Post your Bird Portraits

Two gulls and one with attitude.

P.

I have been running some experiments to deal with a lack of sharpness in my pictures. The issue at hand is working with a tamron 150-600mm which up until now has been very sharp. I have upgraded my mount to an aftermarket gimbal mount (sevenoaks gimbal). My first thought was that I was not getting good stability from the mount. I ran an experiment with the gimbal taking pictures of a power line in my back yard. I tried all combinations of iso, f stop (and shutter speed), and found the lens and gimbal to be tack sharp, down to a very low shutter speed.
I have reached the conclusion that when photographing birds in AI Servo mode, with multiple frames (very different from the power lines), the lens is slow to focus, and between shots there is enough misfocus to reduce the image quality. The other possibility is in AI servo mode, multiple frames, with my hand on the gimbal mount, I am introducing shake and reducing image quality.

I took these pictures at Baylands Park in Palo Alto. This is a marsh area, filled with water birds. There is also a small plane airport adjacent to the park that allowed me to work on panning with the planes coming in for landing. These pictures were all taken in single frame mode, some in AI servo, and some in single shot mode. My question is, has anybody else had this sort of challenge in achieving image quality?

IMAGE LINK: https://larryhendler.s​mugmug.com …Alto/i-srvFwh7/A&lb=1&s=A

Baylands Palo Alto

IMAGE LINK: https://larryhendler.s​mugmug.com …Alto/i-GprG8wK/A&lb=1&s=A

Baylands Palo Alto

IMAGE LINK: https://larryhendler.s​mugmug.com …Alto/i-3TgTtCm/A&lb=1&s=A

Baylands Palo Alto

IMAGE LINK: https://larryhendler.s​mugmug.com …Alto/i-XSVBgwf/A&lb=1&s=A

Baylands Palo Alto

Bignerd wrote in post #18461884
I have been running some experiments to deal with a lack of sharpness in my pictures. The issue at hand is working with a tamron 150-600mm which up until now has been very sharp. I have upgraded my mount to an aftermarket gimbal mount (sevenoaks gimbal). My first thought was that I was not getting good stability from the mount. I ran an experiment with the gimbal taking pictures of a power line in my back yard. I tried all combinations of iso, f stop (and shutter speed), and found the lens and gimbal to be tack sharp, down to a very low shutter speed.
I have reached the conclusion that when photographing birds in AI Servo mode, with multiple frames (very different from the power lines), the lens is slow to focus, and between shots there is enough misfocus to reduce the image quality. The other possibility is in AI servo mode, multiple frames, with my hand on the gimbal mount, I am introducing shake and reducing image quality.

I took these pictures at Baylands Park in Palo Alto. This is a marsh area, filled with water birds. There is also a small plane airport adjacent to the park that allowed me to work on panning with the planes coming in for landing. These pictures were all taken in single frame mode, some in AI servo, and some in single shot mode. My question is, has anybody else had this sort of challenge in achieving image quality?

IMAGE LINK: https://larryhendler.s​mugmug.com …Alto/i-srvFwh7/A&lb=1&s=A
Baylands Palo Alto by larryhendler on Smugmug

IMAGE LINK: https://larryhendler.s​mugmug.com …Alto/i-GprG8wK/A&lb=1&s=A
Baylands Palo Alto by larryhendler on Smugmug

IMAGE LINK: https://larryhendler.s​mugmug.com …Alto/i-3TgTtCm/A&lb=1&s=A
Baylands Palo Alto by larryhendler on Smugmug

This last one is an artificial chicken:

IMAGE LINK: https://larryhendler.s​mugmug.com …Alto/i-XSVBgwf/A&lb=1&s=A
Baylands Palo Alto by larryhendler on Smugmug

Larry, I dont see any lack of sharpness in any of your photos, but I too have been discovering by adopting different editing skills - this can make a huge diference to the final image.

All the best.

Pagman.

shooz wrote in post #18459506

Baltimore oriole

Beautiful shot of a beautiful bird.

Lame-Duck wrote in post #18461908
Beautiful shot of a beautiful bird.

Thanks !

Bignerd wrote in post #18461884
I have been running some experiments to deal with a lack of sharpness in my pictures. The issue at hand is working with a tamron 150-600mm which up until now has been very sharp. I have upgraded my mount to an aftermarket gimbal mount (sevenoaks gimbal). My first thought was that I was not getting good stability from the mount. I ran an experiment with the gimbal taking pictures of a power line in my back yard. I tried all combinations of iso, f stop (and shutter speed), and found the lens and gimbal to be tack sharp, down to a very low shutter speed.
I have reached the conclusion that when photographing birds in AI Servo mode, with multiple frames (very different from the power lines), the lens is slow to focus, and between shots there is enough misfocus to reduce the image quality. The other possibility is in AI servo mode, multiple frames, with my hand on the gimbal mount, I am introducing shake and reducing image quality.

I took these pictures at Baylands Park in Palo Alto. This is a marsh area, filled with water birds. There is also a small plane airport adjacent to the park that allowed me to work on panning with the planes coming in for landing. These pictures were all taken in single frame mode, some in AI servo, and some in single shot mode. My question is, has anybody else had this sort of challenge in achieving image quality?

A 150=600mm lens on a gimbal takes some getting used to, I think. My longest lens is the 400/5.6, but I sometimes take the 300/4 and make it a 600mm with the 2x extender and that is a very different lens than the 400mm. Most long lens tutorials say to put your hand on top of the lens and press your face against the camera as a way to reduce or rather absorb vibration with your body. Arthur Morris however, suggests supporting the lens from below as he considers it the better technique. Here's a link to his long lens tips: https://www.outdoorpho​tographer.com …lens-tips-and-techniques/

Processed another one from this Spring. It's just a house sparrow but I like the background colours.

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Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #18461919
Processed another one from this Spring. It's just a house sparrow but I like the background colours.

Hosted photo: posted by Levina de Ruijter in
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forum: Birds

Very nice levina.

P.

rawshorty wrote in post #18461888
My question is, has anybody else had this sort of challenge in achieving image quality

I do, when shooting my Tamron 150-600 G2 at 600. I think the lens is not sharp enough at 600.

Itsed65 wrote in post #18461878

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/XQX4​4S
Another California Quail on a Post by lennycarl08, on Flickr

Wow! Great shot!

Black and White Warbler. Shot from my truck at distance of approximately 15 feet.

Vautour

Pagman wrote in post #18461904
Larry, I dont see any lack of sharpness in any of your photos, but I too have been discovering by adopting different editing skills - this can make a huge diference to the final image.

All the best.

Pagman.

Thank you for your input. I posted these as the successful result of the experiment. I am still a bit tentative about my methods using the gimbal. One of the tests I should try is using the gimbal with a 300 mm and a 2x and with a 100-400.