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Scarlet robin (female)
This is a shot from my archive - almost 2 years ago with the old Mark I version of the Canon 100-400 lens before I updated. While the new one is tons sharper, the old one could still produce some nice detail. This was taken with some thin, high cloud to diffuse the light and create a slightly softer lighting effect compared to full sun. The background is out of focus dry grass. These are lovely little birds and great photographic subjects. Typical of our robin species, they will land on a perch not far off the ground and scout for an insect or caterpillar on the ground. So they will sit for a minute or more sometimes while they look around providing ample chance for photos. There was a distracting branch above the bird in this one which I've cloned out but I'm much less inclined to do that kind of thing these days. I thought it spoiled the shot so have caved in to temptation here. Crop is around two thirds of the frame area.
As always, thank you for looking and for any comments you are kind enough to share.
Technical: Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (original version) at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/800 sec, f8, ISO 1600. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 2.5, crop, lighting adjustments, reduced luminance NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Modest NR to bird and stronger NR to background. Bird only sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool, remove Gaussian Blur, 0.3 pixels at 50%) after final size reduction.
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Lifetime Member
Hi Glenn, great IQ in this, and the light does look nice and soft as you have stated. You have brought out the finer plumage nicely, and the colours look natural. Sweet smooth clean BG too.
Nothing wrong with the 'older' 100-400mm, I still have mine and still use it. Only because I cant afford the MK II.
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Looks pretty good Glenn. Nice soft light and good feather details. I would up the exposure a little.
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I like the simple image design as it works really well and highlights the red on the bird. Nice colors throughout. Details look good too. Very nice overall. TFS
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Sweet looking little bird here. Nice detail and a good pose. Background is very nice.
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Thanks for your comments Stu, Isaac, Alex and John. Isaac, I could see this working a little brighter too but, as always when processing, I settle at a particular spot that seems right at the time. On a different day, who knows...
Originally Posted by
Stu Bowie
Nothing wrong with the 'older' 100-400mm, I still have mine and still use it. Only because I cant afford the MK II.
Yes, it was a good lens that really got me going with bird photography. Bear in mind though that on my 80D body with its tiny, tightly packed pixels on the sensor, it's going to show up any lens deficiencies much more than the cameras with small pixel counts and larger sensors. So I did notice a substantial improvement when going to the Mark II but those using a 1DXII, for example, might see very little impact. I think your 1D MkIV is somewhere in between these extremes.
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Lifetime Member
Good one Glenn, of a bird that is listed as threatened in my state of NSW.
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Originally Posted by
Colin Driscoll
Good one Glenn, of a bird that is listed as threatened in my state of NSW.
Also listed as threatened in the ACT, due to habitat destruction.
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BPN Member
Very well done Glenn. Lovely detail on the bird and a great looking BG which shows the bird real well.
Good work
Will
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