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BetterLekNextTime posted:Well, this was an experiment. For the record, I put flashes in the same category as playbacks in not being worth the added annoyance to the subject (and really rear end in a top hat-ish for birds on nests or doing anything else really important, nocturnal birds, birds at heavily visited areas, etc) But this towhee seemed OK with me shooting him from maybe 20 feet away, so I decided to pop up the on-camera flash and see what I got. I think he noticed the flash but he didn't move from his perch and he kept singing so I don't think I disturbed him too much. It's definitely a different look with the fill flash, but I think I actually like the non-flash better. Go figure! I found myself in pretty much that exact situation the other day. It never occurred to me to use the flash. I had to boost the hell out of the shadows to lighten up the bird, and it shows in places with some weird color noise. 
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May 10, 2018 19:21
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Kenshin posted:I have actually thought about doing that (though I'd need an external flash since the D500 doesn't have a built-in) for sunny days when I'm taking pictures of birds hiding in the shade of trees. I figure it wouldn't disturb them too much since there is already bright light everywhere, but haven't actually done it yet. Built-in flashes are really bad anyways. I use an SB-800 which is fantastic, not sure if you can still find them around used but if you can I'd recommend it.
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May 10, 2018 19:42
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I really dislike fill flash and have stopped using it. There is just something artificial about the lighting that rubs me wrong, plus it's really easy to screw up. Although once in a while it works out ok: With fill:  Without fill: 
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May 10, 2018 20:13
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^I would have guessed those photos were swapped?
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May 10, 2018 20:56
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Flash in wildlife photography tends to be too hard and poorly temperature balanced. A look that really only works when it's urban nighttime and it's a feature. Soft boxes and colour filters people!
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May 10, 2018 21:05
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VelociBacon posted:^I would have guessed those photos were swapped?
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May 10, 2018 21:09
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Ok, here's a harder one: fill flash or no fill flash? (this is how fill flash normally goes for me)
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May 10, 2018 22:20
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Cool. Didn’t know they did photo safaris to Chernobyl.
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May 10, 2018 22:28
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That's not fill, that's full blast. Dial back the flash compensation a stop or so.
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May 10, 2018 23:04
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My Nikon 200-500mm lens rental showed up today, and it's heavier than I expected! I haven't gotten a chance to try it out outside, but I plan to go birding at a couple spots this weekend. One thing I'm not sure about: for Vibration reduction, there is a "normal" and "sport" switch on the side of the camera. Is one of these options better than the other for birds? Any other tips for handling a telephoto lens like this?
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May 11, 2018 05:27
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DorianGravy posted:My Nikon 200-500mm lens rental showed up today, and it's heavier than I expected! I haven't gotten a chance to try it out outside, but I plan to go birding at a couple spots this weekend. One thing I'm not sure about : for Vibration reduction, there is a "normal" and "sport" switch on the side of the camera. Is one of these options better than the other for birds? Any other tips for handling a telephoto lens like this? Sport is for prioritizing horizontal motion over vertical, useful for panning shots on athletes, cars, and land animals. Not useful for most birds.
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May 11, 2018 05:30
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Do you guys use the VC since you're normally shooting at speeds at least 1/1000? I leave it on but I know some people say to turn it off over 1/500.
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May 11, 2018 05:40
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VelociBacon posted:Do you guys use the VC since you're normally shooting at speeds at least 1/1000? I leave it on but I know some people say to turn it off over 1/500. I tend to leave mine on, at least for now. I'm not sure if I'll get steadier with practice, but I'm shaky as hell, especially as I get towards the end of my focal range.
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May 11, 2018 13:10
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VelociBacon posted:Do you guys use the VC since you're normally shooting at speeds at least 1/1000? I leave it on but I know some people say to turn it off over 1/500. I usually use the horizontal VC if I remember to switch to it. Lighting was pretty bad this AM, but it's my first osprey with a fish shot so I'm thrilled. 
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May 11, 2018 14:31
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RE: Flash Blackstrap Weekend 32 by Martin Brummell, on FlickrThis isn't a bird (obviously) and I used my 105mm macro lens here. The flash was my Sigma 530 in wireless mode, held close to the barrel of the lens, just out of frame. The background is actually a ton of plants and I was shooting slightly down, but the ratio of distances here - short for the space between the camera and the fly, longer for the fly to most of the objects behind - makes that black background. There wasn't much background light, so the flash dominates the exposure and the exposure time was much shorter than would be needed for a good exposure using natural light - I think that means this wasn't fill flash, just regular artificial lighting. You could get that all-black background pretty easily in post, so it's probably not necessary to piss off a bird with your big stupid speedlight to acheive something similar to this with a cooperative bird. I wasn't expecting this effect when I was out shooting that day, it was an accidental discovery and I quite like it.
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May 11, 2018 17:06
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InternetJunky posted:I really dislike fill flash and have stopped using it. There is just something artificial about the lighting that rubs me wrong, plus it's really easy to screw up. What bird is that?
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May 11, 2018 17:25
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tiercel posted:What bird is that?
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May 11, 2018 17:29
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PREYING MANTITS posted:I usually use the horizontal VC if I remember to switch to it. I can never seem to find Osprey at the park in my hometown, however there's a nest near my sister's place in Calgary, so finally got to photograph one.  Osprey by Tyler Huestis, on Flickr Osprey by Tyler Huestis, on Flickr Say's Phoebe by Tyler Huestis, on Flickr Say's Phoebe by Tyler Huestis, on Flickr Yellow-headed Blackbird by Tyler Huestis, on Flickr Yellow-headed Blackbird by Tyler Huestis, on Flickr
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May 14, 2018 13:07
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I love that blackbird.
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May 14, 2018 13:15
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A pair from Saturday morning in Seattle: 
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May 14, 2018 15:19
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I want to photoshop this guy with a coffee mug and a morning paper under his wing. Wildcat Red-shouldered Hawk-7109 on FlickrKind of a grey day so the light wasn't the best  Wildcat Red-winged Blackbird mustard flight-7277 on Flickr Wildcat Female Red-wing full mouth-7287 on Flickr
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May 14, 2018 18:41
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Nice image quality at those ISOs. My first gen. 7D would've shown a fair bit more noise. Did you have to do much/any reduction in post?
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May 14, 2018 18:48
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President Beep posted:Nice image quality at those ISOs. My first gen. 7D would've shown a fair bit more noise. Did you have to do much/any reduction in post? Thanks! The hawk was really early and I shot that at ISO 3200. I did some NR, but just lazy sliders in Lightroom. I checked and I had the NR luminance slider at 22. I'm sure the proper way is to mask out the hawk and branch and hit the background more aggressively. It's pretty easy to lose detail in fluffy feathers if you overdo noise reduction. For what it's worth I'm still a total noob at post.
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May 14, 2018 19:24
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Oh, same here. I really haven't gotten into masking at all.
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May 14, 2018 19:29
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I only vaguely know what masking is. I know I don't use it. I am getting quite good at fiddling with controls in Lightroom but anything beyond that (especially if I would have to open up Photoshop) is a bit beyond what I've done.
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May 14, 2018 19:33
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 Wildcat Red Shoulder no process-7107 on FlickrHere's a crop from another photo if you want to see what it looked like without any tweaks. I was actually hauling my 6D around in my backpack all day– that would have been a nice test to compare but my personal birding versus photography setting was way over to birding so I didn't think about it until later. Kenshin- I like that crow- so much personality in its feather posture. And yeah, neckbeard those blackbirds are gorgeous!
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May 14, 2018 19:46
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Wow. That image you posted upthread cleaned up nicely then.
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May 14, 2018 19:55
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BetterLekNextTime posted:Kenshin- I like that crow- so much personality in its feather posture. The picture looked ok on my Dell IPS 4K but is almost a bit too dark/contrasty on my work MacBook Pro. (I trust the colors on the Dell IPS 4K more though--the canvas prints I ordered recently showed up looking fantastic after editing the files on that monitor for printing) BetterLekNextTime posted:And yeah, neckbeard those blackbirds are gorgeous!
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May 14, 2018 20:00
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Nothing special, but I'm so used to photographing cardinals in winterscapes that I found this guy to be quite striking against the green leaves.
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May 14, 2018 21:05
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Yeah, those colors really pop. Nice! A couple from last month.  Mines Road Cal Thrasher-3753 on Flickr Mines Road B&W Quail Landscape-3601 on Flickr
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May 15, 2018 00:31
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Some of you are seeing the same birds I am! Red-winged Blackbird.  Yellow-headed Blackbird. I like these two species because they are very recognizable and have easy-to-remember and descriptive names. I usually can't name a lot of birds until I check my field guide later, so I enjoy it when I can immediately name a bird I see!
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May 15, 2018 06:53
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DorianGravy posted:I usually can't name a lot of birds until I check my field guide later Yeah, same here. Being a neophyte, I don't know more than just a few species at a glance. Speaking of, another first for me yesterday. This scarlet tanager was hanging out in some treetops around my back yard. I scrambled to get my camera when I saw a red bird that wasn't a cardinal zooming around.   e: Was using my T6i while my 7D's in the shop. I still like the camera, but man does it feel different now that I'm used to the more robust body...
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May 15, 2018 13:46
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InternetJunky posted:I really only know Canon systems, but if your choice was between a used/new 7D2 and whatever you could buy in Canon's full frame lineup for the same price, I would choose the 7D2 every day purely for the AF system and FPS. This is from the perspective of bird photography specifically of course. If you shoot lots of other stuff then all sorts of other factors come into play. For 7D2 money I'd go for a used 1D4 every time as long as you can deal with the weight.
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May 15, 2018 20:09
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I rented a telephoto lens for the week, and for the most part it worked well. However, I occasionally had lens errors, where the lens refused to focus or take a picture. I would have to physically adjust the lens or remove it to make it work again. Is this common? Is there any good solution to it? The camera is a Nikon d5100 and the lens is a Nikkor 200-500mm. For the most part, the errors didn't cause me to miss anything, except once. At one point, an osprey dove into the pond and caught a fish, then slowly flew directly overhead. The bird filled the entire viewfinder, but a lens error prevented me from taking a picture. For a solid ten seconds, the bird flew slowly overhead, a fish in it's talons, and I was completely unable to take a picture.  Later, an Osprey caught a fish again, and this time I did get a picture. However, it had flown the other direction, so it's small. Still, this is my first Osprey-with-fish shot, so I'm pleased I can add to the the Osprey-with-fish shots on this page. (Also, I'm impressed with the size of the fish.)  Does anyone know what sort of fish that could be? It came from a small pond. It looks like a giant goldfish to me.
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May 16, 2018 05:17
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DorianGravy posted:I rented a telephoto lens for the week, and for the most part it worked well. However, I occasionally had lens errors, where the lens refused to focus or take a picture. I would have to physically adjust the lens or remove it to make it work again. Is this common? Is there any good solution to it? The camera is a Nikon d5100 and the lens is a Nikkor 200-500mm. In regards to the lens problem you describe, sounds a lot like a problem I'm having with my 600mm now. If it happens to me I take the lens off, rub the contacts with my finger, then put it back on the body. This seems to fix it for a while.
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May 16, 2018 16:23
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 Crescent Moon Owl-7443 on Flickr Owl at the vertex-7411 on Flickr
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May 18, 2018 06:08
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Starting to hit the 90s here with ridiculous humidity, but birds keep birdin Black vulture  Red-tailed hawk 
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May 20, 2018 20:36
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 00000009 by Ben Wilcox, on Flickr 00000005 by Ben Wilcox, on Flickr 00000021 by Ben Wilcox, on Flickr 00000036 by Ben Wilcox, on FlickrHell fukkn yea shoot film. DJExile fucked around with this message at 01:29 on May 22, 2018 |
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May 22, 2018 01:13
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Finally got round to photographing the Australian magpie that hangs out in my front yard. Every time I mow the lawn he/she chases behind the mower to get all the bugs that come up out of the grass. Super smart and doesn't give a gently caress about my presence.
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May 22, 2018 07:04
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I like that pic. The vignetting and out of focus background frame the bird really nicely.
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May 22, 2018 12:13
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