studio in the sun / wet ( some of my sharpest)

[jason palmer]

hello to all.
this is my first post and i hope this forum will be good fo rgetting info and comment on my images.
and i hop i can give any info on equipment i use.
thes are all garden birds in the uk. the weather was'nt greta but i like to shoot in these condition
giving great colour's . hope you like.

all with the 50-500mm (aka bigma) av, f8 tripod. these are before the rain.

then the heavens opened iv got more in the wet and if you like i will post later

many thanks
jason

 

[Asher Kelman]

I really love the collection of pictures, Jason.

Could you name the birds?

What's the green on the twig/branch in the last image. Is this a purchased item or part of a tree?

Do you use specific bird feeders or are you just luckily located near a bird sanctuary?

Also how far are you away. The bigma is a great lens. Is it on a Wimberly or what?

I'm impressed, please show more!

Thanks for sharing!

Asher

 

[jason palmer]

thanks asher such pleasing comments.
first of all the birds in order starling, blue tit, goldfinch, greenfinch,
the branch is of a dead tree and with the lichen added to the over all effect.
for all these shot the birds normaly dtop in my garden going from feeder in my neighbours garden and stopping of at the location.
the bigma is used on a opticron tripod wich is heavy anoth to take a scope.
hope this helps

 

[Ray West]

Hi Jason,

Welcome. Nice to see some common UK birds here, for a change. I love the last one, looks like I feel in the rain. What camera, where in UK - county will do?

Best wishes,

Ray

 

[jason palmer]

thanks ray 350d norfolk/suffolk border near the river waveny.

 

[Georg R. Baumann]

Hi Jason,

I really like the pictures, nice shots in deed.

I was contemplating this lense for a while, but wasn't so sure about the picture and overall built quality. On my Olympus it would act as a 1000mm, which is very tempting. I guess my main concern is rain and splashwater. I can not understand why they do not seal lenses of this caliber. How did you protect it against the rain in the last shot?

Could you show a picture of that tripod, or a link may be?

I look forward to see more examples of the Bigma.

 

[Asher Kelman]

An interesting point Georg!

I've never heard much discussion about weather protection of Sigma lenses. This is, of course where the latest Canon lenses excel.

Asher

 

[jason palmer]

thanks georg.
1. weather sealing is a down point amungst others ill either use a cover or as im lucky to use my observatory for astrophotography i can lower the end so i can shoot .

2. the tripod http://www.opticron.co.uk/ once you are here go to mounts and the on i have is
42703 which has change in design but is ver stable i need now extra wait on the lens and can get images down to 1/125 @500 and ive had 1/250 @700mm.

3. back to the bigma when i was going to invest in a lens the choise (ef 100-400/ ef 400 f5.6/ bigma ) bottom line price . it cant be used wide open IMO so put it on f8 and iso800 iso 400 on a sunny day is the only way. and now after 2years the only thing missing is birds in flight and im still struggling the lens freeze up now and then and not having a limit swith travels a lot.
the ef 400 f5.6 will be the next thing for this subject.

 

[nicolas claris]

I love this one:

I would have maybe desaturated a little bit the branch so that the bird pops-up even more…

Let me feel again, that this typical British humid air is only acceptable in Great Britain.
True, I've always been amazed (or astonished?) by the ability of a landscape to be in balance with the "standard" weather.
Wales, Scotland, Ireland are beautifull when the sun shines but the real amazing thing is that there are ALSO beautifull under rain. Go figure…

This could maybe be another discussion here in OPF, the interaction between land and weather (wether it is warmer or not is another topic!).

Back to that nice little bird, I feel I'd better share a cup of tea (with scones and honey) with my beloved and seat in a dry area, watching landscape thru the window, cool mood… good time.

Thanks Jason

PS all this from a froggie Frenchie! this can only happen in OPF ;=)

 

[nicolas claris]

This could maybe be another discussion here in OPF, the interaction between land and weather (wether it is warmer or not is another topic!)

Answering to myself, I did: http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=28722#post28722

 

[jason palmer]

thanks for looking nicolas and kind comments.

for me the rain means i can get to where i want to be in photography. it adds something to the image and the birds feed more they will stand light guards posing for there picture.
many thanks
jason

 

[Asher Kelman]

Jason,

What do you think of Nicolas' sharpening of your bird? I'm impressed. Have you used his action?

Asher

 

[nicolas claris]

Jason,

What do you think of Nicolas' sharpening of your bird? I'm impressed. Have you used his action?

Asher

Asher

I don't get it, I did repost the bird untouched…

I guess you're viewing it with a new or different monitor!

 

[Asher Kelman]

Asher

I don't get it, I did repost the bird untouched…

I guess you're viewing it with a new or different monitor!

Precisely! But what does Jason the photographer think of what you did? I just coulodn't find the link to your sharpening action and feel Jason might want to look at it himself.

Asher

 

[nicolas claris]

My pleasure :
Sharpening action
it is a zip file that should download when link is clicked.

Note that this is an action to run on unsharpened image, out of raw processor.

 

[Asher Kelman]

My pleasure :
Sharpening action
it is a zip file that should download when link is clicked.

Note that this is an action to run on unsharpened image, out of raw processor.

Thanks fopr posting the link, Nicolas! That's helpful.

Now I presume the sharpening is after RAW and after any cuves in CS2 or CS3 that one might add or do you always do that in your RAW process. I myself find I prefer CS2 for curves. In any case, lots of times I do selective sharpening or blur and repairs so that sharpemning should be delayed.

However, I know there's a fad for "output sharpening" after RAW and then final sharpening prior to posting or printing. So what's your take on this?

Asher

 

[jason palmer]

i dont think he has done any thing to the image

 

[Asher Kelman]

Correct, I was looking on my Eizo. Now I can see they are the same. Well your picture jusrt gets better like a great Bordeaux wine!

Still, you may finf Nicolas' action interesting.

I do like this picture as the rain provides unusual atmospherics.

Asher

 

[nicolas claris]

i dont think he has done any thing to the image

Hi Jason

you're correct!

Asher

I always do somewhat a mid sharpening from raw converters and then process the image in CS do all I feel I've to do, enlarge etc. and then, still on the 16 bit file, as a final point run the action.

I must say that since I use ACR 4.1 in CS3 (got better results that old but latest C1), after the action is runned I usually set the sharpened layer to 30 or 40% (it is set by default to 70%).

You may anyway erase some parts of that layer with eraser tool in CS

 

[nicolas claris]

i dont think he has done any thing to the image

Hi Jason

you're correct!

Asher

I always do somewhat a mid sharpening from raw converters and then process the image in CS do all I feel I've to do, enlarge etc. and then, still on the 16 bit file, as a final point run the action.

I must say that since I use ACR 4.1 in CS3 (got better results that old but latest C1), after the action is runned I usually set the sharpened layer to 30 or 40% (it is set by default to 70%).

You may anyway erase some parts of that layer with eraser tool in CS

This action has been created for my own workflow, it may not be as good for other worflows, for example with images that had no sharpening at all in RAW converter process. see http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=28797#post28797