wham121736 Loc: Long Island, New York

I have been testing my relatively new Sigma 150-600 lens on birds, some in flight. Comments and critical critique accepted.

1 A pair of White Ibis (EUDOCIMUS albus) building nest

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2 Female Anhinga (ANHINGA, anhinga) preening

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3 Pied-billed Grebe (PODILYMBUS, podiceps) in water

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4 Yellow-rumped Warbler (DENDROICA coronata)

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5 Great Blue Heron (ARDEA herodias)

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6 Boat tail Grackle (QUISCALUS major)

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7 Great Egret (ARDEA alba) in nuctal plumage

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8 Great Egret (ARDEA alba) in flight

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9 Immature Glossy Ibis (PLEGADIS falcinellus).

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10 .Female Anhinga (ANHINGA anhinga) with catch

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DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Beautiful job! Where in Florida did you go? Looks like the right place!

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Great set.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Great captures with your new lens. Looks like you have a sharp keeper.

fergmark Loc: norwalk connecticut

You are really getting in there with that lens. When I began shooting the white birds I was bothered by the blown whites. I began using some exposure compensation and was much happier to have all the details preserved. You might give it a try. Could be me, but I would rather recover some of the darks in post, than fight for the lights.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Great images! Way beyond my skill level - I think that's why I mostly shoot still lifes, landscapes, and abandoned places.

Welcome to the group!

Andy

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Hey wham121736, as a reminder, posts in this section should contain only one image. The rules state: One photo is allowed per thread. No exceptions! (https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-279264-1.html)

I mention the rule (their ! emphasis, not mine) not to give you a hard time, but to emphasize that looking at one image in isolation might prove more helpful to your development. I downloaded all of them and looked at the details of the grackle. Seeing you're shooting an EOS body, I was hoping to see the location of the focus point(s). Alas, the Canon EOS-specific data has been striped by Photoshop, a limitation of all the Adobe products. I did notice your image was posted using the Adobe RGB colorspace rather than the online standard of sRGB. You might have noticed the thumbnail versions of your images didn't look the same as your edited results. You should review your workflow so that you create your for-sharing JPEGs in the sRGB colorspace.

Continuing with the grackle, the feather detail, the eye and exposure are very nice. I selected this image as the bird is facing toward the camera and the light is less than bright / full light. The available EXIF data shows the lens was wide open at f/6.3 at the maximum zoom of 600mm. I don't know that you could have been slower or stepped down slightly in this lower light, but if you compare this image to the other images at f/7.1 or f/8, it seems the lens is a bit sharper stepped down, even slightly, from wide open.

It looks like there was some clean-up of the image in front / to the right of the grackle's chest and at the tip of the branch supporting the bird. The focus on the eye and chest of the bird so completely grab my eye, the background work is not distracting. Your clean-up succeeded in isolating the bird in the frame. But, you might look at your tools and how to you can more completely blend-in these repairs so they're completely invisible in the final result.

The cropping and processing on all the attachments are very nice as well as the light on the birds. Also important, the birds are mostly facing toward the camera. Keeping the shutterspeed a bit faster will help, where some of the images like the Anhinga has the light to go higher on both the shutter and ISO to better freeze the bird in the image avoiding subject blur in the details. Keep up the great work!

wham121736 Loc: Long Island, New York

thanks!

wham121736 Loc: Long Island, New York

Most were taken in Delray Beach at Wakodahatchee Wetlands on Jog Road, others at
green Cay wetlands on Hagen Ranch rd. and few at Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee on rte. 7.

wham121736 Loc: Long Island, New York

PixelStan, Thanks.

wham121736 Loc: Long Island, New York

Andy, Glad you liked them. Keep shootinh and try new things.

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

Liked the series Wham. That's one big fish for that last bird to swallow!

wham121736 Loc: Long Island, New York

CHG CANON
My bad. I did not read the rules regarding number of images for my first post. Likewise I forgot to send as sRGB. I usually try to shoot at f/8 when I can, shooting in aperture priority. I will concentrate on doing a better job of blending in the future. Thanks so much for taking the time to analyze my work and for your encouragement.

wham121736 Loc: Long Island, New York

I often shoot a 3 exposure series, +/- 1/3 so that I have three chances to get the best exposure and always check for blur and the histogram for clipping. I need to remember to shoot to the right to capture the highlights. Thanks for the advice.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

As Chg Canon mentioned, the rules state only one image to be posted. I'll be happy to take a detailed look if you will select ONE image to be critiqued.