New to bird photography and this is my first post. This image was taken in Norfolk UK. I am quite pleased with the image capture but feel that the birds look almost artificial, as if they are hanging on a wall. Lots of BG noise from the 7D.
Canon 7D, 100-400L, 1/3200@f7.1, ISO400. Raw conversion in DPP . Sharpened and cropped in CS6.
You found a nice scene with good lighting. Birds that are coming toward you will connect with the viewer better, but I don't think that is always a requirement for a picture. They are more often flying away from me!
Unfortunately image quality is not optimal here. Is it a big crop? I see a lot of JPEG compression in addition to noise.
The 7D can be a challenge for noise but you'll see some awesome images here that came from it. Exposing to the right is important to minimize noise. Unfortunately, removing noise and sharpening are very limited -- they need to be optimal in the capture.
Can you tell us more about your noise reduction and sharpening, and how you created the JPEG?
My rule of thumb is that I can rarely expect to end up with more image quality than I see in the raw converter at 100%, but I can degrade it from that if I'm not careful.
Last edited by Diane Miller; 12-03-2014 at 12:33 PM.
Hello Diane. Thanks for the welcome. I have just seen your reply but unfortunatly I have to rush out this evening. I will reply to your questions tomorrow. Thank you.
Hello again Diane, It is very kind of you to take the time to advise me. I have to admit that it was a very clumsy conversion in DPP, an over excessive use of USM in Photoshop and a bad jpg conversion. I have re-done the image as follows.
Raw conversion in DPP. Brightness 0. Contrast 0. Highlights 0. Shadow 3. Color Tone 0. Saturation 0. Sharpening 3, ALO Standard. Lum Noise 0, Chroma Noise 4.
In Photoshop. Crop from original image size 0f 17.9 Mpxls to 9.9 Mpxls. Convert to jpg. High Pass filter sharpening using Hard Light Blending Mode. Selective sharpening to Beaks and eyes USM Rad 0.2 Amount 300. The exposure was good to the right side of the histogram with blinkies just showing on the white tail area. BG still looks very noisy, I will have to find a way of dealing with that. I could probably have used ISO 100 on such a bright day and still have had enough shutter speed to capture the flying birds. This was my first time out with this body/lens combination as I bought it specificly for BIF photography and was not sure what to expect in terms of image quality. My normal photography is done with an Olympus E-M1 Mu4/3 which of courser is no good for this type of photography. Any advice on shooting and processing the image will be very welcome as I realise that I have a lot to learn about this genre of photography.
Last edited by David Cowling; 12-04-2014 at 06:46 AM.
This looks much better. The pattern on the top of the wings is just gorgeous!
I don't use DPP so can't comment on the settings, but I'm sure others here can. I've also just gotten the 7D2 and haven't had a chance to try it with BIF -- we're finally getting some rainy weather here in California, about which I can't complain.
One of the biggest hits to image quality is always from cropping. If the capture is tack sharp, you can get away with more of it, but any compromise in sharpness or noise is greatly magnified. The more basic the rig, the more important to have good light and get close to the subject. Easy to say, huh??
It looks better at this size, with better color and tonalities. But you are the judge, looking at the original master file at 100%.
If you post at the full size of 1200 x 900 it's easier for people to evaluate. This last one is 1000 x 635. Save for Web lets you set the size, and then adjust the quality to get under the 400 KB limit.
ACR version infinitely better David, I agree with Diane cropping is the best way to emphasise noise in a 7D image. Judging by your comments I suspect you know something about raw conversion, I use ACR and DPP and I am ambivalent, the big thing about ACR is that you can apply a sharpening mask - this facility is not available in DPP. One immediate tip but I suspect you know already but shoot to the right - always ensure the image is well exposed this will minimise noise in your images. If you get just a few blinkies on your camera preview you will probably be OK in your raw conversion.
Greylag Geese.
Posting Permissions
