Thanks all. For those who ask about camera info etc. My first digital SLR camera was an Olympus E410 that came with two lenses, a 14-42 mm and a 70 to 150 mm. I wanted a Canon but a comparable one was twice what I paid for the Oly. With the Oly’s four thirds sensor the lens focal length is effectively doubled.
Not quite satisfied with the 70-150 mm lens I bought a 70-300 mm 1:4-5.6 ED lens. That’s the lens I use for my bird and butterfly photos. A few years ago I updated to the Olympus E620 camera.
I shoot all the bird and butterfly photos in the sports mode, the camera decides all the settings and I use the burst mode. It’s supposed to do 4+frames a second. I have tried manual settings but the camera does a lot better job than I can.
With the E410 I shot in the raw mode and came out with better photos, but the E620 gives me great photos in the largest jpeg setting. The files are about 10X13 inches and 34MB.
The first photo of the Male Ruby throat was shot with the E410, camera settings were IS0 400, F4.5, 1/640 sec. speed and FL was 125 MM.
The 3 goldfinch photos were done with the E620, camera settings were ISO 800, F5.6, 1/400 sec. speed and FL was 300 MM.
What post processing I do with Photoshop elements and usually I just adjust the lighting with levels and do an unsharp mask, that is a built in action. I like it better than sharpen. For those who use PSE; settings I got from online class to use for the 3 settings you can change are Amount 85 %, Radius 3.0 pixels and Threshold 4 levels. I use this for birds and butterflies; for people photos I use a Radius of 1.0 pixels.
I hope this answers everyone’s questions. You can PM me if you like and I will help if I can. Don