Final_Junco

[Jess M. McKenzie]

First of all:
I know it's not de rigeur to pose birds at the feeder.
I forgot to say yesterday that the Golden_Crowned_Sparrow and this bird were shot with the camera on a tripod.
Same procedure for this one -- 2 flashes, 1/8 pwr, at 6 and 8 ft from bird and camera about 12 ft. Manual controls on camera.

Interesting effect was a ghosting at end of tail. Could this be due to a flash shadow?
I think it's remarkable how the black of the mantle grades into red. Never noticed this before.
Note sharp eye AND feet. Maybe the AF is OK after all? I'll still check it out..

D7100 with AF-S Nikkor 70-300 at 300mm, f11, 1/50s, shot raw, AF focussed on eye. ISO 800

Post processing:
LR/Develop -- exposure to -0.70, clarity +27, cropped as shown (thanks, Glennie).
PS - Levels Ad layer (cut off left tails) Added inset to show crop. NO sharpening.
-- flash killed contrast beak-to-suet, so I had to select beak and lower brightness.
LR - CTRL/E export to hard drive 1000 px W, 1200 px H
NB: System wouldn't let me switch dimensions, so changed image back to 1200 x 1000 px H

[Diane Miller]

You need to get your birds on a better BG and get closer so you don't have to crop. Set up a nice branch where they will stage and be ready with the camera aimed at it.

The ghosting is due to ambient light mixing with the shorter exposure necessitated by the flash synchronization. Use a setup in the shade where the only significant light is from the flash.

AF is mandatory unless you're into gambling.

Set up an export preset to 1000 high by 1200 wide, limited to 400 KB.

Touch out spots.

[Doug West]

Just to add onto what Diane mentioned about setting up a branch....from the looks of it,
one thing you could do is stick that branch in the feeder. Make sure it sticks out far enough
from the feeder. If you can, whatever is in the feeder, place that on the end of the perch
to increase your chances.

If you do, make sure the perch is placed above the food. This way they'll hit the perch first,
then go for the food.

[Glennie Passier]

Jess, Another well fed bird. I've been toying with the idea of setting up a feeder myself. I've been scouring my paddocks for photogenic branches.

Diane and Doug have some really good advice here. You seem to have a much greater grasp on PS and LR than myself, so add this talent to some nice perches and you will be set for some great fun!

[Jess M. McKenzie]

Thanks, to all 3 of you. BTW, Doug, I have lots of branches already, placed above the seed feeder. ... but not near the suet, favored by Juncos, Nuthatches, Chickadees, et al. Vide infra --
BG is a problem in our backyard, due to the fencing needed to keep deer off our septic berms, but I'll think about where to move the suet -- and the blind -- maybe into shade, or maybe full sun so I can lose the flashes.
Export preset was set up that way, Diane, but I thought switching dimensions was a good idea -- not, as things turned out. Won't do that again.
No heavy comments on image quality. Is that good news? The big problem in PP was getting some contrast between the suet in the bird's beak, the beak itself, and the suet beneath. I did some selecting of the beak/morsel, inverted that and messed with exposure to get what you see below.
I've just discovered what may be a better way: make an Exposure Adjustment layer, darken the whole thing, then apply white to the beak/morsel and bird. I'm happy with it, plus I just discovered what Diane means by "clipping." Why doesn't Adobe use some other term for highlight/shadow problems?
Diane, that capture was already at 300 mm and about 12 ft range. I'll try some at 600 mm just for grins.
PS: I like flash for freezing wings. I want to try flash at 1/16 pwr when we can afford to buy another 'slave.'

[Diane Miller]

I just can't get as far as noticing IQ with such a busy image heavily cropped. If you really want a photojournalistic shot of a bird at a feeder, you'll want to pay attention to catching a pose where you don't have a small light beak against small blown-out bright areas, or dark parts of the bird against dark areas. Don't think about trying to salvage this one -- think about how to shoot it better.

The term clipping has nothing to do with shadow-highlight problems. You might be thinking of masking?

[Jess M. McKenzie]

The term clipping has nothing to do with shadow-highlight problems. You might be thinking of masking?

I'm not trying to argue semantics -- just wanted to point out that Adobe uses "clipping," "clipped," etc in two ways, and that confused me for a while. Here's a quote from Adobe Help:

"Black Clip And White Clip
Specifies how greatly the shadows and highlights are clipped to the new extreme shadow (level 0) and highlight (level 255) colors in the image. Larger values produce an image with greater contrast. Be careful not to make the clipping values too large, because doing so reduces detail in the shadows or highlights (the intensity values are clipped and rendered as pure black or pure white)."

[Diane Miller]

OK -- my mental lapse. That use refers to packing together the tones at the ends of the histogram. I'm not sure what you were referring to that I said, but I was thinking of another thread where there was discussion of clipping layers, but it was in OOTB. I'll try to be more specific when I use the term.

Thanks for catching it! I can use too much shorthand sometimes.

[Jess M. McKenzie]

No hay problema. Glad I could contribute something. BTW, you may not realize it, but you've helped me tremendously. Only one small example: I've been out in the back yard all AM, looking for BG. When I find the right one(s) I'll hang some suet. ... and some pruned lilac branches.
PS: In an earlier post, I was referring to your comments on the "Banshee."

[Glennie Passier]

Jess, I've been thinking about your back yard. Are you able to "make" a nice BG? If you are at all arty (or not), you could paint a sheet of calico, or board of some description with some nice OOF back- groundy stuff and set it up some distance behind your feeder where you think would be a good spot to focus.

Just a thought. I have done this with Macro shots of flies.

[Diane Miller]

Thank YOU, Jess! Check out Alan Murphy (maybe a few years ago) for pictures of HIS tiny suburban back yard, compared to the pictures he has shot there. It's all a matter of Hollywood set design. A few distant trees don't hurt, but you can make do without them. Painted backgrounds are a necessity with shots where flash is used to freeze wing motion, and why not use them otherwise if you need them?

Ah yes, the Banshee comments were about clipping layers. Different beast. I can't remember what I said (or read) 5 minutes ago, which gets me in trouble a lot.

[Jess M. McKenzie]

Thanks, Glennie. Good idea. I could just buy a sheet of greenish camo and hang it on that blu-gray wall, but the wall's on the E side, and I'd like to move the feeders out into the sun.
So I've cut off more Lilac (tough wood) and attached some to a corner of the dog pen farther out of the late-day shadows-- shooting past that corner yields nice bokeh from a neighbors big evergreen. I'll submit a set-up photo when it's done.