CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Better approach is don't create "mosquito noise" in your workflow, regardless of the image or purpose.

Shooter41 Loc: Wichita, KS

Dear WDCash...

Thank you for noticing my improvement. Since you shared you wisdom with me, I want to share the reason that I am posting so often on UHH.
My wheelhouse is indoor soccer photography that I started over forty years ago as the in house photographer for the Original Wichita Wings Professional Soccer team. Before the Corona pandemic shut down I shot the latest Wings Indoor soccer team un mercury vapor poor lighting to create a 2019-20 autograph year book after frantically struggling to catch up with digital photography after laying out thirty-five- years to practice dentistry and earn a living.
There are no photographers the quality of those on UHH in Wichita, Kansas that are willing to share their knowledge with me. I am competing against an excellent children's portrait photographer who has had the job I want with the current Wings team. He knows the quality my work from 40 years ago when we were shooting tri-x 400 ASA with an old Pentax. My competition announced that he doesn't want to be friends or share photographic knowledge with me. He said that he regards me as his "employee" and will only allow me to shoot home games when he is out of town attending a tennis tournament, before the club owner and manager gave me a pass to shoot the entire season of 2-19-20.
I just ordered a Sony A7R4 large format camera and a Sony F2.8; 70-200 mm telephoto lens and need to master it under mercury vapor poor lighting before the home opener on June 5th, 2021 to compete favorably for the job shooting home games for the Wings, on my own. It has a sensor 1/3 bigger than my current Canon EOS 6D Mark II and should do better under poor lighting.
IE...I am trying to improve as rapidly as I can using UHH and Paul as my mentor. I would like to do another Annual Autograph album for the players in the 2021-22 season and have the quality of my images be the best I have ever done, for my own satisfaction.
Now you know. Shooter41

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

As I understood it in a lecture long ago the 1/3 in front of the focal point and 2/3 behind is the nature of lenses, not something you set.

At a given aperture and distance the DOF is X. You focus on a spot and that DOF is distributed 1/3 on the near/front side of the spot and 2/3 far/back side.
Why? Because the further away the focal point is the more DOF you get.

So if your bird is aprx 6" from nearest point to the camera to furthest point and your lens has an 6" DOF at the distance to the bird you pick a focal point that will put the whole bird in the DOF. Or aprx two inches from the nearest part of the bird in this case.

If my memory and understanding are not correct - inform me please.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Your Sony A7R4 is not a large format camera, it is a Full Frame (aprx the size of a 35mm frame), and so is the Canon 6DII. But the Sony is very high mega pixels at 61MP while the 6DII is 26.2MP. So the two sensors are almost identical in size (Canon 35.8x23.9mm - Sony 35.7x23.8mm) but the Sony is just short of 2 1/3 the MP of the 6DII.

Warning all those small pixels will be very sensitive to motion blur - my Canon 90D @ 32MP on an APS-C crop sensor is much more sensitive to motion blur than my 7DII @ 20MP on the same size sensor. But of course when lighting etc. allows a high SS to avoid the motion blur (or the subject is not moving) the larger number of MP will produce a more detailed image.

I think I got that right.

J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

Looks good

Bayou

...for emphasis. By converting your original RAW file to jpeg right off the bat, you're working with an already compromised file before you even begin your edits. The DNG file allows you to edit with the full amount of data in the original file, then export or save to jpeg at the end of the workflow. Best practice

steve Loc: Iowa

tcthome Loc: NJ

For wildlife, I try to put the focus point in the view finder on the subjects head or eye most of the time. Depending on the focal length of your lens & the distance from your subject to the back round, Aperture F5'6-F11. On a bird of this size I would recommend spot/single point focus. Photo looks alright with the eye & head a little out of focus. Just keep practicing and don't be afraid to try different settings & take note of the ones that work for you & your equipment.

rmcgarry331

Don,
I have been following your posts for a while, and your problem is not your photography skills. Your problem is the digital noise that you are creating during post processing. You have a particularly good selection of up-to-date cameras, but you are attempting to do your post processing with obsolete software. Since your new Sony A7Riiv entitles you to the Sony version of Capture One, I suggest you start there. Shoot some images with your new camera and use that for post processing. If that workflow makes sense for you upgrade to the full version. If not do a trial of Lightroom Classic and Photoshop 2021. With post processing of images that were shot well in camera, less is usually more. Although I do routinely move my images into Photoshop for final sharpening and clean-up of minute details, most work can be done in a modern raw converter like Capture One or Adobe Camera Raw/Lightroom Classic. I am attaching a screen capture of your image, that I processed in ACR in about 2 minutes. It shows the slider positions from the basic panel that made the feather detail pop. The only other adjustments I did were turn-on correct chromatic aberrations , and set sharpening to 24.

(Download)

willaim Loc: Sunny Southern California

Try focusing on the bird's eye. But the picture looks good to me.

JeffDavidson Loc: Originally Detroit Now Los Angeles

Generally focus on the eye and let the rest fall where it may. The eye looks a little soft.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Spot on and excellent 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

Murray Loc: New Westminster

Looks good from here

WDCash Loc: Milford, Delaware, USA

Great advice!

WDCash Loc: Milford, Delaware, USA

Don,
Wow, you have set a high bar for yourself. I completely get 2hy your competition does not want to help you improve, he wants to keep his job.

As others are pointing , out it seems your post processing is your boogeyman.
You have a fine camera and are getting another fine camera. But you seem to be cheeping out of processing tools.
I respectfully suggest that you may be being Penny wise and pound foolish. Your 6DII may well have been very adequate for what you want to do.May.

Please visit You tube, look up Anthony Morganti. I'll edit in a link

He has a series on Lightroom and Photoshop for Photographers. He is the best online teacher I have found.
Quickly go to Adobe and sign up for their Photographer package. Its a months fee for an annual license. Compared to your cameras its cheep.
Seriously focus on learning to edit your images. Almost all professional Photographs are edited to some degree. Really good works possibly to a greater degree. Think of processing (postprocessing) as dark room time. Its a vital and necessary part of the process.

Find a way to start practicing under the lighting conditions you will be shooting under, or want to be shooting under.

Shooting birds under natural light I s great fun but its another planet then shooting soccer under artificial sodium lighting. Perhaps contact the stadium/arena and ask them if you can come by and practice on their maintance crew. Also perhaps ask the team or teams if you can practice on their practice.( it might help to start building trust and relationship, team sport people understand practice)

Good luck
We are all cheering you on.