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Posted

A thread for sharing your bird photography

 

 

I'll start with a Spotted Pardalote, cross posted from 'post some pics thread'

 

Quote

The spotted pardalote is one of the smallest of all Australian birds at 8 to 10 centimetres in length, and one of the most colourful; it is sometimes known as the diamondbird.

 

#1

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#2

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#3

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  • Like 11

Posted

A dull, grey, and wet morning in Melbourne

 

#1 Black-shouldered Kite

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#2 Black-shouldered Kite

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#3 Black-shouldered Kite

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#4 Black-shouldered Kite

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#5 Red-rumped Parrot

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#6 Eastern Rosella

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#7 Rainbow Lorikeet

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  • Like 12
  • Love 1
Posted
26 minutes ago, scuzzii said:

amazing shots. and your knowledge of what bird it is, impresses greatly.

Thank you @scuzzii.

 

Birding is not a genre high on my list. It is photographers like @mickj1 and others, who have inspired me to go looking for birds when there are lulls in the genres I usually photograph.

 

  • Like 2

Posted
1 hour ago, Spearmint said:

A dull, grey, and wet morning in Melbourne

 

#1 Black-shouldered Kite

 

 

 

#7 Rainbow Lorikeet

 

Love the BSK pics Mr Mint ??? (and thank  you for your kind words)

cheers

mick

  • Like 2
Posted
1 minute ago, BLAH BLAH said:

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cant help but think of the 12th Man when I see this pic....  (I bet you she's seen a …………  or two)

  • Haha 1

Posted

A few King Parrots come for a feed , look like  young one's  hogging into the seed!

Only a lowly phone pic but you get the idea! ?

 

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  • Like 5
  • Love 1

Posted (edited)

  have been feeding her honey water  everyday for about 8 years, she goes off in spring to nest,and comes back  with the kids(costs a fortune in honey)I am no photographer,these were taken just with a canon G12 through the kitchen window, about 18 inches away. 

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Edited by ray4410
  • Like 3
  • Love 1
Posted (edited)

CAUTION LONG POST.

 

I would like to share what I do with the photos I shoot to allow them to be published here, there are many other ways to do this, this is just what I do.

I use the bare minimum processing, basically, sharpen, watermark, crop, limit file size.

 

I shoot RAW with a Nikon D500 and a 200-500mm lens, I have only been doing serious bird photos since January 2019.

 

The following information is for use with Windows 7 64bit, I have not tried this on any other Windows version.

 

I use XnViewMP (from here https://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/) with the NIK collection installed (free version (OLD) here https://download.freedownloadmanager.org/Windows-PC/Nik-Collection/FREE-2.0.4.html). 

XnViewMP is capable of using most Adobe Photoshop plug-ins, not just the NIK collection, they do have to be installed as per the instructions to be available in XnViewMP.

I sharpen the image with either "RAW Presharpener" and / or the "Output Sharpener" (Ctl G (or "Image/Adobe Photoshop plug-in") in XnViewMP) to activate NIK, both sharpeners are set to 50%.

 

XnViewMP_Ctl_G.jpg.29c31e919c0f62ab22faf9dee0606648.jpgImage ©XnViewMP

 

Crop image to the required look of the shot, cutting out unintended or ugly backgrounds, other birds etc.

Save the resulting image (making a sensible name for the file) as a .jpg file to another area of the disc, making sure not to lose the original (I do back up my photos to three external HDD's every day) example:- "D:\SNA\Birds".

 

To place the watermark of "© soundbyte" I use XnConvert from the XnView site here (https://www.xnview.com/en/xnconvert/)

with "Action / Text", options available for "Position" of watermark "Text", as well as telling the software what to do with the file/s it saves with "Output".

Use the preview buttons "Before" and "After" to check your result is what you want.

XnConvert_Action.jpg.56715a8e2b66bf8d3cac6e22d1f6b807.jpgImage ©XnViewMP

This will save your file with the watermark.

XnConvert can do many other batch type functions on photos, see "Actions/Add Actions".

EDIT I found out this morning (080819) that XnViewMP can add watermarks as well, "Image/Draw/Text (T)", not found a way yet to rotate the watermark.

 

I then open the saved file from XnConvert with Irfanview (from here https://www.irfanview.com/), (you may need to Right mouse click on the file in "Windows Explorer" and scroll to "Open With") as shown.

Open_with_Irfanview_right_click.jpg.d90514c0333a706e519a58a5026ad260.jpgImage © Microsoft

 

Then using "Ctl S" or File / Save as" and set the output jpg/jpeg quality option to 100 and limit the size to 500kB, save the file, I usually overwrite the file if asked.

Irfanview_out.jpg.dcfd238a71337ebd27d325e87f79962b.jpgImage © Irfanview


Files can be then uploaded to wherever you decide.

When uploading to SNA I ensure whenever I remember to make each file (after double clicking the image once in place on the post) "Size" width to be 600 and "Keep original aspect ratio".

 

Image_Size.jpg.dd7612b9ff60a597ca72180286361678.jpg Image ©SNA

 

The process above will remove any Metadata that may be encoded in the files.

SNA will overwrite any IPTC metadata that you might have written to your image files, hence me using a watermark.

 

Apologies for the post length.

 

Hope this may be of help to other budding photographers.

 

Russell.

Edited by soundbyte
  • Like 4
Posted

Some amazing pics here guys, I should give likes for all.

 

Any advice about binoculars would be handy too. I would also be using them for astronomical viewing, as well.

 

Thanks, John.

  • Like 1

Guest Misterioso
Posted
14 minutes ago, Kosmic said:

Any advice about binoculars would be handy too. I would also be using them for astronomical viewing, as well.

Which price range would you consider?

Guest Misterioso
Posted
1 hour ago, Kosmic said:

@Misterioso Something under $500....am I asking the impossible?

Not impossible but you need to accept some compromises. Bird- and starwatching are quite different applications. For example, for starwatching a centre focus wheel is not required (you watch at infinity distance anyway), the bino can be large (because you will not carry it around that much) and a large lens diameter (at least 50mm) is preferred to gather light. Starwatchers prefer binos that render a pin-sharp image of stars, even at the corners of the field of view. Many starwatchers use porro prism binoculars.

 

For birdwatching, a centre focus wheel is essential to react fast, weight becomes important and therefore most birders prefer smaller lens diameters (30-42mm). Also, most birders prefer waterproof binos, which are not essential for starwatchers. Therefore most birders use a roof prism bino (porro prism binos are rarely waterproof). If you are also interested in butterflies, close focusing abilities are important, which again require roof prisms.

 

A good compromise could be a bino with 40 or 42mm lens diameter. Given your two applications, I probably would choose 10x magnification. However, some people have problems to hold steady a 10x bino and prefer 8x magnification. You need to try yourself. It is very important to try any bino in person because a glass that suits one person's eyes may be a disaster for another person (because of kidney beaning, for example, black spots in your field of view). This is particularly important if you wear glasses. When you choose, pay attention to the field of view. A bino with a small field of view for its magnification produces a tunnel view, which you will not enjoy. 

 

There is not much choice below $500 and binos in this range are unlikely to produce a pin-sharp image of stars. I would probably try something like a Nikon Monarch 5 10x42 and compare it with similar binos at a good shop (I can recommend bintel from experience). Good luck.

 

Back to bird photography.

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