@David Thanks for responding. This course is so old now I was afraid no one was reading the discussions still.

I've never heard of the Weyllan PH3. Did a search on B&H Photo-Video website didn't find anything. Is this it Sirui PH-30 Carbon Fiber Gimbal Head? I have one that's even less expensive, it's the Magnus GH-M1 Gimbal Head.

Anyway, I'm sure it's nice.  Surprisingly the Wimberley MH-100 is not as expensive as I thought it would be considering how much their full size Gimbal cost and their carbon fiber mono and tripod cost. I use a leofoto carbon fiber monopod(I also have an old school Manfroto 290 monopod with an old school 486C2 ball head. It's like carrying around a VIKING steel sword, compared to the carbon fiber equipment LOL. I really enjoy using the Leofoto monopod.

I doubt I'll go tge Groundpod route because I have the Manfroto befree tripod and it breaks all the way down to the ground and I have the short center column accessory. That with the longer tripod legs of the befree provides good stability especially when used on the sand. See picture below.

@GEGJr I'm pretty new here, so a bit more active.  There's several other members also being quite active, which is really nice.

The Weyllan unit won't be available in B&H.  Try Amazon US.  Sirui is a good brand, haven't heard of the other unit.  There's a lot of Chinese made clones with different names that are typically identical.  Don't be put off by them being Chinese made - the days of poor quality from Chinese made products are long past imho.

I just find the groundpod unit a nicer implementation and more elegant.  I've never really been a tripod guy!

@David "I've never really been a tripod guy!"

I hear that all the time from digital and especially mirrorless digital shooters.

I started off in photography 5 decades ago with film, slides, and Polaroid.  I also shot a lot more medium format and T(twin)LR then. Back then there was no such thing as OSS(in lens optical stable shot) or IBIS(camera body stabilazation). Using a tripod especially for long glass (super telephoto) was an absolute must. Before Sony started putting OSS in their telephoto lenses, because Sony bodies had IBIS, I would read people complaining because the lens was not stabilized.

@GEGJr I started off with photography in 1988, so not a whipper snipper here.  I shot macrophotography of Insects and Arachnids for 15 odd years before my eyes worsened and I was unable to determine if their eyes were sharp in the viewfinder.  I've always been careful to use the reciprocal value or greater for my shutter speed :-)

Long super telephotos can be handheld with the right shutter speed and good technique.  It does take a lot of practice.  I'm using a 25 year old mark 1 500mm prime (f4) which is nearly 4kg.  It's got around 1.5-2 stops of IS at best, even with IBIS enabled on my R3.  So, I shoot with limitations in low light situations - the lowest shutter speed I can reliably go to is 1/400 (that's the 500mm with a 1.4x TC for 700mm focal length).

Canon had IS (lens side) before Sony or Nikon had anything with IS/VR.

I started out with a Zenit 12XP, played around with TLR (Seagull) before moving to Canon SLRs in 1989.  The Zenit was a very good beginner camera for learning the technical basics of photography!

Very few macrophotographers used a tripod BTW.  Nearly everyone preferred handheld due to the flexibility that it offered.

Dave

@David

• Canon had IS (lens side) before Sony or Nikon had anything with IS/VR.

@GEGJr All good.  Discussion is always good.  Yes, from memory, Minolta had IS in the body first.  I remember the Maxxum cameras - very good, certainly not inferior to Canon or Nikon.  Canon was the first to introduce it to lenses though (and the last to bring IBIS to camera bodies, so it evens out I guess).

I think my first touch of photography was with a polaroid camera too, circa 1979/78.  I didn't really show a serious interest in photography until my last year of school, where another student had some stunning photos for his final year exam submission.  I didn't take it up for another 2 years, but photography stuck around in my mind and a desire to try photography was planted.

I think I know the name Herbie Mann, albeit not very well.  I still listen to LPs (I have a high end audio system, including an analogue record player setup that costs a lot of money!).

I think it's great to get to know other students interests to be honest.

Cheers,

Dave

@David David,

Thanks for engaging with me. My wife is not a photography person and neither are our sons (3) or grandkids(8 the ones old enough), except the one in his senior year at college. He does lots of video and has a small photography business with his girlfriend. But, sadly we don't get much time together these days. I hope once he's out of school that will change.

Anyway, thanks for the discussion.

Good Shooting

@GEGJr It’s always good to find likeminded people who enjoy the same hobby.

Here’s a recent image I took (Magpie Goose).

Cheers,

Dave

@David It's beautiful image. In future can you include some exposure data? I don't care about branding just hiw photo is taken.

Thanks

@GEGJr Hey!  On a cruise atm so no access to the exif data.  Will post when I get home in 24 hours.  I do keep exif data but I upload my images to discord so I can download them to my phone and that strips the exif data…

@David No worries. Of course I didn't know you were on a cruise. Are you downloading directly from the camera to Discord? Didn't know you could do that.

Since I use Sony I can use the Sony Creator's App on my cell to include GPS data and download original raw file or a reduced size jpeg to the Sony Creator's online storage or any other online service such as Flickr or my Adobe storage or even to Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive assuming I have a wireless connection, or to my phone internal storage or SD card in my phone. I can tell the app whether I want include the shoot data, too. It's a very useful app.

Anyway it's not a big deal. I just like knowing how the image was exposed and what lens was used. It's a habit from days with Nature Photography Network https://www.naturephotographers.network/ where if you shared images for critiques you have to provide shoot data.

Like I said it's not a big deal so don't worry about it. I hope the rest of your trip is a good one.

@GEGJr No, I download from my CFExpress card/card reader to my laptop.  I then cull/sort (FastStone Image viewer) before importing into Lightroom.  I only upload to discord (my own private server) when I'm doing processing the image, so I have a JPG copy on my phone to show friends and family.

I embed EXIF data in my images, including exported JPGs, but discord must strip it.

My R3 has wifi access to, so I can grab the RAWS off the camera and download directly to my phone if I want to, but it's not much point, since RAW files never look super great, but flat and lifeless.

Rest of the trip went well, have now arrived back home.  We had a massive storm come through last night apparently, with wind speeds near 100kph (~62mph).  It has knocked down a lot of lines and there are currently around 100k homes without power across Brisbane, including ours.  No indication when power will be restored either.

I have loaded that image up and the shooting settings were:

1/500

f4

ISO250

500mm focal length (Canon EF 500mm f4 IS L mark 1).

R3 (king of low light photography until the R1 camera was released, but still has slightly better DR than the R1 imho).

I usually have the 1.4x TC (mark 3 version) permanently attached to my 500mm prime, but had it off on this instance as I was at the local council bird sanctuary which is a bit dark, so f4 is better than f5.6, saving a stop of ISO, and 500mm focal length is more than enough too, don't need 700mm.

I do a lot of edits in Lightroom and Photoshop - my skill level is probably intermediate, but I have an extensive workflow process for image editing.

Dave

@David WOW! Thanks for all the great info.

Sorry to here about the weather. I hope things get back to normal soon. Although suspect that bad weather is par for course in your neck of the woods? But still all the same I hope ot gets better sooner than later.

I don't have hardly any photoshop skills. I tried but don't get it. Too complicated for my simple brain. I can do minor stuff in LrC but nothing too elaborate. I don't really believe in doing too much manipulation other than some dodging and burning.

If you observe happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

P. S. I always try responding directly from link in email notification but it never works. The link takes me to your post but there is no reply button so I have to go back up to top to sign-in. Probably has something to do with fact I'm usually reading email in mobile phone; Samsung Galaxy A54 5G.

@GEGJr Power was restored around 1pm yesterday, around 4 hours after we arrived back home.  Was off for ~22 hours.  More storms rolled in last night, thankfully nothing bad where we live, but we are expecting more severe storms tonight and tomorrow as well as very hot days on Thursday and Friday (both 37c - ~99F).

It is Summer here, and our location usually gets a fair share of storms.

Editing and learning how to utilise Lightroom and Photoshop takes both time, effort and persistence.  Masking is your friend!  Editing is vital when it comes to digital RAW files.  Whilst I try to get it right in camera, it's not always feasible.  Digital RAW files will be soft without sharpening, since most sensors have an anti-alias filter in front of them (helps avoid moiré issues).

We don't observe Thanksgiving here in Australia, but thank you anyways.

I have the same issue when responding - the website logs you out after a period of time.  i wish it would remember you and keep you logged in!

Cheers,

Dave

@David Didn't realize you're in Australia. I thought you were in Northeast USA in the what's called New England. Still, I hope you folks are all ok and that you recover soon. Stay safe.

I do shoot raw most of the time but I let LcR do most of the post processing using the auto function and I just do a little clean up if necessary. I do try my hand at sharpening and when necessary do a little touch up but still nothing too serious. Mostly though I try very hard to get nail exposure right in camera. That's why I like the Sony A7RM5 and A7CR because of 61MP I can crop in post if necessary. I cannot afford a 500mm F4 prime or any prime big lens. I have Sony's 400-800mm F6.3-8 G and 100400mm GM. Also have Sony's 24-105mm GM and a really nice Rokinon-Samyang 14-24 mm for Sony. I just in the last year switched from DSLR to mirrorless (Sept 2024 traded in my A99M2 and A77M2 along with A-mount lenses).

@GEGJr All good.  Proud first nations Australian.

There's an auto function in LRc?

My R3 is only 24mp and I find for the most part, it is more than enough.  Sure, for smaller birds that aren't close, or heavy crops it isn't 100% a good choice.  I will eventually purchase a used R5 (45mp) when funds allow, but that'll probably be a few years away from now as 2025 has been a very bad year for me financially.

You can adapt Canon EF lenses to Sony I believe and they should work reasonably good.  AF won't be as good as native, but...used mark 1 500mm primes are probably 2k USD.  Both Sony and Nikon have great lenses, but their old non MLC lenses don't tend to perform well with their modern MLCs.  That's where Canon shines.  Canon's EF range of lenses was the largest of all the marques and all of that old EF glass works.  Sony has 300/400 and 600 primes native for their MLCs, but they are rare on the used market and have hefty new prices.

The rather new Sony 400-800 is amazing.  It is pretty reasonably priced and it is a cracking lens (I have used 1 in a camera shop on a A7RV).  I wish Canon had something similar.  It is vastly superior to the RF200-800 imho.

How have you found the transition to MLC?  For me, despite initial reservations, I have loved using the EVF.  And the AF systems are sublime

Here's a male Superb Fairywren, which is a very small Australian grass bird (they are not true Wrens).  Less than 10cm and probably weigh only 12gm (less than half an ounce).

I'll pop you another reply shortly with a brief overview of my workflow.

Cheers,

Dave

 

@David

• There's an auto function in LRc?

• The rather new Sony 400-800 is amazing.

• How have you found the transition to MLC?

@GEGJr There's no doubt that cameras have become more complex.  Like you, I am UI sensitive.  Thankfully, Canon has been pretty stable with their camera menu UI over the past 20 odd years, unlike Sony or Nikon.

I just had a quick play with the auto function in Lightroom Classic and it was pretty horrid.  Not gonna lie.

I had a quick look at www.photoguild.co.uk and it looks quite good.  I'm currently unemployed, but may subscribe in the future once I secure employment and can afford it.  Of course, many of the things that they offer members are irrelevant to me as I am outside of the UK.  I'm also not a working professional!  Many thanks for the heads up, greatly appreciated.

I want to expand my experience and knowledge into landscape photography and studio portraiture over the coming few years, and motorsports too actually.

Cheers,

Dave

@David

• Re: I want to expand my experience and knowledge into landscape photography and studio portraiture over the coming few years, and motorsports too actually.

@GEGJr nice!  That'd be a BLAST!!!

Dave

@GEGJr I export to my hard drive, cull and sort using FastStone image viewer.  I mainly check for focus and composition.  I have become far more ruthless with culling as time goes by.

I then import the remaining images into LRc and rate them (the rating from FastStone doesn't carry over which is frustrating).

My first step in editing is usually to do 3 things:

1.  Run DXO Pure RAW to denoise and then adjust overall exposure (globally)

2.  Adjust the White point (holding down the Alt key so you can see where you are clipping)

3.  Adjust the Black point (same as point 2 with regards to clipping).

4.  I then add some clarity and vibrance, but only in very small amounts, less than 10 points.

5.  I then go to the masking tab.  I mask for the subject (bird) and adjust exposure if needed, shadow and highlights.  I may adjust the temperature for the bird (most times I don't change this).  Note: I spend a lot of time on refining the masking.  Do NOT trust LRc's masking - it is usually not accurate.  Spend the time masking and refining masking - it will produce much better overall results.

6.  I then mask for the background and adjust that accordingly (global exposure, highlights, shadows, temperature).  I do tend to prefer brighter backgrounds (less noise is evident) and warmer backgrounds (more pleasing to the eye).

7.  I may do additional masking (radial and linear gradient typically), on a per image basis.

8.  I'll go to the remove tab and use gen AI (with object detect) to remove distractions.  Sometimes it works better with object detect turned off).  I'll go down to the dust sub-panel and remove dust.  Modern MLC sensors rarely have dust from my experiences.

9.  Back to the main tab where I do some sharpening.  Another trick here is to use the alt key with the masking slider to only sharpen what needs sharpening.  If you leave masking at 0, it sharpens everything, including the background, making it noisier.  I adjust detail, radius, sharpness sliders accordingly.  I tend to be quite light on sharpening in LRc (this is a pretty new step that I have added in the past 4 or so weeks - prior to this I only sharpened in Photoshop).

10.  I open the edited image in Photoshop.  I enable layers and duplicate the layer.  I use the AI select subject tool to select the bird and clean up the mask manually (click on mask, hit the "\" key and you'll see the mask.  Hit D to set the default background/foreground and then B to select the brush tool and add/remove masking as required.  Once I have the mask refined as I want, I open up a curves adjustment layer, which auto creates the mask.  I usually create a shallow "S" curve to improve contrast on the bird.

11.  I'll reuse the mask in 10. for a hue/saturation adjustment layer.  You can hold down the ALT key and drag the mask to another layer, copying it.  You can invert the mask by clicking on the mask itself and hitting "I" (for invert).  I may spend some time doing custom masks on very small areas of the bird that I want to adjust, rather than the entire bird.

12.  I do sharpening (I have a complex technique - happy to abbreviate and share if you want).  It is very minor sharpening and not overdone.

13.  I save my edits as a .TIF format, with all layers visible.  It does result in large file sizes but it does mean that I can return to the file at any time and adjust layers on a per layer basis easily.  Hard drive space is cheap.  Abuse it LOL!

14.  Final step for web - I flatten the layers (but don't save the flattening process), edit menu, convert to profile (sRGB), resize the image (2400px longest size) and save as (not save for web, which strips EXIF data).  You may need to enable the old save as option, as it's hidden by default now by Adobe in Photoshop (stupid UI design change imho).

Note: with resizing, I vary between bicubic sharper, bicubic smoother or bilinear, depending on the image.  I tend to find that bicubic sharper over-sharpens and doesn't look the best.

Hope this inspires you and your editing process.

Cheers,

Dave

@David <p style="text-align: right;">Wow!! That's way outside my skill level. I'd like to publish a photo or two here but I'm usually on my phone as I am now and most my wildlife, especially birds images are on my external SSD or online location not available on my phone.</p>
Regards

P. S. Do you do this for every photo you take or just ones you flag or give a high rating while culling?

@GEGJr Hi Greg,

You do learn to adapt, and as you practice more, your comfort level increases.  There's a good feeling when your technical skills improve and it's great for your self-esteem and self-confidence.  Baby steps!

I've had a few images published - some of my Blue Banded Bee (native Australian Bees) have been published online, and I was very lucky to have 1 of my Bird images from circa 2005 published in a book written by Jerry Olsen (RIP):

https://www.amazon.com.au/Australian-Country-Raptors-Jerry-Olsen-ebook/dp/B00L3T6YRK

He somehow tracked me down as I'd posted an image of a female Grey Goshawk on a Canberra based bird forum that I'd used to ID the bird when I originally took it!  He asked permission to use the image in his upcoming book and I happily agreed (I got a copy of the book as my reward!).  I got a full colour A5 image!!!  The image isn't great imho, and I'd have done a much better job with it now.

Yes, it's my standard workflow.  Processing each image usually takes around 30-45 minutes.  It pays to extract the best out of your RAW images imho.  I will admit that I find the post processing and editing of my images rather cathartic.

Cheers,

Dave

@David I'm  impressed.

• https://www.amazon.com.au/Australian-Country-Raptors-Jerry-Olsen-ebook/dp/B00L3T6YRK

@GEGJr I was lucky George, nothing more.  Still stoked, but it wasn't skill that got my image picked for publication in a book.

Cheers,

Dave

@David Actually to be frank its way too much for me. I have never enjoyed electronic processing.

To make a very long story short when I started getting really serious about photography I was working as a traveling studio photographer for a couple of national studios traveling to various locations in my region and setting up ad-hoc studios to do family portraits and to daycare centers taking toddler and preschool kid portraits. Of course this was all film. I also worked for a national school photography business taking high school pictures using a 70mm film camera loading my own film on site using a black bag. Have you ever done that? Eventually one of my employers started to use the Kodak Nikon joint produced digital DCS620. It was a very low resolution digital 35mm camera. We would copy images (jpegs) to a CD and overnight to HQ where they would develop and produce what customers had selected which had been previewed on our laptop. It had to be right in the camera, exposure, white balance, and composition because we presented almost immediately following the session. Maybe that's why I don't like post processing.

After doing that for a while I started doing weddings and event photography. Again on film. Of course I would send film off for processing and to get proofs for showing to customers. Some of the labs would send back proofs on CD and I would show to customer on my desktop pc. Some customers would want to buy the CD which I would like because it was an extra charge and the jpegs were low resolution so I didn't have to worry about customers printing anything more than 3x5 so I wasn't losing any money.

While doing all that I also held down a full time job as a Quality Assurance Analyst for business processes and procedures and writing work procedures. When I retired I turned my interest to nature and landscape photography.  Well, that in a nutshell is my background in how I got to where I am in photography now. Boring I know.

Best Regards,

George

@GEGJr Hi George (sorry, I got your name wrong in another reply, never rely on a bad memory LOL!),

Coming from a film background is probably partly the reason why you are averse to digital editing at a guess.  Old habits are sometimes hard to kick.

I would encourage you to engage in advancing your post processing skills - your images will love you for it.

I have worked with 35mm film in the dark room, albeit many many years ago.  I did work experience for year 10 at school (1984) at the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industry Research Organisation), Australia's premiere government science agency.  I worked in their microbiology department for 2 weeks, so got to play with both transverse and scanner electron microscopes.  The scientist taught me how to use a camera, load film, develop and print B/W film (no colour) in their darkroom.  The photography bug didn't really bite at the time, I was more interested in the science itself.  I haven't done any dark room work since then, but I still remember the basics.  I'd be rusty as hell, but wouldn't take long to get back into the swing of things.  I believe the principles of colour film development are very similar, it's just the temperature accuracy is more vital than B/W.  Correct me if I am wrong.

Backgrounds are not boring, they are a good way to get to know people.  I have done many different types of work in my life, although a good portion of it was working in IT (Toshiba internal support, tier 1 Apple Computer support, DYMO product support and 8 years as a level 3 sysadmin for a small ISP) . My best friend is a business analyst, very similar to your role.  I have used many different operating systems over the last 25+ years, including UNIX, MacOS, Windows and GNU/Linux.  I am most comfortable with UNIX and UNIX like systems.

Studio photography is something I would like to get more into, but I haven't had the money to buy entry level studio lights etc.  Hopefully over the coming few years if my finances improve.

Cheers,

Dave

@David Studio photography, IMHO, is very satisfying. Even though I don't use it very often I still have all the equipment; lights and stands, background stands, gels for changing color of a white background and lots of light modifiers; shoot through and bounce umbrellas and lightboxes including a 5 foot octagon lightbox mostly used for lighting a group portrait and light meters. Light meters aren't used a lot these days because lights these days are pretty much continuous instead of flash monoblocs. Although I still have and use my old Elinchron monoblocs.

In studio photography you have complete control of the environment, light, DOF, and posing. I don't believe I've ever shot studio portraits in camera raw format because of the complete control I have of the exposure elements.

I think you would enjoy studio work.

No problem about the name. I haven't even noticed.

@GEGJr Hi George,

I had hoped to be able to afford a budget Godox 2 light setup with stands, brollies, reflectors and background as well as some gels.  But alas, income and too many expensive hobbies and unexpected bills killed that from happening in both 2024 and 2025.  2025 has been especially BAD for me and I cannot wait to see the end of the year and move onto a new 2026, hopefully with a bad luck reset for the new year.  I like the technical aspect of studio portraiture.

PS My late father's named was George (and it's 1 of my middle names too).

Cheers,

Dave

@David

Sorry to hear about the challenges you've had in 2024 and 2025. I'm sure things will turn around for you in the very near future. There's a saying that "how you bring in the new years eve will set the stage for the new year". So make sure your new year's eve is full of positivity. 🪅

As you probably noticed I too am a junior and I have a son who is a 3rd.

I know you're a good man and sure your dad was, too. Sorry for your loss.

Getting your photo published isn't just luck. Congratulations

@GEGJr Don't know how I put above reply in quotes?

@GEGJr me neither LOL!

Dave

@David I then import the remaining images into LRc and rate them (the rating from FastStone doesn't carry over which is frustrating).

Have you tried using Adobe Bridge for culling? You can tell LrC to use Bridge star and color labels.

I tried doing culling in another app before adding to LrC but it seemed like extra work and having to basically import twice, 1st to Bridge or wherever I did first cut, then importing again into LrC.

Have you tried the LrC culling function where it looks for sharpness and other attributes you can assign? New to the latest release.

@GEGJr I'm not really a fan of Adobe Bridge or Lightroom as a catalogue.  I just really want a RAW editor.  I do use stars/colours in Lightroom - I manually duplicate what I've done in Faststone.

No, I haven't tried the culling function, but to be honest, I wouldn't trust it with my RAWs.  I'm a manual hands on kind of guy.

@David You do know you can get ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) as just a plug-in? Don't know if it works with FastStone. I have never heard of FastStone.

P. S. Sorry for late response holiday (USA Thanksgiving) was 11/27. Had out of town visitors.

@GEGJr Yes, I know.  FastStone is very popular and actually quite good.  My only wish is that rating and colour coding in FastStone would transfer to LRc.  That's not FastStone's fault - neither rating or colour coding are EXIF tags...silly really.

I hope you had a good thanksgiving.

Dave

@GEGJr Here's a male Pacific Black Duck from ~6 months ago.  Was a wonderful encounter - it landed around 10 metres in front of me and basically walked right up to me, happily quacking and following me.  I backed off to give it space but it was completely unperturbed by my presence and very chatty.

I got wet on the way back to the car, as well as my gear, but the image was well worth it.

@David Great. Like the creamy bokeh. Thanks for sharing.

@GEGJr The big 500mm prime gives that creamy bokeh.  You just can't easily get it with other consumer lenses. It is what it is.

I might go out with the camera for a bit, although it's 10.30am and not the best time of day.  It's overcast though, so the light will be soft and diffused, but I am guessing the birds will be mostly inactive.

Dave

@David I don't thing anyone actually enjoys using a tripod however, there are times and circumstances that I'm happy to use a tripod and, or a monopod, especially with the Wimberley MH-100 monopod gimbal head.

@GEGJr Been handholding for many, many years now (macro, then birds).  A leopard doesn't change its spots :P  With that said, I'm hoping, when funds allow, to get a Groundpod II to use with the big 500mm prime and my carbon fibre Benro gimbal for shorebirds and water fowl.  Much easier than trying to hand hold the big lens!  I find this more convenient that a tripod option.

Dave

@David That's the way I am about post processing. Too old and lazy to learn now. LOL

@GEGJr I don't believe you are ever too old or too lazy.

Dave

@David Ever heard of Arthur Morris? He publishes a blog at birdsasart-blog.com and also has channel on YouTube. He's now in He's but still does photography trips. I really followed him when I first started shooting birds back in film days. He's a bit opinionated in his old age, for example I gave him my Flickr account address which I primarily used as just a repository for my scanned images long before hard drives became relatively inexpensive. Anyway he posted on his blog that my bird images sucked, LOL. Yes he is right but the overwhelming majority were taken when I was just starting to take bird pictures, the majority of which are not available for just anyone to see. Most of the images in my Flickr account were people (family) portraits not available to everyone.  So beware if you post to his blog. Here's the link if you're interested www.flickr.com/photos/gegjr.

@GEGJr Yes, I am well aware of Artie, I am a member of BPN.  Just had a bit of a difference of opinion with him a few days ago.  He asserts that the Sony A1II has the best AF of any camera on the market.  I disagree.  I'm pretty thick skinned.  This is 1 of his comments on 1 of my images, I'll take the compliment (see image)!

"Beautiful bird. Ugly-*** perch. I am curious as to how you "got him to perch.

Sharp with natural colors. BTW, the perch with the top sawed off is anything but natural"

Note: this is my 3rd attempt at a reply, the first reply just disappeared with no error.

Dave

 

@David Thought you might find this interesting?

[The Friedman Archives Blog] - Is FILM the answer?

https://friedmanarchives.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/archive/FA_Mailing_List/20251203153559/#

@GEGJr Gen AI is a tool and has its advantages.  I mean, why have cars...we have feet and should walk.

Dave

@David You are mixing apples and oranges so again I agree to disagree.

It's like sometimes my wife will ask "why did you take that picture", in an obviously disapproving tone. What I tell her is because I see it and it holds some interest to me either as attractively or in documentary way. Not all images have to conform to others idea of what's worthy. After all, isn't that what art is all about?

@GEGJr It's a personal preference thing.  I've invested a lot of time into learning LRc and Photoshop and how to process my images to make them look their very best.  Re-processed a Black Kite earlier today.  Not 100% cos backlit.  I still like the image.

Dave

@David I probably should do some dehaze on the sky in hindsight...mmm...

Dave

@David I hate to put it this way but that's a stupid analysis.

@GEGJr It's a tool to get the job done.  Learning to recognise what tools do what, and when to use them is a good thing.

@David Hi David,

More fodder about not having a physical representation what you spend time developing. Do you think you spend more time "developing" your raw files than you do actually making the image?

Shane Balkowitsch says much more intelligently than I can.

https://youtu.be/-aAYKypgnPs?si=yZZF1vkNBPA_vqol

@GEGJr I have to disagree.  A negative is still considered an image, even if it hasn't been printed.  The same applies to a digital negative (RAW) file.

It's not cost effective for me to print (AUD $38 for A2).  I have no place to store them on my walls.  And I'm not selling my images.  Printing is a waste of time, and money.  Money that is better spent elsewhere.

I share on several online forums, as well as Instagram.

Digital files are by nature, under-developed and need effort to maximise their final outcome.  It is what it is.  There are a number of reasons for this.  Nature photography doesn't always allow you to shoot your exposure correctly.  For example, shooting Australian Logrunners nearly 3 years ago in the deep rainforest canopy at Lamington National Park, I was shooting with my 500mm and 1.4x TC and the R3.  Even at 1/400, f5.6 (wide open) and ISO25600, I was still 1.5 stops underexposed.  In hindsight, losing the TC would have been a good idea and I have learned that lesson.  I'm using a mark 1 500mm prime, so the IS isn't nowhere near as good as modern lenses, so 1/400 was the minimum shutter speed that I could drop to.  Again, it is what it is.  The images came out pretty good, considering, but did require 2 runs of AI NR (start & end of the workflow).

It's either that, or not get a photo of the species.  They don't typically come out into the open either, so lighting will always be at a premium with this species.

If I hadn't taken the time to process the RAW files, but instead just did a straight RAW to JPG, the images would have been very underwhelming and not worth even posting.

If you are shooting digital, then developing (no pun intended) a solid workflow will only benefit your images.

Dave

@David I don't advocate printing everything and even when worth printing not printing the most expensive size or process. I can't even count how many prints I have of my loved ones that as by most photographic strict interpretation are not technically good, but they bring me great joy of a specific point in time that I may never see again and I think are worth printing even if I print myself.

Yeah we Americans can be hypocrites. Especially when it comes to what's proper. I am sure Aussies have social norms that  not even all Australians agree with?

@GEGJr OH yes, I cherish photos of my mum & dad.  And my best mate of 40+ years.  Don't really care for much else.  I'd love the room on my walls to hang some of my images.  Sadly, my sister doesn't want me putting up my images on the walls.  She'd rather put her own stuff up instead.  yeah, and I own half of the house...

Aussies are pretty relaxed.

@David Ansel Adams viewed printing as the crucial "performance" of the negative (the "score"), a deeply creative act of interpretation using darkroom techniques like dodging and burning to achieve his precise vision, not just a mechanical reproduction. He stressed visualization before shooting, meticulous camera work (Zone System), and extensive post-processing (burning/dodging) to bring out texture, depth, and emotion, often making many prints from one negative to perfect the final expressive result, making the print as important as the capture itself.

@GEGJr It's still manipulation though.

@David Are you saying that removing or adding objects is the same as dodging and burning?

@GEGJr Yes.  Manipulation is manipulation.  Choosing to decide what is manipulation is well, sugar coating things imho :-)

@GEGJr Should have said, "I don't think anyone actually enjoys carrying a tripod." But I bet they enjoy the blur free images. Like everything it's a tool.

@GEGJr I very rarely get blurry images.  If I do, it's on me for the wrong camera settings.  And I've handheld for 15 years of macrophotography of Insects & Arachnids and now birds for 3.5 years with a big heavy 500mm prime.

@David Hopefully some day I can get my hands on a lens with better focal length; I just can't afford it at the moment. I think I do all right with what I have for a hobby, though.

@Kiersten Oh yes, definitely.  There's NO rush.  The  main thing is to enjoy yourself.  Money is tough for everyone.  Hopefully the mods think this is OK, you may find this video interesting on detail/focal length/distance to bird (it all is inter-related):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3albJiUIrbg

Duade is my favourite YouTuber and just an all round nice guy.  Has a knack for explaining things and I learned a lot from him.

Cheers!

Dave