Animal Hospital

jcdeboever · Oct 15, 2015

Birds getting better before being released back into wild. Marathon, Fl. Shot with my S90 on its last leg. I didn't use a flash obviously. I didn't want to spook them.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

dannylightning · Oct 16, 2015

nice shots. the pelican type bird is a bit dark i think, still looks good though. if you have light room or something similar i would try to mess with the shadow slider and bring out a little more detail. still very good photos..

DarkShadow · Oct 16, 2015

Nice shots.

dennybeall · Oct 16, 2015

Good capture of the birds. They would have benefited from just a bit of fill flash in my opinion.

jcdeboever · Oct 16, 2015

dennybeall said:
Good capture of the birds. They would have benefited from just a bit of fill flash in my opinion.

Thanks for the encouraging words.

This place is preserved and very dense (Crane Pointe Museum). I got off the path but way too many orb, other hairy spiders, and cactus for my nerves. Big ass iguanas too that scare the city boy out of me as they scurry when you get close to them. I was by myself and no M-16 with me [emoji6].

As far as flash, worried I would upset them with it so I refrained. I might try fixing it in Darktable. It didn't look that dark on my monitor.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

dannylightning · Oct 17, 2015

the green heron photo looks alright, but that the other shot the background on that shot looks properly exposed bu the bird looks a little under exposed but this is just my opinion....

i have been wondering about the color and brightness of my monitor for a while now, last year i sent some of my photos to a lab for printing, they came out a bit darker than i expected and my colors were a bit off from what i saw on my monitor, the printed photos still looked great but they did not really match my monitor that well..

eventually i got a "x-rite Colormunki display" calibration tool, which adjusted my monitor to what the device thinks is the proper color, contrast, brightness and all of that should be, now the printed photos look almost exactly as they do when i view them on my monitor. i think its hard to know if your monitor is set up right unless you get some kind of tool, but i am assuming mine is now set up the way it should be since the photos i got back from a good quality lab now seem to look almost identical to what i see on my monitor.

jcdeboever · Oct 17, 2015

dannylightning said:
the green heron photo looks alright, but that the other shot the background on that shot looks properly exposed bu the bird looks a little under exposed but this is just my opinion....

i have been wondering about the color and brightness of my monitor for a while now, last year i sent some of my photos to a lab for printing, they came out a bit darker than i expected and my colors were a bit off from what i saw on my monitor, the printed photos still looked great but they did not really match my monitor that well..

eventually i got a "x-rite Colormunki display" calibration tool, which adjusted my monitor to what the device thinks is the proper color, contrast, brightness and all of that should be, now the printed photos look almost exactly as they do when i view them on my monitor. i think its hard to know if your monitor is set up right unless you get some kind of tool, but i am assuming mine is now set up the way it should be since the photos i got back from a good quality lab now seem to look almost identical to what i see on my monitor.

Yea, I noticed this morning I forgot to reset my monitor after a lengthy programing session prior to vacation, just got back. I set them up differently when I am in the terminal for any length of time. I am going to slap together a PC for my programing this week, I've been meaning to do that but have not found my preferred chair yet. Lord knows I have enough spare parts laying around for the build.

I'll play around with them later hopefully. Going to the U of M vs. MSU game today, customer gave me two great seats, 16 rows up from 20 yard line. Tailgating in a couple of hours, should get a few pics using my old digital zoom camera (should be able to take into game).

You guys are awesome, thanks for helping the master noob.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Jim Walczak · Oct 18, 2015

dennybeall said:
Good capture of the birds. They would have benefited from just a bit of fill flash in my opinion.

Opinion or otherwise, suggesting the use of flash in such a facility is VERY BAD ADVICE.

In a place such as a zoo, flash -may- be acceptable in certain situations, however it seems clear the OP was shooting at a nature center or rehab facility of some kind and he (she) was VERY smart to avoid the use of flash. Having spent 4 1/2 years working as a nature center volunteer I can tell you first hand - NEVER USE FLASH AT SUCH A FACILITY! Unlike a zoo where the animals are typically in good health and may be very accustomed to idiot tourists and their cameras, the animals at rehab facilities are NOT...very often these are wild animals that have been injured and are undergoing treatment to be returned to the wild...the use of flash will startle the animal and can often disturb their recovery far more than you can imagine! It's simply not worth risking the animal's health just to get a stinkin' picture!

Yes, the second image could use some additional processing. Personally I'd take the image into Camera RAW and bring up the Fill Light a bit...maybe do a bit of work with Shadows & Highlights in Photoshop as well. That said, there is nothing there that couldn't be fixed in post...there would be absolutely no reason to have used a flash.

When it comes to nature and particularly when it comes to wildlife, PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL. It's only a picture...if you can't take the image without using flash or without disturbing the animal, then simply move on.