Birds at the local canal and nature reserve

Alan Hewitt Photo wrote:

Great work! It's also a good example of how good the XF100-400mm can be!

Antique Eruption wrote:

Worth mentioning that the choice of wide apertures and close-ish proximity has of course led to OOF areas on the birds. I like the effect, but it probably isn't for everyone.

I often hear this and like you, I'm of the opinion that as long as the head, beak and eye are sharp - this is usually where we look at a bird photograph and it's composed well - then I'm not usually bothered about wings, legs trailing out of the depth of field. It's a very fine line between closing the aperture down to get front to back subject depth of field to also making foreground and background distractions more problematic.

Thanks Alan - I agree about that balance between sharp focus in the right places and potentially distracting backgrounds. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to remove some distraction in LR (inverted subject masks, negative texture and sharpness, etc.), and Topaz also helps massively. The trick then is trying to avoid over smoothing. Keeps me honest, trying to walk that particular line!

Morris0 wrote:

Excellent set

Morris

Thank you Morris.

Fabulous! Thanks for sharing.

Giantcappuccino wrote:

Excellent set!

I especially like the 4th one - a robin in deep thought.

I always like bird pictures when they seem to be pondering something.

Cheers!

Jason

Thank you, my wife very much likes that one too.

Elchanan wrote:

Fabulous! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you.

jim mij wrote:

Nice set, noise reduction seems to work and shows details too. I like #4 the best

Thank you, I think I'm beginning to get a feel for the noise reduction.

Lukus wrote:

Nice birdies and well done on the subtle use of AI noise reduction. So, so much better than smudging all life out of an image and turning it more into a CGI render than a photograph.

Thanks - I've had to walk a tightrope but I think I'm there or thereabouts. Happy to go out taking pics in the kind of weather I wouldn't have before.

ddtan wrote:

Thanks for reminding me not to be afraid of a slow shutter speed 1/125 with my 100-400.

With perching birds it's doable. Get a fair few bin jobs but enough survivors! Good luck with it.

theironmadchen wrote:

Love these shots - really great work dealing with the lack of light. And that robin (same one for all shots?) seemed to be quite curious in what you were doing

Cathy

Thank you. It was probably after seeds! I think it was the same one throughout. Very inquisitive.