Noelle, with so many of your "friends" darkening the skies today, it looked as if the birds of death or Furiae have descended upon earth.
After spending some time with them, what a relief in shooting a heavenly white dove.
Nope... I've become a jpg shooter like PetKal. Hehe... I only use RAW when conditions/subject calls for it (all black birds and all white birds mostly). But for most shots, jpg is ok with me.
PetKal wrote:
All around, had a productive day with the 400 f/5.6 although nothing spectacular came out of it photographically.
* Shot a whole bunch of stunt CIFs.
* Got a few decent Common Grackle shots.
* A couple of passable GIF shots.
* A few diverse keepers.
* Shot a wedding (with 400 f/5.6.)
Nice shots Peter! The wedding shot is very "paparazzi" of you! Hehe... Man there seems to be a lot of activity at this place. You get lots of interesting shots every time you go there!
Noelle, with so many of your "friends" darkening the skies today, it looked as if the birds of death or Furiae have descended upon earth.
After spending some time with them, what a relief in shooting a heavenly white dove.
But those are some nicely exposed cormorants AND pijun! Now tell me Peter when you shoot the white birds, do you spot meter the white or do you use evaluative depending on how light the background is and just adjust the exposure to compensate?
Conrad Tan wrote:
Nope... I've become a jpg shooter like PetKal. Hehe... I only use RAW when conditions/subject calls for it (all black birds and all white birds mostly). But for most shots, jpg is ok with me.
Noelle, with so many of your "friends" darkening the skies today, it looked as if the birds of death or Furiae have descended upon earth.
After spending some time with them, what a relief in shooting a heavenly white dove.
I think my Cormorants came your way. Not a single one at my park in two weeks
Conrad Tan wrote:
But those are some nicely exposed cormorants AND pijun! Now tell me Peter when you shoot the white birds, do you spot meter the white or do you use evaluative depending on how light the background is and just adjust the exposure to compensate?
On those stationary birds with extreme colouring I typically use spot or partial metering in Av mode, depending on the bird size in the VF.
On birds in flight I will use manual metering, and on occasion evaluative metering in Tv mode with an appropriate amount of EC, based on experience.
This is disappointing......a very nice background yet the birds are not properly focused and the second pijun is not good looking.
It must be either my MkII N or 400 f/5.6 that is no good, because I know what I am doing.
PetKal wrote:
This is disappointing......a very nice background yet the birds are not properly focused and the second pijun is not good looking.
It must be either my MkII N or 400 f/5.6 that is no good, because I know what I am doing.
Well OBVIOUSLY its the camera! We know the lens is quick. We know you've got skills. So logically the MKIIN is the culprit!
I've had pretty good luck with it as the 50D really has some good jpg reditions straight out of the camera. In fact, most of my shots I've been putting up here are straight out of the 50D. I only have trouble with egrets and cormorants. That's when RAW comes in. Hehe....
Thanks Peter. I could not back out any more without really putting him too much towards the bottom as he was originally shot. Again thanks for the framing/pp tips!
PetKal wrote:
Oh, yes, a big difference IMO.
If you pull back just a bit more, lighten the bird slightly and reduce contrast some, that should be a killer image.
For example, I believe I've cropped this tern as far as it could go. If done any bigger, the IQ would have started to fall apart.
Boy I just love how you always get the glint in the tern's eyes. I can never seem to get that! Great shot man!
Conrad Tan wrote:
Boy I just love how you always get the glint in the tern's eyes.
Far from always....usually I don't keep those that do not show the eye/catchlight.
If the eye is not in direct sunlight you can't bring it out easily in these black-capped terns.
This image is sharp enough and all that, but there is no eye to be seen so I am not normally showing it.
That heron is one fine image, Conrad, in all its key elements.
(1) You get high mark 1 for nice background (generally that kind is much nicer than empty sky).
(2) High mark 2 for difficulty: AF Servo is severely challanged by busy background even on series 1 cameras.
(3) High mark 3 for difficulty: A bird in full flight (look at the feet) is harder to nail than one landing, taking off or hovering.
