Red Stops By For A Snack

[canonloader]

Since he found out about peanuts, he's worse than any Hummingbird guarding his stash...

Ooops, linked to the wrong file. This is the one shot HDR of a bird. I've never gotten one to come out good, and wondered why.
http://www.picturelacrosse.com/birds/cards08/cardinalm-img_7198-110508_1.jpg

[Pete]

That's the most natural looking HDR I've seen in a long time... (or is this posted in HDR by mistake? ;))

[marjnap]

Nice job Mitch. The color on the cardinal is wonderful and you didn't lose any feather detail.

[canonloader]

Pete, your too quick. No, I would love to figure out how to get a bird to come out good in Photomatix, but can't seem to figure out what the problem is. Aside from having to use a single shot, the colors just never seem right.

[Pete]

Hehe... Yeah, the red looks a little blown there. I can well understand the frustration with HDR, for me, it always seems to decrease tonal range instead of making it larger. But, I probably don't get it.

[canonloader]

Thanks Marj. He's a willing subject. I would dearly love to figure out the settings to make these come out as a HDR though. Considering the difficulty of getting correct exposures on birds anyway, it would be nice if it worked. :)

[canonloader]

One more try, this time, making 3 images from the original RAW and opening in PM. It still looks funky.

http://www.picturelacrosse.com/birds/cards08/cardinalm-img_7198-110508hdr.jpg

[Pete]

Lots better, Mitch. Far more natural looking.

[canonloader]

As an HDR it does look better, but the non-HDR original looks as good or better. I thought PM might save some of those shots that just don't come out good cause of backlighting or a white bird on a white background situation. I don't think it's going to do it though. :)

[Pete]

I find that Nik Viveza gives a more natural way of selectively brightening/darkening areas - I use it quite frequently to bring some pop back into images.

[zacker]

i think its great mitch, very clean and detailed.

[canonloader]

Thanks Craig. The detail is there, but the colors just don't feel right. Probably cause I have seen too many of them outside the window. It was more an exercise in seeing what I could do with a single shot. Not sure why birds and animals don't render very well. :)

[-Douglas-]

I like both shots and my mom would just die if I could get a closeup shot like one of these. I do have some Cardinal shots but nothing as nice as these. Got a shot of one just the other day before the standing corn was cut. It stuck out like a sore thumb against all the tan corn! exercise or not, good job Mitch!

[canonloader]

Thanks Doogie. I have at least 5 males here in my yard now that it's turned cold, and in a month, I will have at least ten male female pairs here all day, every day. All you have to do is put out some Black Oil Sunflower seeds where they can find them and you will have several families living in your yard. :)

To get these, I set up my tripod inside my bedroom that looks out on the back yard. I have that table, but also several sticks jammed into the ground that I can see and focus on right here from my desk. I can shoot right through the glass or open the window in good weather. But the sticks are the secret, cause they are more natural perches than the table, and birds will always land on a stick first, then hop to the table. Shoot them while they are on the stick. ;)

Go check out the cardinal page (http://www.picturelacrosse.com/slide_shows/northern_cardinal/northern_cardinals.html) on my gallery. :)

[Okami]

great shot and hdr looks great

[canonloader]

Thanks Okami, I will try some more if the sun ever comes out again. :)

[Bill Pham]

looks pretty good Mitch. and yea i know what you mean about the sun coming back out. i haven't seen it in days here.

Bill

[canonloader]

Thanks Bill. I know, it's been raining and snowing here for 3 days now and looks like more to come.

[jdizzle]

I like the 1st one alot but, that's just me. I love the bringht red on that bird!

[canonloader]

Thanks Julian, part of the reason I wanted to test this is because the bright reds on these birds usually blows out in the digital image. It's worse than a white bird on a dark background. Something about the red color doesn't do good on the digital sensors I guess. I was hoping HDR could tone it down some, but it just looks a little odd to me. :)

[-Douglas-]

Go check out the cardinal page on my gallery.

Thanks for that Mitch ! Those were Awesome. Of coarse I had to spend some time there
and check out the rest of your gallery as well :D
And I passed on the link to my mom because she will just love them as well, great work!

Also this thread reminded me of some Turkey Vultures I got lucky to take some shots of
last Fall, going to have to give them a whirl on Photomatix and PS3 and see what happens, hmmm.:cool:



*reminder to self* must get snacks for birds and critters, yum yum :p

[canonloader]

Thanks for looking Doogie. One of my favorite pastimes is going to our park where some of the birds are so tame they will land in your hand. That's always a fun way to spend time. :)

[-Douglas-]

so tame they will land in your hand.

Great! I think I seen Woodpeckers eating out of your hand, correct?

[canonloader]

Yes, the Downy Woodpeckers are very tame, but look at the Chickadee and Nuthatch pages too. :)

In fact, I have been there the last 4 out of 5 days and got a lot more hand held pics, which are now posted in the birds forum. :)

[Lazuka]

as always loader, i love your work, I like Both renders equally, honestly, i think you should honestly keep playing with that, this makes me want to get the new photomatix ;)

[canonloader]

Thanks Lazuka. Maybe I am too close to the birds. It makes them look strange after seeing their normal colors for so long. I will have to try some different colored birds though. That may come out different. :)

[Avi]

2nd looks much much better than the first attempt Mitch...mind sharing the original...just want to see the difference between the PM and the non-PM version..

Avi

[canonloader]

Here's the original shot, with no PM.

http://www.picturelacrosse.com/birds/cards08/cardinalm-img_7198-110508.jpg

[Avi]

yeah...no doubt that original is good...I think the 2nd version is a nice attempt..

Avi

[-Douglas-]

yeah...no doubt that original is good

+1 :)

[canonloader]

Yeah, this is a good shot, but there are plenty that aren't and I was hoping to find some way to recover those blown out reds. Blown out whites, one comes to expect, but for some reason, reds on digital sensors are just as bad. I think it has something to do with the kind of light red feathers reflects. More UV in it maybe, not sure, but reds are very easy to blow out. :)