Just a simple portrait of a red-capped cardinal for today. These guys are fairly common in the Pantanal of Brazil where I took this shot. Apologies to the non-bird fans. Back tomorrow with fur. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 310mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/640th of a second
Please do not apologize for bird photos! I like ’em at least as well as most mammal/marsupial photos. Less crazy about lemurs and monkeys for some reason. Maybe they are too closely related in a distant sort of way for comfort; apes are close enough to invite to dinner or a wedding.
But I gotta know something! Please tell me what you do for sharpness post processing. Tell me or I will start applying for a job at the NSA. Ha.
Michael, if you knew the amount of heat I take at the office for bird posts you’d know why I apologized. Apparently I work with a bunch of bird haters.
As for sharpening technique, first and foremost, of course, is to nail the shot at capture. I shoot most all my wildlife these days handheld. The VR of my 200-400 and 70-200 is an amazing thing and allows me to shoot down to as slow as 1/15th of a second. The key there, of course, is to use proper technique, making sure you engage the VR function before actually snapping the shutter. I use the back button on my camera for focusing with my thumb so that the shutter button is reserved for engaging the VR and snapping the shutter. In post, I use modest unsharp masking in photoshop. On an image 920 pixels on the long end, I start with Amount at 100, Radius at 0.6 and Threshold at 1. Then I fade unsharp mask (under the dropdown menu Edit — Fade Unsharp Mask) by 90% luminosity mode (not sure how necessary this is but I read to do it once so I still do — on images that don’t need as much sharpening, I might go down to 50% luminosity). I also am working on a separate layer so that if I want to erase the sharpening in the background or other areas I can do that as well. I do notice sometimes, like in today’s photo, that I can see a slight halo or other effect of sharpening and I usually erase that out. You can see it on top of the bird’s head where it meets the background. I should have erased that hot area out.
Thank you, thank you. I’ll try out your technique, which I see works well for you. I just got a D800 and instead of the 70-200 f/2.8, I went for the f/4 which has the newest VR technology from Nikon. I stick a 1.4 teleconverter on and then crop to fill the frame with whatever wild thing I come upon. Lots of birds! But the sharpness that you get eludes me still and may always until I get a longer lens and stop the heavy cropping. Again, thanks for sharing. And tell those office boys your fan legions like birds. I mean who doesn’t like colorful, winged dinosaurs?
Has the signature beak of our northern cardinals. Definitely cousins. Beautiful shot! Will be interested in your reply to Michael Meek on his sharpness question. I just upgraded from the Nikon D80 to the D7000 [ small game I know, but it fits my budget 🙂 ], I have more megapixels and a much faster shutter. Combine that with the carbon monopod I almost always use or the tripod and the Nikon 70-300 VR and I find a significant increase in sharpness. And in some instances manual focusing works better than auto. The only sharpening I do in PS [when needed] is with the sharpen tool and never more than 12%. Even then, I sometimes have to whittle it down further.
BTW, fur, feathers, reptile skin, insects, landscapes….love it when you mix it up.
Hi Rachel, I think you’ll see quite a significant gain from the D80 to the D7000 with its advanced sensor. Shooting at higher ISOs is probably where you’ll notice it the most. Thanks for the info on your sharpening technique. See my answer above to Michael’s question (and my explanation for the bird-post-apologies).
You never have to apologize for our feathered friends. They are so beautiful. Your brother-in-law thinks it’s funny that I get so excited when I spot the bright red north American cardinal on the golf courses we play, but their sheer beauty excites me!
THANKS FOR THE GREAT BIRD PIC. iT TAKES A LOT OF TIME AN FULL WORK, TO GET JUST THE RIGHT PIC. THANK YOU FOR ALL[ THE HARD WORK. ( I SURE HOPE MORE REALIZE HOW MUCH NWORK IT TAKE TO MAKE JUST ONE PIC, FOR THE PUBLIC. A WEL[L[ DONE JOB.
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Gorgeous!
Please do not apologize for bird photos! I like ’em at least as well as most mammal/marsupial photos. Less crazy about lemurs and monkeys for some reason. Maybe they are too closely related in a distant sort of way for comfort; apes are close enough to invite to dinner or a wedding.
But I gotta know something! Please tell me what you do for sharpness post processing. Tell me or I will start applying for a job at the NSA. Ha.
Michael, if you knew the amount of heat I take at the office for bird posts you’d know why I apologized. Apparently I work with a bunch of bird haters.
As for sharpening technique, first and foremost, of course, is to nail the shot at capture. I shoot most all my wildlife these days handheld. The VR of my 200-400 and 70-200 is an amazing thing and allows me to shoot down to as slow as 1/15th of a second. The key there, of course, is to use proper technique, making sure you engage the VR function before actually snapping the shutter. I use the back button on my camera for focusing with my thumb so that the shutter button is reserved for engaging the VR and snapping the shutter. In post, I use modest unsharp masking in photoshop. On an image 920 pixels on the long end, I start with Amount at 100, Radius at 0.6 and Threshold at 1. Then I fade unsharp mask (under the dropdown menu Edit — Fade Unsharp Mask) by 90% luminosity mode (not sure how necessary this is but I read to do it once so I still do — on images that don’t need as much sharpening, I might go down to 50% luminosity). I also am working on a separate layer so that if I want to erase the sharpening in the background or other areas I can do that as well. I do notice sometimes, like in today’s photo, that I can see a slight halo or other effect of sharpening and I usually erase that out. You can see it on top of the bird’s head where it meets the background. I should have erased that hot area out.
Thank you, thank you. I’ll try out your technique, which I see works well for you. I just got a D800 and instead of the 70-200 f/2.8, I went for the f/4 which has the newest VR technology from Nikon. I stick a 1.4 teleconverter on and then crop to fill the frame with whatever wild thing I come upon. Lots of birds! But the sharpness that you get eludes me still and may always until I get a longer lens and stop the heavy cropping. Again, thanks for sharing. And tell those office boys your fan legions like birds. I mean who doesn’t like colorful, winged dinosaurs?
Has the signature beak of our northern cardinals. Definitely cousins. Beautiful shot! Will be interested in your reply to Michael Meek on his sharpness question. I just upgraded from the Nikon D80 to the D7000 [ small game I know, but it fits my budget 🙂 ], I have more megapixels and a much faster shutter. Combine that with the carbon monopod I almost always use or the tripod and the Nikon 70-300 VR and I find a significant increase in sharpness. And in some instances manual focusing works better than auto. The only sharpening I do in PS [when needed] is with the sharpen tool and never more than 12%. Even then, I sometimes have to whittle it down further.
BTW, fur, feathers, reptile skin, insects, landscapes….love it when you mix it up.
Hi Rachel, I think you’ll see quite a significant gain from the D80 to the D7000 with its advanced sensor. Shooting at higher ISOs is probably where you’ll notice it the most. Thanks for the info on your sharpening technique. See my answer above to Michael’s question (and my explanation for the bird-post-apologies).
You never have to apologize for our feathered friends. They are so beautiful. Your brother-in-law thinks it’s funny that I get so excited when I spot the bright red north American cardinal on the golf courses we play, but their sheer beauty excites me!
Love the bird pics! And I love cardinals too, have many in my yard here in Michigan!
My favorite photo subject and what a splendid shot! Thanks for sharing.
Amazing detail
You SHOULD apologize for bird photos. Although that’s a pretty effing bird. 🙂
THANKS FOR THE GREAT BIRD PIC. iT TAKES A LOT OF TIME AN FULL WORK, TO GET JUST THE RIGHT PIC. THANK YOU FOR ALL[ THE HARD WORK. ( I SURE HOPE MORE REALIZE HOW MUCH NWORK IT TAKE TO MAKE JUST ONE PIC, FOR THE PUBLIC. A WEL[L[ DONE JOB.