Birds of St. Augustine

[PedroS]

Arthur, let's look again to the nest photo...

Here's your exif
1/6400s f/18.0 ISO4000

Looking at those settings I can tell that the image will be much better if:
ISO - don't go higher than 800 (to avoid noise)
f2.8 to f4 to better isolate the subject and having a better blurred background
1/1000s to 1/2000s don't need more with the used lens

[ArthurDent]

Arthur, let's look again to the nest photo...

Here's your exif
1/6400s f/18.0 ISO4000

Looking at those settings I can tell that the image will be much better if:
ISO - don't go higher than 800 (to avoid noise)
f2.8 to f4 to better isolate the subject and having a better blurred background
1/1000s to 1/2000s don't need more with the used lens

Thank you, I agree with you entirely.

[ArthurDent]

Preening Time

[ArthurDent]

Great Egret- Full Cruise Mode

[PedroS]

Preening Time

Great one

Look
1/1000s f/8.0 ISO400

[ArthurDent]

Great one

Look
1/1000s f/8.0 ISO400

I thought you might like that one better, although it still isn't quite up to your specifications.

[John G]

Preening Time is a very nice image, nice subtle details in the feather and very nice balance in the overall picture.
The set up Pedro quoted are familiar settings to me, was your body in auto ISO in the earlier images as 4000 is not a common choice in that type of light.
I would give my shutter depress finger for a photo trip Florida at present, you are in a wonderful place.

[ArthurDent]

Preening Time is a very nice image, nice subtle details in the feather and very nice balance in the overall picture.
The set up Pedro quoted are familiar settings to me, was your body in auto ISO in the earlier images as 4000 is not a common choice in that type of light.
I would give my shutter depress finger for a photo trip Florida at present, you are in a wonderful place.

Yes, the camera was set to auto-iso in the earlier image. Why it chose an f stop of f/18 and iso of 4000 when I had it set to shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/6400 selected is a mystery to me. But apparently it did. It looks like some kind of software glitch to me. But more than that, I'm suspicious as to what the true iso was. At iso 4000 on the d7000 the image should have been quite noisy, and the image is pretty clear with no post-processing. All that said, I should have been paying more attention and should have noticed the glitch.

The best time to come to Florida to photograph birds is in the spring when they are concentrated in the nesting grounds. April is usually pretty good, especially the second half. The other advantage of April is that it isn't usually too hot or too rainy.

[Thomas G]

Yes, the camera was set to auto-iso in the earlier image. Why it chose an f stop of f/18 and iso of 4000 when I had it set to shutter priority with a shutter speed of 1/6400 selected is a mystery to me. But apparently it did. It looks like some kind of software glitch to me. But more than that, I'm suspicious as to what the true iso was. At iso 4000 on the d7000 the image should have been quite noisy, and the image is pretty clear with no post-processing. All that said, I should have been paying more attention and should have noticed the glitch.

The best time to come to Florida to photograph birds is in the spring when they are concentrated in the nesting grounds. April is usually pretty good, especially the second half. The other advantage of April is that it isn't usually too hot or too rainy.

In sufficiently lighted scenes, ie lots of light, high ISO is usually coming with surprisingly low noise. Noise will show in deep shadows though and the general nice behaviour will usually change in low light scenes.
It also may limit your head room to pull darker areas in post production.

[ArthurDent]

In sufficiently lighted scenes, ie lots of light, high ISO is usually coming with surprisingly low noise. Noise will show in deep shadows though and the general nice behaviour will usually change in low light scenes.
It also may limit your head room to pull darker areas in post production.

Thank you for your response. As I look at the image, I think you are right. If you look to the right of the bird's head in the dark area, there is a great deal of noise.

[David H. Hartman]

Fine details need gentle small radius sharpening. Course detail can use more sharpening. Areas with no detail need no sharpening and can develop artifacts and excentuate noise. Too much unsharpmask mask can easily develop white outlines.

My approach is to use average sharpening. I shoot only NEF(s) or RAW files so I can turn off sharpening when I develop my NEF(s). Currently I developing in Nikon CaptureNX-D and finishing up in Photoshop. I do my sharpening.next to last and specific to the use for the image. For example I'll under sharpen photos for upload to forums where the forum software sharpens and over sharpens photos. Last of all I convert from Adobe RGB to sRGB and save a JPG for upload or printing.

I use in camera sharpening because with NEF files that sharpening is not baked in as it would be when shooting JPG(s). The LCD on my Nikon D800 is on the mushy side and with unsharpened previews it's extremely mushy so I can't check for focus.

I hope something here helps,

Dave Hartman

[John G]

Hi Arthur
             I,m wishing I could say "see you there in April", I've got a Grandson now, and under the guise of "Oh wouldn't it be lovely" that enough of the scheming.
Back to editing support, can you supply the software you use for your image processing, I am sure you will get a few pointers of how to best utilise it.

[ArthurDent]

Hi Arthur
             I,m wishing I could say "see you there in April", I've got a Grandson now, and under the guise of "Oh wouldn't it be lovely" that enough of the scheming.
Back to editing support, can you supply the software you use for your image processing, I am sure you will get a few pointers of how to best utilise it.

Hi john- Awhile ago I purchased a new laptop and was not able to migrate my software to the new machine. So I'm down to NX-i and NX-D. I'm thinking about getting Lightroom. Any thoughts?

[John G]

Hi Arthur
              I am familiar with CS6, Lr6, Capture One Pro 9 and DxO Pro 11.
              Each of these programmes can interact with each other, but I usually open up the bulk of my work in CO Pro9, now available in Pro 10.
              This software will allow a edit to forwarded direct to CS6.
              The CO Pro 9 is the slowest at opening a RAW file, I would say by the time it needs about 15 minutes for 100 75Mb files until it has completed   
              its opening tasks.
              Photo's can be viewed as the process is on going, or a cuppa and browse on NG works as well.
              This software renders RAW files extremely well, many images will just need a little contrast, brightness and saturation. Any further work will
               show in the RAW, but a resized Jpeg will not be greatly improved.
               It also has a focus mask tool, that is very good, and if you scroll your images with this turned on, you will quickly see the flashing green mask
               on the infocus zones, very nice to be able to select images to work with further when time is tight. A Highlight tool also offers the same service
               with a flashing red mask, again nice to see the non recoverable highlights in the image, you can quickly tell which ones can be cropped or
               recomposed out of the final image.
               This software has a catalogue system and a selection of tools to help you remember how you rated an image when you open files at later
               dates.
                Lynda have a excellent set of video tutorials, showing you how to make the most of it and navigate the tools.
                It is a very good and is a rival to Lr6.
                DxO pro 11, is again a great software, limited by having no catalogue storage. It will allow you to create a information file attached to your
                image if you open up the EXIF Tool.
                The Prime Noise Tool is extremely good, as is Smart Light Tool and Clearview Tool. These three tools at work with Sharpening is enough for
                any image resized and stored as a Jpeg. A RAW file can be further enhanced by using the other tool options.
                To send a file to CS6, it needs to sent through Lr6 first.
                 I use Lr6 for the RADIAL FILTER, to assist in isolating a area for a exposure change, this can be done in CS6 using the marching ants.
                 I also use the spot removal as a clone tool, again this can be done in CS6. I have a knack with these two tools in Lr6 as it was my sole
                 editing tool for a good year or so. I also use Lr6 as a stepping stone for DxO to CS6.
                 CS6 is like a religion, it means many different things to many different people, for a novice it is not easy to navigate can be frustrating,
                  this statement should not be used as a deterrent, it just means more time is required to fel confident in the tasks it can carry out , which are
                 many. After months of visiting it and learning a bit, I chose to have a private tutorial over a period of weeks, using you tube as source for the 
                 creative tasks. My tutor would download the tutorials onto my laptop, we would spend time getting my confidence up in using the tools, so I
                 did not leave blind to the challenge. I then returned at a later date with a workflow to present and any thing that was available to improve 
                 my efforts was offered by my tutor. That was a great way for me to learn.
                 I have been offered a similar support for my initiation into off camera flash work.
                 I hope you take advantage of the free trial periods on some of the suggested softwares and can find a programme that satisfies you.       
               

[pluton]

Lightroom (currently at version 6.x OR subscription) probably offers the best balance...in one place... of 1)number of useful image adjustment tools plus 2)DAM features(sorting, organizing, cataloging). Also, there is by far the largest amount of 'aftermarket support' for Lightroom: classes, tutorials, instructional material, and shared user troubleshooting. Lightroom is a good choice as a first, all-in-one raw converter plus DAM.  If you make prints, Lightroom has a really good printing interface, outside of a separate professional printing program.