Falconry Day

[Phill D]

Dave you can post shots to the gallery and then copy and paste the code below into your thread.
Some lovely shots on your Flickr site.

[cinders]

Gosh, what brilliant shots. I'm green with envy - please can we do another of these, somewhere more central? ..... I've got so much to learn.

[marsta]

Hi Phil,

Yes RAW files....not sure what to make of them, I cannot see much difference to my usual jpg files when I try to process them.

I use lightroom to process, not sure if that makes any difference, I may try to look at the files in Olympus Viewer to see if that makes a difference

I can sort of follow Andy's logic of using RAW to help the camera cpu so will be trying it on my next trip to a racetrack to see what I think.

At the moment I am thinking to stick to jpg

Cheers
Mark

[oly_om]

I must make an apology for not canvassing who uses raw vs JPG first - I shoot exclusively in raw and my workflow is based on that.

You can get a lot more detail out the highlights and shadows, particularly in high contrast situations (black and white birds on a sunny day being a classic example). I was surprised to see how many folks aren't familiar with the raw workflow - cue another training day, I think!

I'll try to put together some hints together with the other tutorials. I'll also post a few comparisons showing JPG out-of-camera vs raw tweaked for optimum settings.

Apologies

Andy

[marsta]

OK, so I guess most of you know this but in Lightroom in the Develop module I can change the profile from Adobe Standard to one of the camera presets (Muted, Natural Portrait or Vivid) and using Natural it makes a big difference to the image as shown on screen.

Jeez this is getting complicated :-)

I also had a look at some files in Olympus Viewer and the changes to the RAW file were much more obvious than when I was using Lightroom.

Cheers
Mark

[oly_om]

Originally Posted by davy59

Hi everyone!

Had a great day on Sunday but so far not been able to post anything as I can't figure out how to upload the images, I am sure I will eventually find out how!

Really enjoyed the challenge, I used Andy's settings to start with but I found I had to up the recommended shutter speed a bit when the birds were flying/hovering towards me. I have done a lot of aviation work but I was really surprised at just how hard you had to work, some of the other members images on here are amazing, sorry I mean all of them!

Was really pleased to see the EM-1 can cope with moving subject and will be upgrading my E5 next year or asap, bit of a big purchase to get past the wife. The odd Micro 3/4 lens is small enough to get in the house without her noticing. Furthermore having borrowed the amazing 75mm I also want, sorry need one of these now!

I was a bit dubious about the longevity of the E-M5 vs the E-5. I use my camera a lot, it's a work tool and it doesn't get babied. However, the E-M1 fully fits the bill - a much more robust feeling thing with many advantages over the E-5. You won't be disappointed with an upgrade.

Andy

[oly_om]

Originally Posted by marsta

OK, so I guess most of you know this but in Lightroom in the Develop module I can change the profile from Adobe Standard to one of the camera presets (Muted, Natural Portrait or Vivid) and using Natural it makes a big difference to the image as shown on screen.

Jeez this is getting complicated :-)

I also had a look at some files in Olympus Viewer and the changes to the RAW file were much more obvious than when I was using Lightroom.

Cheers
Mark

I have a standard settings (the 'default' for the camera in LR). It's a base point that I adjust from. I'll share these on a separate thread. But, just to keep you going (I'm off to help the RSPCA with videos now!! :-) ), I use 'Natural' rather than Adobe standard.

Andy

[marsta]

Hi Andy,

No need to apologise, days like these are great ways for us all to try different things and get out of our comfort zones.

A training day sounds like a great idea to me.

Cheers
Mark

[Bruce Clarke]

Originally Posted by marsta

OK, so I guess most of you know this but in Lightroom in the Develop module I can change the profile from Adobe Standard to one of the camera presets (Muted, Natural Portrait or Vivid) and using Natural it makes a big difference to the image as shown on screen.

Jeez this is getting complicated :-)

I also had a look at some files in Olympus Viewer and the changes to the RAW file were much more obvious than when I was using Lightroom.

Cheers
Mark

There isn't much point in shooting Raw if you only choose one of the presets, as that can be done in camera. I usually spend several minutes in LR on a typical image from a shoot, tweaking the main adjustments. You can then copy those settings, and paste onto as many other shots as you like, or even save it as a new preset. Minor changes to exposure etc are then very quick for similar shots. Personally, I usually start from the Adobe default, rather than using the new Oly profiles.

Shooting dark birds against the sky usually requires a lot of shadow recovery, and shooting Raw gives you the power to do this far than is possible with JPGs.

[oly_om]

The key to dark birds against a bright sky is the right exposure in the first place. That's why I advocate manual exposure rather than aperture priority. Exposure comp to add a stop or two doesn't work well when birds fly between sky and dark backgrounds. Just boosting the shadows inevitably leads to a noisier image than is desirable.

Andy

[Phill D]

No apology necessary Andy it was the kick up the backside I needed to start exploring RAW. As it was the only way to look at the shots I'd taken I didn't have much choice but to learn a bit at least. I've dabbled with OV3 and Picassa so far but Peter Birder's suggestion of Faststone Viewer is my favourite so far. It's let me view RAW files as easily as if they were jpgs and has some simple editing capability as well. Definitely worth a try Mark. Just a start I guess and I think I'll still shoot jpg for general use.

[Phill D]

Here are a few more now I've started to get to grips with RAW. Shot with the 75-300.

[Bruce Clarke]

Originally Posted by oly_om

The key to dark birds against a bright sky is the right exposure in the first place. That's why I advocate manual exposure rather than aperture priority. Exposure comp to add a stop or two doesn't work well when birds fly between sky and dark backgrounds. Just boosting the shadows inevitably leads to a noisier image than is desirable.

Andy

I'm usually shooting red kites against a blue sky, so +1 to +1.7 works fine most of the time. I will give manual a try next time though, as it gives you flexibility to shoot with any background without fiddling. I agree absolutely about getting the exposure right in camera. Raws then give you the scope to lighten the shadows to match what the eye/brain perceives.

[themosttogain]

Unfortunately the sequence was out of focus so not worth sharing the full size, but I couldn't resist sharing this one as the 4th image in the sequence made me giggle!

[Wee man]

Davy59 I normally only look at shots posted on this site or in the gallery. Glad I decided to check out your shots as suggested you have some great shots.