-
Curious Rainbow
I hope you don't get bored with Rainbow Lorikeets.
Be careful what you wish for. I was looking forward to these little guys coming to my feeder. But holy moly, it's hard to get just one or even two by themselves. They are coming in little flocks of six and sevens and all jostling for a turn to pose. I have been moving FPs around and around, trying to get a better frame. They go from horizontal to vertical and upside down in a split second.
In ACR - Exposure to right almost a full stop. Shadows to the right.
In PSCS6 - Added canvas and a big crop. The raw file was very sharp at 100% so I figures the IQ might stand up to the crop. Curves layer on branch. Painted and cloned BG. Nr on BG and smart sharpened for web posting.
Canon 5D2
Sigma 150-600mm @ 240mm
f7.1
1/1250
ISO 1000
Tripod
C&C Always welcomed and appreciated.
-
-
Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
-
Another good one Glennie! Love the eye, HP, details in the feathers, etc, etc. Yeah, I would probably clone out the little piece hanging below the branch, my eye keeps going to it!
-
Post a Thank You. - 1 Thanks
-
Andrew - Thank you. Do you know I never even thought about removing that piece of fungus. Now you mentioned, I think it does draw the eye, but I do like it. The question of the OOF wing tip and tail....Certainly not deliberate. Ideally they would have been in focus, but then I could have sacrificed the BG, which wasn't much good at f7. I seem to be struggling with the light all the time now, so if I had closed down the aperture much more, SS or ISO would have suffered. An ISO of 1000 for me (and the Canon 5D2) is really a gamble. Decreasing the SS may have been an option, but these birds are so fast. This stuff is all very subjective Andrew. The OOF tail and wing tip does not bother me. But an OOF eye would put this image in the bin.
That's a compliment and a half re sounding like Diane. I can honestly say, that Diane has taught me everything I know about this wonderful craft. I read, and re read and put into practice any hints that she has given. She is the Master Grasshopper!
-
Glennie, beautiful! Unfortunately I live in an apartment, otherwise I would love to ask you how to set up these feeders!! This shot is another amazing one. I don't mind the OOF tail. But I do wish you have more room on top and looking at your crop snapshot, I think you can move the bird a little lower in the frame and give some more headroom. What do you think?
-
Adhika, I had thought about a bit more room on top. My thinking of not doing so was to let the bird look down and for the viewer to connect with his eye. WDYT?
-
OMG. If I had these things I'd be outside all the time. Interesting they they are very active -- they look sort of like clowns and it fits somehow. Lovely work on the BG!
Great catch, but I notice the image is cut off in the frame showing the crop. Did you clone in the tail and the right part of the perch from another frame? If so -- good job!
Good thinking about the aperture and resulting DOF.
If they are too active to keep a focus point on a head, and especially if that means keeping the subject smaller in the frame to keep it IN the frame, I might try a different strategy -- that of making all focus points active and just concentrating on framing, and hope in some of them you'll get the head sharp. That will work best if the bird is slightly facing you, as here, as focus will try to hit the closest point. This wouldn't be my constant strategy, but worth a try one in a while.
A better idea is to set a focus point toward the left of center and just waiting for poses where the bird is facing your left. If it turns around the other way, just tell it to turn back.
I probably would have been working with the camera horizontal here -- easier to follow action. And would have tried to get the branch at an angle so it isn't so horizontal -- more energy that way.
Another idea to try, since you're still struggling with ETTR is to shoot a test shot (probably don't even need a bird in it) and look at the histogram and set EC +1 or even more and shoot another, till you get the histogram pushed a little to the right. Then go to M and use those settings. But this will only work if the light is staying constant. In and out of clouds and this won't be consistent.
Adhika, do you have a balcony? You might be amazed what will happen if you put out a feeder and secure a branch a foot or so away as a staging perch.
-
Diane, Thank you. These birds are the class clowns.
The cropped perch was repaired with the patch tool. And the tail I just built up with cloning. I'll try to use all the FPs and see what it brings. I was working horizontal and vertical. Sometimes the FP was the very bottom, because they were upside down. I have a few frames where I managed to get two birds upside down, but head angles are a bit underwhelming. Great idea about shifting the branch to an angle. That never even past through my brain. I'll also try the test shot for ETTR.
-
We've discussed ETTR quite a bit in various threads here, but it occurred to me that much of it may have been in situations that involved not blowing out whites. With shots like this one, which is mostly in subdued light, it is equally important. On a typical foggy low light day, the camera's "middle value" auto exposure will give you a dull low-contrast shot. Images like that have been described as looking like wet cement. Ettr and then lower in post as needed to get the best tonal punch. And you'll still need to balance all the tonal sliders, but you'll have more tonal values to work with.
-
Originally Posted by
Glennie Passier
Adhika, I had thought about a bit more room on top. My thinking of not doing so was to let the bird look down and for the viewer to connect with his eye. WDYT?
To me, the picture ends at the branch and thus the space below the perch seems out of place. It would be a different story had it not been a horizontal perch.
Originally Posted by
Diane Miller
Adhika, do you have a balcony? You might be amazed what will happen if you put out a feeder and secure a branch a foot or so away as a staging perch.
Unfortunately not. I think this will soon become a requirement if I ever move. Glennie, how far is your camera from your feeder? One of these days, would you be so kind and share a picture of your setup? It would be lovely to learn about your studio! 
Originally Posted by
Diane Miller
We've discussed ETTR quite a bit in various threads here, but it occurred to me that much of it may have been in situations that involved not blowing out whites. With shots like this one, which is mostly in subdued light, it is equally important. On a typical foggy low light day, the camera's "middle value" auto exposure will give you a dull low-contrast shot. Images like that have been described as looking like wet cement. Ettr and then lower in post as needed to get the best tonal punch. And you'll still need to balance all the tonal sliders, but you'll have more tonal values to work with.
I guess we don't have a central place to talk about ETTR and I think each situations are different so I hope you don't mind us talking about ETTR sporadically at random places here in the forum, Diane. From my experience, not blowing out a major portion of the highlight is an absolute must because I think modern cameras can pull out details more easily from shadows rather than from highlights. Is that what you guys experience as well? In that sense, I found that it's better to err on the underexposure side than on the overexposure side. What I mean is that I would rather not ETTR enough than ETTR too much. So, for me, blinkies are really useful as a sanity check because the JPEG clips much earlier than the raw. Would that make sense?
Last edited by Adhika Lie; 05-03-2016 at 05:28 PM.
-
"I guess we don't have a central place to talk about ETTR and I think each situations are different so I hope you don't mind us talking about ETTR sporadically at random places here in the forum, Diane. From my experience, not blowing out a major portion of the highlight is an absolute must because I think modern cameras can pull out details more easily from shadows rather than from highlights. Is that what you guys experience as well? In that sense, I found that it's better to err on the underexposure side than on the overexposure side. What I mean is that I would rather not ETTR enough than ETTR too much. So, for me, blinkies are really useful as a sanity check because the JPEG clips much earlier than the raw. Would that make sense?"
This is the place for random discussion!! Quite right about every situation being unique. It's just a subject I'll bring up whenever I think I see issues that may be related to underexposure. I completely agree that blown highlights are much worse than dark shadows. But for me, trying to balance both ends is very important.
There should be in-camera settings for the JPEGs that come closer to what can be recovered in a raw file. I don't know Nikons at all, but for Canons there are not only Picture Styles but also settings for contrast and the like. I think I have mine dialed in fairly well to get an idea. And it's important to remember that dull, overcast light is a classic case for ETTR. But noise in shadow recovery varies quite a bit between different camera models (and ISOs) so its a personal choice for each of us.
Your skills are really apparent.
