Bird Photography

[daring imp]

Not me since im never happy with anything 😂

[outer totem]

Can I ask what you lot use to edit your photos?

[gilded yarrow]

Lightroom classic

[green meadow]

Those droplets coming off from the wings are really cool, but otherwise really high ISO and not enough background separation.

[scarlet tulip]

Dipper?

[green meadow]

yep white throated dipper

[magic crown]

not editing photos is wild

[dark ermine]

i do enjoy those occassional shots though where everything lines up just right and editing needed is minimal. i'm sure that's more frequent with higher end gear

[magic crown]

What a goofy sparrow

[scarlet tulip]

wow how rude of him

[carmine fox]

poor sparrow got sacrificed as my first real attempt at playing with masking

[daring imp]

Going for this chonky boi atm

[gilded yarrow]

black metal bird

Wanna see them too but theres none anywhere close to me

[daring imp]

Theyre 15km from me at some reeds

[gilded yarrow]

sick

[daring imp]

Waiting begins

[gilded yarrow]

nahh too far away, get into those reeds for the ultimate close up shots

[spring vault]

allegedly sigma will be announcing an e mount 800mm f6.3 this month

big grain of salt tho til there's actual leaks

[gilded yarrow]

Thatd be crazy

[magic crown]

Shit quality because it's a preview
I'm going to cook tonight

[dark ermine]

lil Tennessee warbler

[carmine fox]

What lens do you use, Vox?

[dark ermine]

Sigma 150-600mm C

[carmine fox]

Nice
how's the far end sharpness wise?

[dark ermine]

Pretty great! That one above and most of my shots posted here / on my portfolio (profile) are right at 600mm / 550mm due to the way my blind is positioned.

only real issue is needing pretty much perfect lighting conditions due to its high fstop and using a dx camera. has me eyeing a Z8 lol, but I came up from a D90 and a tamron 70-300 a little over a year ago so I'm still pretty happy with it

[carmine fox]

that's good to hear, when I was looking at a 150-600 I found a lot of people saying it could be a tad soft at the far end if you don't stop down
D90+70-300 combo is a helluva step up 🤣 I love my D7500 it's pretty damn good for what it is

I was thinking of going out today but... Light lol
it's overcast all day today which isn't great

[wide flint]

Man the detail you can get with the 180-600 is crazy

[dark ermine]

I do think this is true from the lab images I've seen (and have had GPT explain to me 😂 ) plus I think you can tell - for example this one is at 500mm (unedited) in similar conditions and seems much sharper

but b/c of sophisticated post processing and that my perspective is coming from a d90, i think it's fine enough for a $600 lens

[dark ermine]

glad to know i'm at a point in my life where i'm considering spending 1800+ to look at bird follicles.

[wide flint]

Can reccomend, it's a lovely lens, really have very little to complain. Except about things that are only really available in the multiple thousand euros teleprimes

[dark ermine]

right, easy to think about it in levels, like my next jump would be thousands where your next jump is probably 10's of thousands, and the upgrade window gets longer the higher up you are

[dark ermine]

how do you feel about the z8, did you have a diff body before it?

[wide flint]

Had an a6400 before this. The Z8 is such a huge step up in every single way, that I can't even really compare them. The 45MP is super nice to have for birds, high iso cleans up really well and once you get the hang of how to use the autofocus most efficiently it's a real treat. Only thing I wish this would have would be full raw precapture, but other than that, not much else to wish for.

[carmine fox]

mmm fomo
gonna make me enter generational debt for a bnib z8

[dark ermine]

fr, looks like the a6400 is a bit better than the d7500 as well so would have an even better time coming up here

[magic crown]

i saw my favorite duck and also one of the rarest of france

the Mandarin Duck

[green meadow]

Am I the only one constantly struggling with this problem?

[magic crown]

Welcome to the team bro

I have 6tb of storage and i have 4tb used

[green meadow]

I have lately browsed through my old photos and tried to delete some that I don't need. But I'm having difficulties to let go. 😭

[magic crown]

[gilded yarrow]

Me too lmao

[magic crown]

i think almost everyone have this problem

[dark ermine]

I made an 'inbox' folder for where I cull photos first THEN move them to their respective bird folders for editing later...except every time I go to cull I find myself editing a specific pic and importing more from my sd card

inbox has 1.3k photos in it atm 😂

[carmine fox]

I just use FastRawViewer
anything in _rejected gets deleted
I wish I figured that out before I filled up almost 100gb of online storage

[green meadow]

My problem might be that I tend to keep almost all photos that are sharp. Now there is good amount of sharp photos so I have tried to start keeping only the interesting photos. Then it comes to that when I'm culling it often feels like every picture of a blue tit is interesting. 😅

VR on the 300mm f2.8 that I bought used about month ago started to do that. Luckily store that I bought it from grants 1 month warranty and I had two days left. 🫣

[wide flint]

Yeah imo it's one of the hardest things about Photography. I try to really only keep the great and interesting photos and often will even stop halfway through editing one bc I realize it's not as interesting as I thought

[green meadow]

That is so true.

[wide flint]

Wow, very lucky that its just inside warranty!

[green meadow]

Totally, I already had bit of a cold sweat when it first happened and I started to look for the receipt. Luckily it was only a close call situation and it wasn't over a month ago. 😄

[daring imp]

Nice. Im soon getting the sigma 500 f4

@green meadow Goddamn ifs hard to find animals to photograph now here in finland. Its so dead

[gilded yarrow]

New Lifer lets go

Crazy how big they are

wouldve been insane if he was closer

[wide flint]

Yeah hawfinches are crazy big

[dark ermine]

oh nice, I haven't yet owned a prime. will this be your first one?

[green meadow]

Yeah only small birds at bird feeder.

[dark ermine]

do you try to capture all variations of a bird, female male, juvenile of each? ..realizing last one probably near impossible with most of them looking the same lol

[green meadow]

Well not specially, I just photograph anything that comes by. Of course it is nice to photograph new species but for me it is not the main thing. I just try to get nice photos...even from the everyday birds.

[daring imp]

No i have a 600mm f4 L is but its soo heavy. But im getting a good profit for it if they buy it

And switching to 500mm f4 sigma. Way lighter

[dark ermine]

and here i though the 150-600 was heavy at 68oz lol

[gilded yarrow]

Weird bird I saw today

[magic crown]

[wide flint]

Those are some really nice conditions damn

combo of the completely still water with the fog

lovely

[gilded yarrow]

Yeah it was pretty sick today, sadly no good pics apart from that one

Water looked like that because it was frozen for some reason

[magic crown]

It's not the most beautiful bird but it was worth it

[daring imp]

i have 150-600 aswell. its super light. my 600m f4 is fuckin 5.3kg

[dark ermine]

that look is so expressive i'm not convinced this isn't a human who got turned into a bird by witchcraft

[carmine fox]

I didn't get the whole weight thing until I took the 200-500 out for the first time

pshhhhh it's not that heavy, I lift more 3 days a week

who knew 5lbs of lens got heavier by the hour

also cool pfp

[wise trench]

so sharp holy

what setup do you use?

[carmine fox]

this is bird adjacent
#🐒・gear-discussion message
If any of yall have experience I would appreciate it

[wide flint]

Z8 is killer for birding, if you have the budget i'd pick that ove the Z6III anyday

And also super future proof. If you take good care of the body it will last you 10+ years and no worry about shutter wear bc electronic shutter only

[carmine fox]

budget is kinda the issue atm
I can get a new z6iii+ftz for the price of a used z8

caught a blink :p

I might be able to stretch a z8 in a few months if I put some money away and then try to get a decent price for my current birding setup but I would rather not just be without a camera for however long that takes

[carmine fox]

hmm
am I using the wrong color settings for export
that seems a lot different than even browser view

[drifting silo]

A7iii and 200-600, idk abt sharp since thats a 3mp photo with blown highlights on the birb‘s head + weird ca thing from my lazy masking probably

Had to make the photo work since its the only long tailed tit photo I have so far and I really like the bird

[wide flint]

Yeah it comes down to your financial situation. But saving up for a few months isn't a bad idea to wait for the Z8

[wise trench]

I actually just meant the 3 photos as a whole

[gilded yarrow]

Got the same setup and its great

Cant really get sharper than that, next step up would just be more mp

[dark ermine]

think i'll be using these photos as reference when clearing my inbox. "can you get it to this level? then no, you can't "fix" it. reject it!!"

essentially digital hoarding at this point

[gilded yarrow]

Hahaha thank you, but I also got probably like 1000 non edited pics juuuust in case I ever come back to them

[drifting silo]

Hoping the a7v will be the camera for this

A1 too expensive, R series too specialized i feel and not fast enough (burst)

[gilded yarrow]

Yeah I'm waiting for that, if it doesnt have like 20fps 35mp I'll buy an a7iv

[gilded yarrow]

Yep, Sony burst overall is the biggest problem imo

Wouldve already bought an a7iv otherwise

But only 10 fps, and only actually having 10 fps when shooting craw is very mid

[drifting silo]

Sucks that they limit third party to 15

[gilded yarrow]

I mean we dont have that Problem with our 200-600's

[drifting silo]

Like that would be a big hurdle if for instance sigma did release an amazing 800mm f6.3 BUT theres that restriction

Tough decision especially since sony‘s 800mm lens is the 400-800 at f8

[gilded yarrow]

Yea thats true

[wise trench]

yea I’m really jealous, the canon r5 and 100-500 I dream of is so expensive 😭

a7iii half the price of r5 and 200-600 2/3 the price of 100-500

[gilded yarrow]

get Sony

[drifting silo]

Why do ppl go for the 100-500 and not 200-800? Is it the quality or the size

[gilded yarrow]

Sony superiority

[drifting silo]

Or both

[wise trench]

ive heard iq isn’t that big of a improvement over the sigma 150-600 I have now

and I don’t like the iq of the sigma much at all

plus the r5 has enough mp to crop down quite a bit anyways

Maybe I’m wrong though

[drifting silo]

I see, i just watched some of jan wegener‘s vids back then and thought he got nice results with the 200-800

[wise trench]

Also the 200-800* def can not fit in my bag

[drifting silo]

But then again hes just good ig

[wide flint]

Jan Wegener will get nice results with any combo tbf

[drifting silo]

Real

[wide flint]

Wait, my name is green

Damn

I got featured

[drifting silo]

Featured club

[wise trench]

congrats

[drifting silo]

[wide flint]

Representing the birds in the featured channel 🫡

[drifting silo]

Crazy composition/moment btw

[wise trench]

yea that’s insane 😭

[wide flint]

Thank you mate! Conditions were super beautiful that morning

Was really far out but 45MP saved my ass 🙏

[scarlet tulip]

Congrats, that’s lovely monochrome

And yeah the 45MP sensor makes the Z8 a better pure birding camera

Personally I’d rather have the Z6iii and $1000 towards a nice prime, if budget is a question, but once you have Z8+lens money it becomes the best choice

[wide flint]

Yeah I had the right budget for a Z8 and the 180-600. For just birding you'll really have a great time with just that combo for a while

And since the cam is so future proof, there's more than enough time to save for other lenses

[scarlet tulip]

I could’ve gone Z8, my issue at the time was that I’d have had to upgrade my computer at the same time

Turned $3500 into $5000 before I even looked at lens upgrades

So I spent less, had money left over for a pair of short primes

[wide flint]

Yeah multiple big spending points at the same time always suck

I got 3500eu back in tax returns so basically got a free Z8

[wide flint]

What kinda short primes do you have?

Been looking to get some other lenses for the Z8 as well, but not sure which route I wanna go

Wanna get into landscape photography, thinking of just getting the 24-70 f4 since its dirt cheap

Also wanna get the viktrox 85mm f1.8

Seems like a sexy lens

[scarlet tulip]

35/1.4 G, 85/1.4 G, 300/4 PF and a full set of converters

All adapted

[wheat hare]

Man they will feature anyone these days

In all seriousness congrats that’s a lovely photo

But boo ced cause now I can’t delete the earlier version.

[wide flint]

Yeah, the Prestige has completely disappeared if they're going as low as featuring me

[wide flint]

Bc he mentioned the earlier version in the featured channel?

[wheat hare]

Yeah

Normally don’t let the originals of re edits stay up. But I’ll make an exception for you since you’re a big shot now.

[wide flint]

Oh stop it, my ego is already way too big after today

[magic crown]

guys I know why my tamron 150-500mm had problems focusing on animals in flight...
I had AF mode which was set only to triggers and therefore there was no time to do it correctly
i'm going to kill myself

and I had AF balance mode disabled (i don't even know why)

[waxen coyote]

What do you think about the Nikon d500 for photographing birds?

[waxen coyote]

Which type of autofocus are you using? (Like autofocus continuous or what?)

And what’s the camera brand?

Because I think the problem comes from the camera, not the lenses

[magic crown]

AF-C with a Sony a6400
I see most ppl with this lens have this problem

Caused to bad settings

And a friend have the same camera but with a sigma tele and the focus is really better

[gilded yarrow]

backyard birding lol

shot through a window and still this sharp, love this lens

[magic crown]

The bird is like : what are you looking at hooman

[waxen coyote]

Can I dm you? It’s easy to lose your answers and I can’t help you properly

[magic crown]

It's okay i found the problem i will test that in the day

[magic crown]

the settings i put is now really great

[scarlet tulip]

Great option

[hidden wyvern]

reedits of an old photo with some ai tree branch removal in lightroom, feels like it can help but eh with anything other than bokeh, tail feathers are off

old one for reference, fun to find the old cr3s and try a different edit but i feel like i kinda got the same look, minus some saturation lol

if anyones curious the ef 150-600 sigma attached to a rebel can get small birds in flight

[waxen coyote]

Ok sounds good

[waxen coyote]

Thanks man

[scarlet tulip]

Put a 300PF and a 1.4c TC on it for a lightweight prime setup

[carmine fox]

literally the pinnacle of birding dslr
for nikon at least, I would say it's basically the gold standard across brands too but that's arguable

awesome af, 10fps, functionally unlimited buffer (I barely hit my 33 shot buffer lmao, d500 is basically 20 seconds of continous shooting) and 1.5x crop for reach advantage
oh, and battery grip (unlike d7500, thanks Nikon)

[scarlet tulip]

Personally I’d take a D5 over a D500 but some people enjoy the denser sensor

[carmine fox]

D5 is also like 3x the price
you can get a used z8 body for the same price as a used d5

[waxen coyote]

I really want to buy it but I’m not sure for some things:

• less mp than my Nikon d3500 (that has around 23-25)
• afaik not very costumizable settings (like having a specific button that does a specific thing you want)
• low light

[waxen coyote]

How much for the d5?

[carmine fox]

$5000 cad

[waxen coyote]

Oh ok so no

[waxen coyote]

I can’t go higher than 1200 euros (around 1150 dollars)

Plz @ me cuz I’m going to bed atm

[carmine fox]

less mp is a reasonable concern but you're trading a few mp for 2x burst fps and over 15x larger raw buffer
I believe the prosumer bodies (iirc d500 is prosumer anyway) have a decent amount of button customization, with my d7500 I can customize two dedicated function buttons, the ae lock button, another one that I forget atm, as well as set the dials to do different things based on which of those buttons are pressed

low light on apsc is almost always worse than ff, obviously, but I've been happy with the low light performance of my d7500 which I believe is basically the same sensor setup, I can push 4k iso pretty comfortably and even on super dark shots I can recover shadows pretty well with 14bit raws assuming they aren't completely black

[carmine fox]

ebay has them around 800 usd, I would imagine rather good condition too

[waxen coyote]

So you are suggesting me a d7500 instead?

[waxen coyote]

Okok

[carmine fox]

no, I was talking about the d500
I was using my d7500 as an example since that's what I have experience with

overall you will be very happy with the d500 coming from the d3200, I wouldn't even consider the mp loss personally

[waxen coyote]

It’s a d3500 but few changes. Btw I’ll consider that. Do you suggest me other good Nikon cameras if the d500 isn’t available?

[carmine fox]

honestly I'm quite happy with the d7500, it's not as much of a birding powerhouse as the d500 but I haven't really noticed many limiting factors, mainly coming down to my skill level at this point

it's apparently held as pretty good in low light for a dx, one of the better ones I've read
9fps, 33 shot buffer at the highest quality and uhs1 only which isn't great but it's pretty solid build wise and feels great in the hand

[lean epoch]

Just amazing

With or without branches

The contrast 😮‍💨🤌

[waxen coyote]

@carmine fox Do you know if the Nikon d500 can display the light histogram when you are in live view and you press “info”. I’m asking to you cuz you seem pretty expert, but everyone can respond to this

[hidden wyvern]

fall is a fun time for the colours, had a nice spot there where the sun would always hit from behind the camera

[carmine fox]

I'm not an expert but thanks lol
I'm not sure, google/reddit might be better
I'm sure someone here has a d500 and can tell you

[wide flint]

Light was shite anyways, but still wouldve been a cool moment to capture on camera

Ofc grebes do a pairing ritual right in front of me when I dont have my camera with me

[carmine fox]

rule one of birding is be an autist and bring your gear literally everywhere
cmon stork me'lad

[wide flint]

Yeah I just wanted to have a long walk and the light was bad anyways

But I underestimated the amount of birds there would be on my walk

[carmine fox]

birds hate us
they always are out doing cool stuff when it's overcast

[waxen coyote]

Can someone tell me if battery grips increase the frame per second?

[wide flint]

uuuhhmm no, why would they?

they just increase the battery size

[waxen coyote]

I know, but a friend told me so….

[fallow token]

they do on some bodies lol

@waxen coyote what cam

[waxen coyote]

Nikon d700 and Nikon d500

[fallow token]

d700 is 5 without grip and 7 with grip

d500 is 10 without and 10 with

no increase

[wide flint]

wait what

how is tht a thing lmao

[fallow token]

older cams

idk why

something something more power easier to sustain more fps i guess

i think d850 also does it from 7 to 9 fps

[waxen coyote]

D850 has only 7 fps?

[fallow token]

i believe so

[waxen coyote]

And the battery grip is only helpful for the battery life?

And another shot button?

Idk how it’s called

[fallow token]

you get 2 dials one shutter a focus joystick and a bbaf button

some cams gives more fps

some doesnt

[scarlet tulip]

Got skunked on raptors today

But I saw the aftermath of lunch

[scarlet tulip]

i need a 600/4 lol

[wide flint]

Goldeneyes are always so far out 😭

[drifting silo]

Who doesnt lol

Street/travel photographers: „its not about the gear“
Wildlife:

The whole genre aint even accessible without getting a tele

Ok maybe the exception being the trap photography thing using a trigger

[broken mantle]

Or if you have ninja level sneak skills

[dark ermine]

I don't even have a chance without a tele and my blind is my house, have a pet door in my window screen I prop open to aim through at the feeders placed only feet away

[gilded gale]

"Just get closer!"

[carmine fox]

Nickon when dx 120fps w bird eye af z500 überbirding body

[magic crown]

"if you don't skill issue"

[green meadow]

This poor bastard probably has some first hand experience about that kind of encountering. 😬

[scarlet tulip]

Seems like he won the encounter, at least in the short term

How was he acting?

[green meadow]

Yes and it acted normally, but I think animals tries to hide any weaknesses till the end. Looks like it is missing some toes as well.

[scarlet tulip]

If he lives through the initial healing I bet he does fine

Birds are resilient for their weight

[wide flint]

Damn, very cool encounter to have tho

[green meadow]

Yes they are. And if it doesn't it just becomes someones food.

[green meadow]

sometimes it is bit rough out there.

[dark ermine]

I've been cautious to share this shot I got in 2023 because of the conjunctivitis, but i guess while we're here

learned that day about how contagious it is and feeder sanitation once it shows up

at least it seemed fine though for the most part, saw it quite a few more times

[green meadow]

Yeah sometimes they get sick no matter what and that is part of life. But keeping places clean is important at feeder.

[scarlet tulip]

How do you clean yours?

[dark ermine]

me I did soap & water / 1:1 vinegar water when I had the metal feeders, but looking for more natural photos I switched to wooden platform feeders connected to my fence.

now its mostly remove the food if I see sick so they don't continue to gather and spread

[green meadow]

Well I only feed them in winter and some rare occasions in summer so here freezing temperatures does mostly the job. Then by changing the spot where feeder is so that poo doesn't "pile" up to food that drops to the ground. When feeding season is over I rinse feeders with hot/boiling water.

[scarlet tulip]

That makes sense

I am thinking of putting a feeder up this weekend, the side of my house makes a natural blind

[carmine fox]

we get bird flu almost yearly now so sanitation is pretty much required especially if you see sick birds
10% bleach solution is good but I got a big thing of Virkon S from a vet friend awhile ago and it's kinda scary but God is it effective

usually I do spring & fall anyway just to get rid of any accumulated nasties

[scarlet tulip]

And you sanitize once a season?

[carmine fox]

once in spring, once in fall, unless i see a sick bird

then they're nuked and covered

[scarlet tulip]

Makes sense

[wise trench]

winter birbs (sad about the second one, still tryna get a decent pic with 2 birds on one branch 😭)

[dark ermine]

we have the same birds! are you in southern US?

juncos are my favorite

[wise trench]

yep! southern Virginia

wish there was some blue tits though

[wise trench]

small birds are so adorable

when juncos are looking straight at the camera it’s so cute 😭

[dark ermine]

yesss

[dark ermine]

we have cedar waxwings though at least, those are pretty amazing (AL here so non-breeding, but still)

[wise trench]

[carmine fox]

quit stealing all the damn cardinals

[wise trench]

There’s about 4 at my feeder at all times during the winter

[carmine fox]

I was coping about mirrorless until I just learned, scrolling through reels, one of my favorite wildlife photogs uses my exact gear combo

I have some pontification to do and skillz to acquire I reckon

[daring imp]

No clue what bird is attacking a owl but i got a sick shot

Hawk owl and something else

[daring imp]

turned out pretty okay

[green meadow]

Cool picture and attacker is probably a fieldfare. 👍

[wide flint]

could be a red wing as well

But idk, not too good in recognizing thrushes

[green meadow]

I'm not sure either. Redwing is also a good guess.

[dark ermine]

think i need to rework the background, less muted and tone down the artificial lens blur, maybe kill some warmth, but the b/a difference is wild lol

[wide flint]

long tailed tit in free fall

[magic crown]

the bird :

https://tenor.com/view/fall-damage-guy-jumping-off-cliff-meme-fall-jump-gif-10998107752099134325

[carmine fox]

creed bird

[gilded gale]

we finally got snow!!

[green meadow]

Really angry bullfinch.

[daring imp]

Kiitos! Yea a fieldfare!

[analog kindle]

Soooooo

I went to Florida

Turns out that's where the birds are

[carmine fox]

owl one is sick

[carmine fox]

what lens you shoot, man?

[analog kindle]

Thanks!

[analog kindle]

Nikkor 500mm f4 G VR

[carmine fox]

damn, how much that'd set you back

[green meadow]

Absolutely amazing set of pictures!

[analog kindle]

Few grand, it's a pretty old lens so you can get them for not too much.

But when people find out what lens you have their like, "holy smokes a f4 prime"
Lol

I really am wanting to upgrade to a z8 or z9

But also be warned, it's a pretty chunky lens, my setup is currently 12 pounds 👀
So worth it though

[green meadow]

Even older wide primes are great and much better than consumer zooms. And yeah those are so heavy that you don't want to take them on long hikes.

[green meadow]

My experience is that f-mount lenses adapts really well to z-bodies and AF on those mirrorless bodies is pretty great.

[analog kindle]

Thats what Ive heard, hopefully someday I will be able to make it happen!

[magic crown]

Some new large landscape

[magic crown]

this one hits hard

[hidden wyvern]

Bird- various emotions

Not much other than ice in Canada lately

[magic crown]

final result

[dark ermine]

v.nice work on the eye especially

Was that brown color in the iris still there in the shadow, just had to pull it out? Or did you need to add the color

[magic crown]

it's the original color I just increased its luminance and saturation

[scarlet tulip]

2x converter is murderous for sharpness

But it’s fun having reach

[trim geyser]

Not so long into bird photography but this are the best results I've got so far.
Anyone got any feedback on what to do better next time or with edit?

[carmine fox]

they're reasonably good
better than my first few cards full

you have the basic components down

I would say for editing, play with subject masking to make the subject pop a little bit

they're well composed and sharp, however they're a bit flat, but that's nearly unavoidable in typical overcast winter so that's fine

[carmine fox]

kinda like this
#🦀・creatures message

I like to separate the subject (and usually whatever else is in sharp focus according to Adobe), clean up as needed, dupe & invert and then adjust accordingly

[trim geyser]

thanks for the review. What techniques do you use to seperate them better?

[carmine fox]

if you can try to get background separation, but that's usually not possible since they tend to do what they want, I would do the whole masking system I mentioned, or at least play around with it, cuz I find myself using it more often than not even when I have good bokeh and subject isolation

hard to get great lighting when it's winter and overcast for 6 months straight here

[wide flint]

Adding to the tips: I pretty much always use a graduated density mask to create the illusion of light falling in from one direction. It helps to make the photo seem less flat. One of my examples: #🦀・creatures message

[trim geyser]

did that already from top right corner. Maybe its just because Im inexperienced but I kinda like this somewhat flat look in this pictures as I think it adds to the situation

I could increase it a bit though

[wide flint]

Yeah i'd increase it a bit and also the saturation on the bird itself, just makes it pop a bit more

[trim geyser]

Like that?

[wide flint]

Yeah thats better

[waxen coyote]

Some of my work ❤️

[dark minnow]

Thoughts on this shot?

[waxen coyote]

Try to make the subject pop a little bit more to make a cooler effect (for example, try to make as less visible as possible the branches in the background)

The picture in my opinion could turn really good

[dark minnow]

Ayt ima try that

Thx

[waxen coyote]

And try to add more contrast to the wings so the transparency can pop more

[gilded gale]

cant wait to get this thing put together!

[wheat hare]

nice I had started planning a custom floating hide a while also. I should continue it

[mint warren]

Anyone got any Willow Ptmarigan pic?

Also where would be the most accessable place to find them, preferably somewhere I wouldnt have to take a shaky prop plane too

[wheat hare]

eBird my friend

[mint warren]

I like getting first hand accounts

[wheat hare]

that's fine but supplementing them with ebird recent sightings is the way to go

[waxen coyote]

What’s that

[gilded gale]

The base and frame for a floating camera blind. Essentially you place a camouflaged blanket or tarp over the frame and stand inside it while wearing chest waders in the water.

Allows you to get really low to the water surface and often much closer to animals than you otherwise might be able to.

[carmine fox]

epic, however it seems cold
also don't think the people at my local pond would appreciate it very much

[gilded gale]

Screw em! There's pics to take!

[carmine fox]

I think it's also like 5ft at the deepest point

gonna have to kneel

[wheat hare]

it's not terrible if you wear waders/dry suit and have a layer underneath.

rather comfortable actually

[carmine fox]

I mean if it gets too bad you can just piss yourself

[wheat hare]

true

[carmine fox]

the neoprene ones are decently warm I imagine

[wheat hare]

part of me wants to build one still but another part just wants to buy a premade floating hide

[wheat hare]

yeah probably and just throw a wool baselayer on underneath and you're good

it would be cool to get custom carbon rods for a frame though

fucking ridiculous but cool

https://goodwinds.com/product-category/carbon-fiberglass/carbon/solid-round/

but the tubes not rods

[carmine fox]

I wonder if you could make one compact enough that you could put it on a ruck frame

[dark ermine]

this is cool rendering! which software was this done in?

[gilded gale]

Yeah, there's actually a bunch of placed that make custom length tent poles and I might switch to that at some point. You kind-of need to do an "x" pattern with them though. I'm planning on using 0.5" pvc which should still be really light and is only $4 for a 10ft length.

[gilded gale]

It's actually just a screenshot from Autodesk Inventor while I was modeling it.

[gilded gale]

This one is designed to fold in half so I can fit it in the back seat of my sedan.

You could definitely design one that is basically just 2 side outriggers with nothing but a frame in the middle. that would easily fit on a ruck frame, but you would have to do a LOT more testing for center of gravity and stability since there would be a lot less boyant material

[carmine fox]

awesome

[dark minnow]

Just saw a bald eagle right next to my house while waiting for the bus omw to college, obviously didn’t have my camera

[magic crown]

sad moment

[wide flint]

Finally have my first decent kingfisher pic @gilded yarrow

Encountered it by chance in a little delta next to the sea. I think it came there bc pretty much all fresh water had been frozen over, and the water there is a mix between salt and fresh

[magic crown]

did you have the raw ? i want to try something

[wide flint]

have fun cooking

[magic crown]

oh it's a .nef ?

i'm going to try a landscape edit

[gilded yarrow]

Niice

[wide flint]

Yeah, that's the RAW files Nikon gives me

[gilded yarrow]

I went to my kingfisher lake today and its almost completely frozen, didnt see or hear him

Hope he's still there

Got my own kingfisher now lmao

[wide flint]

Yeah the frost can be very hard on them. I try to open up some holes in the ice under perches to help them out a bit when I can

[magic crown]

if you have time i'm going to edit it in vc creator channel

[wide flint]

ayo that's sick

[gilded yarrow]

Yup, theres a hole where he could still fish but all the ducks chill there too so no clue

[wide flint]

I'll come have a look but can't talk bc there's other ppl over

[magic crown]

@wide flint

without the watermark

[wide flint]

nice one man!

You cooked with that one

[magic crown]

bad that it's not mine x)

but really good shot it's a good one

it's was cool to edit it

[wide flint]

Yeah, Z8 saved my ass. Would've never got it in focus with my old a6400 :,)

Kingfishers in flight are super tough

[magic crown]

you trust me if i already did one ? (very blurry bc of the shutter speed but i did it)

[wide flint]

show me

[magic crown]

let me check if i still have it

(I think I deleted it but I have my doubts)

it was deleted i don't find it

that was the very first time i go at this lake

[wide flint]

Ah, that's a shame, kingfishers are such beautiful birds, just so hard to photograph

[magic crown]

yeah but with some good equipement, knowledge and luck you can take good photos

[wide flint]

Yeah for sure, for me the hardest is finding good locations and then having the patience to sit for hours/days at those locations

[magic crown]

btw i found that the large landscape is my format style idk why but i love that

[magic crown]

for me it's really easy i have lakes, river and ponds almost everywhere where i live it only take 10 minutes with a bus to go at my nearest lake

[carmine fox]

:p

[waxen coyote]

How did you do this effect?

I mean

On discord

[carmine fox]

it's just a gif

[green meadow]

Today was a dipper day. One of my favorite birds to watch and follow what it is doing. 😄

[scarlet tulip]

I’m amazed at those flight shots

How did you get so low to the ground?

[magic crown]

i love the color on this pack

[wide flint]

Man I wish we had dippers here in the Netherlands

I think we have them all the way in the southeast, sadly that is a 5 houd drive for me :(

[carmine fox]

silly chickadees

[green meadow]

Thanks. I found great place where I could get close to the rapids/water. Also this bird was extremely co-operative and it wasn't bothered by me at all. Then it flew off and dived regularly from same spot. If only it wasn't in shadow other than that it was nearly perfect spot.

[green meadow]

We only have them here during winter in places where rapids doesn’t freeze. Luckily I have two spots within about a 15-minute drive. It’s a great little bird, and I’m always amazed at how it can dive into the ice-cold water. 🥶

[green meadow]

At first, I was using 20 fps as the frame rate, but as this series of shots shows, it matched too well with the bird’s wingbeat interval, making the shots look almost identical. So, I had to drop it down to 15 fps to get some variation in the wing positions.

[scarlet tulip]

I’ve found that 20fps will usually match two wing positions on ducks as well

Will have to try dropping down to 15, that’s good advice

Thanks

[analog kindle]

Man I am so close to buying one of those for myself

[gilded yarrow]

Lmao bro is just levitating around

[green meadow]

True 😅

[carmine fox]

see i get like 8fps so I dont have this problem

[dark ermine]

got these two house finches posing for their album cover

[analog kindle]

Here's my finch contribution from today haha

[dark ermine]

love goldfinches. we now have an influx of pine warblers over here and i just continue to misclassify them as goldfinches

probably because for the longest time brain could be "yellow = goldfinch"

[magic crown]

"Song of a Feather" ahh album cover

[dark ermine]

featuring covers such as:
"Uptown Finch" by Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars
"Bohemian Finch-sody" by Queen
"Smells Like Finch-spirit" by Nirvana
"Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd

[carmine fox]

what is your guys' keep rate for bif/action

I calculated mine to be about 5%

[spring vault]

sounds about right

my keep rate for my camera overall is 4.5%

counting my saved raws and shutter count

[magic crown]

what's about 15% for me ?

[wide flint]

I think mine is less than 1%

What 20fps and a trigger happy finger on the shutter does to a mf

[carmine fox]

real
I've found myself happily sitting in my buffer now that I'm a bit more confident

I used to be scared now I'm all AHHHHHHHHHHHH DO SOMETHING

I'm having gear fomo, greener 600mm pastures

however we appear to be quite sharp at 500
despite 90% crop
I need to test against birds farther away

[green meadow]

Today I took 5740 frames and ended up keeping 84 pictures and even then there is some that I won't probably ever use. So today my keeper rate was 1,5% and for fly/action shots it is definitely even less. 😅

[magic crown]

When your photo turn into a drawing

[dark ermine]

first halfway decent shot of redshouldered hawk

pulled over on the side of the road w/o a brace so was swaying all over the place with the 150-600 lol

[echo rain]

Can someone help me figuring out if bird photos I took recently I should edit any of them out ?

[wide flint]

I think the main problem in all of these pictures, is that the birds are very small in frame. There's also very little action hall ing in most of them. If u start implementing more action and getting closer shots of the birds, it would improve your pictures a lot

[echo rain]

This was the closest I could get to them with my 100-400 mm lens I'm not sure how to get action shots of it

[carmine fox]

focus on filling the frame first

[wise trench]

also on getting cleaner bgs

for the 6th one for example

[echo rain]

These were all in Auto mode cause I had just gotten the camera when I took these shots

[echo rain]

Is that the one that has the blue bird ?

[wise trench]

ther e is too much going on in all of these

were you at 400mm for all of these?

[echo rain]

Just about maxed out in all of them

With the 400 mm

[wise trench]

yeah so you just need to get a lot closer

also not great weather

[echo rain]

But what if that's not possible for things like birds ?

Some of these birds are in the water and going to them isn't possible

[wise trench]

then it wont be a good photo lol

[echo rain]

Not even with a different lens ?

[wise trench]

no not really

unless you have a 800mm lens or smth

then maybe

but like lens cant usually fix you being that far

[echo rain]

Also, on auto mode doesn't it focus on the main object ? and the background might not be the main focus ?

[wise trench]

you look in #🦀・creatures right? how close they are?

[echo rain]

Do you think that it might be an issue of the 100 - 400 mm lens ?

Or an issue of my skill deficiency perhaps ?

[dark ermine]

what camera body?

[echo rain]

Canon EOS R7

Also, should I put what camera I use in my profile somewhere?

But for some of the shot I wanted to capture the birds specially and didn't really want to focus on the background like the storms

*storks

With that should it not be on Auto mode ?

[dark ermine]

nah only if you want to, just preference.

it's not the body at least, better than mine lol. not familiar with the 100-400mm but looking on flickr, looks like you're getting what that lens can do that far away https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=canon+ef+100-400mm

[dark ermine]

auto will focus on whatever your focus point is on. it sounds like you're meaning depth of field, which is aperture http://www.thedigitalprocess.com/aperture-priority-and-depth-of-field/

[fallow token]

the focus was on full auto mode?

as in doing everything on its own?

[echo rain]

Yes @fallow token

[echo rain]

So if I wanted to take only the storks haven't I achieved that in some of the shots ?

[fallow token]

okay id change the af to some sort of tracking mode or single point if you want best results
im not sure what the r7 has but letting the camera decide often wont give the desired result

[echo rain]

I'm not sure how to do the tracking mode on mine

[echo rain]

But my lens was on 400 mm with these shots so I'm not sure how exactly I could have gotten it crisper

[hidden wyvern]

against the sun, but i like it

found more pipers and lots of different ducks too around, 2x TC on the 500 f/4 is tough at times but other times gets a decent enough shot, noticiably is softer though than without

[fallow token]

any examples?

[fallow token]

2x and still looks that nice damn

[hidden wyvern]

should mention the above shot is my zoom actually lol

working on the other shots

[fallow token]

oh lel

i was gonna say like that looks cropped and still super sharp

[hidden wyvern]

(its like 13 lb so i bring both and swap when i get tired)

[fallow token]

which 500 f4?

[hidden wyvern]

mk 1 with is

this is one with the 500mm f/4 with the 2x

[fallow token]

oof huge thing

[hidden wyvern]

far away shots itll struggle (anything will with distance)

but it does land sharp shots at times

[fallow token]

full crop?

[hidden wyvern]

yeah

[fallow token]

still very nice damn

[hidden wyvern]

will say it's AF suffers a lot with 2x (1.4 is fine) but one of these days ill get a chickadee close up again lo, some stuff zooms just are easier for anyway, swinging 13lb around like air is hard

[fallow token]

no monopod or anything?

[hidden wyvern]

i do have one but i generally handhold it

[fallow token]

sounds rough lol

my 100-400 already starts to feel heavy enough after a while

[hidden wyvern]

my zoom is about the same, got the 100-500

used to feel heavier, now it feels like im taking a break lol

[fallow token]

always gonna be a heavier lens out there

[hidden wyvern]

think if i ever plan to stay somewhere for hours like a puffin tour again id bring some stability, or just go with my zoom

seem some guy with a 400 2.8 struggling to stand on a moving boat

[fallow token]

learnt that after taking almost all my kit on a 4 hour hike lol

definitely need to get out birding again sometime looks fun

[fallow token]

only like 12lbs lmao

definitely need a monopod or something for that

[hidden wyvern]

i need to get out more lately but its a sheet of ice here, today not so bad

[fallow token]

last few times ive gone out have been very icy or just entirely grey as the uk usually is

sucks to happen but what can you really do 🤷

[hidden wyvern]

spring will be soon but where im at theres like 5000 species of waterfowl, can expect to see the tiny yellow fluffs swimming around again, prob more herons too

winter seems like its loons, some ducks, little songbirds, bluejays, cardinals

[fallow token]

1 and 4 do look to be poor af

2 looks okay just a tad dark and 3 looks to be affected by fog or something making visibility worse

the r7 is incredibly capable

[fallow token]

i would try using some other autofocus modes where you get more control over it as the camera cant do it all every time

[echo rain]

What seems to be the deficit with the 4th one ?

For the first one is it bad because the focus is off on it ?

[fallow token]

my bad i stated the wrong image

1st is poor focus yet

4th is barely out of focus it seems

as you can see it looks a lot clearer on the water

[echo rain]

2nd was shot before sunrise so it seems that it was a bit darker of a shot

[echo rain]

You mean the water looks clearer than the bird ?

[fallow token]

the water is more in focus than the bird

therefore the r7 probably missed by a little bit

[echo rain]

This might be the best one since it was really close to me when I took the shot

[fallow token]

shutter speed looks a little low

are you shooting in full auto with the r7?

[inner abyss]

Little fella wouldn’t leave my car alone. Loved lookin in the mirror

[echo rain]

Yeah these were all shot with Auto in the R7

I didn't change the mode even once

[fallow token]

theres your issue

you need to learn the cam a bit more

use different modes and learn the autofocus

[echo rain]

This was when I was a real beginner to using a camera

[fallow token]

the cam doesnt exactly know its shooting birds so wont always use the best settings

[echo rain]

Makes sense

[fallow token]

i dont exactly know how the r7 is but there should be some basic tutorials online for birding with it

[carmine fox]

not entirely true
you can have a good bird photo even if the bird is 1/10th of the frame
it's mainly about telling a story or conveying the emotion

[wise trench]

well with those bgs it wont be

[carmine fox]

you absolutely can

it's more than just perfect bokeh and institutionally clean closeups of birds

could also improve some of them by taking the time to frame them better and get closer to the ground

like technically this is a shit photo, it's soft and a very heavy crop
but arguably it has more story than my other dozen crisp birds on a branch images

[drifting silo]

But that does have a clean background though, nice contrast to the bird

I think that the heron photo has potential with some editing

This one I mean

Maybe some high contrast bnw, a somewhat minimalist fine art approach typa thing

@echo rain but yeah I think one of your biggest issues rn is to learn the camera and get off auto mode. Going full auto does not generally work well with birds or most genres of photography as it often does not get u what u want

[carmine fox]

sure, but could be technically better
messy background is fine if you can compose your frame

one of the biggest things is living 300m away from a refinery apparently
that haze obliterates any semblance of sharpness, you're certainly gonna have to get closer

[waxen coyote]

Most detailed picture I’ve ever seen. What lenses did you use and how far were you from the mandarin duck?

[wide flint]

What do you guys use as camouflage? Kinda want to get something for sittings next to feeders and at my spot for the Kingfisher. But a full on tent hide seems kinda clunky and annoying to log around, so I'm leaning towards one of those camo nets you can throw over yourself and camera with peepholes in it

[magic crown]

A tamron 150-500mm and i'm really close (1-2 meter close)

[magic crown]

I use a net and a outfit

Good combo

[carmine fox]

cut up 3d netting or a decently sized rifle veil works
it's what we use for hunting, I would imagine it's more than effective and slightly overkill for birding

[green meadow]

Please help! I can't hold much longer!!! 😄

[dark ermine]

excited to see this shot that looks awesome

[waxen coyote]

Fantastic

[green meadow]

Thanks! 😄

This one is quite good also. As you can see blue tits are kinda only birds to photograph here currently. 😅

[waxen coyote]

still prefer the first one, bur this one is fire as well❤️

i was really close to this heron but the quality isnt still much. Why? I was with an aperture of f/10 with my sigma 150-600 f/5.6-6.3 and a shutter speed around 1/1250

[magic crown]

iso ? focus ?

did you have the raw ?

[scarlet tulip]

f10 will be at or near diffraction limits on most sensors

[waxen coyote]

idk i think ir was focused well… iso i need tk check

[dark ermine]

7.1-8 is usually rule of thumb for best spot on 150-600

[waxen coyote]

i saw online that for my lenses the sweet spot was around f/10-f/11

iso 640

[magic crown]

You have the raw let me try something

[waxen coyote]

i have it, one sec (it is not cropped too)

[waxen coyote]

oh

i dont know id u can open that, lemme know pinning me

[magic crown]

i've already open nef

[waxen coyote]

so u opened it? Sorry im nit english so dont be angry if i dont understand smth

[magic crown]

full image and 100% zoom

before and now

better now

[waxen coyote]

Now im not on the discord app and the images are really bad. Ping me so i can go to these messages when i’ll be on the app again so the quality will be better

btw what did u use?

[magic crown]

DXO pureraw

it's a paid app but when you have it it's massive

[waxen coyote]

is it free?

oh

and u know what else is massive?

[magic crown]

??

[waxen coyote]

LOOOOOOW TAPER FADEEEEEEEE

[magic crown]

[waxen coyote]

hiw much was it

bro dont die

[magic crown]

i died

[waxen coyote]

NOOOO

bro how much

btw i read ur name “tule elk” all this time…

[magic crown]

[magic crown]

edited vs raw (denoised)

i'm really lucky to have a lot of bird species in a really small lake accessible by bus

(the size of the lake is like a tiny tennis court)

[waxen coyote]

lucky u bro

Fire pic btw

[magic crown]

in terms of birds, we have plenty of species of passerines including the kingfisher, ducks (mallard and teal), cormorants, herons, egrets

[dark ermine]

i'll trade you for alabama, counting 16 mourning doves, 6 cardinals and 2 squirrels in the yard rn.

[waxen coyote]

same here, but not near where i live. We literally have one of the most visited places for bird watching in Europe

[magic crown]

afterwards I am in a region of France extremely rich in birds

we have more than 376 species of birds in my region (compared to an average of 330 species of birds throughout France)

we are the region richest in bird species

[inner abyss]

I have a terrible habit of editing after 5-7 business days of taking the photo

[magic crown]

ooo nice one

[scarlet tulip]

makes me wish i'd brought the longer converter, but it was a fun shot

[magic crown]

it can be really good for a 5:2 landscape

[dark ermine]

i just can't see this face and not think

https://tenor.com/view/poo-brain-whacked-wacked-horse-adventure-time-gif-16735308

[carmine fox]

how exactly is it better than lr

[spring vault]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIgq0ToS0y0

[wise trench]

its a lot better at denoising

but i havent found any other use for it personally that lr cant do

[waxen coyote]

Bro how much does it cost

[magic crown]

79€ or 100€

[magic crown]

original

lightroom denoiser

DXO

[wide flint]

Where is that if I may ask?

[carmine fox]

lr denoise looks better to me

[magic crown]

in this case it's not very visible but in some other case it's really visible

[carmine fox]

pixelation is a bit offputting

[magic crown]

DXO (200% zoom)

[carmine fox]

doesn't seem like a worthwhile upgrade for $220 tho

[magic crown]

lightroom (200% zoom)

[magic crown]

for you it's 220€ ?

wild

[carmine fox]

dollars
not euros

[magic crown]

yeah it's aprox the same

[carmine fox]

it's actually off by a factor of 1.5

would be 150 euros for you

[magic crown]

it's 118€ actually

[carmine fox]

pureraw is?

[magic crown]

yep

[carmine fox]

I'll try the trial I suppose
I dont think it's worth the money at this point

200% crop is aggressive and a bit of an edge case, I don't think anything looks good at 200% crop

[magic crown]

it's just to show you i'm never going to do it

but like that you can see the difference

[carmine fox]

what denoise level did you use

even at 40 it starts to smooth details
I stay around 30 or so

[magic crown]

i'm at 50 on lightroom and DEEPRIMEXD on DXO

[carmine fox]

is pureraw apart of photolab

[magic crown]

dxo is not just denoise, it removes chromatic abberation, lens distortions, increases sharpness, removes vignetting

[carmine fox]

yeah I saw that

increase sharpness seems like a gimmick
it's just smart sharpening, which is cool

the only way to increase sharpness is better light or glass

[magic crown]

that of dxo allows you to retrieve a lot of information in quite complex areas such as bird plumage

[carmine fox]

I suppose so yeah

I'm just put off by the

MUH NEURAL NETWORK
MUH DEEP LEARNING
marketing wank

[magic crown]

dxo denoise

lightroom denoise

original

at 4000 iso

[gilded yarrow]

crazy, but for 6k I'd probably rather get a 300 2.8 with converters

[carmine fox]

I think having the zoom lends to the versatility more

[inner abyss]

@dark ermine

little sunbird attracted to the mirror on my car from yesterday

and a couple quackers

[magic crown]

Just wanted to try something

[drifting silo]

Wouldnt that be more expensive in total? Since the 300 itself is like 6.5k€

[spring vault]

300 kinda short

[waxen coyote]

Holy shit that’s crazy

[waxen coyote]

You know what else is crazy?

[magic crown]

thanks

[hidden wyvern]

sandpiper, prob around 1500mm (2x + crop)

sandpipers friend

need a boat

[dark ermine]

lovely! not every day you see a birb checking itself out. the bokeh is really plesant on #3 as well

[dark ermine]

this is a good comparison, do you have the raw to share? want to see the difference between a high pass filter in photoshop

[magic crown]

it's on my sd card i'll give you when i have time

[gilded yarrow]

oh damn I had 4k or something in mind, yeah nvm then

[drifting silo]

Are you going to wait until someone asks „what“ or is this meant to be left unanswered

[drifting silo]

Yeah. I think its pretty crazy thats its less than half the price of the 600gm and a zoom. Hopefully the reviews dont disappoint

[gilded yarrow]

Yeah and 300-600 f4 is kinda insane

[hidden wyvern]

300-600 f/4 for 6k feels odd

like too good to be true

will see what happens

without prior knowledge if you just asked me how much id think itd be something more like this, hopefully its a good alternative though

[spring vault]

I think big teles have always been overpriced just because they could get away with it

like big elements definitely cost more to make than a smaller lens but most of the elements are small

and theres stuff like sigma 105mm 1.4 which has a huge 105mm front element and is sharp af but is $1600

[hidden wyvern]

well i dont think sigma is innocent in making money either, like, i dont think for a second theyre doing it and losing money

maybe using cheaper alternatives which can affect quality, such as a 150-600 vs 100-400

but that doesnt make it bad

dont think id preorder though, wait for reviews lol

[spring vault]

sigma made a 500 f4 for $6k a while ago

[hidden wyvern]

yeah and it had its own flaws

use to not even work really on RF mount until they patched it

[spring vault]

the 500 f4 was 16 elements in 11 groups

and the 300-600 is 28 elements in 21 groups

[hidden wyvern]

as it stands now its good, but it had various AF issues

plus the lens i got which is the mk 1 500 f/4 didnt and is 1.5k

[spring vault]

u cant compare new to used prices

[hidden wyvern]

im thinking consumer wise

200-400 is prob about the same as this 300-600 used or around it roughly

what im hoping is that it beats that old lens + has better fl

[spring vault]

300-600 doesnt have any flourite elements

that prolly saves a couple grand

[hidden wyvern]

yeah it does

flourite is pricey

[spring vault]

I think if panasonic s1rii ends up good it would be a great combo

44mp 40fps with pre capture and teleconverter support

on sony its still pretty cool but limited

[hidden wyvern]

also looks nice as a lens in general

[spring vault]

dunno if panasonic af can keep up with 40fps and a 600 f4

[hidden wyvern]

doesnt seem itll be on canon for now for me to worry about buying it but i think im fine anyway with what i got

this is like the only other thing i can think of similar in sigmas line up

not many really cared much for it since it was heavy, pricey, uncessary and all but this one looks better in that regard, 300-600 seems to be 8lb

id prob recommend a monopod though lol, but im also guessing its internal zoom, 500 f/4 is hard somedays

[spring vault]

theres some hands on videos with it alr

internal zoom nice controls

about the same size as a 600f4 but a kg more

[hidden wyvern]

if i were to upgrade from my 100-500 which ive no reason to id want something like that i suppose, clearly i could handle the weight now but still hefty

kinda looks like the rf 600 f/4

[waxen coyote]

I literally wrote the answer below the question

[spring vault]

I dont see it

[waxen coyote]

Oh yeah my bad

[waxen coyote]

Btw it was low taper fade, but now it is not funny anymore

[carmine fox]

💀

[dark ermine]

naw still funny, just in a different way lol

[dark ermine]

this chonky boi

[carmine fox]

meirl

f6.3?
I sometimes struggle to get the toesies in focus at 5.6 for some reason especially when they're leaned forward like that

[drifting silo]

Personally idt it matters that much, just need the eyes and majority of the face in focus and Im happy

[carmine fox]

Yeah usually I focus on the face but I like the look of the full sharp body

looks more "professional"
not sure how else to put it

[magic crown]

the objective of this edit is to make the flamingo scary with the eye with an oppressive ambiance

[gilded yarrow]

FINALLY LETS GOO

Focus isnt right on the eye but I think its saveable

[dark ermine]

7.1, it usually does ok at my shooting distance to grab the entire front body. example this chickadee. i think it's just motion blur because those little guys are just so fast and I scramble every time I see one perched for more than half a second.

cleaned up pretty well though

[dark ermine]

nice what kind is this? assuming something warbler

[gilded yarrow]

Goldcrest

Smallest european bird iirc

[gilded yarrow]

That looks sick

[magic crown]

Waiting for a kingfisher

(I removed the red thing it was just for the photo)

[dark ermine]

gl! i feel like waiting for kingfishers should be classified as a type of meditation

[gilded yarrow]

Hmm, I could do that too

Could at least check if he's still alive

[magic crown]

I already have shot this one from the lake but i want a better one next wednesday and thursday i'll go in the full day

I WANT THAT CLOSE UP

[gilded yarrow]

Same bro

30 hours for nothing

Not a single pic

[magic crown]

At least i have ducks here to work some images

I never go home with nothing

[gilded yarrow]

Omw to the lake now lmao, wanna see if the kingfisher survived the frost

[magic crown]

He survived for me

I see and heard him yesterday

And i just heard him now

[gilded yarrow]

hopefully

We'll see

[magic crown]

And if i don't have him today i'll go back next day

I really want that shot

[gilded yarrow]

ngl I'm like 80% sure the one at my lake didnt survive

Havent seen or heard him last time I was here and the lake was almost completely frozen over for like almost a week

[magic crown]

[gilded yarrow]

Lol this is kinda cool

[green meadow]

Angry birds. Shame that it was bit too dark to get good results.

[gilded yarrow]

Bro I dont understand how you get so many bif shots, I tried again today and didnt get a single one

This is the closest I got lmao

I feel like I need more fps and better af for bif

Kinda happy with this one, not really tho

[scarlet tulip]

That woodpecker looks ready to murder

[green meadow]

I just take a huge number of photos. Also I think that I have learned to anticipate when something interesting is about to happen. Lately I haven't been using precapture because those jpeg's feels quite limiting after all. So 20fps is enough but more could be better. 😅 Z9 AF keeps amazing again and again. It is not 100% but my experience is that it is really good.

[green meadow]

Really sharp frame and cool bird. Is it firecrest? Goldgrest are quite common here, but firecrest are rare visitors.

[green meadow]

Yes it does. They are clearly more aware of their territories as spring approaches.

[scarlet tulip]

Are they nesting yet? Might be a bit early but one never knows

[green meadow]

Not yet but they are drumming a lot. I think that it has something to do with marking territories.

@scarlet tulip What are your thoughts of Z6III and its af capapilities?

[scarlet tulip]

My major point of comparison is the Z6, and the Z6iii wins without much trouble

The z6iii lacks bird-AF, but I have not found that to be an obstacle

It acquires focus on the eye very well

If you are on a 45MP sensor you will miss the ability to crop

[green meadow]

Does it find birds eye even without dedicated bird af?

[scarlet tulip]

It does, it’ll grab the eye or the head if it’s a very dark bird

If Z8 bird-AF is even more reliable then it must be some real magic stuff, because the current Z6iii setup is excellent

[green meadow]

Definitely yes. And great that Z6III works so well. It would be nice to test and compare those.

Those eagle shots that you posted were amazing

[scarlet tulip]

I was not happy with my lens choice that day, but it was a special moment

Never seen one from that close

Camera did its job against a pretty dirty background, the Z6 would have had issues with tracking

[green meadow]

I can imagine that it was something else. It is always nice to come back home with some memories of that moment and that kind of photos are also a great bonus.

[scarlet tulip]

I’d gone out for ducks that day, and only knew the eagle was coming when about 50 birds all got up and flew away at once

Goes totally silent, then the eagle glides in

[gilded yarrow]

Pretty sure its just a goldcrest

OH WAIT

FIRECREST YEAH

LIFERRR

[green meadow]

yeah our goldcrests looks like this and I'm quite sure that you have seen a firecrest. Congrats!! 🥳

[scarlet tulip]

Looks similar to our kinglets

[green meadow]

pretty close indeed. Seems that kinglets are also really small birds.

[green meadow]

I got chills just thinking about that moment. 😀

[scarlet tulip]

You get the white-tail eagles in Finland, right?

They seem like a lot of fun to watch, very active hunters

[green meadow]

Yeah we do. More common at shore but it is possible to see them inland also now and then.

Sometimes they are active. But they can also spent hours just by sitting at the favorite spot and then it does something interesting just when you look else where. 😅

[magic crown]

they stare the world like : i'm the king of this place and nobody will remove that from me

[green meadow]

indeed 😅

[scarlet tulip]

They sit and stare, then when you look away they leave

[magic crown]

"wait did you have food in your hand ?"

that stare kill me

[gilded yarrow]

Only saw one so far and it was like 200m high, still insane tho

Their size is crazy

Only pic I got 💀

[dark ermine]

https://tenor.com/view/stare-angry-mad-black-snake-moan-samuel-l-jackson-gif-17424729

[carmine fox]

beautiful day today
+3 and bright sun all day but next to ZERO bird action in my usual spots :(

[magic crown]

im cooking on this one

[carmine fox]

how much time did you spend masking the bill

[magic crown]

15 second lol

(object mask)

[carmine fox]

ahh nice

[magic crown]

it's a good use for some

[dark ermine]

that's wild. also the line on the bottom of the top bill makes it look like the bill is both closed and open at the same time

[magic crown]

ah yes well seen I hadn't even seen

this edit hits really hard in term of color recovery

[fallow token]

what's with the lines in the back

through a window or smth?

[magic crown]

the line ?

[fallow token]

these?

or am i just bugging

[magic crown]

oh it's just some reeds

it's the reflection of the water

[fallow token]

ohhh yeah in dumb lel

reminded me of some weird artifacting I get sometimes so immediately thought of that

[magic crown]

2 others edits

the 2nd is killing me with his goofy stare

[carmine fox]

I just saw a bif shot off a d3400 that made me feel a bit inadequate
always someone else better with worse gear to humble you

"worse"
not like that matters but still 5fps with a 16 shot raw buffer requires either more luck or more skill

probably both

[dark ermine]

it probably took a lot to get that shot though. personally i'm all about work smarter not harder. bif def requires luck, patience, and / or finding / staging a spot that's easier to predict movements

i can only imagine still shooting with my d90, the hits would slap harder because they'd be so few and far between, but i'd take one look at antti's discards and probably give up lol

[carmine fox]

speak of the devil

[scarlet tulip]

This was luck lol

I tried for the bird and didn’t see the fly til after

[magic crown]

can i make a meme ?

☝️

[scarlet tulip]

Sure

[spring vault]

I have this one but the lighting is poor

I like this one that was a 2mp crop lol

[scarlet tulip]

Nice to get two in frame

They’re so elusive

[spring vault]

hardest part is getting em in frame without them also being so small in your frame that you need to crop a lot

need medium format birding once af gets good

I have pretty good autofocus but taking pics of small flying birds makes me wonder how much better the flagship stuff is because it's still frustrating

[gilded yarrow]

I got this one but also like 2mp lmao

[spring vault]

nice

[green meadow]

Treecreepes was this time a groundcrawler. 😅

[dark ermine]

all that tree creeping has him due for a ground sit

[scarlet tulip]

He’s got to rest

[gilded yarrow]

What do y'all think

Head isnt as sharp as I'd like, still wanted to edit it

[wide flint]

Looks good to me on phone

Cooked with the edit

Very Moody, I like it

[magic crown]

Feather shooting

[wide flint]

Really like how you got the dark greens to look

[wide flint]

Oooh nice

[magic crown]

I'm trying my macro room with some things and a feather was part of it

[magic crown]

It's just a raw preview but this is what it looks like (mallard hen feather)

[gilded yarrow]

thank you!

[dark ermine]

the only thing I might do is make the jump to the black vignette more gradual (ignore the artifacts, quick example) and pull the highlights down a bit in the subject to regain some detail in the face

usual disclaimer eye of the beholder and all that. still like the original!

[dark ermine]

this is really cool. what light are you using there in the box?

[gilded yarrow]

Yeah true maybe its a bit much, thanks

[magic crown]

A small rig light and the box have leds too

[wise trench]

Just get a9iii, pretty cheap

[wise trench]

Holy sharp

[gilded yarrow]

Lmao

[carmine fox]

caught lackin

[dark ermine]

i see your chickadee and raise you a turkey vulture

who needs bif when we have bip

[green meadow]

600mm + 1,4x tc so it was 840mm at shutter speed 1/60s and hand held.

[wide flint]

Man I love the stabilization of the Z8 and Z9

It's so incredibly good

You can just handheld 600mm without a problem, even with some wind an tired arms

[green meadow]

Yes it is and vr+ibis combination makes stabilization feel bit like magic. 😅

Also on extreme cases, like that goldcrest photo, I usually take much longer bursts and that way there is far better change that one or two images are sharp.

[wide flint]

Yeah I've only ever had to go that low in extremely dark conditions

Was taking pictures on one of the rare times we got snow here and was at 1/50 and 5000 iso

But got some really sharp results still

[magic crown]

Day 2 for the kingfisher

[magic crown]

Well no kingfisher today i'll try again tomorrow

(But i hear it very close)

[green meadow]

In my opinion bohemian waxwing might be one of the pretties birds at least here in Finland.

[dark ermine]

waxwings are by far the prettiest imo, they almost look like a painting come to life

couldn't get close enough unfortunately but saw a flock of them back in december

didn't even realize they were waxwings until near the end right before I went home, first time seeing in person

[dark ermine]

headed to a wildlife refuge today, hoping to see a whooping crane, ~536 left as of 2023
https://ebird.org/species/whocra

[magic crown]

I'm so happy to have sold them

[mint warren]

Heading to Singapore this month, seems the big thing rn is a Black thigh falconlet

But could change later

[astral arch]

These are gorgeous pictures. I love the detail of the wing

[finite flower]

when

which date(s), i can join you

[mint warren]

19th-27th

[magic crown]

My favorites shots of ferbuary

[hidden wyvern]

seems like i always get a chickadee each start of the month lol, but heres another one

[wise trench]

wat lens?

[astral arch]

Canon EF 70-300

[magic crown]

Very first edit vs now