This Is Why Your Photos May Not Look Like The PRO's

[@christophercarlimages9003]

It's great to see how two different very talented photographers can create amazing images using different techniques. And editing can make the difference between good and great images. Again, the best half hour any bird photographer can spend on KZbin....

[@GlennBartley]

Thanks so much for the kind words!

[@haraprasannayak1163]

Thank you very much Glenn and Jan for the suggestions.

[@GlennBartley]

Cheers! Congrats on a great shot!

[@haraprasannayak1163]

Thank you 🙏

[@Jay-sr8ge]

Fantastic video as usual but one thing I missed was when you'd actually do quick adjustments to your liking on some of the photo of the week and show us the improvements.

[@GlennBartley]

Thanks for the feedback.

[@yohandraambati8476]

Jan , im glad you're looking more healthy, i used to follow Glen from long ago, and now you guys making videos together is really amazing. Thank you.

[@GlennBartley]

Cheers!

[@ChrisGray3d]

For me, I don't feel the need for connection with eye contact all the time. It can be cool. But a lot of it for me is being in an environment in a way that the bird feels comfortable enough to just be a bird living its life. I like to photograph them doing what they would normally do, rather than them being worried about me being there or making it feel like they're posing for me. I feel that if a bird is staring at you, it's worried about you and not concentrating on everything else. I don't want to be a part of it. I want to capture it happening as natural as possible.

[@GlennBartley]

Definitely room for each person to find the style that works best for them...

[@jindrichpavelka]

That´s the reason why I´m looking forward to sundays...another great episode! :)

[@GlennBartley]

Cheers! Thanks for watching!

[@gaucphotography]

Great, great advice from both of you. You are helping the bird/nature photography community. Luck favors the prepared. Thanks..

[@GlennBartley]

Thank yoU!

[@KurtisPape]

Great to see some familiar names in the photo of the week with Gus and Darren 🙂 The best advice in the video was knowing when to walk away, it's something I only started putting into practice this year. Instead of finding locations with the highest quantity of birds around, I'm now looking at the location overall, some locations are too 'twiggy' 😅 too much stuff in the way, subject separation impossible.

[@GlennBartley]

Glad you found a few useful tips 🙂

[@lrnzccn5378]

Jan Always a perfect balance of assertiveness and openness: well done!

[@roccorodriguez6653]

You are both inspirational photographers. I think a driving point you both made is to have a plan, get out there, know your gear/environment, understand bird patterns and study/learn/create an editing workflow. 👍👍

[@michabielski3824]

You guys are so good at explaining how to review our own photos and make them better. I truly belive that as a photographer, it's important to be able to look at your pictures from different angles and be honest about what you see, since everyone has their own style. That last episode about mastering your eye and the lens to work together was pretty interesting. It's changed how I approach things. I've been patient and put in the effort, and I have to say, capturing those bird in flight shots with 800mm lens feels great now. I started with those fast welcome swallows, and now I can handle slower birds with high success rate. Planning strategy sort of like in martial arts, is important - setting small goals always help you improve. Personally editing is where I struggle because I enjoy taking pictures, but I'm gradually getting better at it. From my perspective, if you don't have a lot of time for editing, you need to be "ruthless" and only focus on the best photos. Otherwise, you end up like me - with a bunch of unfinished projects :) Thanks again. Your bird photography show is definitely the best on the internet. Cheers.

[@GlennBartley]

Thanks for sharing your journey!

[@CamillaI]

Great use of perches but definitely more to a great shot . Editing is probably 50% of the shot these days. Great colour palette in your bird photos too. Action always lifts a shot that's for sure, you have some lovely examples to inspire people Jan . Awesome 👍

[@GlennBartley]

Glad you enjoyed the show and pics.

[@brianlemke6017]

I take Glenn’s approach and flatten my finished images before returning them from PS toLR. Then I group the PS TIFF FILE with the LR predecessor file. Sometimes I come back because I’m not happy with the finished image. In that case I start over shipping the original LR file to PS. Maybe more time consuming than saving the PSD but less storage and more easily organized IMO.

[@GlennBartley]

Yes I figure usually if I want to reprocess a shot I'd rather start fresh anyways...

[@WernerBirdNature]

Hey Jan & Glenn, always great to see 2 grandmasters of the game at work and sharing their insights ! Awesome episode, once more 😀

[@GlennBartley]

Thanks Werner!

[@morespinach9832]

The most important thing is to be in amazing locations.

[@Mthompson4545]

Thanks! Your show is fantastic!

[@jan_wegener]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@joanhuggett5164]

Such a good fun show. I really do love The Bird Photography Show. Jan and Glenn, you are awesome. Talking of high ISO, I am dead scared of it (birds here tend to 'flit' and what if I only get half a second of blow-outs). However, for a while now you have shown how beautifully your images clean up with denoise, I should be 'brave' and give it a go.

[@jan_wegener]

That’s exactly why you need to use high Iso. So you don’t mess up the one precious moment

[@godsinbox]

I was afraid of high ISO when I started, then I learnt the secret. 1. you can have wrong shutter setting 2. you can have too high ISO 3. You can have cheap gear BUT YOU CAN ONLY CHOOSE ONE! If you have full frame, you can have the wrong settings (by 2 stops) and wrong composition (by 2x). if you have $10k of gear, you can have high ISO by 2 stops. if you want to cheap out on gear, you have to know your onions! (and frankly beginners have cheap gear, catch 22)

[@joanhuggett5164]

I am a beginner but don't have cheap gear. R5 as well as 5DMIV (for landscape) and several Canon lenses fixed and zoom. I think I will try auto ISO as I have been struggling from the very beginning (18 months) with full manual. Thanks for your reply@@godsinbox

[@skakdosmer]

Well, as always I love your videos! But as always I disagree on a few things. Maybe what I'd really like would be to take my photography up a number of levels, but then take it back down a step or two. I'm not too fond of perfect images, you see...

[@GlennBartley]

Good to find your style!

[@cambodiabird]

Again, great video. Really appreciate yours works.

[@GlennBartley]

Cheers!

[@jan_wegener]

Glad you like them!

[@MrTmiket0007]

Thanks so much for sharing another awesome video like always and useful tips 🐦👍🤗

[@GlennBartley]

You are welcome!

[@przybylskipawel]

How to deal with selecting photos efficiently? Are there some tools, techniques for that? A video on that topic would be welcome.

[@GlennBartley]

Its a key skill for sure.

[@mw-wc4vw]

Again, great video. Always looking forward for next.

[@GlennBartley]

Cheers!

[@davepastern]

Great tips. I try to have a plan as to what location, what bird will be potentially present at said location. I often have a vision of the type of image that I want, but I am nowhere near good enough to pull that off. Lighting is where I typically fail. Travelling to more distant locations is something that I simply cannot afford with a fixed income and the high petrol costs. I have my local locations (still requries travel obviously). I rarely get the bird with direct frontal lighting though and it hurts my images. Also, using an older mark 1 500f4 that isn't as good with AF as a mark 2 version hurts sometimes.

[@GlennBartley]

Definitely mastering the local birds is an ideal place to start. That's definitely what I did for many years.

[@davepastern]

@@GlennBartley "mastering" is the key word. AT least my images have improved over the past 16 months.

[@ookiemand]

Great video! Wonderful quality tips!

[@rickfarber4243]

Thanks for another interesting video. I was kind of hoping that Glenn would sing the rest of the Kenny Rogers song, though.

[@GlennBartley]

I'll work on my singing voice before I subject you all to that...

[@danielbrehmer4912]

Very good advice, thank you! I'm a little bit surprised though, that you didn't really mentioned the idea of having the basic editing ideas for your visualised images already in the field, which helps you monitorn your camera settings according to that prevision. Also, the idea of rather slightly overexpose images rather than underexpose them is something that has improved my photography quiet a bit. It's simply much easier to edit a slightly overexposed image than an underexposed as bringan up shadovs almost garaties to introduce noise to the image. I experience that also helps these noisereduction programs to work even better. What do you think about that reasoning? Thanks for great videos 🤗

[@GlennBartley]

Well as long as you don't overexpose an important part. Personally I expose to the right of the histogram...but don't want to blow put any key areas. That's the perfect field exposure IMO.

[@danielbrehmer4912]

@@GlennBartley 🎯 ... pusching the histogram to the right without clipping is exactly what I was trying to say 🤗

[@juantolentino4963]

Great video as usual guys! and thank you so much for choosing my Easter Meadowlark picture. Much appreciated!

[@jan_wegener]

Our pleasure!

[@Jonathantuba]

That most of these photos are ‘set-up’ to a large extent is a revelation to me. 99% of my photos are chance encounters. My only planning is going to a particular location as known for a specific species

[@jan_wegener]

Maybe 99% was an exaggeration, but a large extent for sure

[@gacjack]

Hey Jan and Glen , love the work you Lads do and appreciate your overall commitment to the birding world. I purchased the presets and the editing tutorial from Jan a while ago and still have all the presets in my LR but somehow I deleted to editing tutorial . Would it be possible to send me the link again , would sure appreciate it. Thanks and keep up the great work you both do ...Greg Jackson, Vancouver BC. Canada

[@jan_wegener]

Please email me

[@sueellen7]

Thanks

[@relaxingtherapeuticnaturevideo]

Great info, guys 👍

[@jan_wegener]

Our pleasure!

[@clausborner1705]

excellent episode, nothing more to say !

[@GlennBartley]

Glad you enjoyed the show!

[@DanBetty]

👍.. Keep em coming !

[@jan_wegener]

Will do!

[@pramodray2553]

excelente gracias

[@GlennBartley]

Gracias for watching!

[@Ksaynwit1]

So many great tips...I really appreciate the feedback on my razorbill image and will try them out. Great show as always!

[@GlennBartley]

Cheers!

[@jan_wegener]

Fantastic!

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

Photos where you really see just the bird tail feathers.... Yeah maybe I keep the best of them for myself but I know they will not be for sharing anywhere! 🤣

[@ZZ-oo9uz]

All your videos are full of useful information the problem I have is all the photos look like the backgrounds are ai generated, very sterile. For all we know most of the birds could have been photographed at a bird sanctuary and the backgrounds replaced , there’s no context no feeling no environment. Maybe I just don’t understand having gotten started in photography way back in 1979 before all this editing was possible.

[@GlennBartley]

Well clean backgrounds are a function of an open aperture and distant background. So no need for editing. But when you find yourself with a distracting element it can sure help.

[@joanhuggett5164]

Legitimate reasoning but if you built up your trust in Jan and Glenn, you will find they have always been upfront about locations and perches. Glenn's first video 2009, Jan 2019; honest and reliable sources for improving skills and reviewing all things photography related. As you said "All videos are full of useful information."

[@Twobarpsi]

I hate editing!! I always try to get it through the lens, and in camera. Is this holding me back? Thanks!

[@GlennBartley]

Its a necessary part of it I'm afraid.

[@jan_wegener]

I think not doing at least good basic editing stops anyone from getting the best results possible It’s called a raw file for a reason

[@SliverCreations]

I have one question about shooting bird with high shutter speed like 1/1000 or higher. Do you use Image Stabilization or not?

[@GlennBartley]

I always leave it on.

[@jan_wegener]

Always on

[@SliverCreations]

​@@GlennBartley Tnx! I discovered that I get really blurry images if I turn on IS Mode 1 or 2. 3 seems to work fine but not as good as no IS. (Canon user) Could be because I am using a EF 400mm F2.8 II adapted to the R5. But I have no RF version of the lens to test that.

[@SliverCreations]

@@jan_wegener Tnx! I discovered that I get really blurry images if I turn on IS Mode 1 or 2. 3 seems to work fine but not as good as no IS. (Canon user) Could be because I am using a EF 400mm F2.8 II adapted to the R5. But I have no RF version of the lens to test that.

[@syllycatface]

Personally I think trying to re-create professional shots can and will cause many issues for new photographers. What I mean is, there seems to be very little stylistic difference between a lot of professional shooters, to the point where if there wasn't watermarks on them, almost nobody could tell them apart. To me this convergence of photography and editing is boring, depth is sometimes something that I find makes a picture. Shooting at the lowest aperture possible and editing backgrounds to be almost a single colour wall on basically every single shot tends to make photos look unrealistic and overly edited. In doing so I feel a lot of newer photographers will quickly get bored re-creating something that they have already seen a thousand times before, while including a scene shows a little more of a story that they can carry with themselves and bring back memories of when they went to take those shots.

[@jimreimer6140]

I think the first image you critique has too much empty space. Maybe a little tighter crop would help.

[@GlennBartley]

Thanks for the feedback

[@tintin69rr]

Great video ❤

[@GlennBartley]

Glad you enjoyed the show

[@danielcronk1848]

If you're shooting 2 birds at once, so you generally switch to like a large area focus or do you still use a single point? I think I'm still confused about this for some reason.

[@jan_wegener]

Still single but I may focus on either bird a few times

[@danielcronk1848]

@@jan_wegener ah, ok. Thanks for the reply.

[@zyx0011]

how do i get featured? do i have to use a hashtag or tag someone? I have good shots on my gallery waiting to be posted soon😁

[@jan_wegener]

Tag the shots on Instagram

[@jan_wegener]

What’s your handle there?

[@adinew8920]

Thanks......

[@GlennBartley]

Thanks for watchinG!

[@Just_because998]

If I can only afford to go on a workshop to Costa Rica or S.A .......🤑

[@dicekolev5360]

It's easy to make such photos in countries where such birds exist 😅 Eastern Europe and being hobbyist is not the best bird photography scenario even when having z9 + z800mm 🥴

[@GlennBartley]

I can assure you it is not easy...

[@dicekolev5360]

​@@GlennBartleyI meant easiER 😸 but of course it's noy easy, this is the hardest genre of photpgraphy after all. It's just preparation meets luck and it requires massive free time which is the hardest when having regular job 😵‍💫

[@edkaminski6355]

Great video as always guys. But I find the "Pro" look unappealing, for the most part. Its like fashion.... the "experts" are always trying to convince you to think the way they want you to. Canon this year, Nikon next year, too much contrast this year, too much saturation next year. I prefer natural looking scenes, not scenes where the background is magically bleached out to highlight the bird. It is a good thing that everybody does not like the same thing !!!!!!!!!

[@GlennBartley]

Everyone should definitely find their style and go after those types of pics for sure!

[@colintraveller]

What do think of certain locations where folks pay to capture wild animals and Birds in staged settings . Imo i feel it's fraudulent as your simply kidding people on that you genuinely made the effort and yourself .

[@GlennBartley]

I think you missed the point...

[@colintraveller]

@@GlennBartley Not really , It's what i've seen in other video's by others .

[@sueellen7]

Thanks

[@sueellen7]

Thanks