Sunbirds at Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens

[Richard A]

These common and beautiful visitors to the fynbos region supplement their normal insect diet with regular visits to the nectar offered by Ericas, Kniphofia and Aloes amongst others which are particularly plentiful at the end of summer and autumn. Many of these birds have become habituated to the presence of people making them relatively easy to photograph in the gardens. Like many bird groups the males are brightly coloured with the females usually being a dull grey.

All images shot using D7100 and the new 200-500mm Nikkor.

[BW]

Another very nice series of birds

[Erik Lund]

I'm no expert but to me the shadows look really deep and hard, otherwise very nice!

[Frank Fremerey]

I have the feeling that the shadows could easily be pulled from the RAW just like Erik says.

Are you on a calibrated screen in calibrated environmental light, esp in brightness?

The screen should be 120 cd/sqm and 6500k or 5500k, the environmental light shal be of the same color and
brighness.

I love the first shot very much. Color bird with  yellow BG.

[Richard A]

My average consumer screen is far from ideal but have set it as best I can with the very limited settings available. This particular set was in extremely harsh lighting conditions and this birds upper body appears almost black in the RAW unprocessed images. A 'proper' photographic monitor is high on my priority.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

SA lighting is very unforgiving in daytime, I know, but still much can be done in a good RAW conversion program in terms of softening the harsh shadows.

A decent monitor is as important as a new lens ....In some ways, even more.

[BW]

IMHO if you pull the shadows to the max under contrasting light conditions, it doesn't look good. There might be just me, but my eyes dynamic range under harsh sunlight is far from that of a RAW-file with the shadows completely pulled. I love contrast and the color of the light. One have to be keenly aware of how the light falls onto the subject and especially the subjects face, eye or other important element. A subtle change in position might do the trick. Or else you have to wait until the lighting is perfect to press the shutter. It`s difficult with the sun i zenith. My point is, you can pull the shadows to a certain degree, but eventually it will reach unnatural proportions of DR. For bird photography, softer light is more suitable. A really good picture is more dependent of perfect lighting than a the perfect RAW-processor or monitor.

That said, there is no drawback to master the RAW-processor and using a good monitor

[Frank Fremerey]

Borge: Yes, very good advice to have the sun on the face of the bird and therefore plan for the best shooting angle beforehand.

All these 200-500 threads are mouth watering. I think I treat me with a D500 and 200-500 soon.

[Erik Lund]

I would not just pull up the shadows.
Either curves or the sliders in the recent RAW converters they actually start to work
I would lighten up the exposure until the mid-tones and highs start to bee too bright and the shadows start to look right or a little to bright, then bring down the highlights and the blacks again, that way the dark black and the highs are as they where but the rest of the image has been lifted.

[Peter Connan]

Beautiful birds Richard!

[Richard A]

Last picture in set reprocessed to eliminate the clipping of the deep shadows