Bird Photography

[bright oxide]

got the rest of the series too

LMAO

[barren yoke]

Yeh

Pain

I'm waiting for my friend, who read the series, to reply and let me know that I'm not alone in hating it

Anywayyyy

Ive already read a 150 pages out of it

While the physical book is on the way

NOOOOO

THERE 5 MORE FKING BOOKS

IM NOT EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH THE SERIES

Smh

[bright oxide]

[barren yoke]

My friend was no help

They said just wait

[wheat hare]

rando birb while I was going to the grocery store.

[wheat hare]

Don't look too closely though as I was in the wrong settings bank and didn't have time to change it while standing in the middle of the road.

[plucky yacht]

beautiful

[fleet mica]

90% of the branch is real. It's a frangipani

rule of thumb - for big raptors, minimum 1/2000. For faster birds, faster than 1/4000.

that is typical for the darker canopies of the forest. I was shooting at ISO25600 at the beginning of the year at O'Reilly's (wide open at f5.6 and 1/500 second). My mark 1 EF500 f4 is a big, heavy lens and the 1st gen IS isn't as good as 2nd gen or the current RF glass.

good luck!

you should have. Birds doing stuff is more likely to win than a portrait which is a dime a dozen.

[solar bay]

portrait of a chicken

[barren yoke]

I can still do it

But it was an art contest

So I'm just doing what she wants

And i need to finish on Monday

[fleet mica]

most wildlife photography comps will be looking for more than just a portrait

but if it's an art contest, it may be fine

[barren yoke]

Well if you read my messages I said my photography teacher picked them

So they probably had good reason

I picked 4 to submit

[fleet mica]

I did read your messages. If it's an arty photography competition, then portraits may be fine. May be. Judges are usually looking for something different and interesting that grabs their eyes. Even in arty photography competitions. Portraits, unless they are of an unusual subject and outstanding in every way, don't usually fare too well.

[wheat hare]

Gotta run into town real quick maybe I’ll get lucky with the eagle perching today

[wheat hare]

Birb was back today so have another snapshot

[barren yoke]

Woah

[wheat hare]

There are a couple natural perches nearby that are even lower and in a spot I can set up at but they refuse to go to those.

They seem to just like the utility poles

[frozen belfry]

aww

[wheat hare]

They always perch here too

just need a 3000mm so I can shoot it from the deck there and not leave the house

[frozen belfry]

😂

i was going to go to the national park today to shoot some birds but its sooo overcast

[wheat hare]

yeah gloomy here too

but sometimes you just need to shoot anyway so it's still worth going even just for the practice or to relax

[frozen belfry]

yeah, i wanted to go pretty deep into the bush though, so itll be even darker

i also wanted to do some surf photography at worimi , still might have a look

theres quite a few people out on the surf but look how sad it looks. the waves are small and breaking sooo quick

[fleet mica]

so several people who have bought the new RF200-800 are saying that a 500f4 prime is indeed sharper. Even with a 1.4x TC. That is surprising and I had hoped for a closer battle in terms of optical quality. I think I will pass on the 200-800 and wait for a RF Sigma 150-600c to be released, which should be significantly cheaper than the Canon offering. I'll focus on upgrading to a mark 2 500f4 prime.

[fleet mica]

that's a common thing with raptors, I've seen it a lot in Australia (BSKs, Nankeen Kestrels and Brown Falcons all favouring them)

[fleet mica]

I presume you're an Aussie, far North Queensland post TC Jasper?

[fleet mica]

Meet Elvis

[scarlet tulip]

can cut glass with a plume like that, nice and sharp

[mint warren]

Woah what is that?

[fleet mica]

https://ebird.org/species/toppig1?siteLanguage=en_AU

this is the original shot. heavy use of cloning, patching and AI generative tool

and a heavy crop too

[solar bay]

damn

[fleet mica]

this was a lifer for me, so wanted it to look awesome

usually such an image would be a throwaway for me

and, at a competition level, it's inadmissable of course

[fleet mica]

yeah, they're big birds too. I mean, larger than a crow

[solar bay]

duck showing off it's neck

[fleet mica]

dinner

I'll see your duck and raise you a duck and a goose

[solar bay]

what?

[fleet mica]

was an attempt at humour

[solar bay]

sorry i didn't get it

[fleet mica]

all good, my humour is weird

[solar bay]

overexposed chicken

[fleet mica]

in oven for too long, white hot

[solar bay]

hot as the sun

[fleet mica]

Osprey, Brahminy Kite and Osprey again...

[fleet mica]

that reminds me that I need to get my Lunt 60 Ha solar scope out and get some images of the Sun

[solar bay]

you take images of the sun

[fleet mica]

learning

have had the solar scope for 3 years and hardly used it, mostly for visual only

[solar bay]

how is the sky exposed well?

[solar bay]

ah ok

[fleet mica]

masking in lightroom...mask for the sky and adjust exposure

it was pretty correct anyways, only slight adjustment

[solar bay]

what metering and af mode did you use?

[fleet mica]

I'm finding Lightroom Classic's AI masking to be pretty bad and needing extensive manual adjustments

[fleet mica]

Canon R3 - evaluative metering (matrix on Sony and Nikon I believe), Servo AF mode, eye detect turned on and set to animal.

[solar bay]

ok thanks

[fleet mica]

I've found that the R3 really struggles with finding focus on Osprey

that could be the R3 or it could be the mark 1 500f4 prime that I use

[solar bay]

jeez that's a really good camera

[fleet mica]

it's a lovely camera

[solar bay]

man i wish i had one

you must have the best lenses eh?

[fleet mica]

it's a lovely camera. It's a forever camera, so will probably have to last me another 15 or so years

and it's tied to my mortgage too

[fleet mica]

I have a few L series lenses - 20-35mm f2.8 L, 70-200 f2.8L (non IS, 1st gen), 24-105 f4L mark 1, 300 f4 IS L

[solar bay]

yeah these are good

[fleet mica]

as well as a 50mm f1.8, 50mm f1.4, Sigma 150mm f2.8 APO HSM macro lens, kenko tubes to suit EF mount

mark 1 and mark 3 1.4x TC (EF of course), mark 1 2x TC EF too

[bright oxide]

i could never

[solar bay]

is it insured or something?

[fleet mica]

yes

[bright oxide]

having so many lenses without each having a purpose would tickle my brain to the max

[fleet mica]

oh, and of course, a mark 1 500f4 prime

[solar bay]

$$$

[bright oxide]

so if you don’t pay your mortgage, those get confiscated for the meantime?

is that how it works

like a

what’s it called

liability

no that’s not the word

collateral

[fleet mica]

they all have a purpose. 500f4 for birding and wildlife. 70-200 for portraits, 24-105 for portraits (studio), 50mm lenses standard, 20-35 for landscapes, Sigma macro lens for macro

[fleet mica]

if I don't pay the mortgage, the collateral is our home. That gets sold by the bank

[bright oxide]

wait could you elaborate how it’s tied to your mortgage then

[fleet mica]

if the sale of the house doesn't cover the mortgage amounts owing, then other assets get repossessed by the bank and sold

[fleet mica]

sure, got a mortgage for home renovations. Tacked on X amount to the reno costs for camera gear

was up front with the mortgate broker, all above board, nothing dodgy

I've got multiple bodies too - R3, R10, 7DII, 60D, 1D, 1DIIn, 1n (film), D60 (Canon, their 2nd ever DSLR)

[bright oxide]

wow

[solar bay]

wow

[bright oxide]

learned something new today

[fleet mica]

as well as film cameras (Zenit 12xp, Lubitel 166U and Leica IIIf rangefinder)

[bright oxide]

and wow again for having that many bodies 😭

[fleet mica]

oh and a Voigtlander Bessa L (added the L which is the model, as there's more than 1 Bessa model)

[solar bay]

what even is that

[fleet mica]

pseudo rangefinder camera

it's not a true rangefinder

[solar bay]

i am impressed

[bright oxide]

do canons E/EF lenses work on both their full frame and crop sensor?

because my friend has a 60d

[solar bay]

you need an adaptor i think

[bright oxide]

oh

okay that answers that question

wait no

[fleet mica]

from memory, EF lenses work on both FF and crop DSLRs

[bright oxide]

but the 18-200

is not a EF-S

[fleet mica]

EF-S dont work on FF (rear element protrusion, but I might be wrong)

[bright oxide]

yeah

efs was made specifically for crop

few lenses in that lineup i think

[fleet mica]

I have the EF to RF adaptor for my EF glass on the R3/R10

I have an EF-s 18-55 too oh and a 1000D DSLR (lol)

[bright oxide]

what’s the difference between EF and RF

how come canon just doesn’t use one system

i thought the cameras that use those mounts are all full frame anyways

[fleet mica]

all of my bodies lightly used - 1D like 5k shots, 1DIIn 8k shots, 60D 6k shots, 7DII 7k shots

[bright oxide]

in fuji it’s just x and gfx based on sensor size

[fleet mica]

EF is the old lens mount for the older DSLRs

RF glass is the new lens mount for Canon's MLCs

[bright oxide]

rf is for the new mirrorless i assume then

yeah

interesting

[fleet mica]

flange diameter is different, and rear element travel is too

so you can't put RF glass on an EF body

[bright oxide]

but the other way around works?

[fleet mica]

not even with an adaptor

[bright oxide]

oh dang

[fleet mica]

yes, it's how I use my EF 500f4 prime on the R bodies

I can use EF-S glass on my R series FF bodies too, but heavy vignetting I believe

I only have a single EF-S lens anyways

[bright oxide]

yeah that would make sense

[fleet mica]

I'll probably pick up a used 5DII at 1 stage and get it permanently converted to IR for IR landscapes

oh, and I have a Samyang 14mm f2.8 lens too

[bright oxide]

i’m thinking if adapting lenses to fuji x mount would be worth it

down the line

[fleet mica]

thinking of getting a 7artisans 10mm fish eye lens in the next year or so

[bright oxide]

do you uh… do photography for a living?

[fleet mica]

but will wait and see if 7artisans gets RF mount approval and introduces a version with AF, cos I'm a lazy sob sometimes lol

[bright oxide]

or just a very enthusiastic hobbyist

[fleet mica]

nah, just an amateur who loves photography. I'm 54, so have had a lfietime to buy camera gear

[bright oxide]

ahh

[fleet mica]

and I don't like to part with my camera gear, sentimental attachment

the 1000D I bought for my late father, 2 years before he passed

I gave my Zenit 12xp to my late father many years ago for him to use

dad owned a Voigtlander many years ago when he emigrated to Australia (1959)...so I always wanted 1...plus, half German, and Voigtlander was originally a very famous German brand

and of course, I've always wanted a Leica...the IIIf is the cheapest way to get into the Leica Rangefinder series of cameras...and it's a very good camera too. I still need to get mine CLA'd. Bought it in May this year when I was in hospital after surgery (it was my "fuck, I feel like crap after surgery, I need a retail fix" moment LOL)

[bright oxide]

LOL, spending money is always fun

[fleet mica]

it is!

[bright oxide]

it’s a, spend now cry later, kinda thing for me

[fleet mica]

I bought a few leica lenses too

and I was exceptionally lucky to get James L Lager's superb Leica: Cameras v. 1-3: An Illustrated History (hardcover) for USD $150 for the set. Fucking bargain

this is the definitive books on Leica gear. Out of print, only 1000 were printed, and very much high in demand. Mint condition too. They usually go for around USD $500 apiece

I couldn't believe my luck!!!

signed by the fucking author too

bbl

[frozen belfry]

mid north coast nsw

[fleet mica]

ahh

[frozen belfry]

i saw my fav bird today but i was driving and running late so i couldnt take a pic 😭

[fleet mica]

I hate that

Wompoo pigeon. I only wish that it was lower down and a better pose. Still, a lifer for me

[frozen belfry]

i love themmmm

so pretty

[frozen belfry]

yeahhh, its a black faced cuckoo shrike

[fleet mica]

got 1 of those 4 weeks ago at Archerfield wetlands

up to 101 birds now on ebirds

[frozen belfry]

oooo

niceee

[fleet mica]

getting there

got a new bird yesterday

but haven't uploaded/sorted/culled/rated any images from last Wednesday

should have some cracking Osprey shots hopefully

[frozen belfry]

oh awesome

i gave up on ebird

i just have a paper list now, got sick of getting contacted "please explain this anomaly" "this makes no sense, you saw however many species in only a few mins" i just wanted a list that i could make whenever and not have to use on my walks as intended. paper is easier lol

[fleet mica]

just use merlin bird ID mate

you can tell it to record a bird list without going through the ebird app BS

[frozen belfry]

oooo

i shall try that thanks

[fleet mica]

spotted a large huntsman in my room the other night

left it be, harmless

was just downstairs to get my CFExpress memory card reader out of the container that I store it in (on the floor)

[frozen belfry]

ooo i like them

[fleet mica]

grabbed the stuff that sits on top of the container, to put on my bed so I can open the lid

just thought to myself, wonder if that's huntsman's on the side of the container

I look and there he was

like deja fucking vu

I do this shit all of the time

scared the poor bugger 😦

pretty sure he's the baby from like 2 weeks ago that was hanging around my toilet

he's still quite dark in the legs, indicating fresh moult

I have an arachnophobia, but I love spiders and won't hurt them

[frozen belfry]

awwwww

[fleet mica]

I'd prefer them not in my room, but unless I can safely catch them without hurting them, I just let them be

my sister will kill them on sight though

importing 600 odd images...now to sort/cull, but not tonight

looking forward to this as should have some stunning female satin bower bird shots hopefully

look at those fucking talons

this is an unprocessed image, just did a save as jpg from faststone image viewer from the RAW file

nothing that I could do about the leaves in the way

trio of tawny frogmouths...

and the female satin bowerbird - this is full frame, no crop...she was that close and completely unafraid of me

exquisite detail, can't wait to process that image

ISO 5000

fuck, R3 for the win

it's probably 1/2 stop underexposed at a guess

accidentally enabled my custom shooting mode and was so focused on the bird that I didn't notice in the EVF

[frozen belfry]

how tf are you gettig these

i think im too impatient for birds

[barren yoke]

Same

[frozen belfry]

i sat between two trees with a whip bird in each and i got sooo frustrated at not seeing them

[barren yoke]

But I'll do it for the birds

Anyway its like 30mph wind and 20 f° degrees and there's no birds

So I'm freezing

[fleet mica]

widllife photography, including birding photography means good research on locations, and then patience, patience and more patience. Luck comes into play too

the Osprey shot was taken at Osprey house - a government funded environmental centre that has a breeding pair of Ospreys. They've just had 2 chicks that are nearly fledged (they are flying, but still not reliably catching their own food). With 4 Ospreys, the chances are good that you'll get some sort of shot. George and Hope (mum & dad) like to perch on that branch. I know this cos I've talked to the staff.

If I come back there often enough, chances are, I'll catch George or Hope perched there.

After around 15 visits, this is my first time seeing it (I've been a bit unlucky).

the tawny frogmouths was just pure luck - something made me look up and I spotted them.

The female Satin bowerbirds were darting around the trees (especially the Watkins Figtrees). As Maiala hsa many visitors, they have become less afraid of humans it seems, and more common to be seen in the trees. I was in the right place, at the right time. Luck. This female was very chill and posed for like 1.5 minutes

[broken mantle]

Yeah, luck does play a huge part on wildlife. But we should also do our homework(researching the location, the birbs habbit, etc). Took me 3 trips to spot a small blue kingfisher(already know its hunting spot in the mangroove swamp), started looking after I identified its calls, but it didn’t perch close enough for a good shot .

Hoping to get a blue eared kingfisher too from another spot. The day i didnt visit my friend found a pair perching close together .

I’m also currently trying to get an owl pic, already encountered it thrice but its sleeping all the time(except for the first time, but i was using jank gear at the time).

Now i just alternate going to spots with birds on my checklist every weekends.

[barren yoke]

lol

[solar bay]

hawk

[fleet mica]

looks like a Cooper's hawk, but hard to say for 100%, could be a sharp shinned hawk too. Useful page for help with ID: https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/news-events/the-buzz/difference-sharp-shinned-hawk-vs-coopers-hawk/

[fleet mica]

100% . I'll typically do my rsearch online, then go scout a location to feel it out, and then make repeat visits. Making connections with other birders in your area can really help too.

[fleet mica]

whip birds are more ground based than tree based. If you're on the Norhtern NSW coast, take a few days off work and travel up to O'Reilly's resort @ Lamington national park. Plenty of Eastern whipbirds along the walks, easily visible and not too shy.

[solar bay]

nice to know thanks

[fleet mica]

I'm basing it on the shape of the head, and the leggings go further down the legs...we have similar ID problems between our Goshawk and Sparrowhawks here

tail does look like a sharp shinned hawk though, since it's flatter (vs the more rounded Cooper's hawk tail). But the tai is in bad condition feather wise, so that may be the reason. Also, Right wing looks lowered, may have a wing issue

[solar bay]

hmm weird

[fleet mica]

one tends to notice these things...

[fleet mica]

here's the processed image

I am absolutely STOKED at how this has turned out

[solar bay]

nice

[fleet mica]

Eastern Osprey

[scarlet tulip]

i've never seen one below a branch before

neat catch

[fleet mica]

thanks

[scarlet tulip]

Really shows off the size of the feet too

[fleet mica]

that is Hope - she's the resident matriarch at Osprey House Environmental Centre.

[scarlet tulip]

Do they live there all year?

[fleet mica]

usually it's her mate, George, who rests on that branch. it is a regular occurence, although this is the first time I have seen them do it in 15 odd visits

yes, they live there all year. There's a purpose built platform that they have built their nest on

government funded etc

amazing location, Sunshine Coast, QLD. If youj're ever up here, really worth a visit

they have 2 fledglings atm

flying, but still not reliably catching their own fish

[fleet mica]

yes, they have MASSIVE feet. I was shocked when I saw them

gonna go get an A2 print of my female Satin Bowerbird shot. I am so HAPPY with that shot. It turned out amazing

[scarlet tulip]

I guess there’s no reason for them to migrate down there

Must be nice, having the same waters to fish all year

I think we underestimate the size of these birds’ feet, just because in flight they’re always tucked away

[ocean frigate]

Ah yes surfline

[fleet mica]

most Ospreys live in the same area and fish all year around. They're not really a migratory bird

[fleet mica]

Mr or Mrs Crow. They have such beautiful tones and their eyes are gorgeous.

[mint warren]

turns out the fairy wrens havent left the usual spot after all

[frozen belfry]

howwww issss itttt soooo shaaarrrpppp

[fleet mica]

Lens/camera combo?

[frozen belfry]

d7200 sigma 50-500

[fleet mica]

Ahh

The sigma lens isn’t the sharpest imho

AF isn’t superb either with the camera

Wait for the Z7III release

And if you can afford grab the Nikon 180-600

Your results will improve night and day

[frozen belfry]

um

im broke

very broke

[ember harness]

looks to me like your shutter was a touch slow

and guessing it was fairly heavily denoised

[ember harness]

assuming you have the newer version of the lens (DG OS HSM), its quite sharp at 500mm/f8
the older version never is super sharp but also better around f8-9

f8 is only 2/3 stop darker than 6.3 so not a big issue to stop down

[bright oxide]

will be heading out shortly to see more duckies

need to find new spots with some different birbs

I think there’s a spot with some kingfishers but it’s like 2 hours away

otherwise i’d just see the normies: cardinals, blue jays, tits, finches

[frozen belfry]

about 10 years old

[frozen belfry]

yeahhhhh

[frozen belfry]

its try bring it up more:) thanks

[ember harness]

on the front see if it says EX

EX is old version

[frozen belfry]

oh gimme a sec to find

hm it says apo hsm on top

im confused

[ember harness]

new version probably

all good then

[frozen belfry]

lady told me the lens was as old as the d300s she sold it with

[ember harness]

go f8 and its very sharp at 500mm in the centre

[frozen belfry]

oo okies

ill keep trying:)

maybe before work tomorrow

if i have enough energy 😂

anything else i should be doing for sharper pics?

[ember harness]

make sure youre at sufficient SS (this comes with experience, diff for each bird and distance and action), make sure iso is correct for f8 and the SS

backlight = less sharpness

so look for light from the side or from behind you

above is fine too but can lead to overexposed highlights

[frozen belfry]

oo okay thanks heaps:)

[ember harness]

and then just yknow get as close as you can

youll get there

[frozen belfry]

ill hopefully be back in a day or 2 with better pics 😂

i mean thats still improvement from my past...

[ember harness]

sounds good lo

this looks like my pics when i started out too lol

so no issues

[frozen belfry]

trying to find what i like shooting

[ember harness]

nice shots

[frozen belfry]

i think its anything in the air 😂

thankies:)

[ember harness]

yeah great to experiment with everything

[frozen belfry]

i just did some surf pics the other day

was fun but i felt very awkward

like they could def see me ut couldnt communicate with them on the waves

[mint warren]

I also used a sigma lens lmao

damn these are actually cool af

[bright oxide]

we got good sunlight, let’s hope we get some good images now

[broken mantle]

Been cloudy and raining for the past few weeks here

All grey backgrounds

[fleet mica]

Tawny Frogmouth trio

[mint warren]

what time did you photograph them to get their eyes all open?

or was it windy or a red wattlebird was bothering them

[fleet mica]

5ish

they had a few bowerbirds annoying them actually

but they were wary of me, even though I was a reasonable distance from them

FF on 700mm reach

anyway, I'm outta here, knackered. 6 hours sleep last night, 3 the night before...

[spring vault]

those are adorable

[bright oxide]

guys

doesn’t shooting with the sun behind you reduce the amount of light

cause my iso is dropping when shooting with it behind me

but increasing when i’m shooting while facing it

not pointing at it directly tho obviously

[ember harness]

sort of but no

when the sun is behind you

the sun directly hits the side of the bird that your camera is pointing at

so the bird is bright

when the sun is in front

the sky is bright

but the bird is in shadow

[bright oxide]

first birb today that’s not those usual brown ones

[bright oxide]

anyone know what this is?

merlin id is definitely wrong

[barren yoke]

Merlin is always wrong lol

I can ask the other discord server??

Where at was it

[barren yoke]

^
|

The tail is a really important part but I might be able to do without

Just tell me where it was and I'll send the photos and ask

@bright oxide

Red-tailed

[bright oxide]

central park

nyc

[barren yoke]

Yea it's red tailed hawk

[bright oxide]

i figured

didn’t see a red tail tho

[barren yoke]

I had to ask the peeps whom are way better than I

[bright oxide]

thank you :)

[barren yoke]

Ofc

[bright oxide]

i was assuming it was a red shoulder hawk

[barren yoke]

Would you like an invite to the bird server I'm in? I mainly use it to ID things but it's helpful for other things too

[bright oxide]

yes pls

[barren yoke]

Whatttt

It won't work

Okay one sec

[bright oxide]

there’s some feeders here

but no birds

cause winter

[barren yoke]

Yeah same

It's called Birding International

Fking discord server won't let me send it

It's my forum ahole

Anyway you should be able to find the invite online/ on PC for adding new servers

Wait one sec maybe I can do smth

https://discord.com/birding-international

There?

Copy and paste it into the add a server invite thing

[bright oxide]

will do when i’m gone

home

i appreciate it

[bright oxide]

i’m SO excited to look through and edit these pictures

i think i took a little under 600 which should be easy to cull

[barren yoke]

YAYYY

share when youre done

[bright oxide]

should have shot jpg too cause some of the jpg are just chefs kiss but it’s okay i’ll try to mimic on lightroom if anything (im gonna eventually get capture ones fujifilm program which will allow me to slap on the jpeg settings)

[barren yoke]

wait what

wdym?

[bright oxide]

i’m really glad i went with fuji, i know its not the best gear for this kind of photography but the jpeg it produces is just perfect most of the time

[barren yoke]

Can you just pull it up in an editor and export it jpg?

film??

wait sorry im confused

[bright oxide]

so if you’ve heard of fujis film recipes, it’s a collection of settings and a film simulation which make up a recipe, those get saved to the metadata regardless of shooting raw or jpeg, capture one partnered with fujifilm and made a program which can pull that data and accurately put the colors onto the raw file, it’s basically like a preset but from the camera, and even though i can have 7 recipes on my camera, it only has the data for the one i had active while shooting, so i made a kodak portra 400 recipe using a collection of settings and if i had capture one, i could just slap on all of those onto the raw image and wouldn’t need further editing but raw is always more powerful hence why i shoot raw. sorry long paragraph lol. but yeah fuji jpeg colors are really beautiful because they basically put film colors digitally

[barren yoke]

oh interesting

sorry I just shoot all digital on canon with raw and jpeg

so i can edit and had jpeg of before and after

[bright oxide]

yeah fuji is digital too

[barren yoke]

yeah ik

you just used alot of terms i dunno lmao

sorry

[bright oxide]

LOL it’s okay if you have any questions just ask away i don’t mind

[barren yoke]

So you aren't shooting film? everytime I see fujifilm I think film

and whats a recipe?

[bright oxide]

nah i’m not shooting film, you might have heard of the x100v which is hyped up and sold out everywhere because of the straight out of camera jpegs it produces, fuji did some in depth shit on their actual film and basically brought over the colors to their digital cameras, so we have like astia, classic negative, classic chrome, velvia, and more “film simulations”, using these film simulations from fuji, and the in built settings like highlights shadows, clarity, color, white balance and white balance shifts and more, the community created what’s called a recipe, which brings all that in and makes a film recipe. kodak gold 200, velvia, kodak portra 400, dramatic monochrome, polaroid, these are all just names for film recipes that people have made and shared, in certain cameras you can save 7 different collection of settings, so 7 film recipes which is what i do. i look online and copy the settings and get jpeg images on steroids, fuji spends a lot of time on their color science and also keeps it very secretive so companies or people don’t steal it. so whenever im lazy, i just shoot in jpg and get astonishing colors that dont need any editing

i can show some personal examples once i get home of jpg images straight from camera

if you shoot raw or jpg on other cameras, chances are the colors will not be similar, that’s why their cameras are geared towards casuals who just want to point and shoot

[wheat hare]

I am going to murder some damn Flickers today. Fuckers will not stop pounding on the fucking roof.

[bright oxide]

[barren yoke]

nooo

i love flickers

[wheat hare]

There are like five of them

I'm so annoyed right now

[barren yoke]

I haven't seen one for months

[wheat hare]

they cling onto the window screens and walk along it too

[barren yoke]

cute

[wheat hare]

I'll try to get a video next time they do it

It was cute for a minute but it has been four hours

[bright oxide]

[wheat hare]

only caught the end

This is my life now

[spring vault]

omg birds

[bright oxide]

@barren yoke heres some examples of film recipes, first one is one called Velvia v2, and the rest are kodak gold 200 all straight out of camera

heres one of a heron, gotta send at least one bird related

[barren yoke]

Oh

Interesting

[wheat hare]

eh lightroom filters get you most of the way there for cheaper/free

[bright oxide]

well you have to get a camera first

[bright oxide]

and yeah thats the point, if you dont feel like editing, slap it into jpg only and you're good, dont even need to open up lightroom

thats one of the big reasons why I like fuji

otherwise I would have gone with sony

[wheat hare]

if I'm throwing a camera into jpeg to use built in processing I'm just saving the money and using my phone

[bright oxide]

yeaaaah you could do that too

just preference

i still shoot raw for anything important so a camera is neccesary

jpg only for when im feeling lazyyy

i dont usually take out my phone for photography, i've tried just dont like it, so i carry a compact setup with me anywhere i go

[fleet mica]

says wrong turn for me

[barren yoke]

no I said COPY link

and put it into the discord thing

[bright oxide]

https://discord.com/servers/birding-international-365326574901264395

might be this one?

[barren yoke]

yea

[barren yoke]

@fleet mica

[fleet mica]

they obviously want an invite, trying opening the doors and windows and saying "come in"

[barren yoke]

lol

invite 'em in for some tea and biscuts

[fleet mica]

sorry, I'm terrible with the discord UI...

[barren yoke]

its fine

I don't think it would work anyway

just use the link GTAB sent\

[fleet mica]

yes, that worked, still confused by stuff on discord

I am an old fart with an old brain

[barren yoke]

lol

[fleet mica]

brb gotta take my meds

[dusty fog]

that Kite is one beautiful bird, that color is awesome

[bright oxide]

looks like im editing tomorrow, have too much on my plate rn :(

the excitement will still last because I am EAGER to edit that one hawk pic

[fleet mica]

Not a kite! Member of the Hawk family as far as I know

[fleet mica]

Oops forgot about the Brahminy lol

[dusty fog]

Whatever the red one is, so nice

[fleet mica]

Yeah Brahminy Kite, my bad. I thought I’d only shared the Osprey shot lol

Very pretty bird

[fleet mica]

Wonga pigeon

New lifer for me

[bright oxide]

i havent finished culling but i pulled out the jpg version from capture one on this photo

the trunk in the right is a little obtrusive, ill see if photoshop can do anything about that

but this is one of the photos I was eager to share

once again, thats not the final edit LOLOL

[broken mantle]

Packing my bag for a birding/macro trip to the mountain tomorrow

First time packing for both. My gear weights at 11.5kg. Is that normal?

My back will hate me

[solar bay]

yeah

[broken mantle]

12.3 ish if i bring my ipad

Will just edit using my phone

[barren yoke]

why do you need your ipad

[solar bay]

nooooo

[barren yoke]

walking and editing??

[broken mantle]

2 hours on the car there

And 2 hours back

[barren yoke]

Nahh I make my bag as simplified as possible so I don't waste energy

[broken mantle]

Yea

[barren yoke]

can you leave some things in the car?

[broken mantle]

Hopefully.

[barren yoke]

put it in a seperate bag

[broken mantle]

Will leave my extra clothes there

[barren yoke]

no like ipad i mean

[broken mantle]

And my tripod if i ended up not using it

[solar bay]

not too bad just edit when you get back home

[broken mantle]

Will leave it at home lol

[broken mantle]

Yeah might just sleep on the car

[barren yoke]

oh true I hate when I don't have my tripod but then when I do I never use it

[solar bay]

ooo fun

[barren yoke]

I love sleeping in cars

so cozy esp if you have a heated seat and blanket

[broken mantle]

Same. Sadly its rainy season and tripods are more usefull due to less light

[barren yoke]

yeah

I want a tiny tripod because I usually end up needed it rlly short, not tall

[fleet mica]

Perhaps mask that branch in C1pro and adjust exposure and shadows? Looks very nice otherwise, although highlights on the bird’s breast could be reduced imho to bring back some feather details

[fleet mica]

Depends on the body and lenses you are taking

[barren yoke]

but yeah I rlly want a hiking bag/ camera harness. I hardly store my main gear in my bag. I just put accessories and tripod in the bag

so like I don't kill my neck or back

[broken mantle]

Im also thinking of only using 2 lenses. Currently have 3 in my bag:
1 macro
1 birding
1 for landscape

[barren yoke]

but I think that'll be next years thing because I already bought the rlly expensive lens

[broken mantle]

Might drop the landscape

[barren yoke]

yeah landscpae might take up too much space

I don't have a good quality short lens so I only bring my birding lens pers

[bright oxide]

will do for sure, and I use lightroom/photoshop, no c1pro for me :(

[barren yoke]

if i'm sitting tho I bring a short kit lens

[bright oxide]

Im thinking about investing in it next year around black friday along with dxo pureraw

[barren yoke]

oooo

[bright oxide]

i sent the raw file to a guy in fuji channel and holy sheet that photo looks so much sharper than what I have

so i kinda want dxo now LOL

[barren yoke]

sick

I hate winter here

hardly any birds and its so cold

[bright oxide]

never a bad time for birbs

look for winter birbs

[barren yoke]

duh I do

but

yeah theres tons on my feeders but they wont fly to a good spot

pine siskins

[broken mantle]

Kinda sad theres no winter here 😭

[barren yoke]

don't be sad

[broken mantle]

In C

Just grey backgrounds till january

[barren yoke]

I like 60 farenheit the best

[bright oxide]

same lol, went to a place with feeders and only got this guy

just that one birb

[barren yoke]

I can watch and thats fun but outside I only see stray wood peckers and squirrels

[bright oxide]

the rest were squirrels

[barren yoke]

its currently...

[bright oxide]

funny you say that cause im pretty sure the birb in the image is a woodpecker

[barren yoke]

30 degrees

cuz the snow doesn't come till january

[broken mantle]

Yeah dropping the landscape lens.

[barren yoke]

I hide inside during winter

wind burn and freezing wet climate

[bright oxide]

you know, winter landscape can look nice sometimes

you can find some weird looking trees

[barren yoke]

I go snowmobiling but I can't bring a camera

[bright oxide]

you wouldnt notice when its all leafy

[broken mantle]

I live near the equator

Only sunny and rainy season

[bright oxide]

inside the equator?

[barren yoke]

INSIDE

[broken mantle]

https://tenor.com/view/it's-fine-im-fine-its-fine-im-fine-fine-everything-is-fine-gif-4044255692100841679

[barren yoke]

I hate the extreme heat and I hate the extreme cold

we get both for the majority of the year

I like fall and spring the best but both are pretty short and bad weather

anyway I need to sleep its almost 10pm

[fleet mica]

Oh yeah you mentioned C1pro that’s why I thought

[bright oxide]

nah i have the "fujifilm raw converter" LOL

capture one is doing this weird thing

and they're doing their best to make it as annoying as possible

i get the free trial all in one bundle for fujifilm only, cancel it, then i get to keep this dumbed down version of capture one forever

not exactly c1 express

[fleet mica]

Ahhh

I have both C1pro and Adobe Photography sub

[fleet mica]

I really want the Summit creative Tenzing bag 40 litre rollup version) but can’t afford it

[spring vault]

not rly cheaper but check out shimoda action x 40L too

[fleet mica]

ta, duly noted

[bright oxide]

tried to fix that trunk but just couldnt do it lol, it always looked sloppy

oh just ignore the small branch in the bottom left, exported the wrong image lol i removed it in post

[bright oxide]

heres one ran through dxo that I edited

[mint warren]

had a go at removing that weird highlight on the leg, plus did up another shot of the same bird

also its bee tossing time

[bright oxide]

that is a stunning blue bird

do you know what it is?

[barren yoke]

You've clearly missed a lot lol dw

It's a fairy wren. They've posted many photos of them

[bright oxide]

it seems like I have

[mint warren]

Specifically it's a Splendid fairy-wren, one of the most common fairy wrens on the west coast

For people in the eastern states, they get the Superb Fairy Wren

[bright oxide]

blue looks really nice, this is almost no edits, just increased exposure thats all

[bright oxide]

yummy

ooh i see an xh2s hehe

also those tripods are weird, never seen any like that before

is it to stabilize for slight tripod movements?

[ember harness]

Gimbal heads

It's for side to side panning

Xh2s buyer what a bad choice

[broken mantle]

Got bamboozled

Stuck in the traffic for 4.3 hours

And it rained, when predictions says sunny.

[frozen belfry]

awww

[bright oxide]

[gilded yarrow]

Man these look so nice

The coolest birds we got in germany are Kingfishers

[ember harness]

stacked sensor with 10ms lmao

[bright oxide]

ms?

oh mechanical shutter

[ember harness]

millisecond

[bright oxide]

what

[ember harness]

the readout basically is the worst stacked sensor

of any stacked sensor camera

[bright oxide]

oh youre talking about readout

[ember harness]

why else would you buy xh2s over xh2

[bright oxide]

yeah its def a hobbyist camera

[ember harness]

its too expensive for that

coz options like r7/a6700 are just cheaper

and better

[bright oxide]

used 1800 aint too bad for it

[ember harness]

its just a bad option

theres no real way to justify it

for the cost

[spring vault]

https://youtu.be/ltaZ4ILVQ_8

birds spotted

[fleet mica]

happy to have a crack at it for you if you want?

[fleet mica]

injured king parrot?

[scarlet tulip]

Corvid day

[bright oxide]

sure you want the edited or raw?

[fleet mica]

RAW is always preferrable

[fleet mica]

can't tell if it's a raven or crow sadly

[scarlet tulip]

Raven on the fence, crows elsewhere

IRL the size difference is pretty apparently

[fleet mica]

they're very hard to diffentiate

[fleet mica]

right, give me 30 minutoes or so to process it

[bright oxide]

heres two more pics im really proud of, anything I should change?

I think the white borders add a nice touch since the primary color is blue

[fleet mica]

I can upload the DNG file (should show all the masking that I have done in Lightroom), and TIF file (all layers) for you to my Google drive if you want

[spring vault]

I took a crack at editing it too lol

for the log I just did a quick n dirty brush mask and messed with the color balance after increasing exposure and then cropped it out anyways because I thought vertical looked nicer

[ember harness]

I'll give it a go too

This looks fun

[bright oxide]

hehe thanks guys

[spring vault]

also messed with hsl

[fleet mica]

yes, I think the vertical crop is a better option too

[bright oxide]

yeah if it’s not too difficult for you, i’d like to see it on lightroom

[fleet mica]

gimme a few minutes

[bright oxide]

same here i was just about to say that, and its sharp enough too

[fleet mica]

I resized the JPG to 2400px longest side, which is what I typically do

[bright oxide]

used topaz you sneaky sneaky, can I see the original raw that you sharpened? I'd like to compare it to the dxo file I have

[fleet mica]

I also do very little sharpening (turned off in DXO Pure RAW2, no sharpening in Lightroom Classic, 2 high pass filter layers @ 0.2px each, linear light blending mode and bicubic sharper on resize to 2400px

Topaz oversharpens mate

[spring vault]

there's a slider!

[fleet mica]

I rarely use Topaz these days, DXO is far superior

[fleet mica]

ah yes, if you're using their suite and not the standalone denoiser app

[spring vault]

I denoised in LR and then sharpened the final jpeg a little in topaz and then opened the jpeg in photoshop to smooth out the background more just to throw the whole book at the image

[fleet mica]

11 mins to upload files to my google drive XF

bbiab very heavy rain, flood patrol out the front 😦

(our drive in front of the double garage is shit and the drainage very badly designed, so water builds up with heavy sustained rainfall and goes in under the double garage doors into the garage and then my room, which adjoins)

[spring vault]

I didnt actually use lightroom I used adobe camera raw in photoshop so idk if u can open this

[bright oxide]

omg i just realized the blood on his beak and fur, must have had a little lunch before showing up for his photo shoot

[spring vault]

usually I convert the raw into dng so its one file instead of three but I didnt this time

[bright oxide]

i have ps so i should be able to i think

[fleet mica]

RAW files will automatically open with ACR mate

[spring vault]

yeah but it saves them as three files

where as if I convert the raw to dng first in adobe dng converter it stores the raw and all the edits in one file

[fleet mica]

ah yes, true

[bright oxide]

how’d you smooth out the background? any tool or anything?

[spring vault]

photoshop magic idk

I can put the psd on google drive

[bright oxide]

if you’d like, i’m jus tryna see and learn

[spring vault]

I opened the jpeg then duplicated the layer then quick n dirty content aware filled away the bird and perch then did a light lens blur to the whole thing then I duplicated the original layer again and manually masked it so it was only the bird and perch

I dont do this to 99.9% of pics its too much effort lol

and can easily look fake

[bright oxide]

idk how these files work anyways LOL, i do my thing, end up with a raw dng and tiff file stack in lightroom and just export it to jpg, never understood the file stuff

[fleet mica]

I tend not to blur out backgrounds, it typically looks fake

just import the DNG file into Photoshop

I don't think you can see the Lightroom masking that I did in Photoshop ACR

[spring vault]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wcM4KdrSG_PHfFSF4J43cRj2zJv51HOT/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YdScHFfAo1IOrRjEGVT9I0aQG2Puh04M/view?usp=sharing

and heres a dng instead of the three files

[fleet mica]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pLuOZerkwqRCClXXAe7rWym0e6Uf8MeT/view?usp=sharing

[bright oxide]

lol i forgot i changed my username as a joke

back to normal

will look at these files as soon as i finish dinner

[fleet mica]

I've just done a small re-edit with a slight levels adjustment layer with some manual burning in using the burning in tool

and will crop too, similar to Tort's version

[bright oxide]

what does that tool do? i saw “burn in jpg” before but never googled it lol

dunno if that’s similar

[spring vault]

idk what the burning in tool is either

[fleet mica]

dodge and burn

darkens exposure on a selected part of the image with the brush

I tend to only do around 5% exposure, and limit it to highlights or shadows

I don't use it very often

with this bird, it would have been better to underexpose the image and protect the highlights imho

[bright oxide]

yeah i think i forgot to turn on natural live view so i couldn’t tell

[fleet mica]

it's all good

just a tip, not a criticism 🙂

[bright oxide]

jpg preview looked fine

i’m always forgetting one thing or another LOL

[fleet mica]

I have similar issues with the EVF on my R3 - looks fine in EVF...I don't typically check the rear LCD screen...I get home and highlights blown

pisses me off

[bright oxide]

i think the time before i forgot to put down my dynamic range lol

[bright oxide]

i think if i pay attention to the histogram it should be better but when im birding yk things go quick

i’ll be sure to keep the highlights in mind, thanks for the reminder

[fleet mica]

adjusted my original attempt with a levels layer, some burning in, slight added warmth to image using ACR, did a topaz denoise AI layer and adjusted the opacity to 60 odd % - more for some more slight sharpening than any NR; then resized to JPG using bicubic sharper by a single pixel lol [handy trick for some more sharpening])

[fleet mica]

I fuck up all the time, it's part of the fun, and part of the learning experience

my monitor isn't calibrated using a tool, just by an eye calibration, so it's white and black points are probably off, affecting my edits

my 9 year old niece was eating peanuts, so I asked her what is worse than eating peanuts...she shrugs and goes "I dunno"

my answer?

poo-nuts

she just shook her head and walked away

dunno why

[bright oxide]

[ember harness]

@bright oxide

theres a version

[bright oxide]

so many to compare

honestly thank you

i had nothing to do this evening lol

i was going to find random photos to edit but this is more fun

[fleet mica]

everyone has a different processing method. Jan [Wegener] masterclass editing video is well worth the asking $$$$ imho

[ember harness]

I don't really have a method

I just do what suits the photo

Heavily depends on the raw

[bright oxide]

yeah thats why presets only work like 2% of the time lol

[bright oxide]

did you use lens blur or how did you get more blurry background?

[ember harness]

I did it manually lol

In photoshop

[bright oxide]

hmm

cool cool

also removed the truck, which helps

[ember harness]

The background is just too messy in your raw to make a good photo

Fake blur isn't perfect but it's better

[bright oxide]

yeah i know lolol

too many random twigs and stuff

[ember harness]

Yeah the trunk throws it off balance too

[bright oxide]

mhm

[ember harness]

More blur helps there too, blur plus noise hides the removal

[bright oxide]

but if it is one thing I learned, these hawks will perch for a while, so I can always find better composition if i come across another one

or the same one another day, but its difficult to find these beasts

[ember harness]

Moving to avoid the trunk would've helped

There's nothing worse than plain blue sky background tho so this is better

[bright oxide]

yeah I should have moved more to the right to avoid the trunk

[barren yoke]

Lovely photo!

[ember harness]

Yeah, that wouldve given you better light too

[fleet mica]

hindsight is always lovely

[bright oxide]

I just need to be aware of my background too, first time seeing a hawk in nyc so I was too excited

[ember harness]

You get experience over time to do this stuff

Background is the most essential bit to get right

[bright oxide]

this is what makes it fun tho, making mistakes and learning the animals so you know the next time you encounter them

[bright oxide]

i wonder how the tiff file ended up 1.2gb LOL

[spring vault]

some of the reason I dont go heavy on the editing very often is the second it leaves LR/camera raw the file sizes explode lol

[bright oxide]

these pictures are so nice

def hooked me on buying dxo the next time it goes on sale

being able to crop in like that is crazy good

[spring vault]

ive been meaning to try out dxo but the last time I checked the version up on ☠️ sites didn't support a6700 raws

[bright oxide]

does it now?

[ember harness]

Think so

Dxo is the best denoise I've tested

[fleet mica]

multiple layers

[scarlet tulip]

In flight one can check the tail, ravens here have a wedge while crows have a fan

Other than that it’s size and call

[broken mantle]

thats one round birb

[solar bay]

aww

[wheat hare]

ravens have a little fancier neck plumage too

fancier isn't the right word but it doesnt lay as flat and smooth as a crows

[scarlet tulip]

Heavier bill as well, usually

[fleet mica]

true. We really only have Torresian Crows up here in Brissie

[fleet mica]

yeah their throat ruffles are more prominent.

[lusty kindle]

Looks cool, the bokeh is nice but it kind of takes the attention imo, for the brighter part I mean. Still really cool

[fleet mica]

yes, I agree. My other Satin bowerbird shot is better mostly, but this has a better pose imho. A pity about the brighter background. This was an earlier shot from the set, for the latter shots, I moved and re-positioned myself to deal with the background.

A real pity I didn't nail a good pose shot with the nicer background

[lusty kindle]

rip, happens, still a really cool pic !

[mint warren]

Satin bowerbirds do look really nice

Also the lemme smash memes were fun

[fleet mica]

Great Egret (boating ramp, near Osprey House). This Egret was unusually relaxed. Breeding adult.

[drifting silo]

Hi, just got my first super-tele and started bird photography very recently. I’d like to share one of my first images 🙂
Any feedback would be nice, can’t send messages in #🥊・gloves-off for some reason

[barren yoke]

Hi!

Thanks for joining my forum, I love the photo

What mm lens did you get ?

[drifting silo]

Thx!

[drifting silo]

I got the sony 200600

[barren yoke]

Neat

[ember harness]

Gloves off needs you to be here and send a fair few messages, #💡・open-feedback is the other one

[drifting silo]

I c

[ember harness]

Nice image, a bit tight towards the top and leans quite heavily left in weight

I would say the background gradient is a little too bright up top as the bird starts to blend in

But overall quite nice work

[drifting silo]

Yeah im a bit lost on the composition

[wheat hare]

for just getting into bird photography recently that's killer

[drifting silo]

Tried going for a centered composition but it doesnt feel quite right?

[ember harness]

It's good enough that most of what I can say is nitpicky

[drifting silo]

Thats the centered one

[barren yoke]

Did you use rule of thirds? I obviously don't have a grid but I like how you centered it ^^ personally I probably would have put it to the top left intersection

[ember harness]

Give more room to the left

[wheat hare]

just mirror the top half of the image so the shadow is on the left and bird is on the right!

[drifting silo]

I did, thats what i was tryna do

[barren yoke]

I agree

Or bottom right

[ember harness]

yeah id just swap the position of the bird branch and the rightmost branch

[barren yoke]

But I like the gradient and I think its an awesome shot!

[ember harness]

then crop the left side in slightly

thats probs the easiest way to balance the composition

[drifting silo]

Thx for the tip brb im gonna try to balance it out

[wheat hare]

done

[barren yoke]

I wish the heron was facing the other direction

[wheat hare]

I'm not reopening Photoshop sorry Libby sheesh

[barren yoke]

Lmao

I'm just saying

If you use negative space, the subject should face I to it

Personally I love the original they posted, or the centered one they took

I'm not a fan of moving things around in editing

[wheat hare]

oh I was just doing it to be funny

humoring myself anyway

[drifting silo]

💀 bro

[barren yoke]

?

[drifting silo]

This is the original crop w grid

[barren yoke]

Lovely

[drifting silo]

Here’s a bit more space on the left

I was considering getting rid of that branch on the right completely

[barren yoke]

If me, personally were to edit this shot, I would adjust the settings to however I think would look good, and in cropping move it to the beak and head are at the intersection

[barren yoke]

I like it!

So yeah basically how you did edit it

[drifting silo]

Alright thx for the feedback guys!! Look forward to sharing more of my future work here

[barren yoke]

Ofc!

I'm looking forward to it as well.

Do you have an instagram? @drifting silo

[wheat hare]

I should probably go actually put in some effort with photos. Work is murdering my soul though and it has been like four months.

[drifting silo]

I do, its @mrvl.jpeg

Just went birding again this morning, got a few shots so i’ll be posting soon ig

[ember harness]

Birding is such a pain in summer

[barren yoke]

Mine is el.zabeth.w

[drifting silo]

Wildlife is my new addiction

[wheat hare]

Maybe I'll go out the weekend I get back into WA

[drifting silo]

Fr

Went 3 months without my camera

Pain

[wheat hare]

It just keeps staring at me but I don't have the time or motivation

[barren yoke]

Dude the summer and winter are so bad here

There's not even any snow

This year

[wheat hare]

I throw it in the car when I run to the grocery store incase the eagles are perched low along the road. But zero effort.

[barren yoke]

Just cold, rain, fog and frost

I sometimes take photos through the window. Maybe I'll go birding in the mornings in the summer

[drifting silo]

Yeah we only got snow like twice so far in germany (nrw) and each time it only lasted about a couple of hours

Next few hours it all melted away

[barren yoke]

We usually get like a foot of snow

And it's usually negatives

But every couple years it doesn't snow. Sadly because this is the first year we would have gone on a ton of snowmobiling trips

I was excited for the frozen rivers and icy cliffs 🥹

[bright oxide]

@drifting silo you are a gosh darn good photographer, really nice photos on your insta

[barren yoke]

I agree!

[bright oxide]

im planning on doing a 5 day mini vacation for photography (aka just going out 5 days in a row to different places) lol

gonna try to do a mix of nature and wildlife

[drifting silo]

Thank you so much 🙏🙏 that means a lot to me

[barren yoke]

Hey y'all just letting you know, I'm leaving soon and I'll be offline until around 6pm central time on Monday

If anyone cared

[waxen shard]

Bye 👋

[barren yoke]

:o you use dark table??

[waxen shard]

Periodically

[barren yoke]

Sick. We'll have to talk about that when I return

Alr byeeee

[spring vault]

see u next year

[wheat hare]

How dare you

[broken mantle]

Oh no, libby leaving till next year

[hidden wyvern]

Friend

[bright oxide]

fren

[icy sparrow]

this is a very shitty photoshop work but this is kinda what i'd do
the bird is on the top right intersection and the sticks are balanced in the middle

it's an awesome photo btw

[wheat hare]

so you'd just change the whole photo

[icy sparrow]

yeah and no
i didn't artificially add in any elements
i just moved it around

[spring vault]

it's already heavily photoshopped what's a little bit more lol

[gilded yarrow]

[frozen belfry]

take care

[fleet mica]

followed

[fleet mica]

I'm going to echo what Iona said. Bird looking to the Right instead of the Left, a bit more room at the top, and I'd use a gradient mask in Lightroom to lower the brightness at the top of the frame as it's distracting and bleeds into the bird itself too.

[fleet mica]

it's going to be 39c here (102) here today...was 38c yesterday...

[fleet mica]

have fun, safe trip

[fleet mica]

dinner

I've seen 1 in the wild but didn't have my camera sadly. Spotted what looked like an Australian Hobby as I was driving home - right on the Ripley off ramp...uggh!

[frozen belfry]

aw bummer

i saw a hobby yesterday as i was walking home but it was gone so quickly

theres 3 or 4 rails on my property, the ones out the front have a chick 😊

[solar bay]

grouse

[fleet mica]

you near water/beach/mangroves? Unusual to see them anywhere else from my experiences.

[fleet mica]

looks kind of similar to our quails.

[broken mantle]

Damn, brutal birb

[scarlet tulip]

E e t

[fleet mica]

Typical kingfisher efficiency

Butcher bitds are similar

I saw images of a powerful owl eating a young koala bear on 1 of my Facebook groups a few weeks back

And also eating a possum

[frozen belfry]

riverfront wiith swamp out the back

[fleet mica]

Pretty female fig tree bird

[solar bay]

we call em prairie chickens here

[fleet mica]

ahh

well a not so great day with the camera...didn't really capture much - distant black kite way up in the air above, a great egret in flight (slightly better than the kite shot I think); 3 different sacred kingfishers (more ID shots than anything) and a female red backed fairywren from a distance. Male was on the grassy ground and unfortunately, damn well grass stems through the focus off and the only opportunity I had for a half decent shot was way OOF. A pair of superb fairywrens, but hiding in the branches, no real photo opportunities, and a coucal pheasant, that I heard, but by the time I spotted it, it was too late and it was spooked and off...no photo opportunity. All in the extreme heat today :/

where I was hit 38c/100f today...December has been relentless, with all but 3 days over 30c

most in the mid 30s

my bedroom, is currently 31.2 at 7.45pm :/

[drifting silo]

Ah yes that looks more balanced. That branch on the right didnt feel right

Havent done any photoshop though

All my editing has been limited to only lr so far

Cuz i edit on ipad

Birb of the day

[fleet mica]

you can do a fair bit of editing just with Lightroom. I've never used it on an iPad though, so not sure how that compares to using a laptop/PC etc.

[fleet mica]

I'm not sure what this species is...looks like it's in breeding season though. I had a look at descriptions for breeding plumage for all of the Australian herons/egrets and couldnt' find anything that matched the head/legs colouring...

[broken mantle]

sadly the bright colored tail is covered in this shot.

[frozen belfry]

oh well

i tried filming but the quality is shit

[waxen shard]

Nice birbs

[fleet mica]

You get days like this

My last 2 days out with my camera gear were like this

You win some, you lose some

[frozen belfry]

definetly

doesnt help its my first time filming either 😂

[solar bay]

just look at me

that's better

[pure belfry]

Todays birds

[nova steeple]

I love the fourth one

Forth

Fourth?

Which spelling is it

[frozen belfry]

3rd is my fave

i love them all

[frozen belfry]

this way lol

[spare owl]

This is my favourite I've ever gotten... Unsurprisingly the one time I had a telephoto. (I was using my friends camera and we were working on a project)

[daring violet]

Is this gradient natural or made in post?

[drifting silo]

Post in lr using a gradient mask

Raw image was very flat cuz it was rather foggy. But that allowed for a colorful approach to editing, i could pretty much use any colour for the gradient ig since the image was taken at base iso (from my understanding this allows for more dynamic range when editing?)

[daring violet]

interesting. I was wondering how you managed to get so much isolation in the background but that makes sense with the fog

[drifting silo]

Yup it was wonderful. The fog had literally blended the sky and the sea. U really couldn’t see where the sea ended and the sky begun as they were the same colour

[broken mantle]

birds are fake, see this proof photo of a birdbot charging on a solar panel. jk

[bright oxide]

the forth one is really nice, and i think a 1:1 crop would make it even nicer. as is i have to stare at the image for 2 seconds before seeing the birb, 1:1 it’s right there with a good composition

[dusty fog]

forth

[nova steeple]

Ok probably gonna get some bird photos tomorrow, hoping I get some ones that turn out good

[fleet mica]

3rd for me - lovely exposure, pose and eye contact. Background OOF too.

[fleet mica]

glhf

[pure belfry]

3 also has two bonus bugs

[fleet mica]

Pelicanus Solaris Chargeris

[fleet mica]

that bugs me

I should work on my website

brekkie at 11.30am lol

[nova steeple]

Wat

What does that stand for?

[fleet mica]

good luck, have fun

[nova steeple]

Oh

Thx

[fleet mica]

usihng slang like that makes me feel 30 years younger

cattle egret breeding plumage.

[drifting silo]

Woodpecker

[broken mantle]

Yearly birb recap

[ember harness]

Good old long video of lens I don't care about followed by what might be pretty bird photos but is actually seizure inducing