[skierd]

Overhead sun in the middle of the day. The birds are so dark they were under exposed, leading to much higher contrast. There are very low levels of sharpening applied, certainly not over sharpened. I suspect the big issue here is the angle to the sun and the very clear day. You have bright highlights beside deep shadows on each feather shaft. At least that's my take. If your polarizing filter cleans up things like that, that's not what a polarizing filter is supposed to do.

The first element of photography is light. Harsh light, harsh image, softer light, softer image. This is harsh to the nth light. This is made worse by the fact I left my TCs at home, these images are cropped more than I usually crop, and the shadows are severely underexposed. But with this scene, correctly exposing the birds would have blown out the rail they are sitting one. It was definitely a 20,000:1 contrast kind of day. If I go back today, I'll probably bracket on a tripod. HDR may be in order. Today is the same. Unfortunately my chance to get out in morning light is gone already so I'll be struggling with the same conditions today. There is the ride for cancer in front of this park today so I don't even know if I'll be able to get there. They were blocking off all the roads with temporary fencing yesterday..

I was spitballing some ideas to help with bright midday sun. Polarized sunglasses help with glare in the midday sun, so I was guessing it would help with strong bright points (glare) on photographs too. We don't get a lot of that here, and I rarely am able to get out and shoot during that time of day.

As far as being too harsh on oneself... I often get my wife to go through a series as she's more concerned with the overall composition where I can get hung up on the little flaws. Most of the time we agree on whats good and whats not, but often enough she picks shots that I dislike because it was a little soft or missed focus that it helps me see my own work better.

[normhead]

Hey norm, do you use a polarizing filter or have you considered one? There's a harshness to the birds from the extremely bright highlights, at least on my screen(s), that one might help. They're also a bit over sharpened maybe? Could be jpeg web compression too. Dunno, just thinking out loud.

Wait I have more for you. I went back to the same place today. It's a lovely spot I photographed 5 bird species in an hour and a half.

First, relevant to the topic.

Same birds, one in bright sun, one in shadow.

Bright sun.




While i was there with the sun moving further west, same birds same lens, same processing, diffused light instead of hard light.




This is the thing I think a lot of folks don't get. The quality of the light is more important than the type of camera, the sharpness of the lens the resolution of the sensor and a pile of other things amateurs tend to focus on.

Images from the rest of the day,

[jacamar]

Another trip to the Carden Plain

Early morning Wilson's Snipe



Prairie Warbler - only the second time I've seen it (last time was about 20 years ago)



It has a great song - ascending notes.



Eastern Phoebe



K-3, DA* 300mm, 1.4x TC

[normhead]

Another trip to the Carden Plain

Early morning Wilson's Snipe



Prairie Warbler - only the second time I've seen it (last time was about 20 years ago)



It has a great song - ascending notes.



Eastern Phoebe



K-3, DA* 300mm, 1.4x TC

Very cool, what's with those snipes always looking the other way? The day i was there my guy did the same thing.

And I almost didn't include a cardinal that dropped by for a drink today, right in front of my Barn Swallow spot.
I know everyone else has cardinal images. This is my first.

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Last edited by normhead; 06-10-2017 at 04:36 PM.

[jacamar]

Thanks Norm. On the way home from Carden Plain a male Northern Harrier circled nearby. A quick U-turn and I witnessed a courtship display between male and female (the male came in closer). This is the same species as the Hen Harrier in Europe.

[rkappleby]

On the way home from Carden Plain a male Northern Harrier circled nearby

One of my favourite birds, I just love watching them as they float on the air currents a few feet off the ground while they hunt.

[Racer X 69]

Humming birds are very territorial and fight a lot over their common places.

Awesome image. I find the behavior of these creatures very fascinating and observe them daily. They do indeed get very physical in defense of food. They frequently smash into each other while bickering, and I have wondered if they do like your shot illustrates.

And now I know.

[swip]

A few pictures from yesterday and today.

[siva.ss.kumar]

Some birds from today
Purple Sunbird


Pied Bushchat


Black Drongo

[marcusBMG]

The quality of the light is more important than the type of camera, the sharpness of the lens the resolution of the sensor and a pile of other things amateurs tend to focus on.

Amen

[Greyser]

Awesome image. I find the behavior of these creatures very fascinating and observe them daily. They do indeed get very physical in defense of food. They frequently smash into each other while bickering, and I have wondered if they do like your shot illustrates.

And now I know.

As I remember one bird attacked another perching on a tree branch. Finally the first one grabbed the second by the beak and pulled out. All action took about a second and became visible on computer only.

[Kevriano]

Amen

Agreed

[dadipentak]

A lucky shot but the background colors are awful. It makes me wish I knew how to work with layers--but not enough to actually learn

[StephenHampshire]

I tried my DA*300mm on my K1 yesterday (had been using K3+ Tamron 70-200 earlier) This was shot at ISO 20000, even then at f4.5 I was at 1/200, which is slow for energetic musicians on stage!

[dadipentak]

I used the DA*300/4 & HD 1.4x for this one. I guess I should have taken care to focus on the cat r/t the ball but I still like the shot.