All quiet on the western front - PM 2023

[pedro maia]

On 7/10/2023 at 1:56 PM, Dave Williams said:

I think you are doing really well Pedro. You have chosen to start with the most difficult of subjects, small birds in flight, so don't expect miracles straight away.

DPP is very good as a way of looking at your photos and deciding which to keep. I give them a grade as I go through them then use the sort tool and delete in a batch. 30fps is a beast though. I waste too much time deleting at 20fps!

 

I would highly recommend using your shutter button to both take shots and to AF using a single AF point. Set up your rear AF-on to animal eye detect ( Orange menu, page three "customise buttons")

Pre-focus with a half press of the shutter button as Tony described then when you have the range press the AF-on button at the same time as pressing the shutter button and the bird should easily be tracked so all you have to do is keep it in the frame.

 

 

Turns out that my pleistocenic computer doesn´t support DPP, I´ll have try another way.

 

I´m using animal eye detection, but I´m using the AF button to pre-focusing and then keep it pressed and press the shutter button, you´re tip is to half press the shutter button before doing that?

[Dave Williams]

1 hour ago, pedro maia said:

 

Turns out that my pleistocenic computer doesn´t support DPP, I´ll have try another way.

 

I´m using animal eye detection, but I´m using the AF button to pre-focusing and then keep it pressed and press the shutter button, you´re tip is to half press the shutter button before doing that?

 My suggestion is to have the shutter button activated to both AF and take shots but have it set to a single AF point to more accurately find your intended subject or set a distance. Use all the AF points when using the AF-on button to AF and if the single point has found the subject the back button should find the eye when you press it.. 

[michael-ibk]

I agree with the others Pedro - very impressive efforts. Songbirds are difficult enough when perching even and it's dastardly difficult to catch them in flight. And like Tony said, for any good BIF shot at least 50 others are rubbish. 🙂

[Soukous]

On 7/9/2023 at 8:53 PM, PeterHG said:

my OM-1 camera has a special feature where it buffers shots in the camera as long as you half-press the shutter button. When the bird takes off, you fully press the shutter and it has also kept the previous 10-15 frames, so even if your reaction is too slow (mine usually is) the camera has still captured the actual take-off moment.

 

does this work if you're shooting RAW? On my Nikon it only works with JPEGS

[Soukous]

20 hours ago, pedro maia said:

Turns out that my pleistocenic computer doesn´t support DPP

 

You could try Adobe Digital Negative Converter. It converts RAW files into DNG format which can be read by most processing programs. My version of Lightroom is old and cannot read RAW (NEF) files from newer model Nikons, so I convert them to DNG and it works just fine.

 

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/camera-raw/using/adobe-dng-converter.html

[pedro maia]

3 hours ago, Soukous said:

 

You could try Adobe Digital Negative Converter. It converts RAW files into DNG format which can be read by most processing programs. My version of Lightroom is old and cannot read RAW (NEF) files from newer model Nikons, so I convert them to DNG and it works just fine.

 

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/camera-raw/using/adobe-dng-converter.html

 

Thanks for the tip, I might try that, anyway, I´m in the process of buying a new computer, when that happens I´ll be able to use DPP.

[PeterHG]

8 hours ago, Soukous said:

does this work if you're shooting RAW?

Yes, it does.

[pedro maia]

I made a quick experience (didn´t really care about focusing and didn´t edit the photos) and it works, and I can extract the photos from the the raw files in the camera as jpg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It´s going to be a long weekend.

Edited July 12, 2023 by pedro maia

[shazdwn]

Some difficult birds to catch in flight there, well done 

[pedro maia]

Moving on...

 

BIF60 Zitting cisticola  (Cisticola juncidis)

 

 

Raw burst mode, must improve the focus.

[pedro maia]

BIF61 Corn bunting (Emberiza calandra)

 

[pedro maia]

BIF62 Bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica)

[pedro maia]

BIF63 Curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea)

 

 

[pedro maia]

BIF64 Red knot (Calidris canutus)

[pedro maia]

BIF65 Grey plover (Pluvialis squatarola)

[pedro maia]

Improvements on the Dunlin and the Common redhank:

 

 

[pedro maia]

Today I went to Cabo Raso, 20m from home, close to Cascais, and the place to go here for sea birds, it´s possible to see intesting species but it´s not good for pictures, only record shots, to take nice pictures of sea birds I´ll have to go to a pelagic trip, but that won´t happen soon.

 

I got a new species for my Portugal (fist of the year) and World lists, but to call these record shots is an overstatement, they are classic EBC´s.

 

BIF66 (PT301, W699) Yelkouan shearwater (Puffinus yelkouan)

 

 

[pedro maia]

BIF67 Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus)

 

 

[pedro maia]

BIF68 Cory's shearwater (Calonectris borealis)

[pedro maia]

BIF69 Mediterranean gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus)

 

[pedro maia]

BIF70 Northern gannet (Morus bassanus)

[pedro maia]

BIF71 European shag  (Gulosus aristotelis)

[pedro maia]

BIF72 Yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis)

 

[Galana]

You are certainly pushing the envelope here. both in camera technique and ID.

[pedro maia]

3 hours ago, Galana said:

You are certainly pushing the envelope here. both in camera technique and ID.

 

If you´re talking about the Yelkouan, of course it wasn´t me who made the ID.