February 10th, 2021 What’s Up?
Tuesday morning was mega-foggy. Working with the handheld RF/RF 100-500, I played around with HDR flight and deleted them all. I kept a few images of a dewy spider web and a few of an aquatic plant. I got lots more done on both the BAA Canon EOS R5 Camera User’s e-Guide and the update of the BAA R5/R6 AF e-Guide. The latter should be completed in a very few days.
The sky was gorgeous last night and there was very little wind. I glanced at that folder this morning and was thrilled to see a few very good ones. And even more near-misses … All with the SONY 600 GM, the 2X TC, and the a9 ii. It is amazing that we have come to the point that flight photography with SONY at 1200mm is just another day at the office.
Today is Wednesday 10 February 2021. The forecast for this morning is calling for partly cloudy skies with gentle winds from the southeast. I will be heading down to the lake early, probably with the refrigerated armadillo in the cooler.
I peeked out of my office door at 7:07am to see another totally foggy morning.
This post took about 2 hours to prepare and makes fifty-three days in a row with a new one. Please remember …
Please Remember
With income from IPTs now at zero, please, if you enjoy and learn from the blog, remember to use one of my two affiliate programs when purchasing new gear. Doing so just might make it possible for me to avoid having to try to get a job as a Walmart greeter and will not cost you a single penny more. And if you use Bedfords and remember to enter the BIRDSASART code at checkout, you will save 3% on every order and enjoy free second-day air shipping. In these crazy times — I am out at least forty to sixty thousand dollars so far due to COVID 19 (with lots more to come) — remembering to use my B&H link or to shop at Bedfords will help me out a ton and be greatly appreciated. Overseas folks who cannot order from the US because of import fees, duties, and taxes, are invited to help out by clicking here to leave a blog thank you gift if they see fit.
Canon R5/R6 AF e-Guide Info
So far, 104 folks have sent PayPals for their copy of the Canon R5/R6 AF e-Guide. And 33 who used my affiliate links to purchase their R5 have e-mailed for and received their free copy of the guide. If you e-mailed your Bedford receipt or sent a PayPal and did not receive your guide, please LMK immediately via e-mail.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far. Three folks wrote stating that they had a better way of setting up AF on their R5s. When I wrote back explaining why they were in error, two of them back-tracked. One stubborn guy is still doing it his way — less efficiently. Be sure to scroll down to read about my plans for a Canon R5/R6 User’s e-Guide. Understand that the info in the BAA Canon R5/R6 Autofocus e-Guide is so important that I opted to publish the AF guide immediately as the R5/R6 User’s Guide will take at least another month to finish.
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BAA Canon R5/R6 Autofocus e-Guide
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BAA Canon R5/R6 Autofocus e-Guide
Twenty-one pages. 3,452 words. 28-DPP4 screen captures showing the R5’s vaunted AF system in action. Note: the AF system of the R5 is identical to the AF system of the R6.
You will learn:
1- The two most useful AF Methods for general bird photography and for birds in flight.
2- How to set up your R5/R6 AF Menus.
3- What boxes to check (and un-check) under Limit AF Methods.
4- How to change the AF Method quickly, easily, and efficiently. Note: the default way of doing this is clunky, cumbersome, and inefficient at best. One person replied that this tip alone was worth the price of admission.
5- The only setting that should be used for Initial Servo AF pt for Face Detection + Tracking.
I you are currently using multiple back buttons either for general bird photography or for birds in flight, what you learn in this guide will change your life. For the better.
Here are the first three paragraphs of this e-Guide:
From the moment I learned about the new Canon mirrorless bodies, I read about using two or three back-buttons to focus using different AF methods. The word on the street said that the way to go for birds in flight was to use one button to acquire focus with Zone AF or with Large Zone: Horizontal AF and then switch to another button to activate Face Detection + Tracking AF and then use the shutter button to make an image. My immediate thought was, “This is insanity! There has got to be a better way.” In short, there is a far superior way to set up AF on your R5 or R6.
Remember that I got away from any form of back-button or rear focusing many years ago after finally realizing that it is always easier to do one thing (press the shutter button), than it is to do two things (press a back button and then press the shutter button).
The default method of switching AF Methods with the R5/R6 bodies is cumbersome at best. It involves first pressing the grid button (my name) on the upper right back of the camera and then pressing the hard-to-access M-Fn button to toggle through the AF Methods. This method is so bad that it will not be mentioned again in this guide.
The guide is free to all who have ordered an R5 or an R6 using my B&H affiliate link or from Steve Elkins/Bedfords using the BIRDSASART coupon code at checkout. Please send your receipt to me via e-mail. It will take me a few days to a week to verify the B&H purchases. Bedfords folks should expect their free e-Guides fairly quickly.
To purchase your copy of the e-Guide, please click here or send a PayPal for $25.00 to birdsasart@verizon.net and be sure to include the words R5/R6 AF Guide in your PayPal e-mail.
Everyone who gets the guide will receive a free update no later than the first week in February.
Canon EOS R5 Camera User’s e-Guide
As regular readers know, I am working on a complete Canon R5 Camera User’s e-Guide. This will require a lot of research, a lot of time, and a lot of effort. I am hoping to have it complete by late February. As always, folks who use the BAA affiliate links to purchase their Canon gear will receive a substantial discount.
Understand that the info in the BAA Canon R5/R6 Autofocus e-Guide is so important that I opted to publish the AF guide right off the bat to help folks get started with their new camera bodies. I may soon offer a pre-publication version of the User’s e-Guide … With a small discount, of course.
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. In addition, by using the code you will get 2nd day air shipping via Fed Ex.
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 (Central time). Be sure to mention the BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order to save 3% and enjoy free 2nd-day air shipping. 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.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs (remember those?) 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.
AF Performs Perfectly
Click on the screen capture above to enlarge it and note that Face Detection + Tracking AF-C with the handheld R5/RF 100-500 performed perfectly by nailing the bird’s eye. But …
Operator Error Prevails (at First)
The image design of the photo on our left is very poor at best as the bird is too low in the frame with lots of unbalanced dead space above the bird’s head. The image on our right is much stronger with the bird well up and well back in the frame. Same situation. Same photographer. Getting these head portrait compositions down pat has been a big challenge for more than a year. That despite the fact that SONY’s Zone AF, Tracking Flexible Spot (M), and Tracking Expand Flexible Spot perform perfectly more than nine times out of ten. And the same can be said about the Canon R5’s Face Detection + Tracking AF-C system.
As I have stated here often and written in all of the relevant e-Guides, the photographer must take great care in framing the images to come up with a pleasing image design. And that is true whether you are hand-holding or work on a tripod with a FlexShooter head.
Again, AF Performs Perfectly
As explained in the BAA R5/R6 AF e-Guide, Face Detection + Tracking AF-C will often revert to various-sized squares or rectangles or perform like Zone AF (as we see with the image on our left). No matter — the dancing AF points have painted the bird’s face and the image is perfectly sharp on the bird’s eye. In the image on our right, Face Detection + Tracking AF-C nailed the bird’s eye. But …
And Again, Operator Error Prevails (at First)
Despite the fact that the AF system performed more-than-adequately with the R5/RF 100-500 image on our left, the image is a total failure; the subject was mis-framed by the operator, moi. The top of the bird’s head is almost touching the left frame-edge. I did get things right with the image on our right by centering the bird from side to side. Note also that by crouching a bit and getting lower, I brought more blue into the upper background.
The point here remains that the design of the image is 100% in the hands of the person holding the lens. No matter how accurate, sophisticated, and amazing the AF systems have become, only the operator can create a pleasing image design.
The SONY AF System is Equally Amazing
Above, working on Black Point Drive at Merritt Island NWR with the tripod-mounted SONY 600 GM, the 1.4X TC, and the a9 ii, Center Zone AF-C performed 100% perfectly. Can we say the same about the operator?
The Operator Fails at the Decisive Moment …
Can we say that the operator performed perfectly when he clicked the shutter for the image on our right? No. The operator failed at the decisive moment despite the AF system performing perfectly. The image on our left is framed perfectly as it includes the complete reflection of the subject. When the bird leaned forward to ruffle, the AF system continued to perform perfectly, but the operator did not. I failed to point the lens down a bit as I should have. Had I done that, the image made at the decisive moment would have included the complete reflection of the subject. I kicked myself at the time as I knew what I had done.
Though I am pretty sure that Center Zone AF would have held focus and allowed me to include the entire reflection, Wide AF would surely have been a better choice. Learning as always, I have begun using Wide for my sunset sessions down at the lake so that I can enjoy more compositional freedom as I try to nail the birds above the reeds and below the far shoreline. Remember that Patrick Sparkman prefers Wide over Zone …
Image Question
Would it be possible to save the Tricolored Heron image on our right, _A9B9481? If yes, how?
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
February 9th, 2021
Ever Hear of Richard I. Bong?
Richard Ira Bong was a United States Army Air Forces major and Medal of Honor recipient in World War II. He was one of the most decorated American fighter pilots and the country’s top flying ace in the war, credited with shooting down 40 Japanese aircraft, all while flying the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter. Soon after returning home, he died in California on August 6, 1945 while testing a Lockheed P-80 jet fighter just before his 25th birthday. The previous February he married Marjorie Vattendahl, whose picture had adorned the nose of his plane.
While learning to fly a P-38, Bong buzzed a nearby house, the home of a pilot who had just been married. He was cited and temporarily grounded for breaking flying rules, along with three other P-38 pilots who had looped around the Golden Gate Bridge on the same day. For looping the Golden Gate Bridge, flying at a low level down Market Street in San Francisco, and blowing the clothes off of an Oakland woman’s clothesline, Bong was reprimanded by General George C. Kenney, commanding officer of the Fourth Air Force, who told him, “If you didn’t want to fly down Market Street, I wouldn’t have you in my Air Force, but you are not to do it any more and I mean what I say.” Kenney later wrote, “We needed kids like this lad.”
Learn more about this amazing hero/pilot in the Wikipedia article here.
What’s Up?
It was very grey on Monday morning. I spent 30 minutes driving around down by the lake but was not much inspired. For the rest of the day, I got a lot more work done on the BAA Canon EOS R5 Camera User’s e-Guide. I have pretty much completed all of the work on the following menus: the Red Shooting Menu, the Magenta AF Menu, and the Blue Playback Menu. Nothing for me to do with the Purple Network Menu as I do not reside on that planet. I am almost finished with the Yellow Set-up Menu. Still to do: the Orange Custom Functions Menu and the Green My Menus. The work is a real grind. When I am done covering all of the menus, there will still be lots more to do. But I am very excited with the progress I have made recently.
At the same time, I am working hard on completing the first and final update of the BAA R5/R6 AF e-Guide (with lots of help from friends including and especially Brian Sump). I had a great swim yesterday in my 84-degree pool! And I was thrilled to learn that the sale of BAA-friend and multiple IPT veteran Bill Schneider’s SONY a9 ii is pending.
Today is Tuesday 9 February 2021. The forecast for this morning is partly cloudy with a SSW breeze — for bird photography that is not great, but not terrible. I will try and time will tell.
This post took about 1 1/2 hours to prepare and makes fifty-two days in a row with a new one. Please, please, pretty please remember …
Please Remember
With income from IPTs now at zero, please, if you enjoy and learn from the blog, remember to use one of my two affiliate programs when purchasing new gear. Doing so just might make it possible for me to avoid having to try to get a job as a Walmart greeter and will not cost you a single penny more. And if you use Bedfords and remember to enter the BIRDSASART code at checkout, you will save 3% on every order and enjoy free second-day air shipping. In these crazy times — I am out at least forty to sixty thousand dollars so far due to COVID 19 (with lots more to come) — remembering to use my B&H link or to shop at Bedfords will help me out a ton and be greatly appreciated. Overseas folks who cannot order from the US because of import fees, duties, and taxes, are invited to help out by clicking here to leave a blog thank you gift if they see fit.
Canon R5/R6 AF e-Guide Info
So far, 104 folks have sent PayPals for their copy of the Canon R5/R6 AF e-Guide. And 33 who used my affiliate links to purchase their R5 have e-mailed for and received their free copy of the guide. If you e-mailed your Bedford receipt or sent a PayPal and did not receive your guide, please LMK immediately via e-mail.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far. Three folks wrote stating that they had a better way of setting up AF on their R5s. When I wrote back explaining why they were in error, two of them back-tracked. One stubborn guy is still doing it his way — less efficiently. Be sure to scroll down to read about my plans for a Canon R5/R6 User’s e-Guide. Understand that the info in the BAA Canon R5/R6 Autofocus e-Guide is so important that I opted to publish the AF guide immediately as the R5/R6 User’s Guide will take at least another month to finish.
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BAA Canon R5/R6 Autofocus e-Guide
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BAA Canon R5/R6 Autofocus e-Guide
Twenty-one pages. 3,452 words. 28-DPP4 screen captures showing the R5’s vaunted AF system in action. Note: the AF system of the R5 is identical to the AF system of the R6.
You will learn:
1- The two most useful AF Methods for general bird photography and for birds in flight.
2- How to set up your R5/R6 AF Menus.
3- What boxes to check (and un-check) under Limit AF Methods.
4- How to change the AF Method quickly, easily, and efficiently. Note: the default way of doing this is clunky, cumbersome, and inefficient at best. One person replied that this tip alone was worth the price of admission.
5- The only setting that should be used for Initial Servo AF pt for Face Detection + Tracking.
I you are currently using multiple back buttons either for general bird photography or for birds in flight, what you learn in this guide will change your life. For the better.
Here are the first three paragraphs of this e-Guide:
From the moment I learned about the new Canon mirrorless bodies, I read about using two or three back-buttons to focus using different AF methods. The word on the street said that the way to go for birds in flight was to use one button to acquire focus with Zone AF or with Large Zone: Horizontal AF and then switch to another button to activate Face Detection + Tracking AF and then use the shutter button to make an image. My immediate thought was, “This is insanity! There has got to be a better way.” In short, there is a far superior way to set up AF on your R5 or R6.
Remember that I got away from any form of back-button or rear focusing many years ago after finally realizing that it is always easier to do one thing (press the shutter button), than it is to do two things (press a back button and then press the shutter button).
The default method of switching AF Methods with the R5/R6 bodies is cumbersome at best. It involves first pressing the grid button (my name) on the upper right back of the camera and then pressing the hard-to-access M-Fn button to toggle through the AF Methods. This method is so bad that it will not be mentioned again in this guide.
The guide is free to all who have ordered an R5 or an R6 using my B&H affiliate link or from Steve Elkins/Bedfords using the BIRDSASART coupon code at checkout. Please send your receipt to me via e-mail. It will take me a few days to a week to verify the B&H purchases. Bedfords folks should expect their free e-Guides fairly quickly.
To purchase your copy of the e-Guide, please click here or send a PayPal for $25.00 to birdsasart@verizon.net and be sure to include the words R5/R6 AF Guide in your PayPal e-mail.
Everyone who gets the guide will receive a free update no later than the first week in February.
Canon EOS R5 Camera User’s e-Guide
As regular readers know, I am working on a complete Canon R5 Camera User’s e-Guide. This will require a lot of research, a lot of time, and a lot of effort. I am hoping to have it complete by late February. As always, folks who use the BAA affiliate links to purchase their Canon gear will receive a substantial discount.
Understand that the info in the BAA Canon R5/R6 Autofocus e-Guide is so important that I opted to publish the AF guide right off the bat to help folks get started with their new camera bodies. I may soon offer a pre-publication version of the User’s e-Guide … With a small discount, of course.
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. In addition, by using the code you will get 2nd day air shipping via Fed Ex.
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 (Central time). Be sure to mention the BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order to save 3% and enjoy free 2nd-day air shipping. 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.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs (remember those?) 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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This in-camera HDR image was created on 6 February 2021 down by the lake at ILE. Walking around near the foot of the pier, I used the handheld Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM lens (at 500mm) and the highly touted 45MP Canon EOS R5 Mirrorless Digital camera body. ISO 3200. Exposure determined via experimentation. Exposure compensation: +3 stops. HDR auto-bracketed around 1/2500 sec. at f/7.1 (wide open) Shutter Priority (Tv) mode. AWB at 8:10am on a completely grey morning.
Image #1: Funky, outlined, in-camera HDR Turkey Vulture in flight
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Messing Around with In-camera HDRs
I published two R5 HDR flight shots in the blog post here. To say that the response to those images was under-whelming would be an understatement. The question for today is, does anyone besides me think that this one is neat? If you care to chime in either way, please leave a comment.
For me, the trick here was to get a bird flying toward me rather than away from me.
R5 In-camera HDRs
In-camera HDRs are typically employed when creating grungy images of vintage cars or old barns; can you say Palouse? IAC, I first experimented with HDR flight photography with my Canon EOS 5D Mark iv bodies. Why? Because I could. Setting up an R5 for both In-camera HDRs and Multiple Exposures is tricky, as is winding up with anywhere near a decent exposure. As you might imagine, all of the above is covered in detail in the BAA Canon EOS R5 Camera User’s e-Guide (in progress). Also included in the guide will be everything you need to know about your R5.
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
February 8th, 2021 Which Background?
You are invited to leave a comment and let us know if you prefer the swirly, lead-blue BKGR in Image #1, or the hint-of-mangroves BKGR in Image #2. And why you made your choice.
What’s Up?
The rain, thunder, and lightning let up early on Sunday morning so I headed down to the lake. There was an eerie orange glow to the world as I drove down, but there was not much around. I made what I thought were a few nice HDR images of the entire nest tree with one of the eagles perched next to the nest. But when I reviewed the images, I noted that the bird was looking away. I deleted all of the images from that session.
I spent most of the day getting a huge amount of work done on the BAA Canon EOS R5 Camera User’s e-Guide. I have pretty much completed all of the work on the following menus: the Red Shooting Menu, the Magenta AF Menu, and the Blue Playback Menu. Nothing for me to do with the Purple Network Menu as I do not reside on that planet. I am halfway through the Yellow Set-up Menu. Still to do: the Orange Custom Functions Menu and the Green My Menus. The work is a real grind. When I am done covering all of the menus, there will still be lots more to do. But I am very excited with the progress I have made this week.
The pool has warmed up beautifully and I really enjoyed my swim. Sunset showed some promise but that was about it. I kept the images on the first edit including four decent frames of a Snowy Egret landing with nesting material — 1/500 sec. at ISO 12,800 …
I could not have been more wrong with my Super Bowl prediction. Kudos to 43-year old G.O.A.T. Tom Brady (ancient by NFL QB standards), and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who completely and utterly dismantled the favored Kansas City Chiefs. Brady has now appeared in ten Super Bowls. And won seven of them! Oh, did I forget to mention that Brady was named the Super Bowl MVP for the 5th time in his career.
Today is Monday 8 February 2021. The forecast for the morning is for cloudy skies with a gentle northeast breeze. I will take a ride down to the lake to see what’s up and about.
This post took about two hours to prepare and makes fifty days in a row with a new one. Please, please, pretty please remember …
Please Remember
With income from IPTs now at zero, please, if you enjoy and learn from the blog, remember to use one of my two affiliate programs when purchasing new gear. Doing so just might make it possible for me to avoid having to try to get a job as a Walmart greeter and will not cost you a single penny more. And if you use Bedfords and remember to enter the BIRDSASART code at checkout, you will save 3% on every order and enjoy free second-day air shipping. In these crazy times — I am out at least forty to sixty thousand dollars so far due to COVID 19 (with lots more to come) — remembering to use my B&H link or to shop at Bedfords will help me out a ton and be greatly appreciated. Overseas folks who cannot order from the US because of import fees, duties, and taxes, are invited to help out by clicking here to leave a blog thank you gift if they see fit.
Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro News
We now have 22 Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro heads in stock. The ballhead that acts like (but is much lighter than) a gimbal-head, and that serves all purposes, has — as I predicted when I first used a FlexShooter Pro head — taken the world of nature photography by storm. And it’s all on the level too!
The RawDigger e-Guide with Two Videos
by Arthur Morris with Patrick Sparkman
The RawDigger e-Guide was created only for serious photographers who wish to get the absolute most out of their raw files.
Patrick and I began work on the guide in July 2020! At first we struggled. We asked questions. We learned about Max-G values. We puzzled as to why the Max G values for different cameras were different. IPT veteran Bart Deamer asked lots of questions that we could not answer. We got help from RawDigger creator Iliah Borg. We learned. In December, Patrick came up with an Adapted Histogram that allows us to evaluate the exposures and raw file brightness for all images created with all digital camera bodies from the last two decades. What we learned each time prompted three head-to-toe re-writes of the guide.
The point of the guide is to teach you to truly expose to the mega-Expose-to-the-Right so that you will minimize noise, maximize image quality, best utilize your camera’s dynamic range, and attain the highest possible level of shadow detail in your RAW files in every situation. In addition, your properly exposed RAW files will contain more tonal information and feature the smoothest possible transitions between tones. And your optimized images will feature rich, accurate color.
We teach you why the GREEN channel is almost always the first to over-expose. We save you money by advising you which version of RawDigger you need. We teach you how to interpret the Max G values for your Canon, Nikon, and SONY camera bodies. It is very likely that the Shock-your-World section will shock you. And lastly — thanks to the technical and practical brilliance of Patrick Sparkman — we teach you a simple way to quickly and easily evaluate your exposures and raw file brightness using an Adapted RawDigger histogram.
The flower video takes you through a session where artie edits a folder of images in Capture One while checking the exposures and Max-G values in RawDigger. The Adapted Histogram video examines a series of recent images with the pink histograms and covers lots of fine points including and especially how to deal with specular highlights. The directions for setting up the Adapted Histogram are in the text.
If we priced this guide based on how much effort we put into it, it would sell it for $999.00. But as this guide will be purchased only by a limited number of serious photographers, we have priced it at $51.00. You can order yours here in the BAA Online Store.
Great Topaz News!
Folks who use the BAA Topaz link to purchase Sharpen AI, DeNoise AI, or the Utility Bundle (or any other Topaz plugins) will receive a 15% discount by entering the ARTHUR15 code at checkout. If the stuff is on sale (as it usually is), you save 15% off of the sale price! To get the discount you must use my link and you must enter the discount code. Be sure to start with this link.
Those who purchase Sharpen AI, DeNoise AI, or any other Topaz plug-ins using my link and then entering the ARTHUR15 code at checkout can e-mail to request a short Getting Started with Topaz e-Guide. Please include a copy of your Topaz receipt that shows the discount. Aside from the basics, the guide explains how to install the plug-ins so that they appear in the Photoshop Filter Menu.
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134 sold to rave reviews.
The SONY e-Guide by Patrick Sparkman and Arthur Morris
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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.
Folks who have used my B&H affiliate links or purchased their SONY gear are invited to e-mail for discount information.
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. In addition, by using the code you will get 2nd day air shipping via Fed Ex.
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 (Central time). Be sure to mention the BIRDSASART coupon code and use it for your online order to save 3% and enjoy free 2nd-day air shipping. 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.
Gear Questions and Advice
Too many folks attending BAA IPTs (remember those?) 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.
And Then the Sun Came Out …
Today’s featured images were actually made on the Pewter Visions morning. When the sun broke through, I got in my SUV and scooted to the small ponds that had been active the day before with dip-feeding wading birds. The small ponds were dead, but the larger pond just before them had some nice birds right on sun angle. Standing behind my tripod and working at 840mm made the images seem as if I had chosen a lower perspective. With a constant subject size, the longer the focal length, the shallower the angle of declination (to the subject).
The clouds in the western sky reflected in the water provided a lovely lead-grey/blue background. And the foraging heron provided the concentric ripples.
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Image #1A: The RawDigger Adapted (pink) Histogram for the Little Blue Heron adult foraging image
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The RawDigger Adapted (pink) Histogram
I have finally figured out how to consistently make very good to excellent to perfect exposures with the Canon R5. Unfortunately, without Zebras for stills, this involves making and evaluating a test exposure for each situation. The technique I have come up with will be detailed in the in the BAA Canon EOS R5 Camera User’s e-Guide (in progress). With 87 OvEx pixels (out of 24.2 million), this is a perfect exposure. Note that the tiny rosy red OvExp warnings on the bird’s bill are easily dealt with during the raw conversion.
In the RawDigger e-Guide, Patrick and I teach you how to set up and evaluate the Adapted (pink) Histogram. The adapted histogram was completely Patrick’s creation, and works with raw files from pretty much any digital camera now in use. It greatly simplifies all things RawDigger. In the guide you will — of course — learn why the exposure for this raw file is 100% dead-solid perfect.
Seeing and Utilizing a Shooting Gap
The single young spoonbill was moving slowly to the north as it foraged. To stay on sun angle, I moved to my right, waited for the bird to pass the first mangrove bush, and hope for a good head angle before it disappeared for good behind a large stand of mangroves. You can see the beginning of those mangroves in the upper right corner of Image #2. My plan worked to perfection, thanks in part to how well Tracking Expand Flexible Spot worked. As it says in the big SONY e-Guide, the more you practice with Tracking Expand Flexible Spot, the better it will perform and the more confidence you will have in using it.
Exposure Note
Note that the spoonbill image was properly exposed with 2/3-stop less light than the LBH image — ISO 640 at 1/2000 sec. as compared to ISO 800 at 1/1600. As the light was the same, you might ask why? The answer: middle-toned subjects need more exposure than white or very light-toned subjects. Learn exposure theory in the original The Art of Bird Photography and everything you need to know about digital exposure in The Art of Bird Photography II (ABP II on CD). If you are new to bird photography, save $10 on your “bibles” by purchasing the two-book bundle. ABP II is also available via electronic download.
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Image #2B: The Topaz DeNoise AI scene capture for the Roseate Spoonbill juvenile foraging image
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Topaz DeNoise AI Tip
As my exposures with both Canon and SONY continue to get better and better (thanks to RawDigger), many of my images barely show any visible noise at all. So that I could better see the effects of DeNoise on this image, I navigated to the darkest part of the frame — the mangroves at the top, and magnified the view to 200%.
With the last DeNoise update, Low Light has been improved to the point that it is often as good or even better (as here), than DeNoise AI. Click on the screen capture to enlarge it and you will see that with this one, Low light did a bit better job of cleaning up the minimal noise.
Typos
In all blog posts and Bulletins, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
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