Critique What do you guys think of these_2

BillN_33

BillN_33

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Bill
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Still trying to get it right

what do you think of these?

Greater Double-collared Sunbird (Cinnyris afer)

small birds, 5" - handheld - D300 at f4 and ISO 800 Nikon 300mm f4

Colourful
If I could clone out the "flower" in the second image it would be good and I need to figure out how to do that!

Sunbird_1.jpg




Sunbird_2.jpg




Sunbird_3.jpg
 
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Really nice. In the second image (which I like the most), the flower in front of the bird isn't the issue to me, it's the OOF one behind and under its beak. You could easily clone that one out. The bokeh on the OOF flowers is a bit distracting too (Or is it some PP effect?). Colours are great.
 
shaylou said:
Way to much saturation for me. Imo it makes the pics look very unnatural.
Click to expand...

Shayne
Have you ever seen any, in full sun the males are that bright - their colours are iridescence
I may have added a little saturation, but all I usually do is to sort out the shadows and highlights and I think that the only other adjustment I made was to pull back the blacks - which usually turn out very black on this bird's head
Outside the (main) breeding season they do calm down a little and the females are very very dull, just a brownish colour
There are many more birds in Africa and S America that are as bright ……. and the sun in Africa is strong
Have a search on google images and you will see what I mean
 
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Of the 3 shots the better one is the 3rd,however all 3 look soft,I also agree with Shaylou they do look over saturated meaning some of the detail has been lost.
 
Thanks All

are the images "soft" because I always tend to use f4 and spot focus and spot metering?
Also quite a lot of my shots are "hand held" but the above are at 1/1250 but ISO 800 - i.e.I need to improve my technique
or is my Nikon 300mm f4 needing slight adjustment

I have never been able to take a good tripod set up to S Africa because of the "weight" restrictions

your advice is appreciated
 
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BillN_33 said:
Thanks All

are the images "soft" because I always tend to use f4 and spot focus and spot metering?
Also quite a lot of my shots are "hand held" but the above are at 1/1250 but ISO 800 - i.e.I need to improve my technique
or is my Nikon 300mm f4 needing slight adjustment

I have never been able to take a good tripod set up to S Africa because of the "weight" restrictions

your advice is appreciated
Click to expand...

Spot focusing and metering can be tough with a bird if it's moving around. I'm not familiar with Nikon but I assume they have a focus system that is expandable similar to the Canon 5dIII. I use spot focusing most of the time but at a long distance and a small moving subject I stay away from it. It's just to easy to miss and if you are shooting some what open you will end up soft a more often then not imo.
 
I agree with the saturation thing, I always found my D90 would overdo the reds where they were intense in the image, I expect the D300 to do the same too. The flower looks pretty synthetic too.

Maybe reduce the saturation but increase the vibrance a bit (that's what they're called in Lightroom, not sure about others).
 
The Nikon 300mm f4 is one of the sharpest lenses on the market, I NEVER use a tripod and shoot with nothing else but this lens, mostly, due to our weather, at f4, the sweet aperture for this lens is around f7.1
For me, there should be a lot more detail in the bird, and again, for me, it the image is too saturated
The first images where the bird is quite static, these shots should ooze in detail, not just in the bird but in the flowers, the irridecence you mention should be there to see using that camaera and lens
The D300 in that sort of light will produce cracking images.

Bill
 
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Saturation and detail
This is a big crop straight out of the camera - no adjustments
ISO 800 at f4 and 1/1250th - I would have used spot metering and spot focus - Av setting
500k file

big crop.jpg


and the original image

riginal.jpg
 
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Much better re saturation levels although the red channel is still a little high for my taste as it still looks a little blown.

And, I quite like the more distant shot, a small crop to bring it to the third and with the negative space on the right it'd be very nice I reckon :)

Oh, for me it is sharp enough. Maybe it could be sharper but sharp enough is good enough in my book.
 
Thanks Ned

Saturation - all I can say is that they really are that colour
The first image is the duller of the three

Here's another crop with ONLY the highlights brought back a little

original_HL.jpg
 
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As Bill says above, F7.1 would be an ideal setting to give you the depth of field needed to show the bird better. F4 is fine at a greater distance but never for close ups unless the light is really bad which is definitely not the case here. Nice colours, well done
 
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