Show your Bird Portraits

[Maximilian]

Have you used a lot of USM? it's quite different from your usual images and has white halos.

I re-examined the RAW again and turned everything off. Here is a 1:1 from the RAW without any sharpening and lens correction.
In RAW and JPEG the halo is gone.


With USM turned on, the halo is again visible in DPP but not in the converted JPEG (see below).
The RAW has the Canon default setting for the OOC RAW to 3,4,4. Everything else still turned off, especially lens correction.
I haven't recognized this before. Doesn't mean that it wasn't there.
I do slight sharpening in PP, but just a bit because I quite fast recognize and don't like artefacts from sharpening (but not today).
So it seems to be the strong contrast from the bright sky, combined with the USM.

 

[AlanF]

I re-examined the RAW again and turned everything off. Here is a 1:1 from the RAW without any sharpening and lens correction.
View attachment 208129

With USM turned on, the halo is again visible in DPP but not in the converted JPEG (see below).
The RAW has the Canon default setting for the OOC RAW to 3,4,4. Everything else still turned off, especially lens correction.
I haven't recognized this before. Doesn't mean that it wasn't there.
I do slight sharpening in PP, but just a bit because I quite fast recognize and don't like artefacts from sharpening (but not today).
So it seems to be the strong contrast from the bright sky, combined with the USM.

View attachment 208130

That's better!

 

[shire_guy]

Another beautiful shot. Awesome background.

Thank you Click.

That shot was heavily cropped from 560mm and came out much better than I expected.

 

[ISO64]

I re-examined the RAW again and turned everything off. Here is a 1:1 from the RAW without any sharpening and lens correction.
In RAW and JPEG the halo is gone.
View attachment 208129

With USM turned on, the halo is again visible in DPP but not in the converted JPEG (see below).
The RAW has the Canon default setting for the OOC RAW to 3,4,4. Everything else still turned off, especially lens correction.
I haven't recognized this before. Doesn't mean that it wasn't there.
I do slight sharpening in PP, but just a bit because I quite fast recognize and don't like artefacts from sharpening (but not today).
So it seems to be the strong contrast from the bright sky, combined with the USM.

View attachment 208130

Maximilian, the defaults for DPP depend on the style selected, e.g. Standard, Portrait, Landscape, etc. Each of styles selected, either in camera or later in PP, has its own set of default parameters for sharpness, contrast, saturation, colour tone. So, you can override the camera settings and PP your RAW to your liking. My experience is that DPP is struggling with contrast bird details against overcast skies. I found the way around this limitation by transferring the file to SW where I can restrict the USP to work only on darkening the pixels and not to make them lighter. That keeps skies unchanged, eyes are easily fooled into accepting darker feathers than in nature, contrary to bordering sky band getting lighter. Alternatively, just expose to the right, but do not blew skies into solid white and fix curves later in DPP or let Auto gamma adjustment be your shortcut to a miracle.

Hope this helps, enjoy your walks with camera and do not wait for perfect light, birds don't

 

[Cog]

March non-Canon photo dump
White egret


Striated heron


Little ringed plover


Laughing dove


[url=https://flic.kr/p/2onus3D]

Collared dove


Spanish sparrow


Isabeline wheatear


Red-taled shrike


Crested lark


Common snipe




White-eared bulbul


Common myna




House crow




American crow

 

[Maximilian]

Maximilian, the defaults for DPP depend on the style selected, e.g. Standard, Portrait, Landscape, etc. ...

Thanks for all that advice @ISO64.
I always use the style "Standard". And I know that my workflow can be optimized. Looking forward to trying out your advice.

 

[Maximilian]

March non-Canon photo dump
...

Especially the egret with the water splash and the all the corvidae are great.
Did you use some trick to handle with the dark plumage?

 

[Cog]

Especially the egret with the water splash and the all the corvidae are great.
Did you use some trick to handle with the dark plumage?

Thanks! The best trick is to have as little sun as possible.

 

[Click]

Great shots, Cog.

 

[Maximilian]

A grey goose showing me that it doesn't even care a thought about me, going to sleep...

And, finally, it went to sleep.
I couldn't decide on the framing.
Which one do you prefer? Thanks in advance for your reply

1st, wider

2nd, closer

 

[Click]

Beautiful pictures, Maximilian. I prefer the wider version.

 

[macrunning]

Welcome Swallow

View attachment 208102

Nice shot. For some reason the lighting on this makes it look like it's a claymation project!

 

[macrunning]

Spent the last week in Israel, based in Eilat, to watch the bird migration, mainly high flying raptors. It was great birdwatching for the experts, and there really knowledgeable ones in the group as well as the superb guides. But, it was difficult for photography as we rarely got close and we were in the desert for much of the time. My wife used the R7 + RF 100-400mm and I the R5 + RF 100-500mm. Both sets of gear behaved superbly, and in the good light the R7 was hardly inferior. We took thousands of images and I'll post a few here. Then first bird we saw was at a car park, a Tristram's Starling, and a bit later a pair of White-spectacled Bulbuls, and I'll do one from each camera.

View attachment 208117View attachment 208118View attachment 208119View attachment 208120

Nice shots Alan. I really like the colors in that 3rd photo.

 

[macrunning]

Woodchat Shrike upscaled.
View attachment 208125

Nice shot.

 

[Kanders1]

 

[shire_guy]

March non-Canon photo dump

Lovely shots !!

 

[Click]

Very nice shot, Kanders1. Keep posting.

 

[Maximilian]

Very nice shot, Kanders1. Keep posting.

+1
@Kanders1, yes, keep posting!

 

[Maximilian]

Beautiful pictures, Maximilian. I prefer the wider version.

Thanks @Click for the reply.
@becceric and @shire_guy:
I take your likes on Click's post as the same opinion. Thanks, guys, too.

 

[AlanF]

And, finally, it went to sleep.
I couldn't decide on the framing.
Which one do you prefer? Thanks in advance for your reply

1st, wider
View attachment 208138
2nd, closer
View attachment 208139

I like the black signature!