Sony A7 models with non-Sony lenses

Two things (and I am sure I have mentioned both before, in relation to your hummingbird shots).

1. That background blur is fantastic. This was also the 70-200/4? If so, you must've been pretty damn close (MFD?) to the little guy. I have the same lens and have never seen it blur the background like that (because I usually am further back when I am shooting it).

2. The vibrance in your backyard shots always amazes me. When I look at my own backyard shots, I always think this looks like California. There's a certain quality to the greens and the light that screams "California". Not so with yours. Those greens look so lush. I think that every time you post those pics.

There's been some great shots and conversation in here lately. I've been trying to avoid the conversation as you lot just keep chatting about buying new lenses, actually buying new lenses and I'm trying to do the darn opposite lmao

Post some more pics, Lee!

Puckman wrote in post #17557862
Two things (and I am sure I have mentioned both before, in relation to your hummingbird shots).

1. That background blur is fantastic. This was also the 70-200/4? If so, you must've been pretty damn close (MFD?) to the little guy. I have the same lens and have never seen it blur the background like that (because I usually am further back when I am shooting it).

2. The vibrance in your backyard shots always amazes me. When I look at my own backyard shots, I always think this looks like California. There's a certain quality to the greens and the light that screams "California". Not so with yours. Those greens look so lush. I think that every time you post those pics.

Thanks for the kind words Dean. It's always nice to hear positive things about ones work.

For the bokeh, yes, I was standing at right about the minimum focus distance when I shot these. In fact, I had to back up a little once or twice because I was too close. The hummer usually tolerates me being about 3 or 4 feet away from him. Even though he's used to me, I still approach him very slowly so as not to stress him. I tried again this morning briefly to get him to feed out of my hand but he's not having any part of that yet. I think I have less patience then he has for that.

As you can tell from the shot below, my 'garden' is far from lush. It helps when the sky is overcast/cloudy as that keeps the contrast down. That way, I can boost the black point and white point using a levels adjustment somewhat without blowing out highlights. I think all my best shots of hummingbirds are from rainy days like we've been having.

In the image below, I circled the wire hook that the hummer likes to perch on. This was taken for a different setup a few days ago. Today, I was standing closer and more to the left to get the bush behind him as a backdrop. You can see the wire hoop lit up in yellow by focus peaking in the camera LCD too.

Even more kudos to you for making the background look as green as it did, now that I see the bigger picture, hehe.

Because the hummer is in the shade and the bush behind is in open shade, I set my exposure compensation to +.7Ev so that he isn't too under exposed. I'll post the before to show what the image looks like right out of the camera. In post, I darken the bg and lighten him and this process is what gives the image more vibrance. I used two radial ND's in ACR to achieve 95% of this look; a large outer radius to darken the background and a small inner radius to lighten, clarify, etc. the bird.

Here's the before/after with no crop done.

Oops! I just noticed these are from my 5D3. Sorry about that but the technique is the same.

Very cool. I need to try using that radial filter more. I always forget that it's there. Seems to be real handy.

Some really nice hummer shots! Pretty rare to see them in my neck of the woods. Bit of a wet day today.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/szb5​wK

Canon 50 F0.95

Another 3-bracket handheld HDR from last evening with the a7S + Zeiss 21mm:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/sWwc​RQ

This was a disaster waiting to happen.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/s2RZ​XL

Yashica ML 50mm f2

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/stYP​xi

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/scwk​9g

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David Arbogast wrote in post #17558117
Another 3-bracket handheld HDR from last evening with the a7S + Zeiss 21mm:

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/sWwc​RQ
Incoming by David Arbogast, on Flickr

Lovely.

mystik610 wrote in post #17558118
This was a disaster waiting to happen.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/s2RZ​XL DSC00592 by Carlo Alcala, on Flickr

I like the softness on this one. Which lens was it?

David, really nice shots you've posted using your Zeiss lens.

Messing around with my Canon 16-35L and some real estate shots of my house for practice.

Used the HDR merge feature in LR CC. I usually use LR Enfuse but I liked the job that Lightroom HDR merge did.

A couple of shots taken at sundown from Crest View Park in Portland.

Mount Hood

A7II - Vivitar 135/2.8

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/sGss​8E

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