1D X ISO 1600 Low Light Flight Image Lessons

This Just In

7D Mark II User’s Guide Now Available

The long-awaited 7D Mark II User’s Guide is finished. You can purchase your copy right now in the BAA Online Store here for $59. This is the highest priced user’s guide surpassing the 5D II User’s Guide at $50. Why? I did twice as much work preparing the 7D II Guide. It required days of writing, dozens of hours of study and research, not to mention hundreds of hours in the field trying to figure out the best 7D II setting while doing what I love to do best, photographing birds and nature. Many thanks to both Rudy Winston and Chuck Westfall of Canon USA for their help in getting through the stickiest parts.

The guide contains 23,196 words in 516 paragraphs. There are 24 photos and screen captures interspersed in the main body of the text and a gallery of 23 additional 7D II images that show what the camera is capable of with a variety of lens and lens/TC combinations. We would love your feedback. The full advertising spiel will be coming soon.

What’s Up?

I spent about ten hours yesterday hard at work on the 7D Mark II Users Guide. I should be finished some time this morning and hope to announce the publication in a short Bulletin after lunch…. I ignored most e-mails and had time only for meals and a morning swim.

This blog post, which took about 3 hours to prepare, was published at 6:32am from my home in Indian Lake Estates.

Hooptie Spoonbill Mini-IPT

Not much time left! Please call us at 863-692-0906 for late registration discount info.

The Hooptie Roseate Spoonbill Mini-IPT announced on Wednesday past has two full slots left. Please call us at 863-692-0906 or e-mail with questions or to check on availability. Scroll down here for details and prices and for the skinny on our morning and Saturday-only rates.

E-mail from Wilfred (Willy) Marissen

Hi Artie, I just wanted to drop you a note and say thanks. I had a great time on the DeSoto In-the-Field Add-on and it was very nice to meet you after all these years of following your bulletins and blog stories! The Photoshop session was also very valuable. It was great to see the words of the Digital Basics File in action. Thanks again and perhaps we’ll meet each other again in the future. Cheers, Willy

Comment by Cris Hamilton

Cris was a participant on the recently concluded Hooptie Spoonbill IPT:

I was fortunate enough to be a participant in the Hooptie Deux/DeSoto class, which ended on Friday past. It was so much fun and I learned TONS!!! Thank you, thank you, Artie!!!!! And thank you to James Shadle, the master boat commander. James is a vital and fun part of this duo. Super great guy. And, thanks to the other participants for putting up with all my questions!!! 🙂 We had a great group and a super time.

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This image was created at 7:46am on the cloudy morning of February 26, 2015 at Alafia Banks on our last morning on the Hooptie Deux. I used the tripod-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens with a Canon Extender EF 1.4X III and the Canon EOS-1D X. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +2 1/3 stops off the light grey sky: 1/1250 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode. Cloudy WB. Center AF point/AI Servo Expand Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure (as is always best when photographing moving subjects.) Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

A Nice Way to Finish

Three straight foggy mornings followed our clear, sunny start on the recently concluded Hooptie Deux Spoonbills and More IPT. On our last morning we graduated to partly cloudy with some soft sunlight after 8am. Even better was that we had the spoonies landing on the sandbar and that James and I got the group in perfect position for both flight and portraits. Learn a ton more below.

DPP Screen Capture (with AF point illuminated).

DPP Screen Capture with AF Point Illuminated

For this landing spoonbill image by calling this one “Expand” in our User’s Guides and here on the blog. The DPP screen capture illuminates only the selected AF point in red, in the case, the center AF point. If you have created an image using AI Servo AF and are viewing the focus points on the RAW file in DPP, you will see only the selected point rather than the additional active AF point or points, even if one or more of the latter were responsible for acquiring and tracking accurate focus. I added the small red dots in Photoshop (using the Pencil Tool) to show you the four additional AF that were active. With this image the lowest AF point may or may not have just caught the bird’s toes. None-the-less, the image was sharp on the eye most likely as a result of the Custom Case settings that I detail in the EOS-1D X AF Guide.

The cursor was on the spoonie’s neck when I created the screen capture; note the RGB values in the low 230s, just where I want them.

The Before and After Animated GIF

In the before and after Animated GIF you can see that I executed a pano crop, in part to complement the wings swept back pose and in part to eliminate lots of distracting junk at the bottom of the frame.

Image clean-up was done with the usual tools: the Patch Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, the Clone Stamp Tool, and a series of Quick Masks that were refined by Regular Layer Masks.

Eye Doctor work and a Contrast Mask applied to the face and bill only after being selected with the Quick Selection Tool–my shortcut M and put on a layer.

1D X ISO 1600 Noise

After applying Arash’s 1D X ISO 1600 Noise Reduction values for both chrominance and luminance noise during the DPP 4 conversion there was very little background noise evident. I used the Filter/Blur/Surface Blur techniques taught to me by Denise Ippolito to render the background smooth as a baby’s tush.

In both animated GIFs above note the improved sharpness in the face and the effects of my custom NIK Color EFEX Pro 50-50 recipe/50% Opacity Tonal Contrast and 50% Opacity Detail Extractor on the bird only (selected with the Quick Selection Tool–my shortcut M.)

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 II. Mention this blog post and apply a $5 discount to either with phone orders only. Buy both APTATS I and APTATS II and we will be glad to apply at $15 discount either with phone orders or here in the BAA Online Store. For phone orders, call Jim or Jennifer at 863-692-0906 weekdays.

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. A free update that will cover most of the newly added cameras will be sent some time next week. See upcoming blog posts for exact details.

Images courtesy of and copyright Captain James Shadle (aka Froggie). All of the images here were created at Alafia Banks. Card creation and design by Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART.

The Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Mini IPT. 1 1/2 DAYs: $1250. SAT MAR 7 (full day) and SUN Morning MAR 8, 2015. Working lunch on Saturday included. Strict Limit: 6 photographers/Openings: 2

Either morning photo session only: $475. Saturday morning photo session plus working lunch: $525. Saturday Full Day: $775.

Two great leaders: Captain James Shadle (Nikon) and Canon Explorer of Light Arthur Morris.

Roseate Spoonbill is one of if not the most sought after avian photographic subjects in Florida. They are generally hard to find and somewhat difficult to approach. They are relatively easy to find at Alafia Banks—heck, you can’t miss seeing them, but even there they can on some days be somewhat difficult to approach. On some days we may be able to get ridiculously close to them. The huge incentive to get out to Alafia Banks in early March is the chance to photograph this species at the height of its spectacular breeding plumage….

Weather permitting there will be three boat trips: 2 mornings and 1 afternoons. Mornings at Alafia Banks for spoonbills and Brown Pelicans (with lots of flight photography with the birds likely carrying nesting material), cormorants, ibises (both Glossy and White in breeding plumage. Many of the White Ibises will be sporting their spectacular, distended, red, naked (un-feathered) throat pouches—typically larger in the females. In addition we will get to photograph egrets including Great and Reddish, both in full breeding plumage, shorebirds, and more. There will be lots of flight photography opportunities. The afternoon trip will be either to Alafia Banks for spoonbills and more or to a more sheltered inland rookery location for a variety of nesting birds. In the event of horrific weather artie will either take the group to Fort DeSoto or will conduct an image review/Photoshop session. This IPT includes one working lunch.

Important Notes

We stay in Brandon, FL for this IPT. From our hotel it is only about 20 minutes to the dock. The plan is for all sessions to be by boat. For the Alafia Banks segments, Captain Shadle provides light weight chest waders as much of the photography will be done while we are standing in fairly shallow water behind our tripods. We help you get in and out of the boat with your gear. This is likely not the best trip for folks with balance problems. Note however that some folks may opt to stay on the boat. They always have lots of good chances for flight photography of spoonbills and other species but are almost always pretty far away from the spoonbills that land.

This mini Hooptie IPT represents an incredible opportunity. It may fill quickly. We hope that you can join us. Scroll down for registration info.

All of the images here were created at Alafia Banks early in the season. Images copyright Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART. Card creation and design by Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART.

Hooptie Mini-IPT Registration Info

Payment in full for this short notice trip is of course due upon registration. Call the office at 863-692-0906 to arrange to send us a check for payment in full (preferred) or to put the whole thing on a credit card. If by check, it should be made out to “Arthur Morris” and be mailed to BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855. 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.

However you arrange for payment, please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with the paperwork. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

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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 :).