Songbirds IF

[dupcak]

A thread a few weeks ago prompted me to break outside of my usual subjects and try something completely different. For me, this was attempting bird photography - definitely not something I usually do. Having said that, I did have fun with it (after I got over my initial frustration). So I'd appreciate any and all feedback - actually I'd prefer suggestions for improvement and critical feedback. In full disclosure these were birds arriving at a birdfeeder just out of the frame - not exactly my style of capturing wildlife, but I figured I'd give it a go while I'm learning.

1) Black capped chicakdee in rain

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2) Tufted Titmouse

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[Braxton L]

These are some incredible photos! I love the lighting, poses, backgrounds, and sharpness/noise control! I would recommend looser crops, and watch the white on the chickadee’s neck, as it’s blown out.

 

[Ralph]

A thread a few weeks ago prompted me to break outside of my usual subjects and try something completely different. For me, this was attempting bird photography - definitely not something I usually do. Having said that, I did have fun with it (after I got over my initial frustration). So I'd appreciate any and all feedback - actually I'd prefer suggestions for improvement and critical feedback. In full disclosure these were birds arriving at a birdfeeder just out of the frame - not exactly my style of capturing wildlife, but I figured I'd give it a go while I'm learning.

1) Black capped chicakdee in rain
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2) Tufted Titmouse
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Great shots

 

[dupcak]

These are some incredible photos! I love the lighting, poses, backgrounds, and sharpness/noise control! I would recommend looser crops, and watch the white on the chickadee’s neck, as it’s blown out.

Thanks! Good point about the crop - I guess I've been staring at Instagram photos for too long . Updated photos below - now I'm wondering if they have too much negative space on the chickadee.

Also good point on the overexposure - complete mush in there! I hadn't noticed that I had blown the highlights. Or more appropriately, when I did my very initial edits I must have noticed, but subsequently forgot since I turned down the whites/highlights/exposure before sending it to Denoise and didn't remember doing it until I went back to the original to re-crop.

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[dupcak]

Great shots

Many thanks!

 

[Woody Meristem]

Super photos.

 

[Braxton L]

Thanks! Good point about the crop - I guess I've been staring at Instagram photos for too long . Updated photos below - now I'm wondering if they have too much negative space on the chickadee.

Also good point on the overexposure - complete mush in there! I hadn't noticed that I had blown the highlights. Or more appropriately, when I did my very initial edits I must have noticed, but subsequently forgot since I turned down the whites/highlights/exposure before sending it to Denoise and didn't remember doing it until I went back to the original to re-crop.

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Those are perfect for me!

 

[Platalea ajaja]

Really nice, especially the titmouse, love the wing position.

 

[dupcak]

Super photos.

Those are perfect for me!

Really nice, especially the titmouse, love the wing position.

Thanks everyone - I'll continue my journey into BIF. These small little song birds are difficult! My initial thoughts on these photos was that the OOF wing on the chickadee was a killer and that the harsh lighting on the titmouse was also problematic - I'm guessing that they aren't too limiting based on the comments.

 

[Platalea ajaja]

These small song birds in flight are more than a little difficult I think. Very challenging. These are great successful images. The rear wing of the chickadee doesn't bother of me at all. The wing in the foreground OOF is a bit distracting. Not sure I see your point of harsh light on the titmouse. Granted it's not soft ideal light, but there aren't any hard shadows etc. to detract from the image.

I think they are very nice images.

 

[dupcak]

These small song birds in flight are more than a little difficult I think. Very challenging. These are great successful images. The rear wing of the chickadee doesn't bother of me at all. The wing in the foreground OOF is a bit distracting. Not sure I see your point of harsh light on the titmouse. Granted it's not soft ideal light, but there aren't any hard shadows etc. to detract from the image.

I think they are very nice images.

Many thanks - makes sense to me.

 

[ButlerKid]

Nice shots! I'd suggest pruning back the tip of the branch on the tufted tit mouse to get it further away from the bird's tail and be less distracting.

 

[Krümelkraft]

Actually, I liked the first crop of No. 1).
For No. 2), the second crop is much better, of course.
Amazing that you got sharp eyballs right after liftoff.
So, the bird tracking of the Z9 did that? Or was it just luck?

 

[dupcak]

Nice shots! I'd suggest pruning back the tip of the branch on the tufted tit mouse to get it further away from the bird's tail and be less distracting.

Thanks for the suggestion - I was wondering if that would help. I tried to do something initially and gave up since it came out so obviously fake that it annoyed me. However, that's just my PS skills and not a comment on the composition. I just need to spend some time with it.

 

[dupcak]

Amazing that you got sharp eyballs right after liftoff.
So, the bird tracking of the Z9 did that? Or was it just luck?

I would say a combination of the Z9 and luck. I was (and still am) learning so I was experimenting with settings and some sequences were with tracking lock-on set to 1/quick others were with 3 and others were with 5/delayed. My best results were with 5/delayed and I could see the resulting focus box move along with the bird (almost) during image review on the camera. You could tell it was trying to keep up with the bird and maybe it was, but the location of the box was incorrect. The one thing I didn't do (and will do the next time I can spend the time) is to set the "subject motion" to "erratic". I had it on "steady" for all of my shots and maybe "erratic" would help a bit more.

So there was probably a fair bit of luck and actually some planning too. I placed the feeder just to the right of the frame and it was in essentially the same focal plan as the stick both the birds were perched on - so that helped.

If I get around to it, I'll post a screen shot of the focus boxes for each of those shots.

 

[ButlerKid]

I had a VERY quick play in PS CC. I copied the end of the branch and moved it down. I created a black mask and painted with white to reveal on the tip of the branch.

The I create another layer and used the clone tool to copy the background from both sides of the original branch to create a bit of separation from the "new" tip and the original branch that I wanted to remove.

Once I had a bit of separation between the Branch tip I had moved .....I made small selections and used content aware fill to "cover up" the original branch tip.

I finished up with a bit of cloning to smooth out the background.

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[dupcak]

I had a VERY quick play in PS CC. I copied the end of the branch and moved it down. I created a black mask and painted with white to reveal on the tip of the branch.

The I create another layer and used the clone tool to copy the background from both sides of the original branch to create a bit of separation from the "new" tip and the original branch that I wanted to remove.

Once I had a bit of separation between the Branch tip I had moved .....I made small selections and used content aware fill to "cover up" the original branch tip.

I finished up with a bit of cloning to smooth out the background.

View attachment 49343

Many thanks for taking the time to do that and explain it all! I think I understood all the steps. Now I just need to do it for myself. (Now if this thing called a "day job" wouldn't get in the way!)

 

[ButlerKid]

Many thanks for taking the time to do that and explain it all! I think I understood all the steps. Now I just need to do it for myself. (Now if this thing called a "day job" wouldn't get in the way!)

Retirement is highly UNDER rated! LOL!

Just enlarge the view a little and then use a smallish brush or selection. If a step doesn't work, just undo and try again or change the tool.

Let me know if you have questions.

 

[dupcak]

Actually, I liked the first crop of No. 1).
For No. 2), the second crop is much better, of course.
Amazing that you got sharp eyballs right after liftoff.
So, the bird tracking of the Z9 did that? Or was it just luck?

As promised, here are the screen shots with the focus box. As you can tell the images posted are a fairly heavy crop so the birds are not huge in the frame but the focus point does attempt to move with the bird. Note that the focus point was on the eye before the bird took off. I was NOT using pre-capture so there wasn't any frame between standing still and the posted titmouse photo. If I remember correctly there was a frame or two before the chickadee photo but they were not as interesting. Going off of memory, the deleted frames also showed a slight offset in focus point versus actual position of the eye.

1) Chickadee w/focus box

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2) Titmouse w/focus box

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I'm honestly not sure if changing to "Erratic" mode would have helped or not. I just have to give it a try. Either way the eyes seem to be in focus so I'm not complaining! Clearly if the camera had focused on the chickadee's wing, it would not have yielded a sharp eye, and the wing would have been in focus instead of very much OoF.

 

[NorthernFocus]

Overall ya done good. The crops in the second iteration are much better than the OP. The position of the focus box and indicated in the Nikon software are pretty meaningless. As you pointed out by the first frame below. When I first got the Z9(my first MILC) I tried using Studio NX to figure out what was going on with the AF. It's a fool's errand.

As promised, here are the screen shots with the focus box. As you can tell the images posted are a fairly heavy crop so the birds are not huge in the frame but the focus point does attempt to move with the bird. Note that the focus point was on the eye before the bird took off. I was NOT using pre-capture so there wasn't any frame between standing still and the posted titmouse photo. If I remember correctly there was a frame or two before the chickadee photo but they were not as interesting. Going off of memory, the deleted frames also showed a slight offset in focus point versus actual position of the eye.

1) Chickadee w/focus box
View attachment 49361

2) Titmouse w/focus box
View attachment 49362

I'm honestly not sure if changing to "Erratic" mode would have helped or not. I just have to give it a try. Either way the eyes seem to be in focus so I'm not complaining! Clearly if the camera had focused on the chickadee's wing, it would not have yielded a sharp eye, and the wing would have been in focus instead of very much OoF.

 

[dupcak]

Overall ya done good. The crops in the second iteration are much better than the OP. The position of the focus box and indicated in the Nikon software are pretty meaningless. As you pointed out by the first frame below. When I first got the Z9(my first MILC) I tried using Studio NX to figure out what was going on with the AF. It's a fool's errand.

Many thanks - I thought that maybe after I posted the full frame folks would jump all over me for cropping so heavily, but I figured I gotta start somewhere. I'd much rather have a large mammal in front of my lens, but I do have to admit, these bird creatures can get a bit addicting