I realized about a year ago that my digital workflow had changed significantly and was toying with the idea of writing a Digital Basics III. More recently, I have learned and begun working with two great new Photoshop Tools, the Remove Tool and the Luminance Targeted Adjustment Tool. The former is like a smarter Spot Healing Brush Tool on steroids and the latter is a huge step up from the fabulous Color Mixer Tool. During that same time frame, I came up with a new and improved 2-step noise reduction technique. I still use Divide and Conquer, Quick Masks, Layer Masks, an expanded array of personalized keyboard shortcuts, and tons of other stuff from both versions of Digital Basics.
As soon as I realized that I did not want to take on another large writing project, I realized that by creating a series of videos I could much more easily share all the details of my current digital workflow and much more easily incorporate additional new tips, techniques, and tools as I went. And so, The Digital Basics III Video Series was born. You can check out Volume I/#1 here.
You might opt to purchase single videos or to subscribe to Volume I and save $26 by ordering the first five videos in one fell swoop. You can purchase the five videos in Volume I by clicking here. The videos will be most valuable for folks using the latest version of Photoshop (2024) or Lightroom along with Topaz DeNoise AI and Topaz Sharpen AI.
What’s Up?
It was very foggy here the last two mornings. I enjoyed my two walks with the peashooter rig, the Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM II lens, the 2X TC, and an a-1. I kept a few images from the Sunday session including a spectacular male Boat-tailed Grackle dorsal flight shot with the perfect wing and tail spreads. Monday was a dud. I have been swimming my half-mile each day; the pool has been a relatively cool 77 to 78°.
Today is Tuesday 5 December 2023. I will be working on the yet-to-be announced Morro Bay Instructional Photo-Tour. I hope to see you there. Details soon. Wherever you are and whatever you choose to do, I hope that you too have a great day.
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!
You can find some great photo accessories (and necessities, like surf booties!) on Amazon by clicking on the Stuff tab on the orange/yellow menu bar above. On a related note, it would be extremely helpful if blog-folks who, like me, spend too much money on Amazon, would get in the habit of clicking on the Amazon logo link on the right side of each blog post when they shop online. As you might expect, doing so will not cost you a single penny, but would be appreciated tremendously by yours truly. And doing so works seamlessly with your Amazon Prime account.
If an item — a Delkin flash card, or a tripod head — for example, that is available from B&H and/or Bedfords, is also available in the BAA Online Store, it would be great, and greatly appreciated, if you would opt to purchase from us. We will match any price. Please remember also to use my B&H affiliate links or to earn 3% cash back at Bedfords by using the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout for your major gear purchases. Doing either often earns you free guides and/or discounts. And always earns my great appreciation.
Tracking Zone/AF-C performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger, sharper, high-res version.
Image #1: Osprey carrying fish
Coming or Going?
Last week, in the blog post here, I published this:
Is the bird in Image #1 flying toward me or away from me? How do you know?
Four folk who commented said that the bird was flying away. Two thought that it was flying toward me.
Image #1A: Osprey carrying fish/converted lighter
The Flight Direction Answer
On the early morning of 21 November, at Sebastian Inlet State Park, there was some nice sky color for those who got there early — that would be only me. Several Osprey were fishing south of the jetty. At they flew away with their catch, the birds were angling away from me at about 45°. I knew from experience, that at times, it is possible to create a perfect optical illusion, a photo in which it appears that the subject is flying toward you (rather than away). As the lighter conversion — Image #1A, above — shows, the bird was in fact flying away from me.
Tracking Zone/AF-C performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger, sharper, high-res version.
Image #2: Recently fledged Osprey in fresh juvenile plumage landing at nest platform
The Situation and the Story
In most years, there are about six or seven nesting pairs of Osprey down by the lake near my home. In the spring of 2022, most nests fledged three chicks while one fledged “only” two. It was an amazingly productive year for the fish hawks. In 2023, only one or two young were fledged.
I took me nearly a year and a half to decide to optimize this image. In the original frame, the nest platform (with two siblings and an adult, all with poor head angles) was cut off. In addition, I hated that the right hand side of the handsome young bird’s face was in the shade. The current BIRDS AS ART digital workflow dealt easily with the many problems. You can see the original in the short YouTube video immediately below.
Digital Basics III, Volume I/#2/YouTube Promo
The Digital Basics and Digital Basics II PDFs have taught more than 8000 nature photographers to process their raw files optimally, to make them look great. The new Digital Basics III Video Series Is an educational Photoshop video series. Each video takes you through three complete image optimizations: converting the raw file, noise reduction and image clean-up, an JPEG creation. You will learn the complete and current BIRDS AS ART digital workflow. The use of two great new Photoshop Tools: the Move Tool and the Luminance Targeted Adjustment Tool (the latter in Color Mixer), is covered in great detail in the series.
Sit beside me as I optimize three new images on my laptop. With my current BIRDS AS ART digital workflow, you can follow along step by step with the raw conversions — including the use of the Luminance Targeted Adjustment Tool (L-TAT) — to adjust the Saturation and Luminance (and rarely, the Hue) of the colors in the image, my new two-step noise reduction strategy, the image clean-up, including Divide and Conquer, and tips on using the new Remove Tool, making Color Range selections, working with masks and layer masks, saving the master (.tif) file, and creating and saving superb JPEGs.
If you have previously purchased a single video and learned a lot, you can upgrade to the complete DB III Volume I series and save $26.00 by calling Jim at 863-692-0906 weekdays, Monday through Friday at noon.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
When Conditions are Tough, Don’t Quit: Be Creative and Strive to Hone Your Low Light Skills
Or you can stand around chatting with other photographers; bird photography, like life, is about choices.
Guido Bee: December 2, 2023 at 1:07pm
I’m with Joel. On-line d-o-f calculator shows 1200 mm at F/12.7 and 35 feet (just a guess, but it does not change very much) is 0.09 feet in front and also in back of the plane of focus. That’s about an inch either side. Nice shots. I’m partial to the hawk, but that’s just me.
Thanks for all your work in putting this out there for us. All the best.
Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART: December 3, 2023 at 8:20am
Hey Guy, Both correct on the d-o-f question.
And BTW, thanks for your kind words. I am inspired when folks are moved to leave a comment.
with love, artie
Please Remember
Please remember that the BIRDS AS ART blog is designed to be interactive. The more answers and comments that a post garners, the more you and I will learn. But only 100% of the time.
Your Call?
Which of today’s five featured bad weather images do you like best? Why?
What’s Up?
As you can tell from the title, Friday morning at Sebastian was not very good and the weather was beyond lousy for the most part. On Saturday morning, I put out the smelly rotted Black Drum carcass down by the lake. Conditions were perfect with cloudy-bright skies and a southeast winds. The vultures were slow at finding the bait but I persisted and was rewarded with one of my best ever road-kill cafe mornings. Details soon.
I took a midmorning walk with the peashooter rig, the Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM II lens, the 2X TC, and an a-1, and again, got a few ones.
Today is Sunday 3 December 2023. It is 7:26am and I am almost ready to publish today’s offering. It is cloudy, very dark, and foggy but I will head down to the lake in a bit to see what I can see and see what I can learn. Wherever you are and whatever you choose to do, I hope that you too have a great day.
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!
You can find some great photo accessories (and necessities, like surf booties!) on Amazon by clicking on the Stuff tab on the orange/yellow menu bar above. On a related note, it would be extremely helpful if blog-folks who, like me, spend too much money on Amazon, would get in the habit of clicking on the Amazon logo link on the right side of each blog post when they shop online. As you might expect, doing so will not cost you a single penny, but would be appreciated tremendously by yours truly. And doing so works seamlessly with your Amazon Prime account.
If an item — a Delkin flash card, or a tripod head — for example, that is available from B&H and/or Bedfords, is also available in the BAA Online Store, it would be great, and greatly appreciated, if you would opt to purchase from us. We will match any price. Please remember also to use my B&H affiliate links or to earn 3% cash back at Bedfords by using the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout for your major gear purchases. Doing either often earns you free guides and/or discounts. And always earns my great appreciation.
Tracking: Zone/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version.
Image #1: Black Skimmers in flight — blur
How Dark Was It?
There were huge dark clouds to the southeast when I walked out onto the small jetty. Making sharp images of birds in flight was simply not an option. I went to my standard pre-dawn blur set-up: Shutter Priority with AUTO ISO and Exposure Compensation on the Thumb Dial. At +2.7 stops, I wound up at ISO 4000 at 1/20 second. That is dark!
Despite shooting at +2.7 stops, this image was still a bit underexposed. My understanding of the best exposures for per-dawn blurs increased astronomically when I began evaluating raw file exposures and brightness with RawDigger.
I had lots of chances as this small flock of skimmers coursed up and down the inlet. One of the nice things about Shutter Priority is that you can easily vary your shutter speeds to create a variety of looks.
A Guide to Pleasing Blurs
Learn everything there is to know about creating pleasingly blurred images in A Guide to Pleasing Blurs by Denise Ippolito and yours truly. This 20,585 word, 271 page PDF is illustrated with 144 different, exciting, and artistic images. The guide covers the basics of creating pleasingly blurred images, the factors that influence the degree of blurring, the use of filters in creating pleasing blurs, and a great variety of both in-the-field and Photoshop techniques that can be used to create pleasingly blurred images.
Artie and Denise teach you many different ways to move your lens during the exposure to create a variety of pleasingly blurred images of flowers and trees and water and landscapes. They will teach you to recognize situations where subject movement can be used to your advantage to create pan blurs, wind blurs, and moving water blurs. They will teach you to create zoom-blurs both in the field and during post-processing. Artie shares the techniques that he has used and developed for making blurred images of flocks of geese in flight at his beloved Bosque del Apache and Denise shares her flower blur magic as well as a variety of creative Photoshop techniques that she has developed.
With the advent of digital capture creating blurred images has become a great and inexpensive way to go out with your camera and have fun. And while many folks think that making successful blurred images is the result of being a sloppy photographer, nothing could be further from the truth. In “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs” Artie and Denise will help you to unleash your creative self.
Tracking: Zone/AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version.
Image #2: Reddish Egret non-breeding head and shoulders portrait
Honing Your Low Light Skills
When things are crappy, it is a great time to improve your low light/slow shutter speed sharpness techniques, not to mention lots of opportunities to work on high ISO exposures.
Without a ton of wind and with a still subject, I am confident of making sharp images with the 600mm f/4 on the tripod at 1/60 second. Amazingly, that is true with either the 1.4X TC or the 2X TC in the mix. There were several Reddish Egrets posing near the shore, some perched on rocks. There was a group of four or five photographers chatting, standing under the bridge to stay out of the rain. Nobody seemed at all interested in trying to be creative, improving their skills, or learning anything. Lousy weather gives you the opportunity to do all those things at once.
I did seek shelter once or twice during the morning when it began to rain really hard. But for the most part, there was a light drizzle early on that let up as the morning progressed.
The Image Optimizations
As regular readers know, properly exposed to the right raw files will look washed out and boring. I followed my current workflow and brought the images to life. With Image #2 in particular, the Luminance Targeted Adjustment Tool made it easy to juice up the colors so that they matched what I saw in real time. Learn how in The Digital Basics III Video Series. Volume I/#2 was distributed to subscribers on Tuesday past and will be available for sale on Tuesday for those who wish to purchase single videos.
Tracking: Expand Spot AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version.
Image #3: Ruddy Turnstone shaking head after bath
The Violently Spinning Head Shot Blur
After shaking water off their feathers, most birds will spend a good deal of time preening after they bathe. On occasion, they will spin their heads violently while maintaining their feathers. I was attracted to this preening bird because of the relatively clean sand. Once the subject began ruffling its feathers, I pounded on the shutter button. The intermediate shutter speed of 1/125 second was capable of rending the eyes sharp when the bird ruffled its feathers, but with the violent head spin, it created a really neat blur effect. Though I am very selective in general, there may be some great benefits to holding the shutter button down when photographing action (and flight).
This image was also created on 1 December 2023 at Sebastian Inlet, FL. Standing at full height I used the handheld (!) Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 1250. Exposure was determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/4000 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 9:22:28am on a cloudy morning.
Tracking: Zone AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version.
Image #4: Royal Tern wheeling in flight — wings fully down
I Must Be Getting Stronger: Hand Holding the 600mm F/4 GM
When I headed back to the jetty, I went with the 600 on the tripod, but there were very few Ospreys in the air. There were, however, lots of Royal Tern fishing at relatively close range. So, I took the 600 out of the levered-clamp and hand held it for about twenty minutes without a problem. If, and only if, you are able to handhold a lens comfortably, it will always be easier to pan with a bird in flight and keep it in the center of the frame than it is when working off a tripod and attempting to do the same thing.
I was happy that when I did head back to the car I had zero right shoulder pain and zero left elbow and left wrist pain. If I had kept at it for too long, I would surely have paid a somewhat painful price.
Image #4: Close-up of damaged bill — Royal Tern wheeling in flight — wings fully down
Damaged Bill
I used the new Remove Tool (as detailed in The Digital Basics III Video Series) to repair the badly damaged bill of this tern. I continued discovering more and more about this amazing new Photoshop Tool and am including what I learn in each new video. I wind up using it only virtually every image that I process.
This image was also created on 1 December 2023 at Sebastian Inlet, FL. Standing at full height I used the handheld (!) Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless digital camera. ISO 1250. Exposure was determined via Zebras with ISO on the rear dial: 1/4000 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 9:23:19am on a cloudy morning.
Tracking: Zone AF-C was active at the moment of exposure and performed perfectly. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy the larger version.
Image #5: Royal Tern in flight with pinfish
Not Too Smart
I have stated for years, “If you head into the field wearing shorts or a short-sleeved shirt, only bad things can happen. You might get lucky, but …
As it had warmed up considerably as it brightened slightly, I removed my rain pants and my long-sleeved shirt. When the wind dropped away, the no-see-ums appeared and began chewing on any exposed areas of skin. That is why I lasted only 20 minutes or so. Again :-), I need to learn to listen to my own advice.
The Digital Basics III Video Series
The Digital Basics III Video Series
I realized about a year ago that my digital workflow had changed significantly and was toying with the idea of writing a Digital Basics III. More recently, I have learned and begun working with two great new Photoshop Tools, the Remove Tool and the Luminance Targeted Adjustment Tool. The former is like a smarter Spot Healing Brush Tool on steroids and the latter is a huge step up from the fabulous Color Mixer Tool. During that same time frame, I came up with a new and improved 2-step noise reduction technique. I still use Divide and Conquer, Quick Masks, Layer Masks, an expanded array of personalized keyboard shortcuts, and tons of other stuff from both versions of Digital Basics.
As soon as I realized that I did not want to take on another large writing project, I realized that by creating a series of videos I could much more easily share all the details of my current digital workflow and much more easily incorporate additional new tips, techniques, and tools as I went. And so, The Digital Basics III Video Series was born. You can check out Volume I/#1 here.
You might opt to purchase single videos or to subscribe to Volume I and save $26 by ordering the first five videos in one fell swoop. You can purchase the five videos in Volume I by clicking here. The videos will be most valuable for folks using the latest version of Photoshop (2024) or Lightroom along with Topaz DeNoise AI and Topaz Sharpen AI.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Which is the strongest of today’s three 1200mm featured images? Please leave a comment and let us know why you made your choice. I have a very clear winner that I will share with your here soon.
Clockwise from the upper left back around to center: Osprey gaining altitude after missed strike; school of mullet under attack from below; Wood Stork with Southern Whiting; Osprey with Menhaden; Wood Stork with small lobster; Royal Tern with large baitfish; Osprey with Menhaden; juvenile Osprey directly overhead “t-shot”; Osprey taking flight with freshly caught Mullet.
Sebastian Inlet In-the-Field Sessions
Join me for 3 hours of morning In-the-Field Instruction at Sebastian Inlet for only $300.00/session. The main target will be fishing Ospreys hunting for a variety of migrating saltwater fish that visit the inlet each fall. Back-up subjects include fishing gulls, terns, and Brown Pelicans, Wood Stork, a variety of herons and egrets, shorebirds, sunrise cloud-scapes, and the occasional sea turtle or manatee.
Best Current Dates: Saturday 2 December 2023.
Please get in touch via e-mail or call my cell at 863-221-2372 ASAP to book one or more sessions. Please shoot me a text if I do not pick up.
Most photographers visit Sebastian Inlet with eyes only for Osprey. When the Osprey action is lacking, there are lots of other great avian subjects to shoot. The fact is, however, that most photographers ignore the other birds. And if on occasion, they get so bored by the lack of action that they point their lenses at the gulls, terns, shorebirds, and wading birds, they carelessly work well off sun angle with total disregard for the wind.
As mentioned previously, the key to making superb photographs at Sebastian (or anywhere else), is to understand the relationship of the wind strength and direction, the sky conditions, and the direction and quality of the light. Learn to do just that by joining me this Saturday morning (tomorrow, 2 DEC) at Sebastian. The morning forecast is again dead-solid perfect. The tide is perfect as well.
What’s Up
I had a great morning on Thursday driving around in my BMW X-5. I worked the whole time at 1200mm off the BLUBB. I began with a handsome adult Turkey Vulture on The Perch. And then, things got better!
Today is Friday 1 December 2023. It is 5:10am as I type in the car. I got to sleep very early and got out of bed at 3:40am. Jim is kindly driving me to Sebastian Inlet. By the time you read this, I am hoping to be photographing an Osprey coming out of the water with a large catch. The forecast is perfect. If I have a good morning, I will head back tomorrow on my own as Jim goes home today around midday.
Wherever you are and whatever you choose to do, I hope that you too have a great day.
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!
You can find some great photo accessories (and necessities, like surf booties!) on Amazon by clicking on the Stuff tab on the orange/yellow menu bar above. On a related note, it would be extremely helpful if blog-folks who, like me, spend too much money on Amazon, would get in the habit of clicking on the Amazon logo link on the right side of each blog post when they shop online. As you might expect, doing so will not cost you a single penny, but would be appreciated tremendously by yours truly. And doing so works seamlessly with your Amazon Prime account.
If an item — a Delkin flash card, or a tripod head — for example, that is available from B&H and/or Bedfords, is also available in the BAA Online Store, it would be great, and greatly appreciated, if you would opt to purchase from us. We will match any price. Please remember also to use my B&H affiliate links or to earn 3% cash back at Bedfords by using the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout for your major gear purchases. Doing either often earns you free guides and/or discounts. And always earns my great appreciation.
B&H Simplified
To ensure that I get credit for your B&H purchases, you can always click here. The tracking is invisible but greatly appreciated. And, you can use your PayBoo card. You must use the website to order. B&H will reopen on Fri April 14. Thanking me for the past 4000 educational blog posts could not be any easier and will not cost you one penny. Please shoot me your B&H receipt for major purchases.
Bedfords Simplified
Click here to start your search. Choose standard shipping, and when you get to the payment page, enter BIRDSASART in the discount code box and hit apply. You will be upgraded to free second day air Fed-Ex and receive 3% cash back on your credit card once your stuff ships. Either is greatly appreciated by yours truly.
B&H
Many folks have written recently stating that they purchased a Sony a1 from B&H and would like their free membership in the Sony 1 Info and Updates Group, a $150.00 value. When I check my affiliate account, their orders have not been there. When I let them know that they get credit for B&H purchases only if they use one of the many B&H affiliate links on the blog or begin their searches with this link, they are always disappointed. If in doubt, please contact me via e-mail and request a BH link. I am always glad to help and to guide you to the right gear.
Bedfords Amazing BAA Discount Policy
Folks who have fallen in love with Bedfords can now use the BIRDSASART coupon code at checkout to enjoy a post-purchase, 3% off-statement credit (excluding taxes and shipping charges) on orders paid with a credit card. The 3% credit will be refunded to the card you used for your purchase. Be sure, also, to check the box for free shipping to enjoy free Second Day Air Fed-Ex. This offer does not apply to purchases of Classes, Gift Cards, prior purchases.
Visit the Bedfords website here, shoot Steve Elkins an e-mail, or text him on his cell phone at (479) 381-2592.
Important Note
As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small percentage when you purchase from Amazon after using any of the Amazon links on the blog (including the logo-link on the right side of each blog post page). My affiliate link works fine with Amazon Prime and using it will not cost you a single cent. Huge thanks, BTW 🙂
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. And the same is true in spades when ordering new camera bodies or lenses. My advice will often save you some serious money and may help you avoid making a seriously bad choice. Please know that I am always glad to answer your gear questions via e-mail. If you are desperate, you can try me on my cell at 863-221-2372. Please leave a message and shoot me a text if I do not pick up.
This image was created on Thursday 30 November 2023 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Working from the driver’s seat with the lens on a BLUBB, I used the Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the thumb dial. ISO 1600. 1/640 sec. at f/13 (stopped down 1 1/3 stops) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file exposure was determined to be perfect. AWB at 8:08:14am on sunny morning.
Tracking: Expand Spot/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed perfectly even at 1200mm. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version.
Image #1: Turkey Vulture adult head portrait
Getting Close
There is a fairly large picnic shelter with about eight large tables and a big barbecue to the south of the bathroom building near the base of the pier. It is surround by sawed off pilings. The vultures love scrounging around searching for scraps of left-over food and on most mornings there will be a few of each vulture species perched either on the pilings or the roof.
To get on sun angle at point blank range, I placed the lens on the BLUBB before beginning my approach. That to avoid scaring any of the perched birds. Then I moved my vehicle forward as slowly as possible while not moving my head at all and holding my breath till I got in the perfect spot.
For this image I had raised the driver’s side window about three inches so that I was on the same level as the perched bird.
As is often the case with vultures, the skin on the head was a mess. Vultures are scavengers and their favorite meals are rotten, smelly, decomposing fish or animal carcasses. It their heads were feathered, it would be impossible to keep them anywhere near clean. The mess cleaned up nicely with the new Remove Tool. Speaking of Digital Basics III Video Series, the Volume I/#2 video was distributed on Wednesday. Details on purchasing that single video will be published here soon.
Aperture Question
Why f/13 for Image #1?
This image was created on Thursday 30 November 2023 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Working from the driver’s seat with the lens on a BLUBB, I used the Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the thumb dial. ISO 1600. 1/2000 sec. at f/8 (wide open) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be dead-solid perfect. AWB at 8:20:45am on sunny morning.
Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed perfectly even at 1200mm. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version.
Image #2: Mottled Duck flapping after bath
Mottled Ducks
Mottled Duck, the Florida Mallard, is common at ILE but difficult to get close to. I noted about six or eight of them swimming around south of the pier. Several were bathing. I positioned the car well back. The bird in Image #2 was off by himself. When he began dipping his breast in the lake I got excited as I knew that 95% of the time a bird will flap after bathing. I was in perfect position, not too close, so that I could get the front flaps and the back flaps without clipping any wings. I had two very similar front-flap images from a 70-frame series. This was the pick of the litter because the greenish/blue/aqua speculum was lit so evenly rendering the colors very bright.
L-TAT, the Luminance Targeted Adjustment Tool, enabled me to get the water and the speculum just as I saw and wanted them. I use this new Photoshop Tool on pretty much every image that I process. Details are of course available in the Digital Basics III Video Series. New folks will of course receive all of the published videos in Volume I.
For this image I had raised the driver’s side window about five inches so that I could be comfortable while photographing the ducks.
This image was created on Thursday 30 November 2023 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Working from the driver’s seat with the lens on a BLUBB, I used the Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens, the Sony FE 2.0x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera). The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with ISO on the thumb dial. ISO 800. 1/640 sec. at f/9 (stopped down 1/3-stop) in Manual mode. When evaluated in RawDigger, the raw file brightness was determined to be dead-solid perfect. AWB at 8:29:03am on sunny morning.
Tracking: Expand Spot/AF-C with Bird Face/Eye detection enabled performed perfectly even at 1200mm. Be sure to click on the image to enjoy a high-res version.
Image #3: Red-shouldered Hawk atop long dead Cabbage Palm trunk
Never Before
In the past, I would never have taken a single image of this bird because there was a photo wire right behind it. I knew that the new Remove Tool would deal with that easily. And it did.
For this image I had raised the driver’s side window about seven inches because the bird was perched on the relatively high stump. As always when working on the BLUBB, I moved the Direct Manual Focusing (DMF) switch to OFF so as to avoid throwing off the focus by inadvertently throwing off the focus when framing the image.
The Digital Basics III Video Series
The Digital Basics III Video Series
I realized about a year ago that my digital workflow had changed significantly and was toying with the idea of writing a Digital Basics III. More recently, I have learned and begun working with two great new Photoshop Tools, the Remove Tool and the Luminance Targeted Adjustment Tool. The former is like a smarter Spot Healing Brush Tool on steroids and the latter is a huge step up from the fabulous Color Mixer Tool. During that same time frame, I came up with a new and improved 2-step noise reduction technique. I still use Divide and Conquer, Quick Masks, Layer Masks, an expanded array of personalized keyboard shortcuts, and tons of other stuff from both versions of Digital Basics.
As soon as I realized that I did not want to take on another large writing project, I realized that by creating a series of videos I could much more easily share all the details of my current digital workflow and much more easily incorporate additional new tips, techniques, and tools as I went. And so, The Digital Basics III Video Series was born. You can check out Volume I/#1 here.
You might opt to purchase single videos or to subscribe to Volume I and save $26 by ordering the first five videos in one fell swoop. You can purchase the five videos in Volume I by clicking here. The videos will be most valuable for folks using the latest version of Photoshop (2024) or Lightroom along with Topaz DeNoise AI and Topaz Sharpen AI.
Typos
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