[YellowBudgie]

Just wanted to thank everyone who has helped me with advice on this forum. These are my first bird photos taken with the Sigma 50-500mm F4.5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM.

[Musoman]

You first bird shots eh ? That 3rd one is hairier than any bird i've ever seen

Only kidding ya!

1st and 3rd shots look sharp enough at their downsized size. Did they look that sharp at their full original size ?

2nd shoot looks a little soft

I would up the exposure in post processing a bit on all three, plus a bit of saturation

There's no Exif data with your pix, so we dont know any of your settings.

When i used to own the 150-500 Sig OS model, sharpest pix were at f8

[YellowBudgie]

Originally Posted by Musoman

You first bird shots eh ? That 3rd one is hairier than any bird i've ever seen

Only kidding ya!

1st and 3rd shots look sharp enough at their downsized size. Did they look that sharp at their full original size ?

2nd shoot looks a little soft

I would up the exposure in post processing a bit on all three, plus a bit of saturation

There's no Exif data with your pix, so we dont know any of your settings.

When i used to own the 150-500 Sig OS model, sharpest pix were at f8

Hey Musoman,

They look pretty much the same as RAW files in lightroom as the exported versions. I had to add quite a bit of fill light (40) and noise reduction (58/50). I wonder if what I did in lightroom softened the photos up a little. I'll post them how they are pre-post processing except I'll crop them still.

Before I uploaded the files my exif data was intact. Strange.... Here's what I was shooting at:

File
Comment
Camera
Make Canon
Model Canon EOS 40D
X resolution 240/1
Y resolution 240/1
Resolution unit inches
Software Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Date/time 1/10/2012 11:12:39 AM
Image
Image description
Artist
Copyright
Exposure time 1/1000 s
F-number f/8
Exposure program Manual
ISO speed ratings ISO 800
Date/time original 1/9/2012 11:51:55 AM
Date/time digitized 1/9/2012 11:51:55 AM
Shutter speed value 1/1000 s
Aperture value f/8
Exposure bias value 0.00 eV
Max. aperture value f/6.2
Metering mode Pattern
Flash Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
Focal length 450 mm
User comment
Subsec time 0
Subsec time original 1
Subsec time digitized 1
Pixel X dimension 800
Pixel Y dimension 533
Focal plane X res. 3888000/876
Focal plane Y res. 2592000/583
Focal plane res. unit inch
Custom Rendered Normal process
Exposure mode Manual exposure
White balance Auto white balance
Scene capture type Standard

[YellowBudgie]

Originally Posted by Musoman

You first bird shots eh ? That 3rd one is hairier than any bird i've ever seen

Only kidding ya!

1st and 3rd shots look sharp enough at their downsized size. Did they look that sharp at their full original size ?

2nd shoot looks a little soft

I would up the exposure in post processing a bit on all three, plus a bit of saturation

There's no Exif data with your pix, so we dont know any of your settings.

When i used to own the 150-500 Sig OS model, sharpest pix were at f8

I'll try increasing the exposure and add a little saturation and see how they come out.

[YellowBudgie]

Originally Posted by YellowBudgie

I'll try increasing the exposure and add a little saturation and see how they come out.

The increased saturation brought out the nice darkish reds in the birds, thanks for the tip! The photos look better with more exposure, it's too bad the noise comes out with the exposure as well. Time for a new DSLR, hehe. I think the new version of lightroom is supposed to have a new alogrithm for noise reduction.

Thanks!

[Musoman]

Processing can be a personal thing, so some people like it one way, some like it another etc etc,..but i like your last one's more that the others

I had a play too if you dont mind YB, and ran these through the Shadows & Light tool of CS4 mainly, with a tweak here and there of other tools, but not much to speak of.

I was trying to be relatively quick, and slightly over did the yellow bird, but didnt have time to correct it !

[Musoman]

This what i meant it to look like

[YellowBudgie]

Originally Posted by Musoman

This what i meant it to look like

Thanks!

I like the black around the birds eye, it's much more solid than my version. I'll have to play around with lightroom 2.5 until I can get that nice and solid, there's a blacks setting in the main exposure settings, which brings out the other colors like the birds rufous coloring.

I have photoshop CS3 but haven't used it since lightroom came out. Man have I forgotten how CS3 works after years of lightroom.

Thanks again,

Dana

[Musoman]

I think i've probably used about 10% of what CS4 is capable of - its quite a deep program.

Anyways, as long as you are happy with your processing , thats all that counts