This is too funny. Walked outside this afternoon and the biggest damn Heron I've ever seen is standing in my yard staring me down. I walked down and he just slowly wandered over to the lagoon, unconcerned about the company.
pingflood wrote:
This is too funny. Walked outside this afternoon and the biggest damn Heron I've ever seen is standing in my yard staring me down. I walked down and he just slowly wandered over to the lagoon, unconcerned about the company.
Sweeeeet! Nothing ever comes to my yard except the mailman bringing bills. Haha!!
pingflood wrote:
That second shot is fantastic. Do you think you could get a little more contrast into the feathers? That would really make it sing.
As for mr Heron, yeah, I am lucky to live in an area with quite a bit of wildlife.
I did microadjust my 400/5.6 (+3) and I have to say I am quite pleased with the result...
These were straight out of the camera RAW with no processing but I can sure bump up the contrast a bit next time! Hehe.. My 400mm has a microadjust at +7. Yours looks like its shooting well!
How did you do your microadjust? I just pointed mine at semi-distant high contrast subjects and then flipped on live view to see if I could manual focus it a little sharper... once I got to the point where I couldn't improve on things with manual focus and 10x live view I called it good.
pingflood wrote:
How did you do your microadjust? I just pointed mine at semi-distant high contrast subjects and then flipped on live view to see if I could manual focus it a little sharper... once I got to the point where I couldn't improve on things with manual focus and 10x live view I called it good.
Well the way I adjust is I put everything on a solid surface, point to a high contrast subject (Magazine covers work very well for me) at a distance of about 20 yards. I use a remote shutter release (you can use the 10 second timer instead of course) and mirror lockup to make sure there is absolutely NO vibrations. Then I take a shot at 0, then zoom in all the way to get a base visual. Then shoot in the minus direction numerous times at increments of 3 to 4 to see if I'm heading in the right direction. If its getting softer, dial in the plus direction and see how the image is shaping up. I use saturation set at zero as well but boost contrast and sharpness all the way so I can see detail the best. I have never tried manual adjusting with the liveview maybe I should try that as well. I hope this helps man!
Fortune was with me today! I was sitting watching an Anhinga and keeping the tourists from harassing him (they don't realize that after a dive they can't/won't fly until drying off a bit and can get really nervous when people get close) when I turned over to the right and there, a Green Heron. He was just as surprised to realize I was there as I was to see him. He just froze for a second and then bailed. I managed to squeeze off a shot.
ISO 1600 on the 50D looks pretty good; most importantly it retains a lot of vibrance -- noise I don't worry about, but I hate washed out looking colors!
pingflood wrote:
Fortune was with me today! I was sitting watching an Anhinga and keeping the tourists from harassing him (they don't realize that after a dive they can't/won't fly until drying off a bit and can get really nervous when people get close) when I turned over to the right and there, a Green Heron. He was just as surprised to realize I was there as I was to see him. He just froze for a second and then bailed. I managed to squeeze off a shot.
ISO 1600 on the 50D looks pretty good; most importantly it retains a lot of vibrance -- noise I don't worry about, but I hate washed out looking colors!
Do you think you could get a little more contrast into the feathers? That would really make it sing.