Gilbert Arizona Riparian Area

I am trying out a Canon 100-400 lens and thought a great place to try it was a the GARA. I am getting use to how to properly use the lens (the right shots) but here are a couple from my efforts this morning. C&C absolutely welcome and encouraged.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Wish this had come out better, the colors are incredible.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Beautiful images David - the first two are especially excellent.

If you are looking for some C&C - here are a few things I might suggest:

Image 1 - I am seeing a mottled pattern throughout the background. I think running some noise reduction software on the background of the first hummingbird shot would really elevate the image that much more.

Image 2 - The bill on the coot looks a little hot, although I certainly appreciate the difficulty of shooting a black and white bird in what appear to be some harsh lighting conditions. If it was shot in RAW, you have some opportunity to try and recover some of those highlight details. To my eye the image also looks like it needs some clockwise rotation (try drawing a line from the tip of the bill to the reflection of the tip).

Very nice images, David. That is one of my favorite places to shoot (I'm there every couple of weeks).

Your first hummer is very nice, but may be a tad oversharpened and the BG is a bit noisy. You might try running some NR selectively on the BG and then sharpening the bird. I think it will clean up very well.

Your coot is very pretty. The bill is a bit overexposed. If you shot in RAW, you can probably fix that.

Your last one seems very noisy. What ISO did you shoot at?

EDIT: It seems that Jeff and I were posting simultaneously.

Jeff and Ian, thank you for the comments.

Jeff, let me know if this "redo" of the first pic is better.

Ian, the last shot was 1/500th of a sec, F8.0 and ISO 200

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Ian: I did shoot in RAW and I am having a bit of trouble trying to get a natural look and still try to tone down the bill from being bright white. It is the way they appear in the pond. I am using LR3. I will keep working with it and see if I can get something better than originally posted.

Thank you for your comments.

David - I think what you want to do is a combination of the original image and the repost - the noise reduction in the repost has really improved the background noise but it has also taken away your feather detail. If you selectively apply the noise reduction to the background only you will get the best of both worlds.

Yes, that repost has the telltale appearance of NR on the bird itself -- rarely necessary and it often ruins your sharpness. Are you using NR software or LR3? Let me suggest getting one of the many NR plugins (I use Noiseware Pro) and I think you can get free trials of most of them.

David, was the last one shot to the left of the histogram and brightened in PP? That could cause the noise issues.

Whites are very tough. Since you shoot at Riperian, practice on the zillions of snowy and great egrets on Pond #7 in the evening before sunset. If you can get good exposures on those white birds, things like the coot bill will be a piece of cake.

Jeff: not surprising, but I am very new at this and the selective noise reduction will take me a bit of time to figure out. My skills in LR3 are at the beginning stages.

Ian: I am using LR3 and use the resident NR module. I will practice at pond 7 - in fact it seems that the whole area is great for practice. I am off to try again in the am - will be meeting a friend who is a seasoned photographer and hope to get a few improvement tips.

Again,thanks to you both. I will keep working with the PP and see if I can figure out the selective NR.

David - if you plan on doing a lot of avian photography in the future, I might suggest starting with Art Morris' Digital Basics to get you rolling on post-processing techniques.

Jeff Dyck wrote in post #11342213
David - if you plan on doing a lot of avian photography in the future, I might suggest starting with Art Morris' Digital Basics to get you rolling on post-processing techniques.

Jeff: I just got my copy today, so will start to read and learn. Thank you for the tip....so far, it looks like a great purchase. David

nice shots David

Nice shots