What’s Up?
The School for the Work was beyond anything I could have dreamed of. Byron Katie claims to be nothing special, but by me, she is both a healing saint and a compassionate angel. Lots more soon.
Who would you be without your story? The Work is a way to identify and question the thoughts that cause all your suffering and pain. Everything you need in order to do The Work is available free on Katie’s website here. If you visit and get stuck on doing the work, I would be glad to facilitate for you. Please get in touch via e-mail.
The plan is to get into San Diego after dinner on Thursday. I will start catching up on e-mails on Friday.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs and dozens of folks 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.
The Streak: 1!
Today’s blog post marks a totally insane, irrational, illogical, preposterous, absurd, completely ridiculous, unfathomable, silly, incomprehensible, what’s wrong with this guy?, makes-no-sense, 1 day in a row with a new educational blog post. As always–and folks have been doing a really great for a long time now–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only. And please remember also that if you are shopping for items that we carry in the BAA Online Store (as noted in red at the close of this post below) we would of course appreciate your business.
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This image was created on the Gatorland Mini-IPT with the hand held (railing-braced) Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 560mm) and the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II. On camera fill flash at -1 1/3 stops with the Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT. Image #1: Great Egret in gorgeous green water |
Thanks to Krishna!
Thanks to Krishna Prasad Kotti for asking me so many questions about the Nikon histograms. Together, we figured out that with the Nikon histograms the right-most data needs to be a lot closer to the highlight axis than with Canon camera bodies in order to produce WHITEs with RGB values in the mid-230s to the low 240s. When his histograms looked exactly like mine his WHITEs were too dark. We discovered this during the image review session at our working lunch.
When he asked me about the histogram for this image on our wonderful Saturday afternoon session, he opened my eyes to the sultry reflections and inspired me to create today’s featured image. Sometimes when the student asks lots of questions it is the instructor who learns something. It didn’t hurt that the colors on the Nikon LCD are really funked up, at least on Krishna’s body.
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Image #2: A tight crop of the reflection cleaned up a bit |
I’m Just Sayin’ Im Just Playin’
Here I executed a tight crop of the reflection, flopped it, and cleaned up the smear by the bill. First I tried the Patch Tool but that made somewhat of a mess so I finished the repair up with a small Quick Masked and the Transform command and then refined by a regular layer mask. Then I used the Clone Stamp Tools to clean up the bill tip (as I did on the bill of the bird with Image #1).
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Image #3: With the Buzz Sim II filter |
More Playin’ With Topaz Buzz Sim II
To create the image above I applied the Topaz Simplify Buzz Sim II filter on a layer and then revealed the eyes using a Regular Layer Mask. I figured that it might do really nice things to the lovely water. How’d I do?
Topaz Buzz Sim II Filter Question
Would you have painted back in the eye on the reflection?
Topaz Simplify
I’ve been thrilled with the results whenever I’ve used Topaz Simplify. You can help support my efforts here on the BAA Blog by clicking on the logo link above if you would like to join in the fun. After you click, be sure to watch the great instructional video. You can see my favorite Buz Sim pelican here.
Topaz Simplify: Turn your photos into works of art. Create paintings, sketches, watercolors, cartoons, and more. Make your art uniquely personal instead of using cookie-cutter filters. Get better results faster with specialized digital art technology
Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store 🙂
To show your appreciation for my continuing efforts here, we ask, as always, that you get in the habit of using my B&H affiliate links on the right side of the blog for all of your photo and electronics purchases. Please check the availability of all photographic accessories in the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod head, Wimberley lens plates, Delkin flash cards and accessories, and LensCoat stuff.
As always, we sell only what I have used, have tested, and can depend on. We will not sell you junk. We know what you need to make creating great images easy and fun. And please remember that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail.
I would of course appreciate your using our B&H affiliate links for all of your major gear, video, and electronic purchases. For the photographic stuff mentioned in the paragraph above, and for everything else in the new store, we, meaning BAA, would of course greatly appreciate your business. Here is a huge thank you to the many who have been using our links on a regular basis and those who will be visiting the New BIRDS AS ART Online Store as well.
Be sure to like and follow BAA on Facebook by clicking on the logo link upper right. Tanks a stack.
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 :).
After reading Jeffs response that the histogram is from the j-peg would be wise to continue pushing the histogram a third or more of a stop to the right so that the raw image is spot on?
Welcome back. The third image is interesting; I like the colors in the water / reflections as I think they add to the overall image. Congratulations on the new streak. The old one was quite remarkable. Thanks for all the info and ideas.
Thanks Jeff. The idea is to move the histogram to the right and then learn were you exactly you want the edge of the histogram to be to get the WHITEs where you want them to be. I try not to worry too much about the fine points and the technical details.
🙂 and sincere thanks.
a
A note on histograms: I learned a while back that for Canon cameras (so I’m guessing Nikon as well), the histogram display comes from the JPG image, which is the “preview” image if you shoot RAW. The result is that what color space you have your camera set to (sRGB or Adobe RGB) will influence how close your RAW image is to clipping when the camera histogram is to the far right but not clipping.
Thanks Jeff. The idea is to move the histogram to the right and then learn were you exactly you want the edge of the histogram to be to get the WHITEs where you want them to be. I try not to worry too much about the fine points and the technical details.
a
I prefer the Buzz Sim filter image. The lighter green water, the ripples, and the perfectly positioned egret and reflection produce an abstract, surreal effect that is unusual and appealing.
Thanks Craig!
a
Nice to have you back. Yep, “totally insane” streak: 1! Still in Borrego. The flowers are nuts, but so are the crowds.
Make a few good ones!
later and love, artie
Welcome back Artie.
Quick question, in image #3 it looks (on my monitor) as though there are thin white horizontal stripes on the bird itself. Are those from light reflected off the wavelets on the water?
Tony
Yes. If you get up early, you will see more of those.
artie
Love the reflection and colors in this image. Don’t know if you noticed but the reflection of the bill and the moving water make the reflected bill look as if it is in the water. Very nice.
Thanks for sharing.
a
I really like the effect of the filter on the water also. Makes the photo more interesting and gives me more to look at/explore in the photo.
Tanks!
a
Its like being on drugs , I need my fix of Artie every day , we all learn so much from you , so thank you and Happy St Patrick’s Day ….. Charlie from Ireland
🙂 Have a green beer on me!
a
Welcome Back Artie. Thank you for patiently listening to my questions and helping me figure out the histograms in my Nikon Body.
I love the image, beautiful background colors and reflection.
I was able to figure out the issue of bad colors in my Nikon LCD. My Picture control settings had too much saturation and contrast.
So good to see your blog.
You are welcome. Good on the image display.
later and love till next time,
artie
Glad you had such a good experience. Welcome back! Really like the effect of the filter on the water.
Thanks Doc!
a