I’ve been having more luck than I deserve with the R5, with both old EF lenses and the new RF 100-500. I see these hawks fairly often, but they are usually at about 10,000 ft. They were very high and small in the frame here but I needed the target practice, and succeeded beyond my hopes.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
All comments welcome! Would like to know if the one in the back is a mate, or maybe the juvenile that I saw earlier in the year. I’ve often seen three of them together. Also any idea why the landing gear is down – it often is when I see them circling around.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Canon R5, Canon RF 100-500 + 1.4X at 700mm, ISO 1250, f/10, +1 EC, 1/800 sec (very thin ice). In LR, HUGE crop, to 8.4% of the original frame. Then a slight increase in Exposure (half-stop), Highlights all the way down to bring up the sky, and Shadows opened up slightly. To PS for Topaz DeNoise with a touch of its sharpening algorithm, then to the Camera Raw filter in PS for a bump of Texture, to increase local contrast for a further pseudo-sharpening effect. (Much better to do this on the noise-free file than initially in LR.)
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From my books I would say the front bird is as you say a female and the back bird a male. As for the landing gear it is a guess but I think it is to help stabilize the birds and help control flight as they drift around.
Nice photo and really good quality considering size of crop. Nice to see those back lite tails.
Hi Diane
Really nice looking hawks. great color and detail. Here is were I get lost. The R5 has a Frame of 8192 by 5464 full frame and 5088 by 3392 cropped to a C format. A 8.4% of full frame is 688 by 458. The photograph you posted was 2214 by 1698, what software did you use to bump the shot up. The second question I have, at what time should I switching from full frame to C format. Your 100-500mm & 1.4x = 700mm in full frame. In C format it is 750mm without the extended and 1050mm with it. Now in the C format and 1050mm I should see a larger pair of hawks in my view finder and the down loaded file? Or am I just nuts.
You have a nice photograph, keep shotting.
Peter
Very nice look at the pair. Like the backlit tail feathers. I have a question similar to Peter’s: Do you ever use the C format feature in the R5 and if so how do shots compare to full frame and then cropped later?
The way I see it, you have the same pixel density whether you shoot in full frame or C format. Yes there are advantages to shooting in C format with respect to focusing and composition in the camera. But if you shoot full frame you can always crop down to C format.
Diane:
I think the bird on the left side is a tad sharper than the bird in the right side. You have a better head image on the right bird. Despite this slight difference in focus that I see I think it is close enough to make an interesting 2 Hawk shot. You might wish to look at my processing explanation using the Topaz products with respect to large crop images and how to improve them. Yes it’s complicated.
Thanks guys! Looking at the raw file at 1:1, I do think the one in back maybe ever so slightly sharper. Peter, I got the 8.4% by dividing the total pixels in the cropped version by the total in the original frame, and multiplying by 100. To get the JPEG posted, I just exported it in LR from the .psd file, to a standard preset of 2500x2500 pixels that I use for NPN.
I’ve never used the C format. I’ve always through, as David says, that it’s just a crop factor. I’ll crop later, in PS. I don’t know if it magnifies the field in the EVF but easy to check.
David, I did see your post and intend to try it asap. I’m always interested in IQ improvements. Just now we are under the next severe fire weather alert and we’ve been packing some things to be ready for a fast escape if necessary. We’ve got it down to a routine by now and I think I have the rest of the afternoon to escape into my alternate universe with the computer.
I’m not delighted with the esthetics of birds against a clear sky, so decided to do a little work on this one. Going through my cloud folders I found this one which seemed just right. Normally I would throw the clouds OOF, but here I didn’t want to mess with the shapes and decided to go with how we would see it instead of how the camera does. I could add some trees at the bottom – they would probably be best somewhat OOF.
Hi Diane, the addition of the clouds in the second image is a nice touch. This is a dramatic image of interaction between the two hawks. While the hit to image quality is noticeable given the large crop, you did a nice job processing this one to produce a pleasing and interesting image.
Hi every one
Well it turns out that changing from a full frame to a C crop on a R5 will only get you a smaller output file. I did some reading and call Canon on this subject and the answer is, even though the bird may look bigger in the view finder using the C crop, the camera sill uses the full frame for tracking, color values and exposer. So the only time there would be optical difference is when you had a R5 and 7Dll side by side with the same lens on each camera. R5 500mm + 1.4x = 700mm , 7Dll 500mm + 1.4x =1050mm.
Peter
