The TPU Darkroom - Digital SLR and Photography Club

[Aquinus]

So, leave tomorrow for 20-day Canada trip. Looking forward to seeing actual wildlife.

Come home from a last minute holiday shop and peek out to the back garden.

See this.....


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View attachment 258282

I feed the starlings....

By default, I feed the Hawks.

I raise your gory raptor photos with my own. The Red Tailed Hawk continues to impress me and they really love this garden area in the middle of a fairly populated town. Also, that gray squirrel never stood a chance.

It was sunny out so I was able to hit ISO 100 at ƒ8 which is fantastic.

 

[Space Lynx]

Looking at this thread on my work laptop resolution of 768p, and my jaw still drops. You all are so talented, it is unbelievable.

 

[Hyderz]

today i fired up my old a6000 that i bought in 2014... 8 years old camera oh boy... it still holds up
but the battery is shot lol, 25mins of usage ate up 40%...
do you think i should buy genuine sony batteries or use different brand but much cheaper battery...

 

[Chomiq]

today i fired up my old a6000 that i bought in 2014... 8 years old camera oh boy... it still holds up
but the battery is shot lol, 25mins of usage ate up 40%...
do you think i should buy genuine sony batteries or use different brand but much cheaper battery...

Genuine.

 

[Aquinus]

It's been a while since we've seen some activity on this thread. That's okay, because your driver has arrived.
My cheap EOS RP, with the not so cheap 24-105mm ƒ4 @ 67mm, ƒ4, 1/250s, ISO 500

Edit: Side note, the 24-70mm ƒ2.8 would have been really nice for this. So would have an R5, but we can't have everything.

 

[tabascosauz]

Back at it again, practice practice practice

Snowed in with 40cm overnight and got up early to shovel, so nothing better to do while the birds were still around

 

[grunt_408]

Back at it again, practice practice practice

Snowed in with 40cm overnight and got up early to shovel, so nothing better to do while the birds were still around

View attachment 275323

Great IQ and makes me wish i was there.

AAAAAAND just some of the violence i have been experiencing at my premises.... behold a smashed window with blood.

 

[tabascosauz]

Great IQ and makes me wish i was there.

AAAAAAND just some of the violence i have been experiencing at my premises.... behold a smashed window with blood.

The snowfall utterly shut down all of greater Vancouver, you don't want to be here right now on the bright side, I got some nice unexpected photos of my neighbour's dog that I'll post up soon

Beautiful shots, I credit your spiders with helping me overcome my fear of bugs this year (ongoing effort); I loved spending time sitting with my camera and my bees, wanna keep doing the same next year...........the glass is not so beautiful though, I hope that's not your blood

 

[grunt_408]

The snowfall utterly shut down all of greater Vancouver, you don't want to be here right now on the bright side, I got some nice unexpected photos of my neighbour's dog that I'll post up soon

Beautiful shots, I credit your spiders with helping me overcome my fear of bugs this year (ongoing effort); I loved spending time sitting with my camera and my bees, wanna keep doing the same next year...........the glass is not so beautiful though, I hope that's not your blood

I am glad I have helped you. Not my blood. Just the blood of an angry young man that came to my place to smash windows and threaten me. I have a very sore hand though as i punched a chopping board very hard and i think its broken haha swollen up like a balloon.

 

[robot zombie]

I am glad I have helped you. Not my blood. Just the blood of an angry young man that came to my place to smash windows and threaten me. I have a very sore hand though as i punched a chopping board very hard and i think its broken haha swollen up like a balloon.

Oooo man, get it looked at, please! Boxer's knuckle is no fun and you may not enjoy holding your camera the same again if you don't. Might have a fracture behind a knuckle joint, especially if there's a lot of swelling. The long bones in your hand like to break to punches. It can heal well, often with no rehab or surgery, but not if it doesn't heal right. You probably just need a fitted brace. I bet it's stuck in a fist. How's it feel to try and open the hand unassisted? If bad, no strength to open the fingers, I'd get it checked asap. You could lose nerve function in fingers from breaking the bones that break when you punch something and don't get treatment. Same ones implicated in carpal tunnel syndrome.

 

[grunt_408]

Oooo man, get it looked at, please! Boxer's knuckle is no fun and you may not enjoy holding your camera the same again if you don't. Might have a fracture behind a knuckle joint, especially if there's a lot of swelling. The long bones in your hand like to break to punches. It can heal well, often with no rehab or surgery, but not if it doesn't heal right. You probably just need a fitted brace. I bet it's stuck in a fist. How's it feel to try and open the hand unassisted? If bad, no strength to open the fingers, I'd get it checked asap. You could lose nerve function in fingers from breaking the bones that break when you punch something and don't get treatment. Same ones implicated in carpal tunnel syndrome.

Thank you. It is very swollen and painful but i am using it as much as i can. I feel it kind of bend if that makes sense when i use it. It is the least of my problems.

 

[robot zombie]

Thank you. It is very swollen and painful but i am using it as much as i can. I feel it kind of bend if that makes sense when i use it. It is the least of my problems.

Dang man, I hope you are okay. I'm not a doctor, but that definitely sounds broken. I have broken my hand there, though not from punching (not for not trying ) but crushing. I've seen 3 other people break their hands punching in my life. Lingering swelling and pain is basically a sure thing. That bending/shifting can't be a great sign.

Well... if for some reason you don't wanna get into you can't get it checked out, there are braces for that. Pinky side, right? Seek a pinky metacarpal brace. Wear it pretty much all of the time, for several weeks, no matter what you're doing with your hands that isn't washing them or washing you. Or something like eating. It's really important to keep the break supported with no movement, while not restricting anything unnecessarily. You actually want to use the hand while the brace has it stabilized, as long as there isn't pain or weight on the pinky or ring finger. It speeds up recovery when the bone has healed and you stop wearing one.

Ideally, you just wear it until you can see a doctor. They can look at the x-ray and form you a brace to help avoid complications that the generic ones might leave you with depending on the exact nature of the break.

I just don't want you to wind up with a disfigured, significantly less functional hand when what you need to avoid that is likely relatively simple. The break just has to stay secured and supported in the right places.

 

[grunt_408]

Dang man, I hope you are okay. I'm not a doctor, but that definitely sounds broken. I have broken my hand there, though not from punching (not for not trying ) but crushing. I've seen 3 other people break their hands punching in my life. Lingering swelling and pain is basically a sure thing. That bending/shifting can't be a great sign.

Well... if for some reason you don't wanna get into you can't get it checked out, there are braces for that. Pinky side, right? Seek a pinky metacarpal brace. Wear it pretty much all of the time, for several weeks, no matter what you're doing with your hands that isn't washing them or washing you. Or something like eating. It's really important to keep the break supported with no movement, while not restricting anything unnecessarily. You actually want to use the hand while the brace has it stabilized, as long as there isn't pain or weight on the pinky or ring finger. It speeds up recovery when the bone has healed and you stop wearing one.

Ideally, you just wear it until you can see a doctor. They can look at the x-ray and form you a brace to help avoid complications that the generic ones might leave you with depending on the exact nature of the break.

I just don't want you to wind up with a disfigured, significantly less functional hand when what you need to avoid that is likely relatively simple. The break just has to stay secured and supported in the right places.

Thanks heaps bro , God bless

 

[robot zombie]

Thanks heaps bro , God bless

Be well dude, I'm sure the dust will settle on whatever you're going through and you'll find your way forward. And then maybe you can grace us with more of those stellar macro shots.

 

[tabascosauz]

 

[Mussels]

Did someone say macro shots?

S22U is great, but night time limits what it can do
Especially when the subject is moving, or downright terrifying

This one was great, floofbird
(30x zoom on the phone, he saw me and floofed away milliseconds after this)

 

[tabascosauz]

As promised

 

[Mussels]

Yes well here's my dog in the biggest field of snow she's ever seen in her life

Yes she slept on a keyboard. Her idea.

I Swear this was in focus when i took it...

I went to re-take the cactus flower... it's gone already. single day bloom.

 

[Aquinus]

The middle of winter isn't exactly known for birds here in the Northeast US, however without the foliage on trees and and a little bit of luck, I found this guy. Nothing quite says America like a Bald Eagle. I've been playing with using APS-C mode because I like the reach of the crop and it seems to make focusing a bit easier. I've also been fiddling with the AF settings to be a little more responsive to movement and it seems to be working pretty well, although I can only imagine how much more sharp this image would be if I was using an R7 instead which I think might be my next investment because I think a common mount between full-frame and APS-C definitely adds to the versatility of the RF mount and I'm wholly committed to the platform at this point.

Either way, here's the image, with the Canon EOS RP in APS-C mode, with the RF100-400 @ 400mm, ƒ8, 1/640s, ISO 400. I did some post to this image but I didn't use the 5ks for it (the color profile and reproduction on those displays are second to none to be honest,) so I'm not sure how accurate the colors are, but I did my best.

 

[bug]

The middle of winter isn't exactly known for birds here in the Northeast US, however without the foliage on trees and and a little bit of luck, I found this guy. Nothing quite says America like a Bald Eagle. I've been playing with using APS-C mode because I like the reach of the crop and it seems to make focusing a bit easier. I've also been fiddling with the AF settings to be a little more responsive to movement and it seems to be working pretty well, although I can only imagine how much more sharp this image would be if I was using an R7 instead which I think might be my next investment because I think a common mount between full-frame and APS-C definitely adds to the versatility of the RF mount and I'm wholly committed to the platform at this point.

Either way, here's the image, with the Canon EOS RP in APS-C mode, with the RF100-400 @ 400mm, ƒ8, 1/640s, ISO 400. I did some post to this image but I didn't use the 5ks for it (the color profile and reproduction on those displays are second to none to be honest,) so I'm not sure how accurate the colors are, but I did my best.
View attachment 278192

Tbh that is a hard scene for any AF setting. Both composition and light/shadow make it hard to guess what it should focus on.
Also, afaik crop mode is no different from shooting full frame and cropping later yourself. At the same time, there's no harm in trying various settings.

And great shot, of course. I would see if I can tone down contrast. Mid-day sun always results in harsh scenes.

 

[Aquinus]

Also, afaik crop mode is no different from shooting full frame and cropping later yourself. At the same time, there's no harm in trying various settings.

I find that AF doesn't work as well if something is pretty small in the EVF. The crop seems to help narrow what the AF will lock on to and with the latest changes I made, it seems to do a pretty darn good job for a DIGIC 8 camera. I changed the AF in tracking+servo to start at a defined point which helped. I slightly increased the acceleration tracking which helps with objects that are moving. Between the crop and those two things, the AF works pretty well. This was a little challenging for the camera, but it got it.

I would see if I can tone down contrast. Mid-day sun always results in harsh scenes.

I actually did reduce the contrast, so maybe a little more is in order? Also, it was about 2:30pm or so and this time of year, the sun angle is super low. At this time of day, the sun angle is only something like 15° off the horizon.

 

[bug]

I find that AF doesn't work as well if something is pretty small in the EVF. The crop seems to help narrow what the AF will lock on to and with the latest changes I made, it seems to do a pretty darn good job for a DIGIC 8 camera. I changed the AF in tracking+servo to start at a defined point which helped. I slightly increased the acceleration tracking which helps with objects that are moving. Between the crop and those two things, the AF works pretty well. This was a little challenging for the camera, but it got it.

I wouldn't know, I'm a Nikon guy who hasn't tried mirrorless yet.

I actually did reduce the contrast, so maybe a little more is in order? Also, it was about 2:30pm or so and this time of year, the sun angle is super low. At this time of day, the sun angle is only something like 15° off the horizon.

That will do it. Pro shooters actually go out of their way to shoot at dawn. Anything else will not have the same "NatGeo" feeling. But it's still god enough for us, hobbyists.

For the second shot, I would just desaturate everything but the birds. Not all the way to grayscale, but until the colors are barely perceptible. The background is too busy and detracts attention from the main subjects (and I don't think you can blur it all nicely at this point).

 

[Aquinus]

The background is too busy and detracts attention from the main subjects (and I don't think you can blur it all nicely at this point).

There is only so much you can do when you're at ƒ8 at 400mm with the subjects that far away. This was more of me seeing how well my AF adjustments were working. I will say though, between how light the RP and the RF100-400 is, it's super nice being able to just leave the camera next to me in the car, run out and hand hold a shot at that distance. I wouldn't have got the shot of the Eagle if I didn't decide to just keep my camera with me in the car while I went out and did some things in town.

Either way, I'd like to think that every time I do this, I get a little better at it. Like any skill, practice makes perfect.

 

[bug]

There is only so much you can do when you're at ƒ8 at 400mm with the subjects that far away. This was more of me seeing how well my AF adjustments were working. I will say though, between how light the RP and the RF100-400 is, it's super nice being able to just leave the camera next to me in the car, run out and hand hold a shot at that distance. I wouldn't have got the shot of the Eagle if I didn't decide to just keep my camera with me in the car while I went out and did some things in town.

Either way, I'd like to think that every time I do this, I get a little better at it. Like any skill, practice makes perfect.

Absolutely. Wildlife is almost impossible to shoot in ideal conditions if you don't do it for a living. You snap what you can and make the most of it. After all, we're not selling those shots for $$$, we're just using them to remind us things.
Also yes, that's the old adage: the best camera in the world is the one you have with you right now

 

[Aquinus]

Also yes, that's the old adage: the best camera in the world is the one you have with you right now

...and sometimes that's your phone.