Beginner's Second Attempt: A Bit Better This Time, I Think!

EDIT: Unfortunately all my original image links are now broken. My photographs are now hosted at Flickr and on my website. Links to both of these sites are in my signature section.

Apologies for any broken image links that are now showing in any of my threads or posts.

Thanks,

Mike

EDIT: Unfortunately all my original image links are now broken. My photographs are now hosted at Flickr and on my website. Links to both of these sites are in my signature section.

Apologies for any broken image links that are now showing in any of my threads or posts.

Thanks,

Mike

Well done Mike, a good improvement on your first ones. Love the standing crow and the blackbird, you've really got the exposure nailed giving lots of good detail.

Wait till you start trying to catch blue tits, wrens and robins - they'll drive you mad!!! I probably discard about 90-95% of the shots I take because the focus isn't just so.

Be warned, it's very addictive... You'll be dreaming about it next!!

EDIT: Unfortunately all my original image links are now broken. My photographs are now hosted at Flickr and on my website. Links to both of these sites are in my signature section.

Apologies for any broken image links that are now showing in any of my threads or posts.

Thanks,

Mike

Looks like you have a winning camera/lens combo. I like the brightness in each shot. No dark areas at all. Nice shots!

EDIT: Unfortunately all my original image links are now broken. My photographs are now hosted at Flickr and on my website. Links to both of these sites are in my signature section.

Apologies for any broken image links that are now showing in any of my threads or posts.

Thanks,

Mike

Excellent captures. I really like the crow photo...I have the same lens and it performs well for me. I discard the same amount of photo's as mentioned before due to hand shake, subject movement, not enough light causing a slower shutter shooting in aperture priority or focusing on the wrong part of the body.

I bought my set-up a few months ago to shoot motocross but have since got bitten by the bird photography bug so to speak.

All very nice Mike. You did better than me on those blacks, my nemesis color.

Well, except for white.

Thanks Duane. I try to focus on the eye whenever possible. I'm guessing that's the best way to do it.

My intended use for my 70-200mm is motorsports, but I haven't had the chance to use it for that yet!

Mike

Thanks Mitch. I was just keeping the meter in the centre of the gauge and photograping in RAW format, so I knew I had some scope for adjustability afterwards. I found that the white parts of the wagtail and the pieces of bread came the closest to causing me problems by becoming overexposed when I adjusted the photos.

Mike

Good job Mike, the crow pose is excellent with great detal in the blacks. I think you're getting hooked on bird photography

Thanks Scott. Next time out I'll be looking for some more interesting subjects. We get quite a variety in the garden, but I might have to wait for a while until they turn up. We get green woodpeckers and lesser spotted woodpeckers occasionally, and I have seen a heron once or twice.

Mike

Mike-DT6 wrote in post #4609675
Thanks Sheryl!

I'm glad you said that about your percentage of discarded shots! I thought it was just me!

I presume it is just the limitations of the auto-focus because I got some blurred shots under exactly the same circumstances as sharp ones only one or two shots away from the bad ones.

Although I sharpened the photos I was still happy with the out-of-the-camera sharpness with the ones I kept. I was impressed with the lens and how much detail it can capture.

Mike

Very Nice Series Mike;

Try some noise reduction in combination with a Mask, or History Brush on the birds.

Thanks Ted I'm hoping to get Noise Ninja soon, so I'll go back over them with that. I have tried the noise reduction in Photoshop before, but I couldn't see any difference, apart from at some ridiculous maximum setting, which spoiled the image! I need to learn a bit more about it!

Would the mask or history brush be to prevent it affecting the birds themselves? The noise always seems more apparent in the out of focus backgrounds.

Mike

Good to see marked improvements Mike, well done... keep up the good work.