Sunset at Dusk Lessons

What’s Up?

Though yesterday was supposed to be packing day I did not start the actual packing until about 7:30pm! I fly to Atlanta just before lunch today to meet up with denise. Then we drive up to White, GA for her Old Car City A Creative Adventure Workshop; I will be assisting her in the field.

There may or may not still be room in our three B&H Event Space programs next Wednesday. If the program that you would like to attend shows as sold out, try again in a few hours. In addition, if you decide at the last minute to join us you can usually just show up and get a seat as many folks who register simply do not show up. We will be there. 🙂 See here for details.

This blog post, which took several hours to prepare, was (I hope) published automatically at 5:30 am on Thursday, October 8.

Artie’s New Tripod/Sincere Apologies

Interest has been huge. We had hoped to be able to share the info on Monday past but due to circumstances beyond our control we are still waiting for the link…. As soon as we get that link we will be e-mailing the info to those who requested it early on to give them first crack at the stock. Three days after that the info will be posted on the blog. Sorry gang but this info will be worth waiting for.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog or via a BAA Online Bulletin is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charges a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested please e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly–I offer free pricing advice, usually sells in no time flat. In the past few months, we have sold just about everything in sight. Do know that prices on some items like the EOS-1D Mark IV, the old Canon 500mm, the EOS-7D, and the original 400mm IS DO lens have been dropping steadily.

After a two-week lull, things have really heated up.

Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM lens (the “old five”) was sold by Dane Johnson for $4150 in early October 2015.
Sigma Zoom Super Telephoto 300-800mm f/5.6 lens (Canon mount) was sold by Beth Starr for $4,999 in early October 2015.
Canon EOS-1D X in excellent condition was sold by Patrick Sparkman for $3650 in early October, 2014.

And two more lenses sold yesterday:

Canon EF 100-400 f 4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens was sold for $699 by Sean Traynor on October 7, 2015.
Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS lens (the “old five”) was sold by Alan Walther for $3900 in early October, 2015.

You can see all of the current listings here.

This, the original image, was created at sunset at Bosque on a day off between IPTs last year with the hand held Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 stop: 1/60 sec. at f/7.1 in Tv mode. Color temperature: K8000. Center AF point/AI Servo Surround/Rear Focus AF on the front row of geese and re-compose. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version. Snow Geese feeding in field at sunset. This (extracted) JPEG represents the RAW file.

Always Expose for the Highlights…

In this situation, the sky was very bright as compared to the foreground. With the geese feeding in the field and the sky color become more intense with every passing moment, denise and I were praying for a big blastoff. Within minutes, the sky took on a volcanic look, but alas, no blastoff until it was simply too dark to photograph. The exposure for the image above at +1 stop was about as good as I could do.

Why did the trees go black and why were the geese and the field many stops under-exposed?

Why Tv Mode (Shutter Priority) in this situation?

In this and similar situations I love working in Tv mode. As I wanted a sharp image, I simply chose 1/60 sec. as my shutter speed knowing that I could make a sharp image at that speed. Had a huge blast off answered our fervent prayers, I would have simply turned the index finger dial six clicks to the left and gone down to 1/15 sec. Had I been in Manual mode such a change could not have been done anywhere as near as quickly or efficiently.

Same frame as above. Snow Geese feeding in field at sunset. This JPEG represents the converted TIFF.

The RAW conversion in DPP 4

By comparing the converted image to the original that opened this blog post you can see that I held back the sky while opening up the foreground considerably. It is rare that I go -5 on the Highlights and +5 on the Shadows even in DPP but that was perfect here. You would never want to use extreme values like that in Adobe Camera RAW….

Be sure to scroll all the way down to see the optimized version.

DPP 4 Kudos

From Richard Gollard via e-mail:

I have been doing tons of studying the books and PDFs that I have purchased from BIRDS AS ART. And I have to say that after reading the DPP 4 conversion guide that you did with Arash Hazeghi I tried DPP 4 and was blown away with the difference from the conversions that I made with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. Thanks for the consistently great information.

You can order your copy of “The Photographers’ Guide to Canon Digital Photo Professional 4.0” (aka the DPP 4 Raw Conversion eGuide) by Arash Hazeghi and Arthur Morris by clicking here.

The DPP 4 eGuide (PDF)

Learn how and why I and many other discerning photographers choose and use only DPP 4 to convert their Canon RAW files in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly. The latest version supports all of the newer Canon camera bodies and several older models including the EOS-7D and the EOS-1D Mark IV. The DPP IV Guide is the ideal companion to the 7D Mark II User’s Guide, a runaway best seller.

The DPP 4 eGuide (PDF) Updated for 1D Mark IV and the original 7D

The DPP 4 eGuide was recently updated to include the luminance and chrominance noise reduction values for both the 1D Mark IV and the original 7D. If you purchased your copy from BAA please e-mail Jim and request the DPP 4 1d IV/7D update. Please be sure to cut and paste page 1 into your e-mail as proof of purchase.

Same as above. Snow Geese feeding in field at sunset. This is the optimized image file.

The Image Optimization

After converting the RAW file in DPP 4 as noted above, I brought the TIFF file into Photoshop eliminated the single blurred goose in flight on the right against the trees with the Patch Tool, leveled the image and applied a slight crop. Next I selected the sky, saved the selection, and put it on its own layer (Control J). Then I applied my NIK Color EFEX Pro 50-50 recipe. Then was Image > Blur > Surface Blur as taught to me by denise Ippolito to render the sky texture/artifacting as smooth as a baby’s tush.

To work on the foreground I loaded the selection that I had saved, inverted it (Shift + Control + I), and put that on it’s own layer. Then I applied a 100% layer of NIK Color Efex Pro and did not reduce the opacity; desperate times call for desperate measures….

Digital Basics

Everything that I did to optimize today’s image is covered in detail in my Digital Basics File–written in my easy-to-follow, easy-to-understand style. Are you tired of making your images look worse in Photoshop? Digital Basics File is an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. It includes my complete digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips, details on using all of my image clean-up tools, the use of Contrast Masks, several different ways of expanding and filling in canvas, all of my time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts, Quick Masking, Layer Masking, and NIK Color Efex Pro basics, Contrast Masks, Digital Eye Doctor techniques, using Gaussian Blurs, Tim Grey Dodge and Burn, a variety of ways to make selections, how to create time-saving actions, the Surface Blur (background noise reduction) settings as taught to me by Denise Ippolito, and tons more.

APTATS I & II

Learn the details of advanced Quick Masking techniques in APTATS I. Learn Advanced Layer Masking Techniques in APTATS I. Mention this blog post and apply a $5 discount to either with phone orders only. Buy both APTATS I and APTATS II here to save $15 on the pair; or call Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-221-2372 to order by phone.

The Animated GIF

Giving the animated GIF above a few seconds to play will give you an idea of the three steps involved in creating today’s featured image.

The Bosque Site Guide

If you can’t make or afford one of the two Bosque IPTs, be sure to get yourself a copy of our Bosque Site Guide. All BAA Site Guides are designed so that with a bit of study you can show up at a great place and know exactly where to be at what time on what wind and in what lighting conditions. And on what wind. With a Site Guide on your laptop you will feel like a 22-year veteran on your first visit. Site Guides are the next best thing to being on an IPT. If you plan on visiting Bosque it would be foolish to make the trip without having this guide in hand. Why spend money on gear and travel and then spend days stumbling around in the wrong spot? If you have visited previously, and are still unsure of where you should be at this time of day with that wind, this guide will prove invaluable to you as well. Even folks visiting Bosque for the tenth time will learn a ton as I share my secrets and hold nothing back….

In 2015, we are offering a 3-DAY IPT before Thanksgiving and a 4-DAY IPT after the holiday. You can attend either and spend Thanksgiving Day with your family. Sign up for both and we will be glad to apply a $100 discount to your balance. We know that there are lots of less costly workshops being offered these days. Many of them are downright cheap. Please remember that you get exactly what you pay for. With us you will have two full time pros there for you every minute we are in the field. Together they have more than 28 seasons of experience at the refuge. If you want the finest in photographic instruction and want to be assured of being in the right spot at exactly the right time every day, do join us.

Bosque del Apache 2015 BIRDS AS ART/A Creative Adventure Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT). 3-FULL DAY IPT: NOV 22-24, 2015. $1149. Two great leaders: Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris. Meet and greet and introductory slide program after dinner on your own at 7:00pm on SAT NOV 21.

Just 2 spots left.

Tens of thousands of Snow Geese, 10,000 Sandhill Cranes, ducks, amazing sunrises, sunsets, and blast-offs. Live, eat, and breathe photography with two of the world’s premier photographic educators at one of their very favorite photography locations on the planet. Top-notch in-the-field and Photoshop instruction. This will make 21 consecutive Novembers at Bosque for artie. This will be denise’s 7th workshop at the refuge. Nobody knows the place better than artie does. Join us to learn to think like a pro, to recognize situations and to anticipate them based on the weather, especially the sky conditions, the light, and the wind direction. Every time we make a move we will let you know why. When you head home being able to apply what you’ve learned on your home turf will prove to be invaluable.

This workshop includes 3 morning and 3 afternoon photography sessions, an inspirational introductory slide program after dinner on your own on Saturday, 11/21, all lunches, and after-lunch digital workflow, Photoshop, and image critiquing sessions.

There is never a strict itinerary on a Bosque IPT as each day is tailored to the local conditions at the time and to the weather. We are totally flexible in order to maximize both the photographic and learning opportunities. We are up early each day leaving the hotel by 5:30 am to be in position for sunrise. We usually photograph until about 10:30am. Then it is back to Socorro for lunch and then a classroom session with the group most days. We head back to the refuge at about 3:30pm each day and photograph until sunset. We will be photographing lots of Snow Geese and lots of Sandhill Cranes with the emphasis on expanding both your technical skills and your creativity.

A $449 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 7/25/2015. If you cancel and the trip fills, we will be glad to apply a credit applicable to a future IPT for the full amount less a $100 processing fee. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Whether or not your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance.

Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check (made out to “Arthur Morris.”) You can also leave your deposit with a credit card by calling the office at 863-692-0906. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

In 2015, we are offering a 3-DAY IPT before Thanksgiving and a 4-DAY IPT after the holiday. You can attend either and spend Thanksgiving Day with your family. Sign up for both and we will be glad to apply a $100 discount to your balance. We know that there are lots of less costly workshops being offered these days. Please remember that you get exactly what you pay for. If you want the finest in photographic instruction and want to be assured of being in the right spot at exactly the right time, do join us.

Bosque del Apache 2015 BIRDS AS ART/A Creative Adventure Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT). 4-DAY IPT: (three full and two 1/2 DAYS) NOV 28-DEC 2, 2015. $1499. Two great leaders: Denise Ippolito and Arthur Morris. Meet and greet at 3pm on SAT NOV 28 followed by an afternoon photo session at the crane pools and the introductory slide program after dinner on your own.

Just 3 spots left.

Tens of thousands of Snow Geese, 10,000 Sandhill Cranes, ducks, amazing sunrises, sunsets, and blast-offs. Live, eat, and breathe photography with two of the world’s premier photographic educators at one of their very favorite photography locations on the planet. Top-notch in-the-field and Photoshop instruction. This will make 21 consecutive Novembers at Bosque for artie. This will be denise’s 7th workshop at the refuge. Nobody knows the place better than artie does. Join us to learn to think like a pro, to recognize situations and to anticipate them based on the weather, especially the sky conditions, the light, and the wind direction. Every time we make a move we will let you know why. When you head home being able to apply what you’ve learned on your home turf will prove to be invaluable.

This workshop includes 4 afternoon (11/28through 12/1), 4 morning (11/29 to 12/2) photography sessions, an inspirational introductory slide program after dinner on your own on Saturday, 11/28, all lunches, and after-lunch digital workflow, Photoshop, and image critiquing sessions.

There is never a strict itinerary on a Bosque IPT as each day is tailored to the local conditions at the time and to the weather. We are totally flexible in order to maximize both the photographic and learning opportunities. We are up early each day leaving the hotel by 5:30 am to be in position for sunrise. We usually photograph until about 10:30am. Then it is back to Socorro for lunch and then a classroom session with the group most days. We head back to the refuge at about 3:30pm each day and photograph until sunset. We will be photographing lots of Snow Geese and lots of Sandhill Cranes with the emphasis on expanding both your technical skills and your creativity.

A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 7/25/2015. If you cancel and the trip fills, we will be glad to apply a credit applicable to a future IPT for the full amount less a $100 processing fee. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Whether or not your spot is filled, you will lose your deposit. If not, you can secure your spot by paying your balance.

Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check (made out to “Arthur Morris.”) You can also leave your deposit with a credit card by calling the office at 863-692-0906. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail after July 29.

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Typos

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