Nice Pair

Osprey Whisperer

Just a pair of anhingas from a recent trip to the Venice Rookery. Harsh light...over cast yet bright. Backlit a bit too. Love this tree the birds are in. I'm still waiting for my pair of eagles to pose in it.

Thanks for looking

bfjr

Ah come on Mike you got the skills and talent and gear.
You could change that birdie into an Eagle in a heartbeat :lol4

saurora

Bird Man Photographer wrote:

That is a cool tree, Mike. Not quite as cool as MY tree, but cool. Love the shots! I have a question for those of you who have been shooting longer than moi. I shot some stuff last weekend in overcast, not-so-great, lighting conditions just like these. I got some really weird areas on my shots and I see some similar stuff going on in yours. (See the right edge of the upper tree branch were it's "shadowy") and notice the bird's head. My guess is it's lack of detail due to low light???? I don't really know. If it is, I suppose I should be shooting at a higher ISO to avoid this...what d'ya think?

Osprey Whisperer

Thanks Ben....but I'D KNOW it wasn't "real". After all.....I thought part of the fun was to see these amazning birds in person. Have you ever seen the rare triple headed fire breathing eagle dragon? I've got a picture of one of these ...I'll have to post it some day.

Osprey Whisperer

Thanks for looking Susan. I think the problem with this poor lighting is just that..poor lighting. This causes digital images to do funky things. I don't ever remember having weird stuff occur with film. I've seen so many "odd" things go on with digital images. I'm starting to wonder if I really like this new fangled technology.

I think in this case..the problem is that the bird is (basically) black and the tree was very light (bleached white almost). Throw in the really bright..yet over cast Florida lighting and you have a difficult time exposing correctly for everything. You are surely going to lose some detail somewhere. I suppose I could have done a layered image in PS and exposed one for the tree detail..and another for hte bird..then combined them. I'm kind of lazy some of the time. Just squint and shake your monitor. Down a few rum 'n' cokes and then tell me if the images don't look much better.

Oh yeah..one other thing regarding detail loss/funky going ons. I get a lot of "junk" on my sensor. I shoot outdoors in some pretty "messy" environments. It's almost impossible to keep my sensor clean. Dust/smudges on your sensor can effect the image. Depending on the type of "smudge" you could get some weird effects. Definitely a possiblity in my shots. .

saurora wrote:

That is a cool tree, Mike. Not quite as cool as MY tree, but cool. Love the shots! I have a question for those of you who have been shooting longer than moi. I shot some stuff last weekend in overcast, not-so-great, lighting conditions just like these. I got some really weird areas on my shots and I see some similar stuff going on in yours. (See the right edge of the upper tree branch were it's "shadowy") and notice the bird's head. My guess is it's lack of detail due to low light???? I don't really know. If it is, I suppose I should be shooting at a higher ISO to avoid this...what d'ya think?

John Mueller

There you go again Mike,getting me all worked up with you title:D

jwear

you know Mike, Ben and I put the pineapple pizza down when shooting this does help that sensor thing

raian

I think these are awesome. Love the tree in the first shot as well. The birds beak looks a bit blurred on my screen, but it's not too bad and overall the images are very sharp.

Osprey Whisperer

John Mueller wrote:

There you go again Mike,getting me all worked up with you title:D

I'm hoping you meant "YOUR" I'm afraid your tail feathers don't do anything for me, John :uhoh

Thanks for looking.

Osprey Whisperer

jwear wrote:

you know Mike, Ben and I put the pineapple pizza down when shooting this does help that sensor thing

You guys told me to use the sliced pineapple cubes on the Q-tip to swab the sensor clean.

saurora

Thanks for replying
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions about the lighting, Mike. I'm lazy too.....I just want to get the exposure and lighting right so I don't have to work so hard in Photoshop!!!

Osprey Whisperer

Thanks for taking the time to look and comment Raian.

dallas

Nothing wrong with #1. 2 and 3 are good practice, so it all good.

Osprey Whisperer

saurora wrote:

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions about the lighting, Mike. I'm lazy too.....I just want to get the exposure and lighting right so I don't have to work so hard in Photoshop!!!

You're welcome Susan. Any time. I hope I made myself (sort of) clear. It is very difficult to expose images correctly if there are a variety of different shades/contrasts in the image. I've not found a camera capable of selecting only certain areas of an image and exposing for that..while still exposing differently for other areas of the shot. If you find such a camera...LET ME KNOW. I'm going to buy 2 of them.

I always expose for the target subject (ie. bird, alligator, etc). You will usually lose detail and blow highlights or lose detail in the shadows of the background items. Just the nature of the beast, unfortunately. Shooting RAW and playing in PS with multiple layers/images goes a good way to "perfect" details/exposures...but it's not perfect. Would be nice to have someone to do all this post work for me. I hate it. :uhoh

Osprey Whisperer

dallas wrote:

Nothing wrong with #1. 2 and 3 are good practice, so it all good.

Thanks Dallas. I still wish they were eagles. I suppose they will grill up just the same. Actually I find the anhinga an interesting bird/target. They are rather attractive IMO.

Harryb

Great tree Mike. The anhingas ain't bad either. I agree that the lighting probably caused the loss of detail. I've taken eagle shots in the same location at different times of the day and the shots taken in the better light had much more detail.

Osprey Whisperer

Thanks Harry. The rookery sure seems dead this time of year. After all the activity over the last few months.....