Garden Studio - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

06/06/2004 10:51:33 AM · #1

Finaly having some free time I have started too setup a small garden studio to capture shots of the native birds, butterflies and etc.

The following are some of my first attempts.

I took these shots this morning under the following conditions:

Cloudy

I used a high ISO setting of 1600 to get the high shutter speed of 1/2000 sec to stop the hummingbirds wings. Hopefully when the sun returns I will be able to use the lower ISO settings. They are nice shots for small printing 8x10 and smaller.

Hummer:

Rockin' Robin:

Comments are welcome as always :)

Edit:

I shot these in RAW mode and the only thing I have done to them was adjust the exposure up 1 and converted to jpg.

Message edited by author 2004-06-06 10:53:10.

soup

Canon EOS-30D

06/06/2004 11:59:24 AM · #2

hmm, i left comments, but there is serious noise in the blues as i see it, and i had thought you must have messed with it.

i'm not sure i see as much noise at iso 1600, with my camera?

EDIT: typically i dont shoot in raw, but would think that would help eliminate some of the noise.

Message edited by author 2004-06-06 11:59:54.

06/06/2004 05:46:02 PM · #3

Soup

I did nothing to the RAW files other than pushed them up one stop in Photoshop because it was so cloudy and the fast shutter speed. I want to shoot them with natural light and not strobes.

I can probably run Fred Miranda's ISO noise reduction or etc and clean them up a bit. But not bad considering. I did a quick 4x6 print and it looks great.

07/02/2004 04:52:12 PM · #4

The Hummingbird/Butterfly garden and my landscaping are all most complete at this stage. I have more to do but I thought I would share a snapshot I took while working in the yard. It was hand held with the large 80-400mm and my hands were shaky from digging but over all not to bad :)

I have a few more in my portfolio if you care to browse.

Garden Studio

ButterflySis

Canon EOS-50D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

07/02/2004 07:03:07 PM · #5

Great stuff, Robin! Love these. I left you some comments.

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

07/02/2004 07:30:44 PM · #6

Jen, Laurie and Sonifo; thanks for the great comments.

The setting was great. It was early morning and I was setting at the table on the patio taking a break when the females were arriving regularly to the feeders.

I have yet to capture one of the elusive males :) their bright red and white chests are just great. I have noticed that the males are the ones that will actually stop and rest on the hummingbird feeder perches! Everytime the males have showed I was working on the garden and did not have a camera with me. I want to get a shot of this real bad when I get settled with all the work I will have a better chance at it.

I will be taking a break this weekend :) The 4th of July is my Birthday :) we won't alk about how old I am. LOL

Originally posted by ButterflySis:

Great stuff, Robin! Love these. I left you some comments.

Flash

Nikon D700

07/02/2004 11:23:43 PM · #7

Well I'm not sure how old your are.....but my guess is that you're pretty old. In fact I'd say that you were really really really old. I mean like, way way old. Not too old, just pretty darn old.

But you sure take good pictures....especially for an old guy.

Anyway, happy birthday, hope all is grand.

Flash

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

07/02/2004 11:28:31 PM · #8

I was going to use this one...

but according to Flash I'd need to enter it about 500 times to get the number of candles right! LOL

Sonifo

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

07/03/2004 12:36:55 AM · #9

Originally posted by Flash:

LOL