My Bird Shot

[snerd]

I've about decided that without a tripod, or at least a monopod, I cannot get much sharper than this. My hands tend to tremble a bit.

 

[mmaria]

it seems overdone to me... jmo... someone will tell more

 

[TheNevadanStig]

It does. Like something was off and it became overcompensated for in post. It's a good looking house finch though.

What kind of settings are you using to capture the bird shots?

 

[Raj_55555]

Yup! most of the details in the feathers are washed out, did you noise reduce it too much? Shots like these against the bright sky are always so tricky, I've missed more than a few good shots like that. I do like the composition

 

[nzmacro]

Beautiful colours in this and would love to see one. Its not the ISO, I checked and that's at ISO 200 and the fence is fairly sharp. So I also think its been done with your pp where those details have gone. Try posting this one again, because I think it might all be there.

I'm heading on 60 and shooting with a 500mm hand held, it is getting harder so I sort of know the felling. My solution is to shoot higher shutter speeds. The cameras now days you can shoot easily with ISO 400 (APS-C) or ISO 800 (FF) and not notice much at all. Steve, a guy I shoot with uses well over ISO 1000 on FF and I mean well over, that's to get those higher shutter speeds. With APS-C, I don't like going over ISO 800 max for bird shots.

Anyway favourite subject, but try decent sunshine and a higher ISO along with maybe higher shutter speeds to compensate for those hands. Its tough I know.

All the best and these are a beautiful little one.

Danny.

 

[snerd]

Yes, I destroyed it in PP pretty much. I can't even remember all I did to it! Hold on, I'll post the original .raw and perhaps someone can do it up right.

 

[snerd]

It was heavily-cropped, underexposed and no telling what all. I suck at PP.

It's 21mb and can be obtained here:

http://oklahoma-online.com/finch.cr2

 

[Raj_55555]

I think I understand the problem, I gave it a try and realised the subject was way underexposed (almost 3 stops), and also needed a pretty good amount of cropping to be done and the details are just not there. I think you did a decent job here, increasing the exposure by that much is going to bring in a some noise, it's a difficult one. Sorry snerd!

 

[nzmacro]

Yeah that's a tough one for sure. Best thing is to try and shoot in brighter conditions. I know that sounds easier said then done, but that light makes a huge difference.

I did have a play with selective sharpening and dodging, nothing great but I'll post it anyway.



Not a lot we can do with it. Never give up though and try it again on another day if you see one..

All the best.

Danny.

 

[snerd]

Thanks, guys. Yeah, it was a tough nut to crack.

ETA: I do want to learn from this one. With the heavily backlit, small bird, I did use spot metering. In addition, I should have added about +2 EV, correct? Exposure compensation?