Photographing birds from the comfort of the settee

Busy day, no chance to get out birding or togging, even. Moreover, it was dull and grey, so not great for capturing avian beauty. That said, I was setting up the new lens on my Canon R7 adjusting the customised settings buttons, a Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM. Once I’d done that I snapped a cheeky Robin that landed on the bushes in the front garden after it was chased in by a male Blackbird. It sat on its usual perch and the Blackbird didn’t bother it again.

Anyway, photographed in low light from the comfort of the settee through the double glazing, the bird largely in shadow. Camera settings: shutter speed: 1/500s, aperture: f/7.1, ISO 4000, lens pulled to full extent 500mm.

Denoising with DxO PureRaw 4. Original and the left, denoised on the right
Denoising with DxO PureRaw 4. Original and the left, denoised on the right of the split image

I processed the image with DxO PureRaw4 as I generally do, see above. The reason I mention it so often is that it does an incredible job denoising job. I reckon it effectively pulls your image down 3-4 stops of ISO; my ISO 4000 is thus being cleaned to the noise levels one might expect at much better ISO of between 250 and 500. There’s no way I’d get a properly exposed shot with these light levels and that shutters peed at such a low ISO.

 

I then did a quick levels edit and crop in PSP to show a fellow togger:

Quick PSP edit of the DNG output from DxO
Quick PSP edit of the DNG output from DxO

Finally, I did a more detailed edit of the kind I would do before uploading to my socials:

Through-windows Robin processed in DxO PureRaw and then PaintshopPro
Through-windows Robin processed in DxO PureRaw and then PaintshopPro