Mr & Mrs House Finch

Dan Bolger · Dec 16, 2008

jl_smith said:
Very nice shots. Were these with your 18-200 vr?

Hi JL thank you and yes taken with my 18-200vr.

Currently my longest lens so it get a lot of use as I like birding. Would love a longer lens 300 f4 (like you have, nice lens btw) or sigma 150-500, or even a faster one 80-200, but for now this is what I have to work with. Pretty happy considering the range of the lens, it's a very versatile piece of glass.

jl_smith said:
Also, I visited your recent posts and I really really liked that
"Solitude" shot you posted - very nice!

Thanks, that was taken on top of Haleakala in Maui mid morning. The sunrise crowds had left and my wife and I climb to get a shot of the Crater and while up there I notice this lone person down by the visitor centre and though it would make a good shot. I even closed down the Sigma 10-20 to 20mm to concentrate more on him/her rather then the crater.

Thanks for your comments and for looking.
--
Dan

London, Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_bolger/
D80, rest of gear listed in profile
WSSA member #94

Dan Bolger · Dec 16, 2008

Knoal said:
Nice detail!

thanks Knoal, I was happy with the results.

Knoal said:
I managed one of my own snow shots, thanks to Mother Nature and a
cold front.
Not as sharp as yours, but it was through a double paned sliding
class door of questionable cleanliness...

Wow that is a beauty and for shooting through double pane glass it's looks very good. Believe me, I shoot gold fines through my kitchen window a lot and I know it's not easy, you have done a superb job.

I hope you do not mind, but I did a quick edit, may have over done it a tad, but wanted to show you that you shot is more then acceptably sharp for shooting through a window.
original

Knoal said:

edited

added black&white points (may not need the white) and then high pass sharpen the bird only and just a touch of contrast (perhaps a touch much?? not sure).

Knoal said:
I got so excited I wasn't chcking the histogram, had to add abbout
+1.5 stops, Yea RAW!

Almost looks like a Northern Flicker? but not quite the same, do you know what it is?

Yes RAW is the way to go for sure, I wouldn't shoot anything but now.

Thanks Knoal for commenting and posting your shot I really like like.

--
Dan

London, Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_bolger/
D80, rest of gear listed in profile
WSSA member #94

Dan Bolger · Dec 16, 2008

dabrickbat said:
Man these are great. Congratulations!
--

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22558689@N00/

--
Dan

London, Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_bolger/
D80, rest of gear listed in profile
WSSA member #94

Dan Bolger · Dec 16, 2008

sallygohl said:
Hey Dan
These are lovely yet again, you are getting to be a bit of an expert !!

Thank Sally, .... no expert!! ...LOL... just a "dangerous advanced amateur" ..LOL

sallygohl said:
I did notice a bit of snow on a branch? Yuk .
We got mist and rain and grey skies ..

Yep ...YUK... rain .. then snow .. then warm temps ... then rain and wind ... now freezing ... love this time of year.

All the best for the holidays.
--
Dan

London, Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_bolger/
D80, rest of gear listed in profile
WSSA member #94

sallygohl · Dec 16, 2008

How did you high pass sharpen only the bird Dan, on my pp'ing software i think i can only do high pass on the whole image not a part of it.. I have CS3 but am completely newbie on it , havent a clue actually rofl .

Regards
Sally

garyking · Dec 16, 2008

great shots Dan.
Your backgrounds and DOF really make the shot.
gk
--
'I'm not as smart today as I will be tomorrow.'

Dan Bolger · Dec 16, 2008

sallygohl said:
How did you high pass sharpen only the bird Dan, on my pp'ing
software i think i can only do high pass on the whole image not a
part of it.. I have CS3 but am completely newbie on it , havent a
clue actually rofl .

Hi Sally

I use Capture NX2 which will allow any "edit" step to be either added or removed selectively. I "edit" step because there are some step called development that are only global adjustments.

I do not know anything about CS3, I have an old copy of Photoshop 7 that I use to clone with (NNX does not have a real clone tool), but do almost all my editing in NX2. I find it funny that you cannot use high pass sharpening selectively in CS3?? I would certainly think that it would have that capability to sharpen selectively.

Once you set your sharpening try to select either the + - paint brush you should be able to either paint on the effect or remove it where you want. If you can't post a question here as I know there are many who use the program.

Freezing rain and ugly weather forecast for later this week, when is spring again??

--
Dan

London, Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_bolger/
D80, rest of gear listed in profile
WSSA member #94

Dan Bolger · Dec 16, 2008

garyking said:
great shots Dan.
Your backgrounds and DOF really make the shot.

Thanks Gary!! Both Chang and Brook think the BG on the first shot is a bit distracting and an added bit of blur might work well. I don't mind the BG, but can see what they mean and Brooks even did a nice job on a quick rework (see his post).

You seem to feel the dof is acceptable, I'm on the fence now after looking at Brooks' shot. His might be a touch much, but it does look good. Any thoughts?
--
Dan

London, Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_bolger/
D80, rest of gear listed in profile
WSSA member #94

bassgal71 · Dec 16, 2008

Great shots! I'd say the first one is my favourite. I like just the single limb he is on. The background didn't really bother me.

All those poor cardinals down here are popsicles today....LOL! Last year I had lots of LBBs (Little Brown Birds) as my husband calls them. I've seen very few this year. Keep those pictures coming!!

Sarah

P.S. I'm stuck making Christmas cookies the next few days so when I tackle the noise issue you helped me on I may be dropping you an email!! Thanks again for the help!

--
http://www.bassgal71.smugmug.com

garyking · Dec 16, 2008

Dan Bolger said:
garyking said:

great shots Dan.
Your backgrounds and DOF really make the shot.

Click to expand...

Thanks Gary!! Both Chang and Brook think the BG on the first shot is
a bit distracting and an added bit of blur might work well. I don't
mind the BG, but can see what they mean and Brooks even did a nice
job on a quick rework (see his post).

You seem to feel the dof is acceptable, I'm on the fence now after
looking at Brooks' shot. His might be a touch much, but it does look
good. Any thoughts?

The thought that DOF and backgrounds make your shots is more general than specific. i was not offended at all by the BG in these shots but I defer to others. I think it is a general characteristic of your work that you take into account BG and DOF when taking the shots and it shows.

Dan Bolger said:
WSSA member #94

Feverishly looking for a squirrel shot to join the club before tonight's new deadline.....
gk

--
'I'm not as smart today as I will be tomorrow.'

radddad · Dec 16, 2008

Very nicely captured .
--

http://wildwally.smugmug.com/

Knoal · Dec 16, 2008

Your pic is better than mine and you were using a .jpg!

Yes, I think N. Flicker is accurate (per google images). I live in Portland, OR. Actually, these are the only Flickers I know. I should be able to get both male and female later in the winter. They get hungry and show up on my deck more often then. Othewise they are pretty shy.

I'm going to have to study your comments and see how you did this.

I'm still a rank beginner and learning how to do these things.

Thanks for taking the time to do the edit!

--
Knoal

D80
50mm 1.8
105mm 2.8
18-105mm VR 3.5-5.6
70-300mm 4-5.6

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29684390@N02/

Brooks P · Dec 16, 2008

sallygohl said:
How did you high pass sharpen only the bird Dan, on my pp'ing
software i think i can only do high pass on the whole image not a
part of it.. I have CS3 but am completely newbie on it , havent a
clue actually rofl .

Regards
Sally

Sally, buy “The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers” by Scott Kelby, it will be one of the best $30 purchases you ever make. I can almost guarantee that if you sit down at your computer with this book opened to the section on Sharpening (Chapter 11) you will know how to sharpen only those parts of the image that you want to sharpen in less than an hour.

I don’t have CS3 I had Elements 4 (since upgraded to 5) and I bought “the photoshop elements 4 book for digital photographers” and I learned more in one afternoon than I had in four years trying to learn Photoshop 7 with Adobe’s “Classroom in a Book”.

The nice thing about Kelby’s books are that you go to the section, like Sharpening, and he takes you through sharpening a picture step by step with photos for each step showing the image and the Photoshop window.

In my post above I did an example where I blurred the background and I also sharpened the bird a bit to increase the contrast between the sharp bird and the blurry background. Same technique you want to do, I blurred part of the image and I sharpened part of the image; it is really very easy and only takes a few seconds to accomplish.
--
Brooks
http://bmiddleton.smugmug.com/

Dr Bill425415 · Dec 16, 2008

Hey Dan, nice work! It almost makes me miss those winter feeding stations in the snow (no way) -))

Bill

--

My galleries: http://billm.zenfolio.com/

Member: onexposure.net
http://1x.com/?action=profile&user=7869

WSSA Member # 95

Please visit my black & white gallery of early work at http://billm.zenfolio.com/p1994685/

“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.” – Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

gnagel · Dec 16, 2008

Dan,

These are beautiful images--nice and sharp!

Glenn
--
http://gnagel.zenfolio.com/

Dan Bolger · Dec 16, 2008

Knoal said:
Your pic is better than mine and you were using a .jpg!

Yes, I think N. Flicker is accurate (per google images). I live in
Portland, OR. Actually, these are the only Flickers I know. I
should be able to get both male and female later in the winter. They
get hungry and show up on my deck more often then. Othewise they are
pretty shy.

I'm going to have to study your comments and see how you did this.

I'm still a rank beginner and learning how to do these things.

Thanks for taking the time to do the edit!

Glad you like it. If you have any questions or if I can help send me a flickr email.

Knoal said:
--
Knoal

D80
50mm 1.8
105mm 2.8
18-105mm VR 3.5-5.6
70-300mm 4-5.6

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29684390@N02/

--
Dan

London, Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_bolger/
D80, rest of gear listed in profile
WSSA member #94

Dan Bolger · Dec 16, 2008

Thanks for the feedback Gary and the very nice compliment! I try and be aware of BG but sometime they just don't work.

Thanks again, any extra Christmas cookie??? ..LOL
--
Dan

London, Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_bolger/
D80, rest of gear listed in profile
WSSA member #94

Dan Bolger · Dec 16, 2008

bassgal71 said:
Great shots! I'd say the first one is my favourite. I like just
the single limb he is on. The background didn't really bother me.

Thanks Sarah, no cardinals so have to do something.

bassgal71 said:
All those poor cardinals down here are popsicles today....LOL! Last
year I had lots of LBBs (Little Brown Birds) as my husband calls
them. I've seen very few this year. Keep those pictures coming!!

Sarah

P.S. I'm stuck making Christmas cookies the next few days so when I
tackle the noise issue you helped me on I may be dropping you an
email!! Thanks again for the help!

Please send cookies too!!!!. Please do, send an email would be glad to help if I can.

--
Dan

London, Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_bolger/
D80, rest of gear listed in profile
WSSA member #94

Dan Bolger · Dec 16, 2008

radddad said:
Very nicely captured .

Thanks you Walt!

--
Dan

London, Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_bolger/
D80, rest of gear listed in profile
WSSA member #94

Dan Bolger · Dec 16, 2008

Dr Bill said:
Hey Dan, nice work!

Thanks Bill!

Dr Bill425415 said:
It almost makes me miss those winter feeding
stations in the snow (no way) -))

LOL ... ya right for about 2 seconds.

--
Dan

London, Canada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_bolger/
D80, rest of gear listed in profile
WSSA member #94

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