Jump to content

Feeding birds


Sagitar
 Share

Recommended Posts

Sagitar, how much post processing do you apply to your photos? I love how bright and vibrant they look - something I often struggle to get out of my photos........  :unsure:

 

Sorry not to have replied sooner, but we've been away for a week and I'm trying to catch up.

 

I use a Fuji XT1 camera and it allows a range of film simulations. For nature pictures I use Velvia Vivid which gives vibrant reproduction ideal (in my view) for landscapes, gardens, flowers, birds etc. I have the camera set up to take a large jpeg and a RAW file simultaneously. Apart from straightening and cropping the jpegs I do nothing to them and it lets me send pics to friends quickly. If I want to do something special I process the RAW files in Adobe CS6 leaving me with a tif file which gives a lot more detail. The jpegs are not more than 100 KB, so they are easy to send with an email while the tifs and RAW files may range from 10 to more than 30 MB so have a lot more data and detail. I always print from tifs.

 

It's unusual to need much processing, but I can do a range of things if necessary. Typically I might limit the dynamic range to ensure that there is detail in both highlights and shadows. I might work on selective areas when there are deep shadows and bright highlights - for example a building front in shadow, with a bright sky visible above the building, may benefit from selecting the building and the sky separately and using different exposure, brightness and contrast levels for each of them.

 

It's difficult therefore for me to reply simply to your question but I think that most of what you are seeing is probably down to the choice of Velvia Vivid as the film simulation in the camera.

 

If I get some time once I have caught up with the post holiday stuff I'll try to find a stable, colourful subject and take a series shots using a range of film simulations to show the differences.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've always kept mine in standard as I only use the jpgs if it's a quick snap shot for ebay etc. Maybe I should try the other settings and see what the jpgs come out like.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great capture Sagitar :)

 

How's this for a feeding bird, a sparrowhawk landed in my garden yesterday afternoon with what I think was a sparrow, it flew off with the carcass. I spent 20 minutes watching it feed, what an amazing sight. It was fast though and never stopped, my lens struggled to get it in focus (I was about 6-7 metres away) but I did get a couple of good photos.

 

27955140060_18405fa1b3_b.jpg

 

27620389234_579a90a47d_b.jpg

 

27955140020_871522274f_b.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's brilliant Rich. Well done.

 

I've seen a Sparrowhawk attempting to take small birds in my garden and I've seen the results. I cleared up the remains of a dove a few days ago, but I've never seen one in a successful strike, let alone got a good picture of it.

 

The feathers look large for a sparrow. Are you sure it wasn't something a bit bigger?  It's difficult to judge the scale from a picture - the male Sparrowhawk is only about 11".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Sagitar, so it isn't a lot of post processing then which is what I expected - I'd love to get to that too where the shot straight off the camera is what I want but seem to be a long way away from that so far!

 

Probably need to look in more detail at the various settings in my camera and make some tweaks, I'll report back if I make any progress :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's brilliant Rich. Well done.

 

I've seen a Sparrowhawk attempting to take small birds in my garden and I've seen the results. I cleared up the remains of a dove a few days ago, but I've never seen one in a successful strike, let alone got a good picture of it.

 

The feathers look large for a sparrow. Are you sure it wasn't something a bit bigger?  It's difficult to judge the scale from a picture - the male Sparrowhawk is only about 11".

 

I didn't see it take the bird but the missus spotted it as soon as it landed and called me over to the window. Once I realised what it was I rushed upstairs for the camera!

 

I couldn't really see what it was eating, it didn't look that big so maybe it was a female blackbird? The sparrowhawk itself wasn't that large, at first I thought it might have been a baby but I then Googled it and read they don't grow that big anyway.

 

It was pretty brutal when eating it and there was much left when it flew off.

 

Thanks Sagitar, so it isn't a lot of post processing then which is what I expected - I'd love to get to that too where the shot straight off the camera is what I want but seem to be a long way away from that so far!

 

Probably need to look in more detail at the various settings in my camera and make some tweaks, I'll report back if I make any progress :)

 

At the end of the day it's still the camera's preset that is processing the image, the RAW image will always be unprocessed and lack a lot of colour. If you are happy with that then it's fine to use but I have always enjoyed doing it myself so it's to my liking.

 

If I wanted to in Camera RAW I can select one of the default presets and apply it to the RAW file, which is no different from letting the camera doing the work. You can also download presets to add for different scenes and apply those or at least use them as a starting point. It's all subjective really so whatever works for you is fine :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I underestimated how far away I was when taking the photo, I measured it last night and it was 12 metres. I took the photos at 300mm from the rear door and was getting a bit of camera shake too but the VR on the lens obviously helped a lot.

 

Here are the feathers, I just took a quick photo on my phone before clearing them up, does it help to identify the victim?

 

WP_20160711_20_25_00_Pro.jpg

 

WP_20160711_20_25_07_Pro.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...