Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART
December 29th, 2017

Creating Pleasing Juxtapositions and Dealing With Too-dark Tones ...

Stuff

It was a beautiful, still, clear morning on Thursday but there were no birds on the perches. And few elsewhere. Using my hand held 400 DO II/1.4X III/1DX II I had some good flight chances with both Black and Turkey Vultures while working out of the car, and then again when I took my now daily walk on the long pier. I learned yesterday that this pier is the longest fresh water pier in the state of Florida. I did swim a slow mile midday, 88 lengths.

I have lots more work to do on my AZ trip and on upcoming Florida IPTs and the new Master Class offerings. Thanks to the many who wrote with Phoenix help and suggestions.

Click on the logo-link above for great holiday savings!
$300 off on the Canon 100-400 II!

The Streak

Today makes one hundred fifty-three days in a row with a new educational blog post! This blog post took about 90 minutes to prepare including the time spent optimizing the image. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.

Click here for Amazing 5D Mark IV Bundles and Deals

Here is the best news: those who have used a BAA B&H affiliate link to purchase a 5D Mark IV (or other items totaling $3200 or more) are invited to send us a copy of their B&H receipt via e-mail and receive a free copy of the guide. If you would like to review the document before it is published, please send your receipt now. This offer is also valid for future purchases.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


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. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.

Canon EF 100mm f2.8 USM macro Lens

Price Drop!

Galapagos IPT veteran Paul Reinstein is offering a Canon EF 100mm f2.8 USM macro lens in near-mint condition for the bargain price of $225. Why such a ridiculously low price? The lens has a speck of dirt near the center of the lens. Paul tested the lens at f/22 with both near and far focus and the speck was never visible in the image of a clean light background. The sale includes the lens hood, the front and rear lens caps, the original product box, and insured shipping via the US Postal Service to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made. Photos are available upon request.

Please contact Paul via e-mail or by phone at 1-310-946-903 (Pacific time).

Both Denise Ippolito and I loved this lens for flowers and more. She used it hand held almost all the time; I on a tripod about 75% of the time. Different strokes. It is a lightweight, super-sharp lens. At the minimum focusing distance of 12 inches it offers true macro at 1:1 magnification. Note: the tripod ring is not included with this lens even when you buy a new one; you can go with the Canon Tripod Mount Ring D for IS 100mm f/2.8L Macro lens or the far less expensive Vello Tripod Collar D (Black) for Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro lens. artie

This image was created at Fort DeSoto on the morning of October 28, 2017 with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III (at 520m), and my favorite flight photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +3 stops off the light gray sky: 1/500 sec. at f/9 in Manual mode. AWB at 9:34am on a cloudy day.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: extrapolated to -1.

One row up and four AF points to the left of the center AF point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure as framed. As seen by the illuminated red AF point above, the selected AF point was on the bird’s shoulder.

The DPP 4 Screen Capture

Click on the image to see a larger version if you’d like to read the fine print.

BLACKs Too Dark …

Note that with nearly all the data in the right-most (highlight) box of the histogram that the very dark tones on the cormorant are way too dark. I did not want to overdo the Shadow slider so I moved it only to +1 for the RAW conversion in DPP 4 and dealt with the too dark tones in Photoshop as detailed below.

Double-crested Cormorant and Derelict Navigation Tower

Click on the image to enjoy a larger version.

The Juxtapositional Concept

The Navigation Tower in the background of today’s featured image was wrecked in Hurricane Irma. Hundreds of pelicans, cormorants, and gull can usually be seen roosting on what is left of it. I have photographed it often in different types of light but have never published any of them here. I had zero interest in photographing this cormorant but as I walked by it the derelict tower crept into the frame of my vision so I went to work. Choosing your side-to-side (and to a lesser degree, in this case, the up and down) perspective in situations where you are trying to create a pleasing juxtaposition of two objects is of course paramount to the success of the image. I just love that the tower is completely out of focus. Realize that with the 1.4X III TC in place that wide open is f/8; I was not going for more depth of field at f/9 in an effort to get the tower sharp. In fact, had it even been possible to render the two sharp I would not have liked the image at all.

Dealing with the BLACKs

I began working with the too dark dark tones on the whole bird. I selected the bird using the Quick Selection Tool (W), feathered the selection .7 pixels, put it on its own layer (Command + J), and applied my NIK 40/40 Detail Extractor/Tonal Contrast recipe. That was perfect but the bird was squinting and its face was still too dark. First I did some Eye Doctor work: I opened the eye a bit with a small, transformed Quick Mask and the Warp command; then I used Tim Grey dodge and burn to darken the pupil and lighten the iris; next I touched things up with the Clone Stamp Tool; and finally I selected the iris with the Quick Selection Tool (W) and increased the Saturation on that layer only (Command + U). The eye was looking much better.

Next I selected the bird’s face, bill, and neck, again with the Quick Selection Tool (W). I put that on its own layer and pulled up the Curve (Command + M). The problem was that there was a visible line where the lightening met the darker body. To eliminate that I added a Regular Layer Mask and painted the line away (B + D + X) with a fairly large 50% brush. Last was a bit of a pano crop.

Your Thoughts?

Do you like the image? Why or why not? How might you have improved it either in the field or at the computer. What if anything did you learn from this blog post?

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) will teach you an efficient Mac or PC/Photo Mechanic/Photoshop workflow that will make it easy for you to make your images better in Photoshop (rather than worse). That true whether you convert your images in DPP 4 or ACR. See the blog post here to learn lots more and to read a free excerpt.

You can order your copy from the BAA Online Store here, by sending a Paypal for $40 here, or by calling Jim or Jennifer weekdays at 863-692-0906 with your credit card in hand.

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II)

Your guessed it, everything mentioned above (and tons more) is covered in detail in the BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), an instructional PDF that is sent via e-mail. Learn more and check out the free excerpt in the blog post here. The new e-Guide reflects my Macbook Pro/Photo Mechanic/DPP 4/Photoshop workflow. Do note that you will find the RGB Curves Adjustment Color Balancing tutorial only in the new e-guide. Note: folks working on a PC and/or those who do not want to miss anything Photoshop may wish to purchase the original Digital Basics along with DB II while saving $15 by clicking here to buy the DB Bundle.

The two most recent and many of the older MP4 Photoshop Tutorial videos releases go hand and hand with the information in DB II):

  • The Wingtip Repairs MP4 Video here.
  • The MP4 Crow Cleanup Video here.

Folks who learn well by following along rather than by reading can check out the complete collection of MP 4 Photoshop Tutorial Videos by clicking here.

You can learn how and why I and other discerning Canon shooters convert nearly all of their Canon digital RAW files in DPP 4 using Canon Digital Photo Professional in the DPP 4 RAW conversion Guide here. And you can learn advanced Quick Masking and advanced Layer Masking techniques in APTATS I & II. You can save $15 by purchasing the pair. Folks can learn sophisticated sharpening and (NeatImage) Noise Reduction techniques in the The Professional Post Processing Guide by Arash Hazeghi and yours truly.

Support the Blog

Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. with love, artie

If In Doubt …

If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store ๐Ÿ™‚

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.

Facebook

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 :).

December 28th, 2017

Phoenix Anyone?

Phoenix Anyone?

I am flying to Phoenix, AZ next Tuesday and am looking for a place to stay for nine nights (arrive 2 JAN, depart 12 JAN) in exchange for bird photography and Photoshop lessons. If you know any of the good spots, I would love to hear from you as well. I am especially looking for drake Green-winged Teal and Canvasbacks. If you live there but do not have a place for me to stay, let me know if you would like to get out photographing with me at your favorite productive spot. If you have anything to share, shoot me an e-mail.

with love, artie

December 28th, 2017

Sandwich Tern Landing Thoughts and Versions ...

Click on the logo-link above to check out 58 amazing deals on a great variety of photographic accessories. Good only till 11:59PM EST tonight.

Stuff

There was not much going on at the lake on Wednesday morning but I did make some nice images of both a Great Egret and a Great Blue Heron hunting in the marsh along the lakeshore. Then I took a walk on a long pier with my 400 DO II/1.4X III/1DX II and made one really good flight image of a fly-by GBH. I got a lot of work done on upcoming travel and lots of upcoming Florida IPTs. I got my last SynVisc shot in the afternoon. Next Tuesday I will be flying to Phoenix, AZ for eight physical therapy sessions with DPT (Doctor of Physical Therapy) Amy Novotny. Amy, who does some really out of the box alternative stuff, was highly recommended by client-friend Muriel McClellan who — with Amy’s help — avoided knee replacement surgery. And a year later, Muriel is still feeling and doing great.

When I got back from the doctor’s I needed a nap so I took one. Then I went down to the lake for sunset and created 114 images of an Anhinga on the perch in six minutes while working on my bird against the disk of the sun images. I did get a very few good ones. At one point the bird did a prolonged acrobatic stretch and I was 100% sure that I was gonna be famous, but alas, in almost every image the silhouette of the head was cut by the black sky so they were pretty much a no-go.

I got back home at dusk and clicked on the pool lights so that I could swim. But the lights would not turn on so I had dinner, swimless for a day. At 4am the next day, Thursday December 28 I clicked on the pool lights out of curiosity; they came on but would not turn off ๐Ÿ™‚ I will take a long swim today.

Big time thanks to the many who commented on yesterday’s Lucky Look-Back and Lots of Questions for You blog post here. I just finished replying all the comments; if we were giving prizes David Peake would have won again! IAC, those interested in learning more might wish to check out what I have to say. Especially Jay! In the same vein, folks might want to revisit their own comments after a day or two to see if I responded with a question. I often do but few folks ever respond. ๐Ÿ™‚ I will be doing a follow-up blog post where I will be answering all of my own questions. ๐Ÿ™‚

Today makes one hundred fifty-two days in a row with a new educational blog post! This blog post took about 2 hours to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of 480 … Good health and good internet connections and my continuing insanity willing.

Click here for Amazing 5D Mark IV Bundles and Deals

Here is the best news: those who have used a BAA B&H affiliate link to purchase a 5D Mark IV (or other items totaling $3200 or more) are invited to send us a copy of their B&H receipt via e-mail and receive a free copy of the guide. If you would like to review the document before it is published, please send your receipt now. This offer is also valid for future purchases.

Booking.Com

Booking.Com came through for me twice again recently with both the DeSoto Fall IPT and next July’s UK Puffins, Gannets, and Bempton Pre-trip room reservations. And all the rates were great. If you’d like to give Booking.Com a shot, click here and you will earn a $25 reward. Thanks to the many who have already tried and used this great service.


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. Those questions might deal with systems, camera bodies, accessories, and/or lens choices and decisions.


Order by 2pm today, Thursday December, 28, 2017

This image was created at Fort DeSoto on the late morning of Monday, December 4, 2017 while seated with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 300mm) and my favorite flight photography camera body, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops off the grey sky: 1/2000 sec. at f6/3 in Manual mode. AWB. 11:35am on a cloudy day.

LensAlign/FocusTune micro-adjustment: extrapolated to -4.

Center point/AI Servo/Expand/Shutter Button AF was active at the moment of exposure as framed. The selected AF point was on the sky in front of the bird’s face and a bit above its eye.

The full frame original/Sandwich Tern braking to land

The Make the Best Image Challenge

In the Make the Best Image Challenge blog post here, I ran the image above and the text that follows: If you would like to take part in the challenge please read the directions that follow carefully and then shoot me an e-mail by clicking on the following link only: e-mail.

When you receive the e-mail, open the image in Photoshop and optimize it so as to create what you think is the best possible image. If you would delete this image, please leave a comment and state why. When you open the image it should be 1200 pixels wide. If you think that the image needs to be cropped, be sure to hit Clear once you have activated the Crop Tool to avoid unintentionally changing the pixel dimensions. Once you have made your perfect crop, feel free to clean things up as needed using the Clone Stamp Tool, the Patch Tool, the Spot Healing Brush, and/or Content Aware Fill. You may also adjust the tonality and the contrast. Sharpen (but do not over-sharpen) the JPG. Save your Best Image as is without resizing it as follows: YourName.JPG (using your real name). Then shoot me an e-mail with the image attached. Have fun. The single best version will be published here soon along with my optimized version.

About a dozen folks gave this a shot. Several worked at removing all the bird on the beach. All but one of those were not good; some butchered the bird’s feet and toes and most made a splotchy, ugly mess of the beach below the subject, rife with telltale Clone Stamp marks. I have opted not to post any of those here to protect the folks who sent them. At times, you can save such messes by running a 70 pixel Gaussian blur on the whole image, adding a Hide-All (Inverse or Black) Mask, and painting in the smooth stuff over the mess with a soft brush. But you need to work large and be very careful near the bird in flight, especially around the feet, so that the Gaussian blur does no spill-over onto the subject. (Scroll down to see the image submitted by Noel Heustis below.)

Image #1: Sandwich Tern braking to land — my first version

My Thoughts and Version I

I am not a big fan of nearly all incoming tern shots where the birds in the flock below are visible. When the subject merges with any of the birds on the beach, I like that a lot less. I decided right off the bat that eliminating all the birds below the subject would require a great deal of time, effort, and skill and knew instantly that I would pass on that. But the light on the wings and the patterns of the feathers were just too, too beautiful so I decided to try something. As I advised the readers to do, I asked myself, โ€œWhat is the neatest part of the image?โ€ That answer was easy, “the wings.”

For my first version (Image #2, immediately above), I executed a square crop that eliminate much of the clutter in the lower right corner and along the bottom of the frame. The four tern heads that remained framed the landing bird nicely and the out of focus tern bodies were rather pleasing. The only tern head that bugged me is the one of the Sandwich Tern just in front of and below the subject’s feet. One day I will make a third version that eliminates the Sandwich Tern head …

Image #2: Sandwich Tern braking to land — my second version

My Thoughts and Version II

When I was working on these photo about a month ago, the thought of removing the single problematic head never entered my mind so I decided to execute a tighter square crop to reduce the photo to it’s essence. The result is Image #2, above.

Image #3: Sandwich Tern braking to land — Juan Pablo’s version

Juan Pablo’s Version

Juan Pablo Fernandez de Castro wrote in an e-mail: I wanted to highlight the wings and keep it high key with a clean background. I cropped and rotated to have some more space in front of the bird. I added some canvas to the left upper corner and filled it using Content-Aware fill. I eliminated an o-o-f bird in the right lower corner also using Content-Aware fill. Finally, I lightly sharpened with NIK.

Juan Pablo is the only one, who like I did, thought to reduce the image to its essence with a tight crop. His version is Image #3 above.

Image #4: Sandwich Tern braking to land — Noel Heustis’s version

Noel Heustis’s Version

New BAA friend Noel Heustis sent the best of the get rid of the flock images but there was lots of lumpiness below the tern. I applied a Gaussian blur as noted above and cleaned things up a bit. Noel’s version cleaned up a bit by my de-lumping is Image #4 above. If you tilt your screen back a bit you can see that I left a bit of a mess in the lower right corner, and elsewhere …

Comments

Any and all comments are of course welcome. As for me, I like my version II best, with the image reduced to its greatest strength. The superb image quality of a sharp Mark IV image files allows for aggressive cropping if needed. Folks who would like to learn some tricks used to photograph gulls and terns at the beach can check out Tern/Gull Pile Photography Tips/Part I: Flight here and Tern/Gull Pile Photography Tips/Part II: Tight and Static (and Fluffy) here.

The 5D Mark IV User’s Guide

The 5D Mark IV User’s Guide

$48.00. Order yours here now.

Please note: since the 5DS R and the 5DS are very similar to the 5D Mark IV owners of those two camera bodies might wish to purchase a 5D IV User’s Guide.

What They are Saying

From Mitch Haimov, the principal reviewer

Thank you for your new 5D IV guide. Youโ€™ve put a lot of useful information in there. I appreciate the time and effort you devoted to this project!

Dane Johnson, who caught some nasty typos!

I think that the guide is very well done and packed with lots of useful information, as is usual. The images speak for themselves.

From Lee Sommie, 5D IV B&H Purchaser

This 5D Mark IV User’s Guide is fantastic! Your conversational writing is fun and easy to read. Your explanations of 5D Mark IV functions will appeal to novice and expert alike. This guide is the jump start for all 5D Mark IV wildlife photographers. I canโ€™t put it down. The wait was worth it!

Support the Blog

Please help support my (stupendous) efforts here on the blog by remembering to click on the logo link above each time that you shop Amazon. That would be greatly appreciated. with love, artie

If In Doubt …

If in doubt about using the BAA B&H affiliate link correctly, you can always start your search by clicking here. Please note that the tracking is invisible. Web orders only. Please, however, remember to shoot me your receipt via e-mail.






Please Remember to use my Affiliate Links and to Visit the New BAA Online Store ๐Ÿ™‚

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.

Facebook

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 :).