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Thread: Red Crossbill

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    Default Red Crossbill

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    There was discussion recently about the difficulty of getting this bird in the open for a good background. This was a shot I took at Cabin Lake, Oregon in October of 2020. Easy to socially distance when you are sitting in a blind in the middle of nowhere. This bird landed about 15-18 feet away from me, and although it was quite cooperative, it was also at the MFD. I was using a 5D4, 600 mm II + 1.4XT, making 840 mm. At that distance I was at f/8.0 (1/1250, ISO 500) and I am not sure that even f/16 would have given me enough DOF to deal with this bird. I liked the perch and the BG but it would have been nice to have a zoom lens on the camera at that time to perhaps get the entire bird sharp (or maybe take the extender off). The BG was slightly darkened, the bird was slightly brought up but otherwise this is the FF shot. I used DeNoise AI and applied a light Unsharp mask before converting to JPEG. I believe this is an immature bird so the colors are muted.

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    BPN Member dankearl's Avatar
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    The extender off would have been the right move...very cool birds and the eye is sharp..
    Dan Kearl

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    BPN Member Dorian Anderson's Avatar
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    Yeah, the extender and proximity hurt on a number of fronts, notably the composition. Any chance you can make this into a vertical? The lighting is very nice, but the perch is a bit busy. I'm also not sure focus fell on the eye; it looks like its on the shoulder. Hoping to make it up there during some future summer. I love birding in Oregon.

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    Avian Moderator Brian Sump's Avatar
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    James, this is an almost for me man. Nice job getting a colorful perch and the opening for the beak saves it as I agree it's a touch busy.

    Regardless, it probably would be well suited for a vertical crop and I think just a little more dof and you have a nice frame.

    There are some halo type artifacts around all edges. Did you do anything unique in PP?

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    I feel James you are way too conservative on the SS, you should be looking at 1/2000 minimum, don't be afraid to push the ISO with that kit, the camera won't explode but a faster SS, expose ETTR and your images will improve and it will in turn help higher ISO. As presented it's hard to know without seeing the Raw, but either the FP was on the wing, not on the head, or the kit is front focusing which isn't uncommon, however applying some more sharpening does help.... Agree that the crop should be in Portrait mode, always try to shoot the way you intend to portray it, avoid cropping from Landscape to Portrait to retain/maintain IQ. The subject is angled away from you so you'll struggle in terms of DoF. The file has an untagged profile which may not display the image to it's best, even causing a colour shift so check that your files contain an sRGB embedded profile for web presentation, so as presented, it might not be so warm? One question, any ideas on what has caused a 'ghosting' appearance around the content, it's like a haloing???

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    Quote Originally Posted by dankearl View Post
    The extender off would have been the right move...very cool birds and the eye is sharp..
    Thank you. You are correct about the extender. I was waiting on Mountain Chickadees that were coming to the top of this perch and this bird was about 2x as big and landed much lower on the flowers. In retrospect, I had plenty of time but did not know it at the time.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dorian Anderson View Post
    Yeah, the extender and proximity hurt on a number of fronts, notably the composition. Any chance you can make this into a vertical? The lighting is very nice, but the perch is a bit busy. I'm also not sure focus fell on the eye; it looks like its on the shoulder. Hoping to make it up there during some future summer. I love birding in Oregon.
    Cabin Lake is a great place for photography. Several man-made water features are present that provide the only reliable, year-round water for miles around. I am posting a vertical, but unfortunately no matter what I do, it is too much bird and perch in too small a frame. I could add canvas but with the flowers that likely will be beyond my PS capabilities. On the re-edit I masked off the face and applied AI Sharpen with Focus mode. It looks a little better, IMO.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Brian Sump View Post
    James, this is an almost for me man. Nice job getting a colorful perch and the opening for the beak saves it as I agree it's a touch busy.

    Regardless, it probably would be well suited for a vertical crop and I think just a little more dof and you have a nice frame.

    There are some halo type artifacts around all edges. Did you do anything unique in PP?
    Thank you for your thoughts. I certainly have a lot of "almost" shots. Do not know what caused the halo. I did bring up the brightness on the bird, but very slightly. I also used Topaz De Noise AI.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    I feel James you are way too conservative on the SS, you should be looking at 1/2000 minimum, don't be afraid to push the ISO with that kit, the camera won't explode but a faster SS, expose ETTR and your images will improve and it will in turn help higher ISO. As presented it's hard to know without seeing the Raw, but either the FP was on the wing, not on the head, or the kit is front focusing which isn't uncommon, however applying some more sharpening does help.... Agree that the crop should be in Portrait mode, always try to shoot the way you intend to portray it, avoid cropping from Landscape to Portrait to retain/maintain IQ. The subject is angled away from you so you'll struggle in terms of DoF. The file has an untagged profile which may not display the image to it's best, even causing a colour shift so check that your files contain an sRGB embedded profile for web presentation, so as presented, it might not be so warm? One question, any ideas on what has caused a 'ghosting' appearance around the content, it's like a haloing???

    TFS
    Steve
    I agree about the FP. On my re-edit I masked and applied AI Sharpen, Focus mode. Not sure about the halo. I did create a layer mask and brought up the brightness, but very slightly. I also applied DeNoise AI. Maybe my layer mask was a pixel or so off. Yes on the exposure-I agree with you. This picture was taken at sunrise and the sunlight was increasing by the minute. I had plenty of light and should have used it.

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    Default Re-edit

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    I cropped vertically, but without adding canvas there is way too much bird and not enough frame. I also masked and applied Topaz AI Sharpen, focus mode.

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Jim/James you still need to resolve the embedded profile, web images as I mentioned earlier requires an sRGB, it's probably a simple box that within PS is unchecked. Halo/ghosting appears to have gone on the RP.
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Kaluski View Post
    Jim/James you still need to resolve the embedded profile, web images as I mentioned earlier requires an sRGB, it's probably a simple box that within PS is unchecked. Halo/ghosting appears to have gone on the RP.
    Just getting back home and opened computer. Please excuse my ignorance but I am not sure what you are referring to. When I Save For Web through PS I check the Convert to sRGB box. Is there someplace else I should be doing that?

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    Wildlife Moderator Steve Kaluski's Avatar
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    Hi James no worries, we have all been where you are currently, will drop you a PM. If you can just answer some simple questions, plus add some screen grabs we can sort this I’m sure. Quite simply it’s just getting all your ‘Ducks’ in a row, to ensure from camera to output all of the kit is talking the same language.
    Post Production: It’s ALL about what you do with the tools and not, which brand of tool you use.

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