[Marcel K]

Was quite chuffed with this one, but was wondering what you think?

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[Vasyl]

beautiful!

[sergysergy]

What a great contrast with colors!

[PJ1]

I think it's a good one too. Although when I saw the thread title I half expected a politician! The galah is a good looking bird but they are so common that we don't always appreciate them.

[Des]

I've taken a lot of galah photos, so that's where I'm coming from. I agree that they are very photogenic. This one is a female (red iris is the giveaway).

This is a good shot. You should be pleased with it, Marcel. I'll just make some hyper-critical comments to help you go to the next level.

The "head and shoulders" perspective is unusual. I like the crop and I like the use of negative space in front of the bird. But for a portrait like that to be different from countless other galah portraits, it needs exceptional clarity and it needs to stand out from the foreground and background. I think the depth of field is a little short - the cheek feathers are in perfect focus but the crown isn't - or slightly out of place. The eye is OK but not perfectly sharp - it looks to me that the focus plane was at the cheek feathers rather than the eye. We are only talking less than 1cm, but it makes a difference. You would have got a little more margin (and a little better resolution) at f6.3 or f7.1, although the bokeh would have been less smooth. There's also some small subject motion, so you probably needed 1/640 or 1/800th, which you could have got in that light. The crown is a little overexposed I think - this is a constant problem photographing them - so you could have got an extra stop in shutter and/or aperture without bumping the ISO. Even so, going to 200 ISO or even 400 ISO with the K-3 (I have one too) to get the extra shutter speed and aperture would have been fine. Ideally you wouldn't have shadows on the galah - I know you don't get to choose, but we are talking ideals here.The bokeh in the foreground and background is OK (better than I would normally get with the FA*300), but not quite smooth enough to make the bird stand out completely. Maybe you could try taking the exposure of the grass and the background down a little to increase the contrast.

I should add that, for some reason, the results of posting photos as attachments on PF don't seem as good as posting them from Flickr. Maybe Flickr adds a little sharpening, or maybe it's in the compression.

Thanks for sharing. Don't be discouraged by my comments - it's a good pic and you are on the right track.

[Bruce Clark]

Nice one. One of my favourite birds.

---------- Post added 04-10-19 at 03:34 PM ----------

This one is a female (red iris is the giveaway).

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Thanks for that Info Des. I learn something new every day

[Marcel K]

Hi guys,
Many thanks for your kind encouragement and very insightful feedback. Much appreciated! @Des, thanks for taking the time to provide very detailed and constructive comments. I’ll take them onboard.

Just a bit of background: the pic was a bit of impromptu (lucky&#128579 shot, although I usually have the camera ready when hiking with the family. I know these parrots are quite common in WA, but for me as non-Aussie (married to an Aussie), an easy and rewarding subject when visiting Oz, due to amazing color.
This beauty just popped up its(her) head up right next to the path at eye level and the lighting was nice, except for the shadows.
I agree the DoF was a trade-off with bokeh. I do strive to nail the focus on the eyes, but AF-S and recompose (for negative space) probably threw the focus off a bit. Smaller aperture and faster shutter would have probably give me more margin.
Anyway, thanks again and I will keep on trying for the perfect shot 🤓

[alfa75ts]

the pic was a bit of impromptu (lucky�� shot

Many are. Just to go over some of Des's points:

ISO200 is fine. 400 is fine most of the time but some noise can become apparent when cropping and sharpening (eg. blue sky gets speckled) (can be fixed in post). 800 probably would have been ok in this shot where the noise would be disguised.

To me it's a little over exposed, -0.3EV can help (-0.7EV on white birds).

Your jpeg has been somewhat compressed (quality 85) in your processing so you're losing some detail there.

[Des]

Just a bit of background: the pic was a bit of impromptu (lucky�� shot, although I usually have the camera ready when hiking with the family. I know these parrots are quite common in WA, but for me as non-Aussie (married to an Aussie), an easy and rewarding subject when visiting Oz, due to amazing color.This beauty just popped up its(her) head up right next to the path at eye level and the lighting was nice, except for the shadows.I agree the DoF was a trade-off with bokeh. I do strive to nail the focus on the eyes, but AF-S and recompose (for negative space) probably threw the focus off a bit. Smaller aperture and faster shutter would have probably give me more margin.Anyway, thanks again and I will keep on trying for the perfect shot ��

Good luck to you Marcel. I love galahs too, and you should have more opportunities even if your visit is short. Colourful parrots must be one of the most striking things to visitors to Oz.

I have always done centre-point focus-and-recompose too. Lately I've been trying with select AF point, starting with the point up from the centre a little - where the eyes usually are! One of our members who shoots a lot of (human) portraits suggested this as a more reliable way to get the eyes (human or other animal) in perfect focus, especially with short DOF. It also seems to reduce the time between focusing and shooting sometimes (not when your subject is off-centre unless you have already moved the point there).

[Marcel K]

Good luck to you Marcel. I love galahs too, and you should have more opportunities even if your visit is short. Colourful parrots must be one of the most striking things to visitors to Oz.

I have always done centre-point focus-and-recompose too. Lately I've been trying with select AF point, starting with the point up from the centre a little - where the eyes usually are! One of our members who shoots a lot of (human) portraits suggested this as a more reliable way to get the eyes (human or other animal) in perfect focus, especially with short DOF. It also seems to reduce the time between focusing and shooting sometimes (not when your subject is off-centre unless you have already moved the point there).

Ha, I will try that. I often also just use center 9 AF points dead center and worrying about framing later in post, but I guess that’s cheating 🤓 (and not always works). Focus is one (very important) aspect, cos it cannot be corrected in post, but looking for interesting lighting, framing and expression probably are just as important to me to get an exceptional/captivating shot. I read once in an interview with a famous wildlife photog (forgot who) that looking to catch the exact moment the animal is interacting (notices you) was one strategy to get there. I also look for ‘unusual’ (but natural) poses like fluffed up crest/feathers could be helpful.
Do you also look for particular aspects to get ‘that’ shot? I realise that there is no single recipe for success and that different photograhers have different approaches/styles (that’s the beauty of it). Just interested how you go about it. Never stop learning and I am eager to up my game 🤓

[Des]

Usually I find I just have to take the shots that present themselves. I just concentrate on getting the bird in focus and fire away, because it could be gone at any moment. I have mixed feelings about when the bird/animal is looking at me - I often prefer a shot when I am just an observer not a participant and the bird/animal is just being itself.

It's great when you can capture a parrot with its crest up, like this galah chick.

Notice that I had to shoot this at 1/125th and 1600 ISO. You can see some motion blur. But the pose makes up for the technical imperfections.

[Marcel K]

Great shot! Is that a different variety, or juvenile?

[Marcel K]

Here’s another one (same camera and lens @ 1/400 f/5.6 iso200).

For this one taken in Denham, WA, I had (lots) more time sitting under a shady tree while a small flock of galahs were chomping on the leaves above 🙂.
I like the backlighting, but maybe I cropped it to tightly?

[PJ1]

I like this one, Marcel. (A male this time.) I am sure there could be some technical discussion of focus etc. But that is out of my area of expertise. I would only like to see more negative space on the right side.

[alfa75ts]

Well, if we're all going to have a go, this is probably my best. It's from 2013 and taken on a K-x with a Sigma 50-500 (Bigma):