I was fairly certain that under-exposure was a major cause of bad images recently, so I tried some flashes I'd set up for freezing hummingbird wings.
Post processes were limited to a crop of about 30% to eliminate distractions and replacing the BG. To explain: original BG was a blue-gray wall of ship-lap, which ran an ugly shadow right behind the bird. I selected the bird, inverted the selection, and deleted the existing BG. The replacement was built in PS by copying the original main color onto a foreground/background swatch, followed by Edit>Fill.
That's all the PP -- no sharpening, etc. I'd be grateful for any comments.
Spot focussed on eye, then he shifted his tail toward the camera...;-(
D7100 + AF-S Nikkor 70-300 at 300 mm
f11, 1/100s, 2 flashes at 1/8 pwr about 6 ft and 10 ft from subj
ISO 800
Last edited by Jess M. McKenzie; 01-18-2016 at 06:36 PM.
Reason: spelling/typos. forgot ISO
Nice use of flash, but not an appealing pose or perch. These guys will come running if you get in the habit of scattering seed. Set up a nice branch that's not too big with a nice BG and pretty soon you'll get them perching on it on their way to the food.
Despite f/11 the DOF is small and fell on the wing, leaving the head out of focus. The white object on top of the post is distracting, and the removal of the BG left a white halo to its left. Much better to find or set up a good BG.
This is strange: I focused -- single point -- on the eye. And the 25 MB result showed the eye to be sharp. It's passing strange that LR didn't produce a similar smaller version.
You mentioned feed: We have the fattest birds in the County. Tomorrow, I'll send in a shot of a Junco on our suet. This , btw,will be a cropped raw image. Cropped ONLY.
On my monitor, the eye is sharp. Same conditions as the Golden_Crowned_Sparrow (2 flashes, ISO 800,etc). Wish I could send it now, but rules is rules.
LR won't change the focus point. Not sure what you're seeing here. The wing feathers are the sharpest, although the eye isn't bad.
Is it possible the bird moved just a squeak between focus and shutter release? What raw converter are you using? One that shows the focus point (or comparing to the LCD display on the camera) will show the active one, but won't show if there was distance movement between subject and that point before shutter release.
Looking forward to the Junco. We have them down here too, although not as many as a couple of years ago. Cute little things! I saved one's life one day. Was shooting on our deck at a staging perch near the feeder and had inadvertently left the screen door open (warm spring morning). Went inside to refill coffee, bent over next to the kitchen sink to toss something into the recycling and when I straightened up I found myself face to face with one sitting on the counter right next to the kitchen sink. After a brief pause for a reality check I realized it must have been trying to get out through the kitchen window. I explained to it that if it would let me pick it up, I would save its life. To my amazement, it did. I carefully cradled it and headed back to the door it had come in through. As we got near the door it gave a mighty heave and escaped. I've been more careful about the door ever since.
Diane. I don't know what you mean by "raw converter." If that's an LR/PS term, I'll track it down, but If it's some kind of Cannon term, I'll be at a loss.
This may be relevant: On my Nikon D7100 I programmed the AE-L/AF-L buttom on the camera's rear to do the focussing . When shooting, I aim a single point 'bullseye' in the viewfinder at the subject's eye (when I can) then fire the shutter (the regular one on top) while I'm holding down the rear button. Thus, the focussing motor runs constantly until the instant of fire. The method is supposed to work for birds in flight and other moving targets. Of course,, there is a way to calibrate the AF for each lens, and I must admit I haven't done that for the Nikkor 70-300 lens yet, so maybe that's the source of a focus error. What worries me though is that -- on my monitor -- the image appears to be focussed on the bird's eye. So, maybe I have monitor problems ... or my ophthalmologist mis-prescribed.
Re catching your Junco: Those are brave little birds. Not so fearless as Nuthatches and Chickadees, but apparently easier to catch than hummers. I caught one of those in our garage once with my trout landing net. Took about an hour.
PS: If we get some light tomorrow, I'll calibrate the AF for that 70-300 lens
Are you shooting in raw or JPEG? If raw, when the image comes in, you have to be using a raw converter, as a raw file is not an image file. It needs certain parameters set to become an image. If you're using PS, the first thing that happens is that the image opens in Adobe Camera Raw, which is a helper program to PS. If you're using LR, the Develop module is a raw converter with the same engine as ACR but a different interface. If you're somehow bypassing these with an Auto setting of some sort, you shouldn't be. The adjustments you have in a raw converter are the equivalent of everything Ansel Adams did in exposing, processing the negative and printing, all rolled into one.
The only "Canon thing" is their DPP raw converter. Nikon raw files still need to be converted. Do you have PS or LR?? What are you using, or doing?
Re focus, sounds as if you are doing it right, but focus here was not on the head, but on the wing. (Look at the file at 100%.) Nothing you could have done to the file would change that. The camera somehow missed.
Thanks, Diane. I always shoot raw nowadays. First step in LR is to go to Develop, where I usually crop to improve comp, often as much as 30%.
I might change exposure there (didn't with the Gold Crown) then hit G. With the Gold Crown, I went to PS (ACR doesn't come up in that case) to select, etc, and exchange the BG.
Then Saved As to LR as a tiff. To submit -- in LR I hit ctrl/shft/E, to reduce size, etc, and send the image to my eMail folder as a jpeg.
We have another dark day here on the OlyPen, but I'll set up an AF calibration for this lens inside the house. Should have done that last time the sun came out.
That's your answer to what a (your) raw converter is -- the Develop module in LR. (The equivalent is Adobe Camera Raw for people who don't use LR.) ACR is not needed for anyone who uses LR.
Sounds like you're doing things right. If you're new to LR check out the tutorials on my web site, linked below.
Gold_Crowned_Sparrow_DarkDay
