Nother beginner

[Bruce Hornsey]

Hi
Only taken up bird photos in the last 12 months and keen to learn more. Please critique my shot of the Superb Fairy Wren. My post processing is just with the Canon Digital Photos and I struggle to improve it over the jpeg from the camera. Using a Canon 5DMk3 with 400mm f/5.6 L and very new to both. Please comment

[Tim Foltz]

Hi Bruce welcome to the forum, next time please post all settings including shutter speed and ISO.
Besides the tail being blocked by the leaves and the OOF leaves incoming on the left, I would have lifted the shadows a bit and also sharpened the image a little more.
Inclosed is the image showing the image where the blacks are to solid.
Beautiful bird, keep on shooting looking forward to seeing more from your part of the world.

-Tim

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Welcome to the Forum.


You need to start paying attention to the histogram which will help you avoiding clippings. In general for Bird photography nice clean out of focus colorful background are best.

Keeping shooting and keep posting, that is the only way to improve.

[Doug West]

I'd also add...if I read your message correctly, you shot this in jpg.
Next time, try shooting in RAW. Your images will have a more dynamic
range to work with vs shootin in jpg.

Doug

[Bob Miller]

HI Bruce...This is a beautiful bird...so keep shooting it! You have achieved good sharpness but You need to begin learning to....
1) remember that your background is as important as your subject. Try to keep it as simple as you can by moving around and seeking different angles
2) You must learn photoshop or Lightroom processing to bring up shadows so you don't have black with no detail. And this is much easier when shooting raw.
3) if you start shooting raw, remember you must have some software like photoshop or Lightroom that has a raw editor.
4) If you are new to processing...just jump in and learn slowly. You will be surprised at how easy it becomes.
Just keep shooting! Love to see more of your work!

[Bruce Hornsey]

Thanks to all for their considered replies. Just spent the weekend at Bathurst and had a picnic at Sofala where there was huge numbers of these wrens, mainly females but only had my Samsung phone - so sad. Couple of questions further.

1. I have RawTherapee <cite style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(0, 109, 33); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; word-wrap: break-word;">rawtherapee.com </cite>and Canon's own editor Digital Photo Professional 4 which I have used with raw files with limited time practicing. Main reason for these choices are that they are free and I wanted to experiment before committing to paying for a software program. Is Lightroom or Photoshop better for my purpose at this early stage?
2. What function/s brings out detail in shadows?
3. Tried the sharp/unsharp mask on a massively zoomed in sample but couldnt pickup any benefit. What am I looking for?



HI Bruce...This is a beautiful bird...so keep shooting it! You have achieved good sharpness but You need to begin learning to....
1) remember that your background is as important as your subject. Try to keep it as simple as you can by moving around and seeking different angles
2) You must learn photoshop or Lightroom processing to bring up shadows so you don't have black with no detail. And this is much easier when shooting raw.
3) if you start shooting raw, remember you must have some software like photoshop or Lightroom that has a raw editor.
4) If you are new to processing...just jump in and learn slowly. You will be surprised at how easy it becomes.
Just keep shooting! Love to see more of your work!

[Doug West]

My workflow is using DPP (btw, look for a software update on Canon's site). I work on my raw image in that.
You'll be able to adjust the shadows in DPP. Photoshop does it, but I like doing it in DPP (or Lightroom).

Then I open it up in Photoshop as a tiff file and put the finishing touches on it (sharpening, noise reduction, etc.).

If you're doing the sharpening in DPP...don't. Use it in Photoshop as your last step in post processing.

Artie has a guide on using DPP in his store. I have it and it's excellent in learning his workflow and settings.

Doug


Thanks to all for their considered replies. Just spent the weekend at Bathurst and had a picnic at Sofala where there was huge numbers of these wrens, mainly females but only had my Samsung phone - so sad. Couple of questions further.

1. I have RawTherapee <cite style="color: rgb(0, 109, 33); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; -ms-word-wrap: break-word; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal;">rawtherapee.com </cite>and Canon's own editor Digital Photo Professional 4 which I have used with raw files with limited time practicing. Main reason for these choices are that they are free and I wanted to experiment before committing to paying for a software program. Is Lightroom or Photoshop better for my purpose at this early stage?
2. What function/s brings out detail in shadows?
3. Tried the sharp/unsharp mask on a massively zoomed in sample but couldnt pickup any benefit. What am I looking for?

[Juan Fernandez]

Take a look at this video tutorial from Canon on how to use DPP. 10 minute overview of where to find your tools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tETsnDiLwgo
As Tim mentioned, remember to post your settings!
Happy shooting.

[Bruce Hornsey]

Hello again

Thanks for all the tips, tutorials and advice. See if I have made any progress with a fresh image from the same day, same place and same bird.

Settings are as follows, Canon EOS 5D Mark 111 1/1250 sec. f/5.6 400mm ISO 1250. Image is edited in DPP 4 from raw file with emphasis on removing blown highlights and dark blacks from the bird, recovered the eyes a bit and chose a shot not obscured by the foliage174276
Take a look at this video tutorial from Canon on how to use DPP. 10 minute overview of where to find your tools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tETsnDiLwgo
As Tim mentioned, remember to post your settings!
Happy shooting.

[Tim Foltz]

Bruce, you did better on this image but a few things you still need to address:

#1 the eye is completely lost not even a catchlight.
#2 the image needs more sharpening.
#3 if you can find a subject with a cleaner foreground & background that's always a plus.

-Tim