Todays Birds

[Joeyjoe]

I spent a few hours this morning doing some 4WDing and walking around the bush outside of town this morning. I managed to capture a few species that I haven't seen before.

#1 Nankeen Night Heron


#2 Dollarbird



#3 Brown Goshawk This was at a distance, so the result isn't very good.



#4 Blue Faced Honeyeater

[Isac]

Good variety of birds for a day's outing Joe. some look a little soft but the night heron seems pretty sharp. With stationary birds, shutter speeds of 1/500 - 1/1000 is plenty to get good detail.

[Joeyjoe]

The Dollarbird was at a good distance between a small gap in the foreground trees, which adds to the bit of softness around it. The R6 proved great at focusing on the bird and ignoring most of the foreground leaves between me and it.
As I mentioned, the Goshawk was a crappy photo as it was full reach at 600mm and was in the shade of the tree, so I had to edit it a lot to bring some colour to it.
When going after birds, I usually sit on 1/3200 to try and get good BIF shots

[Isac]

All good Joe. I Custom Shooting Modes set up for various situations. 1. for Stationary birds (1/500th) 2. for BIF (1.2000) and 3. for Bracketing with 5 different exposures. May be worth while setting up the Custom modes and also BBF.

[Joeyjoe]

I haven't set up the new R6 with any custom modes as yet. On my 5D I had 1 for astro, 2 for landscape and 3 for BIF

[wigz]

Looking good given the conditions. Not the best light for all except the honeyeater, although I think the heron could easily be brightened a little more.. Good variety, and none except the honeyeater are common - around here anyway.

I agree with Isac that 1/3200 is too fast for stationary birds. I go down to 1/320 for birds in shade, and probably up to 1/1250 or 1/1600 for good light Image stabilisation eliminates the hand-shake, and shooting in short bursts means any movement of the bird only affects the odd image.

While software now handles removing noise, high ISO still reduces colour depth and dynamic range so still best to keep ISO as low as possible.

The biggest improvement for these would come from better light. Back or side-lighting can work well, but generally light from the front, or full shade, gives better images that are easier to process.