Blue Jay Sequence ….................... WhyNot …..................5/4/23

This is a partial sequence from a ProCap session.. Not all the intermediate or following pictures have been included here …

These were taken with the M1.2 and the O40-150 + MC-14 … They were shot at f/6.3, @1/2500 sec, ISO 3200 @150mm, ProCap Hi set for a 20 shot limit from about 20 feet away from the bird … The post processing was preliminary and more limited than I would normally do … I believe the ProCap process is more like video than film photography as I sat there taking these pictures. . …

Still wondering if I've worn out your interest in this process and/or birds . ..

WhyNot

I like jays WN ours are different from urs with more of a pink colour and maybe slightly larger that’s a high shutter speed I suppose u need that for pro capture with fast moving Birds I wonder would it work with swallows there like fighter jets I haven’t managed to get one in flight yet to quick 🙂

Thanks for stopping by, Paul .. I hope you have time for coffee … Small birds are very fast and high shutter speeds are needed to best capture wing motion but one has to decide between detail and motion as the interest and also remember that the bird is moving forward … Swallows!!!?? in flight?? Fast and mostly unpredictable pattern of flight .. Focus and tracking would be the main problem and I've never considered trying it with swallows … gulls nothing smaller .. However, if you start with them sitting then focus is doable and ProCapture can get them on take off and if you know where they want to land then maybe then too .. haven't tried and currently have no interest in investing time with swallows …. The problem of course is the flight path after they leave a perch and for focus their movement direction and the background... If there is nothing with sharp well defined edges in that background that CAF might like better then maybe that is an option – I've not tried! Without CAF or tracking they need to find a path perpendicular to your line sight and even then they are moving out of focus for ProCap Hi but then they won't be in the frame very long unless you develop some extraordinary manual tracking skills . …

But I don't want to discourage you – give it a try!! … and if you are really interested then Thomas Stirr has an article that might be of interest

smallsensorphotography.com/first-swallows-of-2023#more-37930

Thanks WN I read that article from Tomas Stirr a while back and found it very interesting and he was using the EM-X not the OM-1 and he was getting great results I have tryed swallows in flight recently With the canon R 7 so far no good either I’m to slow and there to quick or a mixture of both but when I see them I will keep trying even one sitting on a post would do there a lovely colourful Bird 🙂 Paul
Anyway I like ur jays keep doing what ur doing 👍

Sorry about that I forgot what camera you are using . I did notice in a recent article ByThom that Nikon now has a Pre-Release Capture that I assume is similar to ProCapture and maybe Cannon also has that as I haven't followed FF very closely ... I have thought that the EMX was interesting because I often shoot in portrait mode and it looks much easier with that camera .. If I was 30 years younger and went on longer walks I think I'd like something like that camera ... Looked long and hard at Canon a while back but never jumped that way and a couple Nikon SLRs in film days that I didn't like . so a bit prejudice (well i did like the S2 that I sold too soon and always regretted!)

Just rambling I fear .. I look forward to some great swallow pictures !!!

WhyNot

Great catches, WhyNot. I am enjoying the pictures and am interested in your learning process.

Nope, you have not worn out my interest. Go for it and keep providing information on your process. Rich

WN, high isos and fast shutter speeds. They turned out well. It must have been fairly sunny. The rain here has been consistent this week.
Andrew

Well that worked pretty well WN. Nice to see

I love all the wonderful things folks do in bird photography here. I especially like sequences: bird disagreements, birds taking off, pelican yoga, etc. Keep up the good work!

Lynne

The ProCap method captures some wonderful sequences WN that the naked eye misses completely. My interest hasn't even begun to fade as yet.

Dave

Thanks for stopping by, Rich ... SO far this is still fun and occupies my time. .. I'll continue to share the process/progress as long as I see some audience interested ... Current health issues keeps me closer to home and the yard so restricts what I bring here unless I start walking though the files ....

WhyNot

Thanks, Andrew ... I've been working early mornings when I have bit better light but rain today and tomorrow will give me time to process and look at what I've done so far this week and plan where I go next with this .. I have found that with the 40-150mm lens with the MC-14 I can work a bit in the afternoons with sitting birds but still high ISO .... Not sure how I'll end up processing these but they will end up close to what you see here but the PP is part ot the process that needs to be explores -- how much cropping and how aggressive to attack the noise ... etc, etc ....

WhyNot

Thanks, Rich ... I think it is coming along well but needs a few adjustments ...

WhyNot

Thank you, Lynne ... I always appreciate your comments .. I like the way this is going so far but continue to watch their interesting behavior and have a few more incidences ...

WhyNot

Thanks Dave .. more coffee as we discuss the process .. With that new MX with its bird recognition and better focus I think you need to be spending some time looking and sharing something like this ... just pull up a chair and table in the yard for your coffee and give it a try ... I'm sure you have some birds I'll never see in my yard ..

WhyNot
WhyNot

Lovely sequence with the blue jay.
It really shows how quickly they transition from perch to flight.

Thanks,JIm .... I know that you are playing with ProCap also .. so maybe we can find a table, get something to drink and compare notes some time.....

WhyNot

Since I like shooting birds, you're not bothering me.

I did see in one of your other posts that you're wrestling with dealing with the number of images? Do you use OM Workspace? I use that to prune the stinkers out from the bursts I'm getting with my OM-1. I also shoot both jpg and raw so I'll look at the jpg's with OM Workspace and delete the raws I don't plan to process. This afternoon I shot some 300 shots (1/2 raw & 1/2 jpg) which ended up being pruned to 10 keepers that I processed.

Sounds like a plan! I have a friend who's a long time Canon user who's just switched to the OM-1 & 300 + 1.4 for birding and he's leaving his camera in ProCap for all his bird photography!

Thanks for stopping by and the comment ..... I have Workspace and have kept it up to date but so far don't use it .. I still use OV3 to sort and convert Raw files to TIFFs so I can further process them .. I only shoot Raw .. usually .. sometimes when set to monochrome I include JPEGs ... I have tried WS for selecting pictures from the set -- and I assume this is only done using the focus analyzer -- and on first looking at it I had some problem that I no longer remember... I could use WS for sorting and converting but I think it adds a couple steps to what I am already doing so I haven't moved to WS .. I'll continue looking at WS and if I find it gives me something more that I can use or if I ever update to OM1 then I move to it ...

WhyNot

That's correct (although I don't always believe the FOCUS ANALYSIS).

I do my raw conversion in Affinity (despite the fact that many/most don't care for it - I'm happy with it for now).

I believe that I had the same experience and was the reason I didn't go there ...

I have done some conversions using Affinity with no complaints but really prefer to do my PP from the TIFF and with these large files that I get from ProCap I will probably go back to Neat Image batch processing to control noise (NI doesn't work from the RAW file.)

WhyNot