What’s Up?
On Tuesday we enjoyed a wonderful early morning with tame pink spoonbills, still blue water, and soft early morning sunlight. We returned to the scene of Monday’s huge tern and gull feeding spree and found the birds on bait but hundreds of yards from the beach. There have been more than a few immature Little Blue Herons at DeSoto for the past few days and I have created some really nice images of this usually hard to photograph plumage (at least for me).
I was thrilled to learn yesterday that Karen McCormick sold all three of her Nikon bodies for the full asking price within two days of their being listed on the Used Gear Page.
If you enjoyed the Alan Murphy webinar last night and are inspired to get on the Topaz bandwagon, please remember to use this link. Highly recommended are Sharpen AI, Denoise AI, or better yet, The Utility Bundle.
BIRDS AS ART is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The BAA Used Gear Page
Right now, the Used Gear page is red hot! It is BAA Used Gear Page is the place to sell your used photographic equipment. We will help you to get your gear sold quickly for 20 to 60% or more than what the big guys are offering … Doubt me? Check out the Recent Sales list at the bottom of the page.
New and Better Bedfords Discount Policy!
You can now save 3% on all of your Bedfords photo gear purchases by entering the BIRDSASART coupon code at checkout. Your discount will be applied to your pre-tax total (without the shipping). Grab a Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III and save $14.99. Purchase a Canon EOS R5 and your discount will be $116.97. Purchase a Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and save a remarkable $389.94! Your Bedford’s purchase no longer needs to be greater than $1,000.00 for you to receive a discount. The more you spend, the more you save.
Money Saving Reminder
Many have learned that if you need a hot photo item that is out of stock at B&H and would enjoy free overnight shipping, your best bet is to click here, place an order with Bedfords, and enter the coupon code BIRDSASART at checkout. If an item is out of stock, contact Steve Elkins via e-mail or on his cell phone at (479) 381-2592 (Eastern time). Be sure to mention the BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order. Steve has been great at getting folks the hot items that are out of stock at B&H and everywhere else. The wait lists at the big stores can be a year or longer for the hard to get items. Steve will surely get you your gear long before that. For the past year, he has been helping BAA Blog folks get their hands on items like the SONY a9 ii, the SONY 200-600 G OSS lens, the Canon EOS R5, the Canon RF 100-500mm lens, and the Nikon 500mm PF. Steve is personable, helpful, and eager to please.
SONY e-Guide Discount Program
Purchase a (new) qualifying SONY camera body (a7r iii, a7r iv, a9, a9 ii) from Bedfords or using a BIRDS AS ART B&H affiliate link, and you will receive a $40 discount on the SONY e-guide. Purchase a (new) SONY 200-600mm G lens from Bedfords or using a BIRDS AS ART B&H affiliate link, and you will receive a $25 discount on the SONY e-guide. Purchase a (new) SONY 600mm f/4 GM lens from Bedfords or using a BIRDS AS ART B&H affiliate link, and you will receive a free SONY e-guide with one or two videos.
Please send your Bedford’s or B&H receipts to me via e-mail to receive your discount and your ordering instructions. Folks purchasing from Bedfords and using the BIRDSASART code will save $50. Folks sending their B&H receipts may need to wait a few days to have their purchases confirmed. Folks using Bedfords will have their purchases confirmed immediately.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of photographers whom I see in the field and on BPN, are–out of ignorance–using the wrong gear especially when it comes to tripods and more especially, tripod heads… Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.
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114 sold to rave reviews. The SONY e-Guide by Patrick Sparkman and Arthur Morris |
The Sony Camera User’s e-Guide (and Videos)
Click here to purchase the guide with one Camera Set-up Video. Be sure to e-mail us by clicking here to specify your camera body so that we can send you a link for the correct video.
Click here to purchase the guide with two Camera Set-up Videos. Be sure to e-mail us by clicking here to specify your two camera bodies so that we can send you links for the correct videos.
Click here to learn more about the SONY e-Guide.
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This image was created by Anita North at Fort DeSoto Park in Pinellas County, FL on the morning of Saturday 19 September 2020. She used the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 600mm) and the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital camera body. ISO 400. The best exposure was determined via Zebra evaluation with ISO on the read dial as detailed in The Sony Camera User’s e-Guide and One Camera Set-up Video. 1/2000sec. at f/6.3. ABW at 8:43am in mostly sunny conditions. Anita has been using RawDigger for about a month and her exposures have improved dramatically; this one was perfect. Center Zone Continuous AF was active at the moment of exposure and worked well. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image courtesy of and copyright 2020: Anita North Image #1: Sandwich Tern braking to land |
A Stunner by Anita North
Image #1 is full frame as it came out of the camera. It was created a day before the huge feeding spree. The bird was flying in to join a large pile of skimmers and terns roosting on the beach. Anita nailed this one: super light, right on sun angle, a great wing position with nary an underwing shadow, and the subject placed perfectly between the breaking wave and the distance horizon. Kudos to Anita and thanks for allowing me to share this fine image here.
Yikes, I almost forgot to mention the incredible sharpness. Why? It is pretty much par for the course with the SONY a9 ii. Paired with the 200-600, it is a valuable and versatile bird photography rig.
Birds In Flight Tips
At the huge feeding spree on Monday, Anita was having a bit of trouble acquiring focus, so we went over a few basics:
- 1: Be sure that the Limit Range switch on the lens is set to “not full” so that the lens does not have to waste time focusing down to the minimum focusing distance (MFD) of the lens.
- 2: Pre-focus on the water at or beyond the spot where the bird will be.
- 3: Zoom out slightly when acquiring focus and then zoom in. This works especially well with SONY zoom lenses which often have a bit of trouble acquiring focus when zoomed in completely, that is, when zoomed to the longest focal length.
After that, she killed ’em.
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This image was created at Fort DeSoto Park in Pinellas County, FL on the morning of Saturday 19 September 2020. I used the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 441mm) and the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital camera body. ISO 400. The best exposure was determined via Zebra evaluation with ISO on the read dial as detailed in The Sony Camera User’s e-Guide and One Camera Set-up Video. 1/2000sec. at f/6.3. ABW at 8:35am in mostly sunny conditions. RawDigger showed that the RAW file was less than 1//2 stop under-exposed. Center Zone Continuous AF was active at the moment of exposure and worked well. Click on the image to see a larger version. Image #2: Sandwich Tern landing at mixed flock |
What Would You Do With This Image?
There are lots of problems:
- 1: The bird is right-of-center in the frame when it should be left-of-center.
- 2: The birds at the bottom of the frame are mega distracting. (Sometimes zooming out a lot wider to include the flock below the landing bird in the frame is an option.
- 3: The position of the breaking wave behind the bird is somewhat distracting (but there was nothing that I could do about that in post-processing.
Would you keep this image or delete it?
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Image #3 was created from Image #2. Image #3: The optimized version of Image #2: Sandwich Tern landing now without the birds below |
The Image Optimization in Photoshop
After converting the RAW image in Capture One Pro 20, I opened the TIF in Photoshop for major clean-up and re-construction. First I used Content-Aware Fill Crop to add a good deal of canvas on the right, cropped from the left, and then leveled the image. The first two steps moved the bird to right-of-center in the frame where it belonged. To eliminate the birds at bottom of the frame I used the Clone Stamp Tool to clear the bottom frame-edge and then used my usual cadre of clean-up tools to eliminate the cut off and distracting birds at the bottom: the Patch Tool, Content-Aware Fill, and several Quick Masks refined with Regular Layer Masks.
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The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II).You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a PayPal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand. Be sure to specify Digital Basics II. |
The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)
The techniques mentioned above and tons more (with the exception of Capture One RAW Conversions) — along with all of my personalized Keyboard Shortcuts — are covered in detail in the BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. Learn more and check out the free excerpt in the blog post here. While the new e-Guide reflects my MacBook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow, folks using a PC and/or BreezeBrowser will also benefit greatly by studying the material on DB II. Note: folks working on a PC and/or those who do not want to miss anything Photoshop may wish to purchase the original Digital Basics along with DB II while saving $15 by clicking here to buy the DB Bundle.
Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here. Note: all of the videos are now priced at an amazingly low $5.00 each.
You can learn how and why I converted all of my Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 in the DPP 4 RAW Conversion Guide here. More recently, I became proficient at converting my Nikon RAW (NEF) files in Adobe Camera Raw. About two years ago I began converting my Nikon and Sony RAW files in Capture One Pro 12 and continue to do so today.
To purchase Capture One, please use this link. Then you can learn more about Capture One in the Capture One Pro 12 Simplified MP4 Video here. The next step would be to get a copy of Arash Hazeghi’s “The Nikon Photographers’ Guide to Phase One Capture One Pro e-Guide” in the blog post here.
You can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair. Folks can learn sophisticated sharpening and (NeatImage) Noise Reduction techniques in The Professional Post Processing Guide by Arash Hazeghi and edited by yours truly. Please use this link to purchase NeatImage.
To introduce folks to our MP.4 videos and the basics involved in applying more NeatImage noise reduction to the background and less on the subject, I’d be glad to send you a free copy of the Free Noise Reduction Basics MP.4 Video.. Simply click to shoot me an e-mail to get your free copy.
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors. Just be right :).
I would concede defeat and try again, The bird coming head on just doesn’t do much for me. I think the background of the decluttered image is still kinda cluttered. It would be easier to look at if there was no sky. File it.
Great shot, Anita!
The second photo, i likely would not have kept. But that’s because i wouldn’t have tried to do what you did with it to create #3… which is a definite keeper for me!
Well done.
Great shot Anita. Love it. Re your shot, I like what you did with it. I agree, the other birds need to go and since the bird is moving slightly to its left, it is now positioned correctly in the frame. Keeper? Depends on what else you got. Compared to Anita’s, goes in the trash bin. :). Just kidding. It would be on my keeper list.
I agree. But is was a good teaching image.
with love, a
I would keep the image. I like the original far better than the optimized image. #2 gives the picture depth and a sense of being there on a beach filled with birds. The tern pops out at you since it’s outline is not broken with other birds and then your eyes peruse the other birds. I also prefer the bird right of center.
Thanks, Wayne. Obviously one man’s distracting clutter is another man’s beauty.
with love, artie