[alfa75ts]

Quite a bit of me hopes that those are your best shots from the last two years.


Hidden in plain sight at eye level.

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[Davep]

Quite a bit of me hopes that those are your best shots from the last two years.


Hidden in plain sight at eye level.

What kind of birds are they? What size?

It seemed like your last set were better. Without being able to pixel peep, the dog seems fine, there were sharp things in the ground cover image, etc. The thing is, I think you have to shoot at something with detail in it to actually see detail.

Thanks for that observation. Well, someone suggested shooting at a tree for detail-capture, but I figured a tree is a curved surface, so I used the neighbor's fence. Lots of detail in that; also on the dog. Clearly in the earlier attempts, the wind was a big factor. So I corrected for that, took a lot of pictures indoors, both at things in the house as well as outside through an open door (eliminating wind as a factor). Using a ten-foot extension cord on my shutter release cable so that inadvertent tugging on that wouldn't be a problem. Using a method of shooting that caused the mirror to flip up three seconds prior to the shot. Standing dead still for ten seconds prior to pushing the shutter release button (so that shifting my weight wouldn't cause vibrations in the floor - I'm pretty good at that being-still thing, being a NRA certified pistol and rifle trainer). Tried it with a K-1 and a K-50 with the same results (translated from DNG by Affinity, unprocessed, uncropped). It don' get no better'n that, I reckon.

These are the best I was able to achieve, and the all still seem have a creamy texture, to me. As if there were a thin coating of mineral oil on a lens somewhere. Nowhere near the quality of the bird pictures.

I did take a picture of a small tree, upon which I had centered the autofocus; but you'll notice that there's brush at all distances from front to back within the field of focus, and none of it is sharp.

[sutherland]

Is it possible to conduct a lens calibration test and share your results?

Typically, lens calibration is conducted by being a certain distance away from the calibration target: focal length * n (n is typically a value between 25-50). Since you have a 560mm, I would not expect for you to stand 90 feet away from a target. Instead, I would just choose a 'working' distance. I selected 40 feet when I calibrated my 500mm.

Some additional tips:
- lens on a tripod
- target must be well lit
- turn OFF image stabilization
- shoot at the widest aperture available (in your case, 5.6)
- shoot at a lower ISO (I would aim for 800 or lower)
- shoot with a shutter speed equal to or GREATER than the max focal length to mitigate shake and increase sharpness
- use single point focus

The printout target should be fine, but I would find an image that has a ruler positioned next to the center target. The ruler is used to show degrees of front or back focus.

---------- Post added 03-12-19 at 06:10 AM ----------

Quite a bit of me hopes that those are your best shots from the last two years.

Those were some of my favorite shots from February and March. Birding is near approaching addiction status.

[taks]

Hidden in plain sight at eye level.

Hiding so very well I can't tell if I am seeing the birds Two birds?


few more practice at the park

..Hidden in plain sight at eye level.

That could be a test for color-blindness. people who ignore color as contrast data focus instead on the texture (complexity of the waveform) of the reflected light instead - and feathers don't look anything like bark from that perspective. So people who can see the birds right off are probably color-blind (as well as resolution-enhanced).

When I was in high school, they told the Army I was color blind. So the Army started twisting my arm to quit school and go to be a point-man on infantry patrols in VietNam; they figured I wouldn't be fooled by the color-camouflage (right on that point) and that I'd be able to spot the snipers in the trees long enough to shoot 'em down. Yeah, right. I figured my life-expectancy once in that job would be about fifteen minutes. That war was a big reason for my having been the first of my family to attend college (that and Lyndon Johnson's "great society" program - they were generous with student aid at that time).

[alfa75ts]

What kind of birds are they? What size?

Tawny Frogmouths, about the size of a Raven.

Birding is near approaching addiction status.

Photographs are what I'm after, birds just make good challenging subjects

Hiding so very well I can't tell if I am seeing the birds Two birds?

Two birds this time. Last time I spotted one bird and took a shot, checked to see if there were any others around (should have been three) but couldn't see any, got home and there were two in the shot!

That could be a test for color-blindness.

Not being colour-blind, I can't tell. I'll have to ask our resident Tawny Frogmouth spotters (Helen and Carl spot more than anyone else) if they're colour-blind.

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Last edited by alfa75ts; 03-12-2019 at 02:42 PM.

[alfa75ts]

Previous shot, two birds about 10 metres (30 feet) up.

[Davep]

Tawny Frogmouths, about the size of a Raven.



Photographs are what I'm after, birds just make good challenging subjects



Two birds this time. Last time I spotted one bird and took a shot, checked to see if there were any others around (should have been three) but couldn't see any, got home and there were two in the shot!



Not being colour-blind, I can't tell. I'll have to ask our resident Tawny Frogmouth spotters (Helen and Carl spot more than anyone else) if they're colour-blind.

Fascinating. Exceptional shot.

---------- Post added Mar 12th, 2019 at 07:15 PM ----------

Fascinating. Exceptional shot.

Is the camouflage because they are predatory, or for protection?

[Ducatigaz]

A few recent captures from my K-3ii/FA*600mm F4 ED[IF]/Eckla window mount.

[alfa75ts]

Is the camouflage because they are predatory, or for protection?

They're nocturnal hunters so I guess the darkness hides them from their prey. So primarily I'd say it's so they can remain hidden during the day.

Wiki

[alfa75ts]

And some from this morning:

Little Eagle
White-faced Heron
White-faced Heron
White-necked Heron
Tawny Frogmouths (an attempt to show the view of them from the path which is 10 metres from them but with 450mm instead of 35 I couldn't get far enough away)
Peregrine Falcon (lousy shot, too far away)

[traderdrew]

K-3 with the Sigma 500mm F/4.5

[derekkite]

K-3 with the Sigma 500mm F/4.5

A bittern! Lovely shot!

[stihlmania]

Wow, that's some series.

Thank you. The last photo in the series is my all time high ISO [8000] with my K3-II. The camera seems to get better with age....[I bought the lens new in 1988 so nothing has changed with the lens] ..for the first 6 months with my K3-II ISO 1200 was my limit [with any Pentax lens] and it was not that good...... A female mockingbird at my birdbath in the attached photo [very rare for me as I never have seen a mockingbird take a bath until last year]