Still fixated on Montezuma Quail

[carolyn]

I can't help it. When I get focused on something it's hard to unfocus. It didn't help that I've been able to shoot with master photographers lately. Today again I had tons of fun and shot tons of photos. Here are just a few of my favorites. I think I'm improving. I'm learning about set-up photography. The titmouse wasn't my set-up, I just took advantage of it. The quail aren't as cooperative and only appear briefly so one has to take what one can get.

[Imre]

The titmouse is perfect. And having the quail looking directly at you is great!

[Jolly Jalapeno]

What Imre said.  Since you are learning about set up, does that mean you are going to carry a perch with you?

[Chuck B]

You got a couple of wall hangers in this set Carolyn. The Titmouse is awsome and all I can see it needs is a little noise reduction. Everything about this shot you nailed.
The head on Quail is perfect just as presented.
The Ladder-backed WP is angled away and depth of field made for a sharp wing and perch but his head is a little soft. Try to get side shots or angled toward you when you can and focus on the eye.
The bottom Quail is a bit hot and over exposed but if you keep practicing as much as you have been you'll be making adjustments on the fly in no time.
You done good Carolyn.

I should have said the rocks were over exposed...the quail is fine...my bad.

[carolyn]

Thanks guys. I de-noised the titmouse and reposted it. I think I lost some sharpness in the process. Oh, well. I played around with that last one trying to make the background blur. It's problematical because I had to lighten the bird and that blew out the background. I took soooo many shots and I like a lot of them, but don't want to post them endlessly, but maybe I'll post just a couple more.

[carolyn]

What Imre said.  Since you are learning about set up, does that mean you are going to carry a perch with you?

Terry, I won't go that far. I plan on just doing it at my place, and I'l make some permanent set-up there (I already started renovating last year's water feature) and other than that I'll scrounge around my oasis for fresh twigs etc to work with, or not. One thing I do plan to do is get a great set-up photo of a Lucifer Hummingbird at a flower. The secret it to take an eyedropper and put sugar water into the flower and make sure nothing else is available and position it near a feeder the hummers are used to coming to.

[Chuck B]

Carolyn, here is your Titmouse shot after I ran Neat Image on it. It did a good job of cleaning up the background noise without affecting the subject at all. I'm still using the trial version of Neat Image because it'll work on images no larger than 1024px on the long side and since I don't print that's good enough for me.

[Imre]

Carolyn,
What kind of noise reduction software are you using? Even a modest degree of luminence (luma) noise reduction will quickly wipe out fine detail. Chroma (color) noise reduction can be safely used very aggresively; it just turns color (blotchy) noise into uniform (monochromatic) noise. In my experience, sometimes a very small amount of luminence noise reduction is required before chroma noise reduction takes effect; please don't ask me why, it just seems to work that way.
Hope this helps,
Imre

[Imre]

Chuck,
You did a great job with Neat Image. Are you willing to share your settings with us?
Imre

[Chuck B]

LOL...auto profile Imre. Never have problems with clean backgrounds like in this shot. Busy backgrounds can be a problem and on those I usually just stay away. 

[carolyn]

Chuck, you did awesome. Thank you so much. I'll just remove my original. I'm embarrassed to admit what noise reduction I use. I do adobe photoshop and under noise I click on despeckle.   OK, here are a couple more pics and then that's all for now.

[Chuck B]

Beauties Carolyn. Great detail on these. How close to them would you say you were?
And don't get me wrong, the amount noise in your original Titmouse shot is perfectly acceptable. I just like playing with Neat Image because it does such a good job. I've seen award winning photos with more noise than your original so put it back up. It's a good one.

[carolyn]

Thanks, Chuck. I never took it down because I figure that would mess up the subsequent dialogue, but I'd sure like to. That close up I just posted was so close that I couldn't get it all in the frame. It didn't occur to me to zoom out. It all happened too fast. The quail didn't know we were there and came up to about 8 feet from us. The pro with the 600mm lens couldn't do a thing and I was snapping away.

[Jolly Jalapeno]

The pro with the 600mm lens couldn't do a thing and I was snapping away.

Just goes to show that bigger is not always better.  Great shots!  I like those serendipity moments when things just come together like that.

[Tom/Pat]

WOW! Wow! Wow!
The keep getting better .
Great Job. Chuck you made a nice shot excellent.
Carolyn has come a long way in a very short time.

Heck I will say it again - wow!-
 Tom