I think this is a Turkey Vulture

[Inspeqtor]

Took this photo this morning. C&C welcomed and wanted!
The only PP I did was to resize the photo in Photoshop Elements.

4833

Thank you for looking!

[Inspeqtor]

Here is another photo I took this morning. I cropped this photo a bit.

4834

[vawitt]

What a wingspan! If it is a turkey vulture, they are much pretty flying than they are hanging out in a tree... :eek:

[Inspeqtor]

What a wingspan! If it is a turkey vulture, they are much pretty flying than they are hanging out in a tree... :eek:

I have never seen one hangin out in a tree. I really wish I could! and yes I know they are ugly! :eek:

[frank abramonte]

Charles, if one decides to nest in one of your trees it's almost impossible to get rid of them. The most effective way is with either bright lights or loud noises through the night.
Hope that it's just passing through.

[Inspeqtor]

Frank,

I was at one of our county parks when I took these shots, so I don't think I have to worry about them nesting in my trees thank goodness!

I also saw a small doe at the park but I was unable to take a shot of her. I was driving my van, and she was just going from the road into the woods. ...sigh....

[fogdrip]

Charles -

Looks Turkey Vulture-like to me.

I zoomed in close and increased contrast and lightened shadows to look for the two-toned underwing - and there it was. While no expert, that's what I look for in Turkey Vultures.

I once came across a Turkey Vulture nest on the ground in an old redwood stump. Mom and Dad Vulture were not around, but there were several chick there. They are kind of cute when they are covered in whitish down. But, O Man - the smell. Wow!

I think this is a perfect opportunity to buy that huge lens to get in real close :D

Thanks for sharing,

Steve

[Inspeqtor]

Charles -

Looks Turkey Vulture-like to me.

I zoomed in close and increased contrast and lightened shadows to look for the two-toned underwing - and there it was. While no expert, that's what I look for in Turkey Vultures.

Steve,

I took the quick selection tool and selected only the bird, then CTRL-J to put that on it's own layer. I then tried Levels to change the contrast and to lighten the shadows, but it affected the entire photo. What did I do wrong?


I once came across a Turkey Vulture nest on the ground in an old redwood stump. Mom and Dad Vulture were not around, but there were several chick there. They are kind of cute when they are covered in whitish down. But, O Man - the smell. Wow!

I don't think I want to smell them from your description!


I think this is a perfect opportunity to buy that huge lens to get in real close :D

Thanks for sharing,

Steve

I agree with you! Are you going to donate to the Inspeqtor fund to buy a new lens?

Thank you for your kind and VERY GENEROUS gift!!! :p :D

[fogdrip]

Steve,

I took the quick selection tool and selected only the bird, then CTRL-J to put that on it's own layer. I then tried Levels to change the contrast and to lighten the shadows, but it affected the entire photo. What did I do wrong?

Nothing - I did the changes photo-wide then finished off with a crop to tighten in to the bird.


I don't think I want to smell them from your description!

I agree! ;)


I agree with you! Are you going to donate to the Inspeqtor fund to buy a new lens?

Thank you for your kind and VERY GENEROUS gift!!! :p :D

I'd be delighted to donate - except that with two boys in college - my wife and I have forgotten what money looks like! :p But I'm sure that others would be happy to donate to such a worthy cause.

Good luck,

Steve

[Not4wood]

Charles,
Great shot!! I think with all of the other topics, Birds are starting to make there presence known. We might get our own sub directory if we gather a few names????? :D

[Inspeqtor]

Nothing - I did the changes photo-wide then finished off with a crop to tighten in to the bird.

I know there is a way to change the contrast and levels on only the bird and be able to leave the background untouched. I just don't remember how to do it. :(


I'd be delighted to donate - except that with two boys in college - my wife and I have forgotten what money looks like! :p But I'm sure that others would be happy to donate to such a worthy cause.

Good luck,

Steve

I understand what you are going thru. My wife and I put our two daughters thru college a few years ago. Times were tough!

[Inspeqtor]

Charles,
Great shot!! I think with all of the other topics, Birds are starting to make there presence known. We might get our own sub directory if we gather a few names????? :D


Mark,

Thank you :) I would LOVE to have a bird sub-directory here in the forum!

What do you mean by gathering names? Are you referring to like a petition to give Rick?

[Chuck S.]

Charles, one quick way to bring up the shadows on the wings to see the lighter back edges is to open the image in Adobe Camera Raw (File>Open As>Camera Raw), then push the Fill Light slider to the right. You may also want to increase the Clarity slider as well. Easier (for me) than messing with layers, levels, etc. if all you want to do is get a quick peek.

[Inspeqtor]

Chuck,

Thanks for the tips! I will 'try' to remember that in the future.

Is there a camera setting I could use when shooting birds with a bright sky that would show more detail on the underside of the body of the birds so I don't have to do so much in Elements? It is always better to get it 'right' in the camera first when possible!!!

The problem with that is there is only a few seconds to get a shot of any bird while in flight :(
No time to fiddle with camera settings :(

[Chuck S.]

Charles, it's very difficult to get the 'right' settings for a BIF (bird in flight). The range of tones - from the bright sky to a dark(in this case) bird - may be pushed to the limits of what a digital camera can capture. A few things I might try:



Shoot in RAW mode; you may be able to get slightly more dynamic range (tonal range from highlights to shadows) than in JPEG mode.
Shoot in shutter priority mode (Tv in the case of Canon). Set a high enough shutter speed to stop action (I'm guessing you may need 1/500 second or faster to do that). This may require you to also increase the ISO to a higher value to give you a range of aperture values with which to work.
Bracket your exposures to give you darker, medium, and lighter copies to choose from or to combine as an HDR-like image.

I'll bet Lee Otsubo has some recommendations in this area; hopefully he'll chime in soon.

[MOOSE]

For future reference, when turkey vultures soar,their wings are up in a 'V' whereas eagles are flat out. One can usually tell what they are as far away as one can see them using this clue.

[Chuck S.]

There are dozens of online references to photographing birds in flight - just Google "camera settings birds in flight". Here's one I particularly liked:

Birds in Flight (http://www.digicamhelp.com/how-to/nature/flight/)

[Inspeqtor]

Chuck,

I have not been shooting RAW because the files are so huge. I would not want to shoot RAW all the time, but I could do it on occasion if I remember to change to RAW.

On this occasion it appears I was in Av mode with the lens wide open. My shutter speed was 1/800 to 1/1250 of the 8 shots I took, so I was good on the shutter speed.
I found another bird shot I took (also in Av mode) in early evening that was 1/200. That bird the head was OK for focus, but the wings were very blurry. I suspect then that your suggestion of 1/250 would also be too slow.

Bracketing is a very good idea. When it comes time I want to do it, I just have to remember HOW to do it, as I have never really used it before.

I am sure Lee would have some good suggestions if he does happen to see this thread :)

[Inspeqtor]

Al and Chuck,

I was taking my time composing the previous post while you both made your comments.

Thank you both for your comments, and Chuck thanks for the link!

[Chuck S.]

Charles, you're right - that 1/250 second was not a good recommendation, and I went back into my reply and changed it to 1/500 second. Even that may be a little slow for birds with rapid wingbeats - it certainly won't work for hummingbirds! :D

Regarding the large size of RAW files, I understand your point. I've upped the size of my memory cards to a minimum of 8 GB to fix that problem, but them I'm also running out of room on my laptop HD! Oh, well... :o Your proposed solution to selectively use RAW when you're in a situation where it might help is a good one.

Regarding the lens aperture, most lenses are at their sharpest when stopped down (increased f-stop) a bit. Like every exposure decision, you have a tradeoff; if you stop down your lens a bit, the shutter speed will suffer - unless you up the ISO! Decisions, decisions... No wonder so many experienced photographers wind up using manual mode...

[Inspeqtor]

Charles, you're right - that 1/250 second was not a good recommendation, and I went back into my reply and changed it to 1/500 second. Even that may be a little slow for birds with rapid wingbeats - it certainly won't work for hummingbirds! :D

Regarding the large size of RAW files, I understand your point. I've upped the size of my memory cards to a minimum of 8 GB to fix that problem, but them I'm also running out of room on my laptop HD! Oh, well... :o Your proposed solution to selectively use RAW when you're in a situation where it might help is a good one.

My current largest SD card is 4GB. I can get 200 RAW +Jpeg shots on that card which for me would be sufficient. My main concern is filling my hard drive so much faster if I use RAW too much.


Regarding the lens aperture, most lenses are at their sharpest when stopped down (increased f-stop) a bit. Like every exposure decision, you have a tradeoff; if you stop down your lens a bit, the shutter speed will suffer - unless you up the ISO! Decisions, decisions... No wonder so many experienced photographers wind up using manual mode...

At least now that we have digital we can CHANGE the ISO on the fly! We could not do that 'back in the day'! I have been so happy I live in today's world, and not back in the early 1900's.... or even earlier!

[Daviskw]

Hey Chuck

Have you ever tried separating focus from the shutter release for in flight photography?

I’ve heard you set the focus to AI Servo then set the custom function IV to 2…Metering Start/Metering+AF Start.

I believe this allows you to hold the AF-on Button for continuous focus while tracking and the shutter release only for exposure.

Makes thing a lot more responsive a quick shutter...at least that is what they say.

Butch

[Chuck S.]

Butch, what a great tip! I'll have to dive into the menus to see how that's done. Thanks a bunch!

EDIT: I see that option is available on the 40D, but not on the XSi. I'll give it a try the next time I lug the big camera into the field!

[ljameso1]

Definitely a turkey vulture. Can indeed program exposure lock to be focus lock instead. Which custom function it is depends on the camera so check your manual. I'm getting more keepers with birds in flight, so will add a couple tips I've figured out. Manual exposure. The creative modes including aperture priority routinely underexpose dark birds and overexpose light birds. While you can shift the exposure to compensate I find it's one less thing to keep track of if I set my exposure manually. I typically meter off a midtone and adjust the settings depending how much darker or lighter than midtone I think the bird is and tweak after viewing histogram. Set the focus to the center dot and try to lock in on the eye leaving enough space to crop a pleasing composition later, so don't have to add deciding composition into the mix as well. With heavier zooms go for shutter speeds in the 1/1000-1/2000 range.

[Inspeqtor]

Hey Chuck

Have you ever tried separating focus from the shutter release for in flight photography?

I’ve heard you set the focus to AI Servo then set the custom function IV to 2…Metering Start/Metering+AF Start.

I believe this allows you to hold the AF-on Button for continuous focus while tracking and the shutter release only for exposure.

Makes thing a lot more responsive a quick shutter...at least that is what they say.

Butch

Butch,

I always have AI Servo turned on.

I looked in the Custom Functions in the XSi but could not find Metering Start/Metering+AF Start :(