A Selection of Birds from Last Year

rpsmith79

rpsmith79

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Rich
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Right then, partially prompted by the Greater Spotted Woodpecker thread, i have decided to take the plunge and offer up some of my bird photos from last year for crit, i am always looking to improve and this year i'm making much more of an effort to capture and document more wildlife, last year it just formed part of my 365 project, so the processing might not be to everyones tastes (yes, i do like a vignette) but bear in mind these were to make the shots sit a little better with the rest of my 365 project, so they are a little out of context on their own

Saying that, i do still like to process my images, and i'm not a stickler to making all my shots look like they came SOOC, so crit on the processing is also welcomed, along with composition, sharpness etc

Anywho....... here goes

#1

"It was This Big I'm Telling You" by RichPICings, on Flickr

#2

Cormorant by RichPICings, on Flickr

#3

Woody The Woodpecker by RichPICings, on Flickr

#4

Gone Fishing by RichPICings, on Flickr

#5

Dinner Time by RichPICings, on Flickr

Thanks for looking, and looking forward to your critique
 
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I'm not overly keen on the vignetting of some of them, however, that aside I quite like 2, 4 and 5.
 
Solo man said:
I'm not overly keen on the vignetting of some of them, however, that aside I quite like 2, 4 and 5.
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Haha, yeah, i kind of knew not many would like the vignetting, and i am trying to wean myself off it now a days :p
 
I'll be the first to admit i do over use the vignette slider in LR....................... must try harder to resist
 
Rich, #1 and #4 can be improved in post - vignetting adds nothing really to bird shots - the "bait" on #3 is not attractive at all - #5 is interesting but processing needs to be improved
#2 is uninteresting as presented

not sure about "sharpness" but high ISOs and large crops are showing through - or I could say that they are noisy and soft

interesting set - not shown at their best IMHO
 
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BillN_33 said:
Rich, #1 and #4 can be improved in post - vignetting adds nothing really to bird shots - the "bait" on #3 is not attractive at all - #5 is interesting but processing needs to be improved
#2 is uninteresting as presented

not sure about "sharpness" but high ISOs and large crops are showing through - or I could say that they are noisy and soft

interesting set - not shown at their best IMHO
Click to expand...

Cheers, all taken on board

Can i ask what you mean by #1 & #4 being improved in post, are you referring to the heavy vignette or trying some noise reduction

You are correct that most of them are heavy crops, and #5 was taken with a Tamron 70-300, so not the best for BIF, hence the main reason i upgraded to the 300mm f4, hopefully i will catch some better shots of them this year

Also, the other 4 were taken with the 300mm f4 on my old D700, so again partially contributing to the heavy crops, and again the main reason i moved away from FF and back to crop with the D7100

At least i've got plenty of ideas on ways to improve, so thanks everyone so far and i will try to make this a regular occurrence and post more of my bird shots in the future
 
I like #1 - vignette not good and it prevents adjustments to the background, I'd never use it with bird shots - it's a gimmick - whites can be brought back, highlights reduced and selective sharpening thru masking may help - you will also have to play with the contrast, clarity and other sliders in LR - start again and see what happens

getting the background "balanced" can help to improve the "subject" image - don't ignore the bg

also how your place the subject in the crop matters

I have taken lots of shots with the 300mm f4 - it is a spectacular lens and a classic - I also use the D7100 and D700 which I still feel not worth changing - good light and getting as near as possible are really important........ adding the TC14Ell hardly degrades the image and gives you 40% more reach

It is relatively easy to improve with a little hard work, just keep looking on here and figure

Great to see your images - post more and get the discussion going
 
Sound advice there Bill, cheers

And yeah, i do have a 1.4x and a 1.7x TC, very rarely use the 1.7 though, never been fully happy with the IQ
 
rpsmith79 said:
Sound advice there Bill, cheers

And yeah, i do have a 1.4x and a 1.7x TC, very rarely use the 1.7 though, never been fully happy with the IQ
Click to expand...

the TC17E never gets good press with the 300mm f4 ..... but I love the lens with the Tc14Ell
 
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