Birds of the Missouri River Valley

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Tom Z

Member
I'll open a thread for pictures with the spirit of the PNW but a long way away. Here is a Great Blue Heron at Lake Manawa near Council Bluffs IA and a Lesser Yellow Legs in Arrowhead Park about 30 miles NE of Omaha. I didn't care for the first Heron picture. I readjusted the RAW photo. Please critique these photos so I can meet the high standards of this forum. Thank You.

Lesser Yellow Legs.JPG


Blue Heron Manawa AdjNEF_031818.JPG
 
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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
The photo of the heron looks "soft." Check the ISO reading for that photo. I suspect it was at a higher setting than your camera can process to a satisfactory degree of sharpness.

Experience will teach you the upper ISO limit of your camera. After you learn what that is, taken the usual steps to stay below it by using a slower shutter speed and/or a wider aperture opening.
 

BobH

Administrator
Staff member
There could be several reasons it look (just a touch) soft. The focus could indeed be slightly off, maybe on the sticks behind the heron? Could be a tiny bit of motion blur, or it could ISO as Bill suspects.

Can you upload a 100% crop of the head? Crop out like a 1600 x 1200 section and upload just that?

Also, what program are you using? If it's raw, some programs don't add sharpening and you have to do that yourself.
 

Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
One other possibility. If you were shooting with a Canon dSLR, they shoot rather "soft" out of the box. I routinely set mine to the maximum sharpness setting (usually 7) as part of the post-purchase adjustments I make to a new camera.

The photo of the yellowlegs does look sharp, so the sharpness setting may not be the issue of the two photos were taken with the same camera.
 

BobH

Administrator
Staff member
One other possibility. If you were shooting with a Canon dSLR, they shoot rather "soft" out of the box. I routinely set mine to the maximum sharpness setting (usually 7) as part of the post-purchase adjustments I make to a new camera.

Bill, "sharpness" has no effect on a raw file. Sharpness is a post processing, even in camera. The camera bakes it into the jpg, or in the case of raw files, the jpg preview. But the raw file itself has nothing done to it. No sharpening, not white balance, etc. It's truly "raw".

This is why you can open a raw file in two different programs and have it look different. A jpg will look identical or should. A raw file has to be processed by any image program. So if you open it in Lightroom or Photoshop, it will look different than it does in OnOne Photo Raw.

By default, PS/LR does not sharpen the image, they leave that to the photographer. So if you don't sharpen it, it will look a bit soft.
 

Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
Thanks, I did not know that. I shoot in jpeg, so I had to adjust the sharpness of my Canons to the max.
 

Tom Z

Member
Here is one out the window behind my desk at home. No sun today. These stay around the neighborhood most of the year. A couple of years ago I got to hold one as I had to rescue it from a string tangled around his leg. Was hanging upside down and was glad to get away. Still working with the Heron Pictures.

Red Bellied 3_041818.JPG
 
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Tom Z

Member
Can't wait till the sun comes out. Just hard to get much contrast on the Cormorant and a Robin with a worm.

Cormorant_2_041818.JPG


Robin with Worm_041818.JPG
 
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Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
The photo of the cormorant looks identical to one I took from the fishing pier earlier this week. o_O

Good photo of the red-bellied woodpecker. We don't get them out here.
 
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BobH

Administrator
Staff member
Cormorants are tricky since they’re so black. They and bald eagles are both best shot when there’s a light haze. Full sun makes shadows too harsh and blows out the white feathers on an eagles head. Too much cloud cover and everything is flat. But if you can get that “Goldilocks Light” things look really good.
 

BobH

Administrator
Staff member
Ooh, egrets, nice! Hope you find a way to get some more shots of those guys.
 

Bill Anderson

Super Moderator
Staff member
We get a few egrets up here in the winter, but nothing like a tree full of them. You will quickly learn how to use exposure compensation if you shoot eagles with any regularity.
 
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Tom Z

Member
Here is some from today. My first Owl in good light. One of our local meadowlarks. Great songster for the plains. Along with the Cardinal. Grackels are common but in the right light they have great color

Grackel 2_042618.JPG


Grackel 3_042618.JPG


Cardinal_042518.JPG


Meadowlark_042518.JPG


Owl 1_042618.JPG


Owl 2_042618.JPG
 
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BobH

Administrator
Staff member
Wow, great shots! Pretty nice fishing on the Heron's part too, good job by both of you.
 

BobH

Administrator
Staff member
Definitely always have stories about the "one that got away" My worst ever was three eagles that were locked into a fierce battle right in front of me. Pulled up the camera, tried to find an angle that would include all three, got the focus point right in the center and... the cameras say "OK Boss, I focused on that tree on the other side of the water, just like you asked. Damn good things those silly birds didn't get in the way... I only had the tiniest spot to miss locking on to an eagle, but you aimed at that tree, so you get the tree!" Was not a happy afternoon.
 
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