Composites or Not? ISO Quiz. And Ridiculous Eye AF

What’s Up?

With clear skies and a SW wind on Friday morning, I opted to walk the pier again with the handheld 400mm f/2.8/1.4X TC/a1 rig. I had some success with a Limpkin chick feeding sequence and made some nice Great Egret flight images.

Facing a three-games-to-one deficit in the NBA finals, my beloved Golden State Warriors, led by Steph Curry — 43 points/10 rebounds, and a lock-down 4th quarter defense, defeated the (long-hated-by-me) Boston Celtics in front of a hostile crowd at the new Boston Garden. It was as fiercely a competitive game as I have ever seen. The series is now tied at two games to two. Game five will be on Monday night.

Today is Saturday 11 June 2022. The forecast for ILE is calling for mostly cloudy skies with rain developing followed by scattered thunderstorms. We need to let some water out of the pool as it has poured almost every day for the past two weeks. Did I mention that my clothes dryer quit and the new one will not be here until 20 June? Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, I hope that you too have a great day. This blog post took more than two hours to prepare and makes eighty-eight days in a row with a new one.

Please remember to use the B&H and Amazon links that are found on most blog pages and to use the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout when purchasing your new gear from Bedfords to get 3% back on your credit card and enjoy free second-day air FedEx. Please, also, consider joining a BAA IPT. You will be amazed at how much you will learn!

BIRDS AS ART Image Optimization Service (BAA IOS)

Send a PayPal for $62.00 to birdsasart@verizon.net or call Jim at 863-692-0906 and put $62.00 on your credit card. Pick one of your best images and upload the raw file using a large file sending service like Hightail or DropBox and then send me the link via e-mail. I will download and save your raw file, evaluate the exposure and sharpness, and optimize the image as if it were my own after converting the raw file in Adobe Camera Raw. Best of all, I will make a screen recording of the entire process and send you a link to the video to download, save and study.

Another Induro GIT 304L Price Drop

Amazingly, we have two, brand-new-in-the-box Induro GIT 304L tripods in stock. They are $699.00 each (were $799.00) and the price now includes the insured ground shipping to the lower 48 states. Weekday phone orders only: 863-692-0906.

These two images were created on 3 June 2022 at Lake Blue Cypress. Both were part of a more than 20-frame sequence, all razor sharp on the young bird’s eye. While aboard Clemens Van de Werf’s flats boat, I used the handheld Sony FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO ????. 1/2500 sec. at f/2.8 (wide-open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be perfect. AWB at 6:44:08am on a an overcast morning. Tracking: Zone AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed to level beyond perfection (see below). Click on the image to view a high-res version. Both: Photo Mechanic screen capture of two Fresh Juvenile Osprey landing at nestimages.

Creating the Composite

As I mentioned in yesterday’s video here, I wanted to bring the juvie with best wing position into the image with the best adult-in-the-nest-with-wings-up image.

Once I decided which two images to combine, I converted one, and then used the same slider settings to convert the second image. (To do that, Control click on the image in the Camera Raw window and select Apply Previous Settings from the dropdown menu.) Once I had both images open in Photoshop, I ran Topaz DeNoise on each of them. Then I painted a Quick Mask of the bird in flight in _A1G0682, making sure to include as much sky as possible around the bird. Then I put that selection on its own layer (Control J), dragged it onto _A1G0668 using the Move Tool (V), and added a Regular Layer Mask. I positioned the flying bird layer and painted away the sky as needed. Scroll down to see the optimized image.

Because Ospreys have deep set eyes, it is almost always necessary to lighten the irises. I did lots of Eye Doctor work on both the young bird (one orange irises) and the adult (two yellow eyes). The depth of field (DOF) in front of the point of focus (the eye of the juvenile) at 49.3 meters is 1.25 meters. As the adult bird well in front of the young bird, it was just outside the zone of sharp focus. So, I selected the head of the adult, put it on its own layer, and ran Topaz Sharpen AI on that layer only. The improvement was great. Note that I never run Topaz Sharpen AI a whole bird, much less on a whole image.

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 great Photoshop tips and techniques — along with my complete digital workflow, Digital Eye Doctor Techniques, and all 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. 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: most 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 three years ago I began converting my Nikon and Sony RAW files in Capture One and did that for two years. 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. Today, I convert my Sony raw files in Photoshop with Adobe Camera Raw.

You can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair.

This image is a composite of the two images above, both were created on 3 June 2022 at Lake Blue Cypress. I used the handheld Sony FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the Thumb Dial. ISO ????. 1/2500 sec. at f/2.8 (wide-open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be perfect. AWB at 6:44:08am on an overcast morning. Tracking: Zone AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed to level beyond perfection (see below). Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version. Image #1: Fresh Juvenile Osprey landing at nest

The Optimized Image

Some may frown upon combining two images to create a really beautiful image. As a nature photographer, my desire is to create beautiful images. That passion drives me. I have zero problems creating a composite from a sequence of images. All the images in the 20+ frame sequence show a young Osprey landing at the nest that is occupied by one of its parents. And while it does not depict a single instant in time, the composite images shows a young Osprey landing at the nest that is occupied by one of its parents …

ISO Question

All are invited to make an educated guess as to what ISO was used to create the images above and to leave a comment.

Image #1A: A7INFO screen capture of the Fresh Juvenile Osprey landing at nest image

I Was Not Kidding …

I was not kidding the other day when I mentioned that Tracking: Zone AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection performs better at f/2.8 than it does at the smaller apertures: f/4, f/5.6, f/8, and all those in between. Virtually every frame in the sequence shows the same amazing AF accuracy as seen in the screen capture above.

Click on the image to better see the green eye-AF boxes in action. Sony Alpha 1 Flight Photography AF Points!

The SONY Alpha a1 Set-up Guide and Info Group: $150.00 (or Free)

The SONY Alpha a1 Set-up Guide and Info Group is going great guns as more and more folks chime in with thoughtful questions and experience-based answers. As the a1 is becoming more readily available, more and more folks are getting their hands on this amazing body. By June 1, 2022, the group was up to an astounding 123 lucky and blessed folks. (More than a few folks own two or more a1 bodies! Early on, we discussed the myriad AF options. I gave my opinion as to the best one for flight and general bird photography. The best news is that everyone in the group receives an e-mail that includes a .DAT file with my a1 settings on it, and explicit directions on how to load my settings onto your a1; talk about convenience! I am now offering a .DAT file compatible with firmware update 1.20. Your entry into the group includes a consolidated Sony a1 CAMSETA2 INFO & GUIDE. New a1 folks will now receive four e-mails instead of the previous 28! You will see new e-mails as they are published. Simply put, this e-mail guide is an incredible resource for anyone with an a1.

All who purchased their Alpha 1 bodies via a BAA affiliate link — B&H or Bedfords — will receive a free Sony Alpha a1 Set-Up Guide and free entry into the Info Updates group after shooting me their receipts via e-mail. (Note: it may take me several days to confirm B&H orders.). Others can purchase their guide here in the BAA Online Store.

Typos

With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.