Tenerife: Birds 3

[Dave Humphries]

More to bore you with ...

A "spoonbill", I believe:

TB3-1, 1/2000s @ f8, ISO400, 250mm using Nikon D5000 and Sigma 18 - 250mm zoom

and on the ground:

TB3-2, 1/4000s @ f8, ISO400, 250mm

Not sure what this is (but it looks impressive):

TB3-3, 1/2000s @ f8, ISO400, 250mm


TB3-4, 1/1500s @ f8, ISO400, 250mm

Needless to say, I cannot overstate the photo opportunities available at this display (which is put on twice a day).

C&C welcome

[xhogan]

More to bore you with ...

Not boring me in the slightest Dave...

Not sure what this is (but it looks impressive):

It's a European Black Kite (Milvus migrans migrans).

Very impressive flight shots. I assume they must have been really quite close (even with the 1.5 factor at the 250mm end giving a focal length of 375mm).
Can I also ask, how much and what type(s) sharpening PP were used?

Again, very impressed,
Thanks
--
Hogan

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Hogan,

Thanks for the ID on this one.
Is there a European equivalent to the RSPB web site I can use for identifying the more esoteric examples? I don't want to keep causing you work another 10 times!


Yes, they do get pretty close, I have also done some cropping on the flight shots, but not excessively.

To give you an idea of the venue;

The ones like the spoonbill and all the others you see in the first shot are just released and trained to come into the ring for food!

TB3-5: 1/1500s @ f9.5, ISO400, 62mm.

and the staff wander through the crowds with the bigger, trainable birds which mostly fly/swoop from one side to the other. Or in the case of the American Bald(?) eagles (3, yes three), from on high too (pics to come).

TB3-6: 1/350s @ f9.5, ISO400 at 28mm (on 1.5 cf)

Regarding my PP, I cannot remember now what I did, but on these 2 (tonights), it wasn't much, so I'll make notes and publish with next flight pics.

Thanks,

[kevinbythebeach]

i like the second spoonbill photo the most..bird looks clueless..hehe

[xhogan]

Hi Hogan,

Is there a European equivalent to the RSPB web site I can use for identifying the more esoteric examples? I don't want to keep causing you work another 10 times!

Apart from the RSPB site, I find that http://www.birdguides.com/species/de...u=menu_species is quite good, but I really don't mind, in fact it helps keep my eye in. The black kite for instance, I recognised as a kite (I've seen red kites here in the UK) but I had to look around for a positive ID. What I mean is, because I had a base (knew it was a kite of some sort) it narrowed the search criteria to a manageable size. Without a base ID, it would be as much use as typing 'bird' into google images and searching for something that looks like it - So no problem with helping where I can, if I'm stumped, there are lots of sites where you can post a picture for help with ID and dozens of people much more skilled and experienced than me will happily discuss the finer points of identification (and believe me, some of them are VERY fine)

Look forward to more of these great shots and those PP sharpening details,
Regards,
--
Hogan

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Hogan,

So here's another to identify in return for the PP

As shot:

EXIF: 1/2000s @ f9.5, ISO400 at 250mm (1.5 cf), metering centre weighted.

I was aiming, although in aperture priority, for shutter speeds of around 1/1500 - 1/3000, varying aperture between f8 and f11 as needed and occasionally also the ISO between 200 and 800 depending on bird colour and what I was shooting against, generally at 400 as a compromise.

RAW image opened in ACR 5.4
Click Auto and then fine tune the result and tweak applied defaults, so, for this image;
Colour Temp; "as shot" = 5600K and Tint: -6
Exposure; +1.5 stops
Recovery: 40 (to stop the white bits burning out)
Fill Light: 0
Blacks: 3
Brightness: 0
Contrast: +45 (I rarely touch these two)
Clarity: +30
Vibrance: +15
Saturation: 0 (these three are just my defaults)

Sharpening: 50 (about 1/3 what's available)
Radius 0.5 (minimum)
Detail: 35 (about 1/3 what's available)
Masking: 2
Noise reduction
Luminance: 100 (max)
Chrominance: 100 (max)
The 6 above are my defaults used on nearly all images

Then Open Image into PS Elements 6 (in '8 bit' mode).
Crop image from 4288 x 2848 down to 1887 x 1258 for an artistic composition in a 4 x 6 aspect ratio as that seemed to suit the wing tips best. Given agressive crop, the vignetting didn't need correcting.

If any cloning out of "unfortunate content" is required, now is when I'd do it, but against the sky, unless another bird or insect happens into frame, there's nothing to do here this time.
Confession time; in TB3-4 above, I actually clipped off the top of the wing tip (just), the extra sky and the end of one of the feathers was actually added on as a clone job. Not bad, eh?

Apply a USM for Local Contrast Enhancement: amount 15%, radius 40px and threshold 0.
Normally a higher percentage and/or radius, but this ones already black white and I don't want to crush either end of the scale.
Sometimes I might also go to the Levels dialog to check/vary the black and white points to ensure coverage of full dynamic range, but in this case, I already know it's near the edges, so nothing to do. While there, I might also tweak the mid point from 1 to between 0.9 and 1.2 to taste, but not this time.

On more mid-toned birds, like the European Black Kite, I might hand dodge to lighten up the undersides, and/or Burn down any almost blown highlights, but not with this one.

Save As full size jpg, non-sharpened. In case I go back for another stab at PP.
Re-size (Bi-cubic Sharper) to 1024 width, not worrying about ppi, or document sizes, etc.
Make 1:1 on screen.
Further USM for sharpening; amount 150%, radius 0.3px and threshold 1.
However, these are dependent upon what's right for the image when considering size reduction applied, fine vs coarse detail, noise, etc. Another, alternative set of 'standard numbers' I tend to use are around 60%, 0.9px and 1, occasionally I'll go over 1 px radius.
I would hasten to add I'm still learning this sharpening art, but people have stopped saying my pics are 'over' or 'under' sharpened these days, so I think I'm getting better. I'm deluded, I know , Colin just got fed up telling me!

Final look around the frame, make sure I didn't miss anything.
Save As "filename_W1024.jpg" at Quality 9 (of 12).

Upload to PBase, copy link and post here;



That should be enough to digest

Now, what's this one called please?

It's not an exemplary workflow, far from it; no layers, everything done on the Background, etc., more advanced PP'ers will have no doubt cringed in places reading the above, but it works for me and people are generally complimentary about the outcome.

Regards,

[xhogan]

So here's another to identify in return for the PP

Well this one is an Abdim's Stork (Ciconia abdimii) , also known as a White-bellied Stork, and as a special thank you and bonus for the incredibly detailed pp answer, I'll throw in the ID of the 'prehistoric' looking one from the earlier posts - It's a Marabou Stork (Leptoptilos crumeniferus).

Many thanks again for taking the time to go through your pp process, I found it very useful

Regards
--
Hogan

[Dave Humphries]

No worries/my pleasure, I know this is the kind of detail I would have liked when I was starting out on PP from RAW, so for anyone else that needs it, job done!

Thanks for the ID info.

Cheers,

[ajith.rajeswari]

Dave,
Pic 1 reminds me of the mighty A380 :-) , nice shot .