Vivid colors

[DDolan1075]

I was out at Hornsby Bend and saw these Red-necked Phalaropes and took some pictures. I then noticed the nice color of the green water with the overcast sky, so I changed my setting to vivid. And this is what I got. It seems surreal and almost like a watercolor painting. I didn't do much photoshopping and would love to hear some opinions about what others would think about these pictures and why it looks so fake:

[ttusa]

Interesting ripples and colors!

[DDolan1075]

So here are a couple of pictures that I took before I switched to Vivid. The first is just cropped and the second has some tweaking with photoshop. As a new photographer, relatively speaking, I would like to know what is considered to be more accepted from bird photographers. Oh, yeah, I used a D90 with a Sigma 150-500ISO 640 (auto) 1/800 f/14 on this shot and 1/800 f/10 on the previous shot.

[Stargazer77517]

Dave,
I am a Canon user so I can not really speak about Nikon, But one thing I did notice is the F stop seems a bit too high for that lens. I have the same lens on a Canon 40/50D and I rarely go above F-9. I am usally in the F-8 range or below.
I do know that lens diffraction can accure when using higher F stops on a telephoto lens. Maybe that is what is happening causing a soft look.
Also remember to have your shutter speed above your focal length...meaning at 500mm shutter speed S/B above 1/500. Thats just a basic rule of thumb however, with OS/IS one can go a bit slower.
If it was me Id use AV mode, AWB, and adjust the ISO to keep the shutter at or pretty close to the focal length. shoot in raw, and adjust the color sat/ vivid in post processing.
Hope this helps.

[slickshooter]

Hi Dave
I am a nikon shooter as well.I hate the vivid setting as it makes everything cartoonish
(oversaturated).Standard mode works well but is still too much color.My biggest complaint is that you can't capture the blacks the way they are supposed to look in vivid or standard.I like the neutrel setting the best as you can bring up the contrast in PP if needed; like when shooting a redwinged Blackbird or a cormorant.