First Bird shot (Collared Dove) - C&C most welcome and appreciated

[painter24]

Ok, my first bird shot:). Took it earlier today. As you can see from the photo, it's a horrible grey, dull, overcast kind of a day, but i've been itching to get out, even just in the garden to see what was around, and saw this little guy on next door's tv ariel

http://img460.imageshack.us/img460/9220/img1252filteredwebub4.jpg

Shot with 40D & 100-400L TV mode @ 1/125, f7.1, ISO100, 100% crop of original.
RAW-Jpeg via DPP, with some sharpening and brightness adjustments. Crop and resize done in PSE 5.

Thanks for looking guys:)

[sugarzebra]

Nice shot Painter and welcome to the bird forum...be very careful as bird photography becomes quickly addicting and expensive as you always need longer lenses :) :)

[IraRunyan]

Welcome to the bird forum...Very nice shot to start out with. Looking forward to your future postings.

[DaiWelsh]

You got the colours of the bird OK anyway and the sky is not your fault, nice image.

Dai

[canonloader]

Nice shot considering the circumstances. You might want to try Av Mode to keep control over the aperture though.

[targetman]

nice first post and welcome.

[painter24]

Thanks for all your comments guys, I can certainly understand it becoming addictive..........actually it's one of the main reasons for me doing photography, birds and wildlife I mean.

With regards to shooting in AV mode, the reason I shot in TV mode was to get a faster shutter speed to compensate for the windy conditions,....I could just about see the tv ariel shifting slightly as i viewed through the viewfinder, otherwise I do usually use AV mode. Does that make sense, or am i talking nonsense? :lol:

Oh Dai, what part of South Wales are you from, i'm an ex-Welsh pat, living in Liverpool. I'm from Hirwaun/Aberdare originally?

Thanks again guys:)

ps, i understand i will lose AF if I used either the x1.4 or x2 TC with my 100-400L, is this correct? Not a problem, but i would like to get a little more reach without spending more on another big FL lens. Also, is there significant loss in IQ with these converters?

[canonloader]

Does that make sense, or am i talking nonsense?
Well, there are other ways to up the shutter speed. I like AV Mode, because all lenses have their sweet spot. You have to test in all f/stops to find out what yours is, but say it's f/6.3. In Tv Mode, the camera can change the f/stop to one that isn't as sharp as 6.3. I don't ever want that to happen, so I use Av Mode and either use exposure compensation to get a little more shutter speed, use flash, or, I change the ISO to adjust it. Since you shot at ISO 100, there was a lot of leeway there for adjusting ISO to double shutter speed each time you upped the ISO a notch. ;)

[painter24]

Thanks Canonloader, thats great advice, much appreciated.:)

[jpalmer]

welcome painter and a good shot from 100% ive noticed that at iso 100 and @1/125 so i would use auto iso on a dull day will be 800 and usable. (crappy uk weather)
so this will give a faster shutter speed.

[eccles]

Better than my first attempts but ease off the sharpening a bit as you can see a halo around the bird.

[painter24]

Thanks jpalmer and Eccles. Eccles, you're right about the sharpening, i need to hold back a tad on that. I've just found my 40D a tad soft, so i think i tend to overcomensate.

[DaiWelsh]

Hi Painter, im'e from Llanelli. As to losing auofocus have a look here
http://www.michaelfurtman.com/taping_the_pins.htm
or type Canon+autofocus+tape pins in Google.

Dai

[canonloader]

I believe that halo is from resizing in Elements. I have seen it before on jpg's resized with Elements. Can you test that?

[painter24]

Hi Painter, im'e from Llanelli. As to losing auofocus have a look here
http://www.michaelfurtman.com/taping_the_pins.htm
or type Canon+autofocus+tape pins in Google.

Dai

Thanks for the link Dai, that's great:), and say hello to Wales for me, i should be back down there again before Christmas, looking forward to it, really miss the old homeland.

[painter24]

I believe that halo is from resizing in Elements. I have seen it before on jpg's resized with Elements. Can you test that?

Here's another go at it, i've reworked the original RAW file, with next to no sharpening on, and again resized in PSE 5

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/2017/img1252bwebop2.jpg

[canonloader]

Try sharpening it now. Sharpen should be the last thing you do.

[dancad]

Definitely shoot with a higher ISO in these types of conditions. Although your shot is sharp here, it will more often than not be soft due to camera shake even with IS...unless you have very good handholding skills or a tripod/monopod. The shot is suffering a bit from heavy cropping - you could recrop less agressively as having the bird so big in the frame isn't always best.

As someone has aleardy said bird photography is VERY addictive. Keep at it and see the improving results!

[painter24]

Try sharpening it now. Sharpen should be the last thing you do.

Ok, here's the same image sharpened in PS5 @ 50, 2.0

http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/1554/img1252bwebedited1tf1.jpg

Not as aggressively sharpened as on the original pic i posted, which on reflection was way too much. So. what's the conclusion regarding the haloing?:)

And thanks for the encouragement dancad, and yep, it's certainly is addictive, i just want to get out there now but it's raining cats and dogs:rolleyes:, gotta love the British weather!!:)

[canonloader]

I don't see any haloing in the last two you posted. But sharpening should always be the last thing you do. Do any blur, color correction, light and exposure adjustments early on and sharpening will have less of chance to mess things up. :)

[painter24]

I don't see any haloing in the last two you posted. But sharpening should always be the last thing you do. Do any blur, color correction, light and exposure adjustments early on and sharpening will have less of chance to mess things up. :)

Ah, thanks a lot canonloader, that's the kind of thing i need to know. Great stuff :)