Fall blend

[buzzsaw]

It was nice on Saturday, so I got to do a bunch of "fall chores" as opposed to going duck hunting or on any photo hikes. Then of course I had a pass on Sunday and it was overcast all day, which meant ISO 800 and noise removal would be in play on the PP end of things. I decided to try and work in some of the fall colors and here's what I came away with.

Chickadee

Junco

White Breasted Nuthatch

White Crowned Sparrow (Immature) I'm not 100% sure on that I.D. however.

Chickadee ( slightly soft in the face )

I shot these in Raw all at ISO 800 and PP'd them in ACR. I did some slight sharpening in raw as well as tweaking the exposure a hair and pulling up the colors a bit as they are naturally more muted in Raw. Then I pulled them over the CS3 and applied Noiseaware noise removal and converted back to 8 bit to save as a jpeg for web purposes. I will say that as a relative newbie to Raw, it is as advertised... awesome! The only downside to Raw vs Jpeg is that the size of a picture is about 3 to 4 times larger and it takes more time to dump images on the hard drive... but it really is worth it guys.

[Steve Foss]

Beautiful stuff, Buzz. ISO 800 is no challenge for these great DSLR sensors anymore, is it? Not with the noise removal abilities of a number of programs.

These are excellent. I especially love the fall color backdrop. A stunning backdrop turns a chickadee into a lot more than a chickadee.

I also recommend RAW for anyone who has a PP program that can read the format and who has the little bit of extra time it takes to work with it. Great results, as you've shown here.

[buzzsaw]

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Beautiful stuff, Buzz. ISO 800 is no challenge for these great DSLR sensors anymore, is it? Not with the noise removal abilities of a number of programs.

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Thanks, Steve. ISO 800 on the D200 is pretty darn noisy, if not for a good noise removal software program I would have easilly deleted all of these.

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These are excellent. I especially love the fall color backdrop. A stunning backdrop turns a chickadee into a lot more than a chickadee

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Adding elements to an image really ramps up an images eye appeal, I am always looking for ways to make a picture more eye appealing.

[Steve Foss]

Buzz, sorry to hear that about iso800. I've made it a habit to "expose to the right" or expose for the highlights by using exposure compensation and moving the histogram as far to the right as possible without cutting off (blowing out) any highlights. That helps with noise.

Of course, you probably know that and do that, just thought it was worth pointing out in case you didn't, and it's a good tip for photography in general.

[buzzsaw]

Your all good in my book, Steve! Yes, I do know that you can use the "recovery" button in ACR to gain back blown out area's and that noise lurks in the dark area's of our shots. I was actually shooting at -1/3 EV and sacrificing DOF to get the shutter speed up the where it needed to be (atleast on some shots). The nice thing about RAW is you can over or underexpose atleast a full stop and some say a few stops in camera and still bring it back in PS if you shot in RAW, and like Mickey Dolenz said "I'm a believer".

Hey Steve, do you recognize this place?

It would have been a good HDR attempt if I would have thought of bracketing it.

[Steve Foss]

Hmmmm, spot on Burnside, perhaps? I don't recognize it, I'm afraid. C'mon! Give me a hint!

Mike with the basic image exposed for the highlights you've posted here, you can use the blending technique I described in the other thread to even out the exposure and give it an HDR look.

[buzzsaw]

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Mike with the basic image exposed for the highlights you've posted here, you can use the blending technique I described in the other thread to even out the exposure and give it an HDR look

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I need to try that, thank you.

This is in your backyard!! I want to say it was August 25th? I was on my way up to Orr for the Black Bears and had a day to kill so I visited Ely. That was taken after you walk out from the beach onto that point (cross a wooden foot bridge) on Lake Shagawa. Kinda by the beach area.

[Steve Foss]

Yep, I got it now. I was just out there last weekend.

[buzzsaw]

You wouldn't believe how many Warblers were flying all over the place when I was there!! If I lived up there I'd be having a hay day with those lil' beauties.

[Steve Foss]

It's my understanding that more species of wood warblers nest in northeastern Minnesota than anywhere else in the U.S.

[Jim Almquist]

All great shots Buzz. Its good to see your posts on this site again.

[Dbl]

Thats some nice work there Mike, beautiful backgrounds really make these stand out.

[jonny_redhorse]

Sweet ...Boss....Sweet!...as they say!....wonderful captures Buzz!

[Dotch]

Have always admired your photographic talents Mike and these are excellente. Very timely too. Watched the last 'dees leave the feeders about 6:30 tonite. All is right with the world when they're around.

[buzzsaw]

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It's my understanding that more species of wood warblers nest in northeastern Minnesota than anywhere else in the U.S.

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Steve, I had flocks and I mean FLOCKS of Black and Whites, Cerulean, Blackburnians, Nashville and others that I forget. It was all on that point where I took that pic on Shagawa lake... I was in awe! If I had more time I would have done a set up with the sun at my back and had a nice clean BG and then pished them in.

Thanks for the nice comments guys, I always appreciate the feedback.