Outdoor Ontario

Photography => Ontario Birds => Topic started by: Anonymous on February 08, 2009, 08:12:48 PM

Title: Some water birds...
Post by: Anonymous on February 08, 2009, 08:12:48 PM

Here's a few from today, C+C appreciated.

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/CommonGoldeneye.jpg)

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/CommonMerganser.jpg)

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/LongTailedDux.jpg)

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/RedheadCouple2.jpg)

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/Spice.jpg)

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Post by: Photoman on February 08, 2009, 08:29:47 PM

Nice pics. I like the last one of the longtail and the two redheads.

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Post by: Mark D on February 09, 2009, 04:22:48 PM

Nice shots.  If I may ask, where were they taken?

Mark

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Post by: Anonymous on February 09, 2009, 05:18:40 PM

That would be the lagoon at the base of the Scarborough Bluffs, bottom of Brimley Road.  I put a report for my day - it can be found here (http://outdoorontario.net/birds/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2532).

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Attila

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Post by: Joe on February 09, 2009, 10:56:28 PM

Thanks for posting.  Nice shots.

Joe

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Post by: Kin Lau on February 09, 2009, 11:51:11 PM

How much of a crop is this? They seem a bit soft, the 75-300 should be sharper than this.

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Post by: Mathew Rossi on February 10, 2009, 12:17:56 AM

Hey Attila. If you want to get more out of the shots, a few pointers...

Depending on what software you use, try compressing the levels, especially from the right side (highlights) by sliding the right slider to the left (assuming photoshop but also works with Canon Digital Photo Professional DPP).

In your first shot I notice it was at f5.6 at 1/1600 ISO 200.  You could've moved the aperture towards f/8 which would help get more sharpness at the expense of shutter speed.

My theory with shooting is to always get as sharp a shot as possible, then I work with RAW processing to bring the exposure up if I need to. Sometimes you need to shoot at f 4 or 5.6 but it's generally not the sweet spot for the lens, if at all possible go for f/8 or even f/11.  I aim to keep my shutter speed at least at my focal length, so 1/300 in the case of your 75-300 if zoomed to the fullest. 1/400 for a 400mm etc. That's just a general rule though. I use aperture priority and watch the selected shutter speed.

Sharpening is always necessary if you shoot RAW, because the image is essentially bland/flat straight out of the camera.

If you're using Photoshop, Shadow-Highlight is very useful, and Unsharp mask as well. If you're using Canon's software you can still do a lot of these things but the settings are a bit different.

Here's a simple levels adjustment and 300% 0.6px sharpening for example:

 (http://photo.asic.ca/Client/ASIC/photo.nsf/object/quickdrop/$file/CommonGoldeneyev2.jpg)

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Post by: Anonymous on February 10, 2009, 07:34:24 AM

Holy info!  :D

Couple of questions....

Does everyone shoot in RAW?  I've been shooting in L, but I think I'll give RAW a go from now on...

Going to pick up some software this weekend, using Canon's DPP right now but am open to something new - photoshop maybe? Other viables?

Kin - 100% on most, 75 on some others.

Thanks guys, you rock!

AP

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Post by: Mathew Rossi on February 10, 2009, 08:07:55 AM

Hey Attila. Before you go dropping a bomb on Photoshop, take a look at PaintShopPro or GIMP. Not positive but I believe they can both be had for free on the web, and both have a lot of tutorials and capabilities similar to Photoshop. I also think I saw PaintShopPro at FutureShop. As much as I love Photoshop, it's pretty pricey and requires a solid PC to run it, it absolutely grinds on my laptop.

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Post by: Kin Lau on February 10, 2009, 08:24:33 AM

Yes, GIMP is free and available for download.

For ease of use and just a general all-around good tool, I use Photoshop Elements. I'm on the old 5.0 version, current is 7.0. The Raw convertor, shadows & highlights etc are all there. The pro version is CS4, and much more expensive and full-featured but also harder to learn.

It retails for about $100- and you can purchase it online directly from Adobe.

If those were uncropped, then I would say the resizing really made a mess of things.

Can you make a full size available so that we can better see what's going on? Flickr will let you post full size.

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Post by: Anonymous on February 10, 2009, 07:47:22 PM

Here's a couple of full sizes for you guys to play with, and thanks again for all the information.  I'm going to start purusing all the ones that you gents have mentioned and will hopefully make a decision that will be beneficial now but also in the long run.

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/February8096.jpg)

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/February8054.jpg)

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/February8078.jpg)

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/February8167.jpg)

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/February8103.jpg)

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Post by: Anonymous on February 10, 2009, 09:20:36 PM

So I downloaded GIMP and all I can say is...wow.  Here's the result of a modified photo from above.

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/RedheadThreesome-1.jpg)

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Post by: Mathew Rossi on February 10, 2009, 10:22:23 PM

Great improvement. Post-processing is mandatory, so is shooting in RAW (IMO). Have fun! :)

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Post by: Bird Brain on February 10, 2009, 10:32:22 PM

Quote from: "Attila"

So I downloaded GIMP and all I can say is...wow.  Here's the result of a modified photo from above.

(http://i460.photobucket.com/albums/qq326/WingsofFuryPhotography/RedheadThreesome-1.jpg)

Attila ... Wow, what a difference!

 :)

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Post by: Anonymous on February 10, 2009, 11:53:29 PM

Mathew - thanks for the advice and the suggestion, I think it will pay big dividends from here on in. :D

Bird Brain - thanks for the confidence boost! :)

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Post by: Bird Brain on February 11, 2009, 09:27:38 AM

Quote from: "Attila"

Bird Brain - thanks for the confidence boost! :)

You're Welcome.

Jo-Anne  :)