STOP Missing Out On EPIC Bird Photos! Embrace The Obvious With SPECTACULAR Results!

[@desireneilson2168]

I'd love to see the two of you and Duade do a City Birds / Suburb bird shoot. Epic shots without the perfect nature backgrounds.

[@jan_wegener]

A lot of my photos are already taken in pretty ugly spot, but a nice idea!

[@desireneilson2168]

@jan_wegener Yeah! I just mean with obvious city / suburbs, the bird is sitting on a lamp post and it is just what it is cause I can't throw a screen behind it. I'd love to see how to make an environmental shot of a suburb / city, just as gorgeous. I live on a farm. But a working farm. So I often have birds on irrigation pipes or on a generator or electricity poles. Etc... and it is just what it is. This is our farm. We live here. The electricity poles are part of our story. How to make them worthy shots though... lol... that's just something else.

[@jan_wegener]

@@desireneilson2168it’s a great idea

[@woodygreen6826]

I never get tired of my local birds and animals, and as you said, I keep trying to get even better pictures of them than I have in the past. Some of my photo friends say they are tired of Great Horned Owls and only want find and photograph the less common owls in our area. Meanwhile, I am following three nests and getting as many good Great Horned Owl pictures I can. I have yet to take an GHO picture, no matter how good, that did anything but inspire me to get even more pictures of this "common" owl. 🙂

[@GlennBartley]

There's almost always room for improving and trying new things...

[@thescouser8629]

Hi Guys Great show. I have a hide set up in my field and spend time shooting the local birds. I set myself projects- portraits, flying shots, interactions etc and develop my techniques over time. My mantra is that there is no such thing as a boring bird. The skill of the photographer is to capture the “true essence” of the bird no matter what the species. Bob

[@heidiwegener7614]

Your love of birds and your photography skills are incredible. This passion is so contagious. Can't wait for the next show.

[@GlennBartley]

Thanks so much!

[@jackstutts6439]

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I shoot a lot in my yard and even have a blind to shoot from. I also frequent a couple of parks less than 5 miles from home. Lately I haven't been that motivated to shoot the same birds again but your tips in this episode will help me break out of my doldrums.

[@GlennBartley]

So great to hear. Thanks for commenting 😊

[@jakecook716]

Absolutely what I find with action shots. Your best ones are always local because you keep returning trying to capture a shot you've visualised. It takes many many failed attempts to do so, and you learn abit through each fail. Unfortunately by the time you've nailed a shot, it can be harder to know because you gone through 1000s

[@GlennBartley]

So true!

[@mikemcinnis4303]

Very good point Jake!

[@polmestra]

I also took a picture of the Bin Chicken that I like . I actually find them beautiful 😊

[@jan_wegener]

They are for sure!

[@RollTideUK]

Every now and again I will look back at my old images (which are of mostly mundane birds in my garden and my local nature park) to see what I can improve on.

[@GlennBartley]

A good thing to do for sure!

[@williamreinhard]

We aren't getting many migrants yet where I'm at, but I've been having a lot of fun photographing downy woodpeckers. They seem to not mind me getting pretty close and they are such cute little guys. Photography has really made me appreciate the local birds that I wouldn't otherwise pay much attention to when birding.

[@GlennBartley]

Downies are always great little subjects 😊

[@jan_wegener]

Yes, photography allows you to appreciate every bird, not just the next tick

[@abe3802]

I have Coal Tits now and then at my bird feeder, and this Winter I had great opportunities on Crested Tit and Bullfinch. And this weekend a couple of, the usually very shy, Stock Dove showed up from nowhere at my bird feeder and gave me some real nice close-ups them, from a mobile hide. So pay attention at your near neighbourhood, folks!

[@GlennBartley]

Absolutely!

[@jan_wegener]

Yes, the great thing about feeders and water is that you never know what will show up!

[@carlosalexandresouza5816]

Hi, guys! I've been practiced my bird in flight photography technique from my apartment balcony almost every day after work. Since I've moved to this apartment, three years ago, I've already registered/photographed exactly 64 different bird species. Most of them far far away, or at least, far away. But, still so, nice and new species to me! And some fight between flycatchers and hawkes/kites/falcons. Even between vultures and eagles/hawks and between hawks. And this made me so happy, mainly on pandemic times.

[@GlennBartley]

That's awesome 👍👍

[@gr-os4gd]

Great tips! And 👍 for a non-destructive editing workflow, which allows experimentation in post.

[@ianlogan3979]

As usual, a very informative and entertaining show. Never underestimate the beauty and elegance of the 'Bin Chicken'. They are a great subject.

[@jan_wegener]

Yes, many different ways to photograph them!

[@David_Quinn_Photography]

I have so many tree swallows that live in my back yard and I continue to photograph them and literally run inside to grab my camera as soon as I am done mowing because thats when the feeding frenzy starts.

[@scottwilliamsoutdoors]

Thanks guys for featuring a photo of mine - for a second time! Great that you found some talking points. It was taken in dark conditions and I feel it is mainly limited by the consequent shallow depth of field (prioritising shutter speed/sharpness over DOF - 1/1000, ISO 8000, 600mm@f/4). I certainly had a bit of "What would Jan do?" when editing - I had cleaned up the branch, leaf and fruit a bit, smoothed the back of head shape with liquify, lightened the background a touch, and cloned out some debris on the face so as to see the shape of the beak, but I left it as a behaviour image - these little guys mostly have dirty faces when munching on fig seeds. I much prefer the female with her grey cheeks (my previous post to this on insta) over this male bird, but any time with them is great. Fingers crossed that you get to spend some time with them in Cairns.

[@jan_wegener]

A great and kinda tricky photo when editing, you did well!

[@WernerBirdNature]

Hi Jan and Glenn, you make a great point for not ignoring the local birds !! In fact, a quick first shot of a great spotted woodpecker soon after unboxing the 200-800 made it to Duade's last review of that lens. It was sitting on a branch of our feeder, shooting through tripple layer glass of the living room. The feeder and adding several trees with berries in the garden attracts plenty of birds, and it allows to learn bird behavior at times when "other stuff around the house one need to do" prevents you from shooting. But when the light is right and a bird does his/her cool routine, you can quickly grab your gear and forget the other stuff ;-) Over here in towns there are huge amounts of house sparrows, but they don't enter our wooded garden for some reason. So my best shot of them came when I was in Japan, just walking back from a park to the hotel when one was sitting pretty close and a yellow building provided a great background because it was nicely bokehfied. Anywhere you go, keep your ears open and then you can spot beautiful birds anywhere ..

[@richardhurst3368]

Enjoy your videos, I regularly just sit out in the yard with my dog & capture white sulphur crested cockatoos in flight, plus local visitors King Parrots , Rainbow Lorikeets , Rosellas and of course Magpies and others. I live in the Blue Mountains NSW . I just love trying new things, it's improved my Photography immensely, I also venture onto the dark side & do some landscape at local lookouts. Nothing beats a good bird pic , very challenging .

[@jan_wegener]

Awesome!

[@JohnDrummondPhoto]

Song sparrows are very common here in the US. But I've gotten some really good shots of them lately. Your words ring really true.

[@jan_wegener]

Nice!

[@franbazz3096]

Terrific show thanks guys

[@StrangeTu]

Love the channel and these talks - thank you so much!

[@GlennBartley]

Thanks for watching

[@jan_wegener]

Glad you like them!

[@daniel_zuppinger]

I have a forested area near my home and spend a lot of time to document the different species (birds and other). Some of my images are done in my backyard, but only few species visit there. So I set up one or two feeders in the forest during winter season and try to get better and better images of common birds. I started this, because I feel that we are going to exotic places and forget that the nature at our doorstep has a lot to offer too.

[@aramarsh]

Some great tips there, I liked how you managed to get some great shots from your back garden set up Jan 👍🏻🦆😁

[@ceesnabuursfauna2115]

I totally agree, good topic. 🙂

[@Chris_Wolfgram]

I do a LOT of back yard shooting. We have a bunch of feeders (seed and nectar) all around the house, and I also have a portable pop up blind (maybe the same one you showed) It's great for testing new gear, and different camera settings, then by the time I actually get out in the field, I have a much better idea of what works best. I just got a new lens and was out in the back yard testing it yesterday, in preparation for my 5500 mile, 30 day birding road trip, starting in 3 weeks :) Great video guys ! TY :)

[@GlennBartley]

Awesome. And good luck on your road trip 👍👍

[@abe3802]

I do the same, amazing how many different birds you can have in your backyard. Cheers from Sweden!

[@Chris_Wolfgram]

@@GlennBartley thank you 🙂

[@Chris_Wolfgram]

@@abe3802 I think at last count I had seen 27 species in our back yard (not including 5 or 6 high altitude flyovers).

[@clairehachey2189]

So true that there are interesting birds in our back yard. Montreal, Canada has many parks, including the beautiful Botanical Garden, and each park has its own variety of birds. It's simply amazing!! On my most recent outing in my favorite park, I managed to capture the mating of a Cooper's hawks couple. I had been observing the female for close to 1/2 hour, taking many photos, when the male came along and landed on her back. It's not often we get to see something like this!!

[@ronaldbuitendijkfotografie]

I am forced to focus on my local wildlife due to my health. Within 8 minutes from my home I have multiple areas to find animals. Focussing on that really helped me understand how the sun impacts certain areas and where to find species during certain times of the year. This helps to get more creative with backlight, lowkey, highkey etc.

[@KurtisPape]

This year I can't go on any holidays for work reasons and i'm also restricted on weekends to traveling about 1hr away, so I will have to get creative in my local areas this year! Still plenty of different species I need to improve my shots on. I might be able to sneak a couple weekend camping trips in so it's not all bad.

[@GlennBartley]

I'm sure you'll get some great stuff 😎

[@jan_wegener]

Different circumstances sometimes present the best opportunities

[@andrewkeir2282]

I am really lucky, we have a 5 acre property in South Gippsland Victoria Australia and we get a great variety of beautiful birds in our garden, plus we are busy planting trees and shrubs converting the small cow farm to a huge garden

[@GlennBartley]

Sounds like paradise! 😮

[@archiemccafferty9136]

Sounds amazing Andrew!! Have you considered having fellow photograpers visit or workshops? Do you have any hides set up? I have a smallish yard but fortunately have a good variety of birds visit.......enough to whet my photography appetite when I don't feel like venturing elsewhere.

[@andrewkeir2282]

@archiemccafferty We have only been for 3 years and are still very much in the planting phases. I don't have any hides set up. I have quite a few bird baths and old water troughs set up. I have become the leader in the local U3A Digital Photography Group and they meet here monthly. Does that count. It should be noted there are many mature nature reserves around us, so our property fades into insignificance compared to them. ( Westernport Woodlands, Wonthaggi Wetlands, Wilsons Prom is an hour away, Lyrebird Walk at Mirboo North , Phillip Island, Nobbies and Churchill Island to name a small sample)

[@jan_wegener]

Sounds amazing

[@archiemccafferty9136]

@@andrewkeir2282 Fantastic achievements Andrew! It must be so fulfilling to see positive impacts from the wildlife population welcoming your work on the property! All the best for the future!!

[@stephanedemers2797]

I find this video very instructive overall for me; good job guys! May be one day I should cross Canada to participate to one of those workshops!

[@GlennBartley]

C'mon over. And in the meantime I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the show 😎

[@anamicha]

nice topic!

[@adinew8920]

Thanks.....

[@merrigil]

Jan, the background sheet you used in your small backyard video, did you create yourself? Or can you buy these readymade. I can’t seem to find anything suitable in the UK! Thank you both for all your fab ideas 🙏

[@bjrn-einarnilsen687]

Great video as always guys. I use a lot of time in my garden photographing birds. Have 3 feeding stations, and a lot of different birds, totally so far i have photographed 89 species just in the garden. But i have the Atlantic rainforest behind the house, so it may do it a bit easier heheheh. Wishing you both a superb week. Cheers, Bjoern

[@GlennBartley]

That's quite the yard list 😮🎉

[@jan_wegener]

That’s a crazy number of birds in the yard!

[@bjrn-einarnilsen687]

@@jan_wegener Yes it's a lot of bird species. But as i said, when you have the Atlantic Rainforest almost in your backyard, you have close to the perfect conditions hehe.

[@jan_wegener]

@@bjrn-einarnilsen687one day I have to visit South America, so many parrots calling my names 😅

[@bjrn-einarnilsen687]

@@GlennBartley Yes i am lucky to live in a place have this amount of bird species.Just in this municipality where i live, we have 343 species

[@AstrocandyTV]

I've pretty much concluded that going into fixed hides like the ones you find at RSPB sites in the UK is a phenomenal waste of time. Much prefer to roam around and find the shots with my feet.

[@paulkavsak1941]

My understanding is 2048 pixels on the long side is the highest that IG can handle.

[@pegrunyan9506]

Tweak of the week question: When making a selection can we just us Select-save selection? Then modify it with expand and feather by 2 pixels and save the selection again under a new name? It seems easier than the make a new layer- edit- fill-black and save. Not sure if I am missing something.....

[@jan_wegener]

You can You can even just click on any new adjustment layer and it’ll essentially save the mask too

[@tonywiseman7542]

If you are both in NTH. QLD. in the spring put the GOLDEN BOWERBIRD on your list. A rainforest inhabitant although uncommon you won't forget and if you could get video that would be next level.My efforts in the past have been dismal, lighting always an issue, not withstanding gear and skill levels.

[@jan_wegener]

So far I have always been at the wrong time, September may work? Have to find a good spot

[@Kellysher]

I don’t post much, as I’m still pretty new, so maybe this is a newbie question. Do you make a virtual copy then create a different crop for posting? What happens if you accidentally delete the original image. Will the virtual still be a file on your hard drive?

[@christophercarlimages9003]

In the Eastern United States we have species like the Northern Cardinal and Blue Jays that people from outside the area would find beautiful and fascinating, while photographers here basically ignore them. We should be thankful for that, yet most of people don't appreciate these common species....

[@wellingtoncrescent2480]

I have to admit that I love the "tweak of the week", which is a great teaching tool. To be honest, I'm not bothered by the overlapping leaves in Terry's photo, which frame the body nicely. Ditto the dark green background in Scott's photo and the snowy foreground in Aiko's shot , since the birds still stand out nicely. Clearly, interpretation is subjective 😀. Have you considered a dedicated "tweak of the week" segment, with more time for emphasis on the use of different prosets? I don't use Lightroom or Photoshop, as I don't like their subscription model. But DXO PL can reproduce most of the effects you describe, and it does some things better (e.g. noise reduction).

[@GlennBartley]

Glad to hear that you are enjoying the new segment

[@ehoffmann4758]

We call Bin chickens by another name in South Africa - Chimney Sweeps

[@jan_wegener]

hehe!

[@wbmansell88]

great tips guys... how does one get our photos in front of you to critique during your KZbin sessions?

[@jan_wegener]

Tag them #birdphotoshow and sometimes and email might help too 😉

[@ppww6076]

When photos are taken and used commercially you can, and should, demand that they cease using them unless they pay you. It may not happen but it's worth letting them know that you know they are using them, and at worst they won't pay you so you aren't losing any more than you were.

[@PauloCasagrande-je2uw]

Hi, are these 7d mark II images recent? are you still using this camera? I still have one (also an r6 mark ii) and find it great!

[@jan_wegener]

No, they are a few years old

[@brucefinocchio8535]

Question. With the new DXO Pure Raw 4.0, once you use the advance tab through the preview tab, the settings stay stuck, and you can reset them to whatever the DeepPrime X2 /X would automatically select. When you open a new file, the settings are the same as the last image processed. Am I missing something here?

[@natureredux1957]

I would much prefer a more Natural setup as opposed to any feeders. But that clearly comes at a cost, across the street my next-door neighbor has hummingbird feeders while I have zero. She has a Army of hummingbirds daily, weekly while I am lucky if I see one per day at my Flower Beds. Cutting parts of your neighbors plants and bringing back to your own yard, that's hilarious. Which is why I love the introduction of the Mount your camera, set your Auto Capture criteria and walk away while letting the Nikon Z 9 will do the rest features. Hopefully that will force other brands to do the same in most cameras including Nikon lower models. Folks would be amazed at what happens when we aren't there.

[@jefferyrobbins3468]

Hi. Thanks for this week's episode you 2. You bring up the harlequin duck, lighting, and getting it exposed correctly, and in the spirit of photo editing. Question for you: Is there an EASY way in LRC to combine (stack) multiple photos of the same bird, in order to improve image resolution and dynamic range? With the crazy high frame rates available now, sometimes I run into a bird that is stationary, and I can bang off a couple seconds of photos (e.g. 40 photos), perhaps even capturing 2 different exposures. It would seem theoretically possible for post processing software to line up 2 or more photos of the stationary bird (line up due to small camera movements) and then create a high resolution composite with good dynamic range for further editing -- one with excellent resolution for large physical prints, preserving both highlights and darker areas. Thanks for your input! Kind regards

[@GlennBartley]

You can absolutely do that... Just requires a few layers and some layer masking 🎉

[@jan_wegener]

In Lightroom you’d be restricted to mainly the HdR feature that would allow you to easily merge a few exposures together and have more dynamic range, similar to what people do in landscape shots. That would work the best if you take a few different exposure in camera. In terms of shifting pixels essentially to get more resolution, I believe that works only in camera. Since you get the increased resolution from the sensor moving. You putting pictures on top of one another doesn’t increase resolution. With a single file you can only upscale it

[@Just_because998]

Thanks Glen, Jan, my backyard birds are the brown headed cowbirds....I am doomed🤣🤣.

[@GlennBartley]

Well then you had better have the worlds best cowbird shots 🤣

[@jan_wegener]

Haha! Well for many that would be a nice new bird to get, too 😆

[@colintraveller]

What is your thoughts on IR / NVG for spotting birds . Is it something you would use to track / spot a bird prior to Capture on Camera ??? ..

[@GlennBartley]

Not something I can see myself using

[@alunlambert7456]

Great vlog guys, how do we get the chance of you to talk about our images

[@jan_wegener]

tag them #birdphotoshow in instagram

[@alunlambert7456]

@@jan_wegener Thanks, will do

[@blisteringbooks2428]

Topaz Gigapixel seems specifically designed for people to enlarge stolen images.

[@jan_wegener]

Never thought about it that way, but yeah it can do a lot

[@j4kke046]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻