing a 2 stage denoise process. I use Nik. I open in Photoshop and run DFine plugin. Then I process accordingly and after I resize the image I run DFine again. I know in my heart if I really want better pics, then I need to improve my post processing. I have all winter to focus on that, for now I am capturing images while the weather is nice.
 
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clbayley said:
Coot babies all over the place! I can't decide if they are cute, or vermin...

As an aside...I am relatively new to photography (<2yrs) and shoot with the 80D but the 6D Mkii is tempting me to step up to Full Frame. I am a heavy cropper, but that is because I am lazy and just fire off as many shots in my limited time. I would like to think going to FF will make me more selective, but also make me a better photographer. Also, I find that with the 80D I am limited to ISO400 before the noise really get unbearable. I wait until there is bright sunlight. Again, with limited shooting time, I think that FF will allow me to take shots in lower light situations and still maintain high shutter speed.

To all those who moved from crop to FF...what are your opinions? Do you miss crop reach? Will never give up the FF ISO capabilities?

Thanks in advance.

CB

Some nice shots of the coots, CB.
I am very surprised on your comments about noise on the 80D. I have the 7D2 and can shoot shoot at ISO 3200 and get decent quality shots. But bear in mind that high ISO plus heavy cropping plus shadow recovery is a recipe for mediocrity. So if you are cropping heavily the first thing I will say is t improve your fieldcraft or find somewhere with decent hides/blinds.

But lets jump from shooting to viewing/processing. First of all I would ask how you are looking at your images to say that anything above ISO400 the noise is too much. Everyone talks about viewing at 100% and if you do this then of course noise will be obvious - bear in mind all this talk about viewing at 100% came when cameras were 6, 8 or 10 MP. Assess noise at the intended viewing size because anything else is meaningless and in this respect an image posted on Facebook gives you much more latitude than one intended full screen viewing on a 24" monitor.
Second is how you process. Noise will be more obvious in blank areas such as blue sky or an out-of focus background, and noise gets less obvious in highly detailed areas such as plumage. So I would apply less sharpening to the background (this is the 'masking' slider in Lightroom, or use an adjustment brush, or you can sharpen the bird on a layer of its own in PS or whichever editing program you use).
Lastly, and this takes a bit more skill in exposure settings, is working out if you can overexpose a bit at high ISO and then bring it back to 'normal' in post processing (this is the 'expose to the right' technique) - sometimes it is better to shoot at ISO 3200 and over expose by 1 stop than it is to shoot at ISO 1600.


As for the FF vs crop - if you find noise too much at ISO 400 on APS-C camera then do not go to FF. If you need to crop heavily you will need to crop even more with FF and you are back to square one and you have spent a lot of money going nowhere. If however you can shoot ISO 1600 and get a decent size in the viewfinder then the sensor quality with FF will overcome the crop factor of APS-C. Spend the money instead on a longer lens. Glass first....always glass first.
 
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ISO64 said:
Green Heron
(why is it called green still puzzles me...)
Canon 7D2, 400mm f/5.6L w 1.4 TCIII
560mm/ƒ/6.3/1/400s/ISO 640, +1/3 EV
Nice Picture!
From a distance Green Herons look all dark. In better light they are deep green on the back with a rich chestnut breast and neck. The wings are dark gray. Juveniles are browner, with pale streaking on the neck and spots on the wings.
 
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Hi Mikehit,

I do recognize I have to improve my patience in the field, and especially my photo editing. I would like to learn more about editing wildlife pictures specifically (I can find all kinds of classes for portraits and landscape...). I am hoping to join a photo workshop next year with a professional wildlife photographer. As mentioned earlier, I am in no hurry to jump to FF, it was the announcement of the 6D mkii that brought it to the top of my head.

Your comments are appreciated!

CB
 
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clbayley said:
Hi All! Thank you for the responses! I am not in any hurry, so I will likely take the best advice I have seen on these boards and rend a FF camera and see how it feels.

Valvebounce - strangely enough, these Coots were literally at my feet, so those images were not cropped at all. I do downsize to 1800 x 1200pix for posting online...I have attached a Sapsucker pic that is more normal for me, both the original out of camera, and the cropped (again, both are downsized to 1800 x 1200). I really don't like this crop, but I was just excited to see a Sapsucker!

Jack D - thanks for the comments. BTW, I think we are virtually neighbours...I live in Sherwood Park and have deduced that you live nearby. Happy Canada Day!

hbr - thank you for your insight.

tron - funny enough I have just started doing a 2 stage denoise process. I use Nik. I open in Photoshop and run DFine plugin. Then I process accordingly and after I resize the image I run DFine again. I know in my heart if I really want better pics, then I need to improve my post processing. I have all winter to focus on that, for now I am capturing images while the weather is nice.

We are indeed - I'm two miles east of Ardrossan. We'll have to get together some time.

Jack
 
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Was at Lake Wabamun, Alberta today and while I got lots of shots most were long and not too exciting because they will need too much cropping even with 800mm.

However, one shot can make one's day and this is my first Killdeer. There happened to be a wild reflection from a canopy.

Jack
 

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Jack,
Something different. Like.
-r

Jack Douglas said:
Was at Lake Wabamun, Alberta today and while I got lots of shots most were long and not too exciting because they will need too much cropping even with 800mm.

However, one shot can make one's day and this is my first Killdeer. There happened to be a wild reflection from a canopy.

Jack
 
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Thanks click and Riley. Riley, like me, you enjoy what's available too you until new opportunities arise. V. nice. Always nice to see these birds. Before they trapped my beavers, I had the one summer where there were tons of RT hummer females and it was a blast. I thought, oh next year ... Well, no beavers, and everything changed and now I'll have to find a different location.

The farmers always knew, make hay while the sun shines.

About Wabamun yesterday. My daughter came from Calgary to join me shooting and we headed out with the motorhome late July1 and I stopped for gas. Pulled far ahead to align with the last pump not realizing it was diesel and the attend thought that's what I wanted and I didn't look until 20 liters ... Towed home 1 1/2 hours later, dropped the tank some, pulled the filler hose, rounded up some large containers and ... Wabamun at 1 AM. :)

This little guy is visiting with the Goldfinches. Poor lighting but another first for me.

Jack
 

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