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Some Birds From Today

PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 6:27 pm
by NikonUser
Evening All :)

Went out to the Dandenong Ranges today with my 500 F4. Here are some that I chose at random and quickly processed...

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I was actually having trouble with these birds as they wouldn't stay FAR ENOUGH AWAY from the lens. Now I've NEVER had that problem before!!! Getting shots of the whole bird proved quite difficult! At one stage I had one on the top of my lens and one on my head at the same time.

Here's one getting up close with my partner, Sam

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Hope you enjoy

Paul

PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 6:45 pm
by mudder
G'day Paul,

Beautful birds aren't they? It's always good fun when they land on you, there are some great spots out that way, Sherbrooke etc. for these types of birds. They seemed keen on the black sun-flower seeds when I last went...

Yep, I can imagine you having trouble with them getting too close out there with your beast, ha, I can just picture you backing up :lol:

The Kooka is my pick, the seperation of the subject from the background, looks sharpest of the bunch too, any cropping on any of 'em?

I assume the camera was either monopod or tripod or something? I'd hate to lug a 500mm prime around, strewth...

PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 6:49 pm
by NikonUser
Yep they were all taken on my tripod. The 500 doesn't take photos when it's not on a tripod :)

The only cropping was on the rosella to chop off the sides and the kooka to take a little off the bottom. Nothing major though.

I had to back up into the middle of the road at one stage :)

Lugging the lens around isn't too bad once you get used to it.

I'm not sure if it's anything I'm doing wrong or just a limitation of the D70 but I seem to struggle with deep reds... they always seem to be blown out or too saturated or something. Even in RAW.

Paul

PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:47 pm
by mudder
NikonUser wrote:...I'm not sure if it's anything I'm doing wrong or just a limitation of the D70 but I seem to struggle with deep reds... they always seem to be blown out or too saturated or something. Even in RAW.
Paul


I've heard the same about the D70 and the way in which it handles reds and always thought the same, not sure if that something specific to the D70 or whether it's common for DSLR's...

Spose that's where the seperate RGB histograms would be really spiffy...

PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:53 pm
by marcotrov
A beautiful series Paul. I particularly like the Kookaburra profile, terrific sharpness and great OOF.
cheers
marco

PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:44 pm
by Willy wombat
Hi Paul

Some nice birds you have here. The kooka works really well. #1 stood out a little to me but it was because of the blown (oversaturated) colours and a little bit tight on the left.

Well framed, and nice shot with the bird on the head. One to treasure.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:54 pm
by NikonUser
Thanks for the kind words.

Does anyone know if there is anything I can do about the blown reds? Either in PP'ing on these files or in future photos? Is it just a matter of dialing in some -EV?

Paul

PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:29 pm
by Finch
Paul,

You have captured my favourite subjects (birds!) and done it extremely well.

The kooka is my favourite and is sharp, with good use of DOF and cockatoo is great as well. Crimson Rosella would have been quite good too but it is in full moult and looks scruffy (not your fault, of course).

Often with a 500 f4 you end up with mirror-slap and you obviously don't have any problems in this regards.

Very nice, mate.

Cheers

Michael