Birds of the Perth Hills

[RobFellows]

Some of the local wildlife.

C&C most welcome.

1 White Cheeked Honey Eater


2 Australian Darter


3


4 Galah


5 Galah

[Wavelength]

A treat to eyes, for sure
Just one point: in the first image, the blurred part in the top right corner is a bit distracting

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Dave A]

I'm really liking #4 and #5. Nice set.

Dave

[Geoff F]

Good shots.

Just a few thoughts. #1 has a rather large rather blank area in the top right corner while the beak is rather close to the left edge, as previously mentioned; but not a major problem.

#3 is looking straight ahead while there is a large out of focus area on the left. Crop differently? Slightly tone down the white areas in the background?

#5 has a lot of bland out of focus distraction on the right. Crop differently, maybe 4 x 5 ratio?

[IzzieK]

Interesting birdies...I had not been interested in birdies before joining CiC but these ones are nice. I particularly like #2 even thought the head is a bit not there. Wonder if you can ID your birds to save me the headache...#4 and #5 are pretty...seen a lot of those in my backyard in Melbourne too...good composition on the last ones.

[RobFellows]

Honestly, I wish I knew what they all were too. 4&5 are Galah's and 2 is a cormorant I think. I'm wasn't really in to birds either but this was my first couple of hours with my new 70-300 VR.

[IzzieK]

Rob...I tried to look at your EXIF bu I can't find it...only the histogram was there...anyway, I want to ask, what camera are you using? I used to shoot images like these -- soft....until I realized that with handheld I need to change something in the menu so that my camera can withstand the rigors of camera shake without a tripod. Just a thought.

[RobFellows]

Hi Izzie,

I'm using a Nikon D7200 and that particular day I was messing about with a 70-300VR for the first time. The pictures are actually tack sharp on my monitor. I'm thinking that either in the resizing or processing that I have buggered it up!

But........ Please suggest away, if you have any tips I am more than happy to hear them.

[Geoff F]

How are you resizing and uploading these images? I can't see all the Exif details but the images are only 700 pixels on the long edge at 300 ppi. Most of us would use a larger image with smaller resolution.

For example, when using tinypics uploads or linking from other sites I normally use 1200 pixels at 96 ppi resolution (72 ppi recommended for US monitors) and 80% Jpeg compression (level 10). I think the maximum for Tinypics is 1600 pixels width. But CinC Albums are much more restricted at 700 pixels and a file size of somewhere around 500 Kb.

If doing a substantial downward resize I also use a little bit of Unsharp Mask afterwards.

The auto resize setting of Bicubic Sharpener which comes with some software does this automatically but I have never been keen on the results so I prefer to resize with the standard Bicubic setting then adjust my sharpening afterwards, if necessary. Somewhere around 50% with 0.5 radius and threshold 1 would be typical for me; but other people will have their own individual settings.

[IzzieK]

Hi Izzie,

I'm using a Nikon D7200 and that particular day I was messing about with a 70-300VR for the first time. The pictures are actually tack sharp on my monitor. I'm thinking that either in the resizing or processing that I have buggered it up!

But........ Please suggest away, if you have any tips I am more than happy to hear them.

OK...here it is...I knew this because I did the experiment myself a few days ago then forgot to change my settings later for quick snaps.

Focus tracking with lock on....

What is your setting there? read this...


http://darrellyoung.blogspot.com/201...h-lock-on.html




or an experiment, focus on a static object on the wall. Click your shutter button. Look at the result.


Also try this on a static object again, same object, a plaque on the wall perhaps? Mine is set to 3 as recommended though sometimes I try it on 2. You will see the result on handheld a little bit more steadier and not as blurred. But be aware of the lag in between. You have to keep your eyes on the subject until you hear that 'click' finishing the shot before lowering your camera down. Look at your shots and compare them.


Now get your tripod or something lean on something steadier then take the same shot again. Compare. See how you go...


If you already know about this, forget I said this. Remember to switch to off if you just want a quick shot and do not have to track your object...


This was the problem I was talking about in Chris' post. I forgot to switch mine off and have to research why I have shutter lag...stupid me! LOL ... so now I remember because I made that mistake.

Hope this helps...

[RobFellows]

Hi Geoff, I'm using the Nikon software and just converting to jpeg with a max long edge dimension of 700 pixels. I'm guessing that's bad??

[Teton Chuck]

Rob, I think number two is an Australian Darter. I don't know about the rest.

[Geoff F]

Try doing another image with a larger number of pixels and see what happens.

I'm not familiar with that software so are you using a little bit of sharpening?

[Ossyphoto]

aI don't know the first bird but #2 is an Australian Darter i don't know #3 and the others are Pink and Grey Galahs. Personally I think you could have cropped both a lot harder if that was possible. Are you working with a full frame camera as this would give you more pixels to play around with. You could crop hard and still have a decent image. For instance in #5 I would have cropped right back to the tree trunk and only left a small amount of space on the RHS so the bird almost fills the whole frame. Again this depends a lot on the camera if its a full frame or not.

[dje]

Hi Rob

Nice shots. I agree with Geoff's last post, try adding some sharpening after you've produced the downsized jpeg.

I think shot 1 is a white-cheeked honeyeater according to my Simpson and Day bird book.

Dave

[RobFellows]

Hi Dave, I will give that a go but am I best to upload to albums on here or do it another way? I do not have any other online photo storage or social media.

[dje]

Hi Dave, I will give that a go but am I best to upload to albums on here or do it another way? I do not have any other online photo storage or social media.

Hi Rob

I wouldn't recommend the Attachment method, image sizes are too small. Suggest you try the Tiny Pics method. It's described here in a thread by Dave H.

Downsize your image to a max of 1600 pixels wide and 1000 pixels high, anything higher and Tiny Pics will downsize it anyway and probably soften it in the process.

After downsizing, have a look at the jpeg in your editor and compare it's sharpness to that of the original file. Some mild sharpening of the downsized jpeg is often necessary, depending on the method of downsizing used by the software.

Is it View NX you are using ? Are you shooting RAW ?

Dave

[RobFellows]

ok, I will give the tiny pics thing a go. I am using the Capture NXD / View NXi software (updated View NX) and yes I am shooting RAW.

[TonyW]

No 3 I believe is a rufous whistler. My references are the Morcombe and Stewart app and the Simpson and Day "The Birds of Australia" book already mentioned by Dave Ellis.

Nice shots!