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All offerings of advice much appreciated, Cuppa. I have also booked into a lesson at the camera shop.
That has probably had over 50% cropped. Also used a small bit of editing, but much less than needed previously.
The camera set it at 1/750 and 7.1 fs. I will borrow my daughters gear and have a go at your suggestions when she visits.
After a 3/4 hour lesson I spent an hour or two testing out all the functions I was taught.
I got a few good snaps but this one was the best.
The sigma lens was set at 500mm. The Shutter at 1/640 and arperture was 7.1. Partly cloudy. mid-late afternoon.
All I did was crop and run it through paint to reduce size so it lost a tiny bit of clarity.
I think the shutter speed could have been at 1/1000.
So spill the beans then - what did you take away from the lesson that helped. That’s a way better shot!
Rules of thumb, such as the shutter speed is approximately twice the value of the focal length.(there are many exceptions). Start in TV mode with the shutter speed set. Do the half press on the shutter button and see what the camera gives for Arperture. If the number is flashing, then it is not within an acceptable range. Use the AV button and the main rotor button near the shutter button to adjust light by up to three stops.
It is advisable to set the ISO on auto unless a particular setting is desired, for effects, etc.
I have the sensor sampling now tied with the focus point, and about 10-15% of the field. (Not ideal for all situations).
Learned how to use one shot focus mode, properly.
I will type up a small card with simple instructions, plasticate it and keep it with the camera.
The camera is set on multishot, so that after pressing the button it reduces camera shake.
Haven't found a user manual for the Sigma lens, but found a review video that discusses each function.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VykkH-OVdyg He takes a while to get into it, but has taught me a few functions.
Three pics. First is the original 'as shot'. Second is cropped,lightened & detail increased. Third is with a different sky added in Luminar 4. I also had a shot taken in .jpg & by comparison it lacked detail. It was an unusually grey day & the morning (9am) sun was behind me. The bird was quite some distance away. Shot in Raw format on Sony A6500 with the Sigmar 150 to 600mm zoom lens on full extension. Handheld. ISO 125, F11, 1/500s 600mm This was the last of only 2 or 3 shots as I was keen to leave, due to there being a snake close by plus I was being attacked by green ants swarming up my legs! These factors could be described as disturbances to my concentration! Once I had the pic on my laptop I was pleasantly surprised at the relative lack of expected camera shake & the detail I was able to bring out with the post editing. Only thing I'm not 100% happy about is that the sky 'bled' into the top of the cyclone-busted tree the bird is perched on, but don't know how to rectify that. Reduction in file size to upload to forum has taken out a fair bit of detail as you might expect of a 25Mb photo reduced to just over 1Mb.
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Magnificent bird. Have you heard the male hammering on a tree trunk to alert his partner of his presence?
No but would love to. Since it was discovered they do that 30 or 40 years ago it has only been captured on camera about 60 times. At the end of this week we’ll be moving to a house sit on Cape Weymouth, at the northern end of Chilli Beach where we are expecting to have use of a quad bike to get down to the beach on, so expect to be in their territory a lot more often, so fingers crossed.Quote:
Originally Posted by mudnut
Have a look at channel masking as a technique Cuppa. You can use the density of the image to create a complex selection in your photos.
Here are a couple of different skies. One more dramatic than the other. In each, I've tried to keep a lighter part of the image up near the crest to blend with the finer parts of the feathers, but both backgrounds are selected with consideration of the lighting in the original photo.
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I'm impressed Cremulator, but have no idea about channels - unless that's another name for layers - in which case I'm still a total beginner. What software do you use? I suspect it is something which requires rather more practice & understanding than Luminar? In Luminar to put in a different sky involves no skill or need to use layers, at least not at my level. I will look up Channel masking to see if it is something I can try. Thanks.
Channels are the red, green and blue information that make up the colour image.
I use Adobe Photoshop.
In looking at those examples again, I really should have cropped the sky to a smaller detail of clouds.
Those cloud images are photographed with a wide angle lens but you've captured that beautiful image of the bird with a 600mm lens. In reality, on a day that wasn't overcast, you still wouldn't see much of the sky due to the field of view with a 600mm lens.