Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

Stuff

It was 8:12am on Saturday morning as I put the finishing touches on this blog post. I am toying with the idea of heading over to Fort DeSoto this afternoon to look for the mystery heron/egret. I would stay over on Saturday night. I will need to swim early today and start driving at about lunch time …

I am still looking for a few more folks for San Diego #2. If you are considering this trip and might be interested in adding on a free day of instruction before the IPT begins please shoot me an e-mail.

The Streak

Today makes eighty days in a row with a new educational blog post! This blog post took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

2017 in San Diego was a very good year ….

2018 San Diego 3 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART IPT #2: Sunday, JAN 28 thru and including a morning session on Wednesday, JAN 31, 2018: 3 1/2 days: $1699. Limit: 8: Openings: 7

Meet and Greet at 6:30pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Saturday, Jan 27, 2018.

San Diego IPT #2: Shorter and Less Expensive!

Please remember: I go with one.

Click here for details.

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.

This image was created on the 2017 San Diego IPT with the hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens (at 360mm) and my favorite bird photography camera, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering probably at zero as famed: 1/2000 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB. One AF point that was two and one-half rows up from and three columns to the right of the center AF point/AI Servo/Manual selection/Shutter Button AF as framed was active at the moment of exposure. See the DPP 4 screen capture below to see the exact placement of the single (selected) AF point. FocusTune/LensAlign Micro Adjustment: 0. Western Gull, adult breeding plumage preening

Helpful Bird Photography Principles …

• 1- When photographing a bird from behind the best head angle will generally be very close to a perfect 90 degrees with the bird’s head square or close to square to the imaging sensor.
• 2- When photographing a bird from behind be sure to focus on or very near the head.
• 3- When working in horizontal format be sure to select your AF point carefully so as to keep the bird out of the center of the frame (unless you can verbalize a very good reason for putting the subject dead center …)
• 4- Learn to work competently in Manual mode so that the amount of black or white in the frame at a given moment will not affect the exposure. That involves making an exposure check image, checking or blinkies, and evaluating the histogram to make sure that you have exposed well to the right (with at least some data halfway into the rightmost histogram box).
• 5- Even when photographing a bird from behind there is no need to use additional depth of field as long as the distance to the subject provides you will enough depth of field to cover the subject (as with today’s featured image).
• 6- Working with backgrounds that are separated from the subject and relatively distant while using wide apertures will yield pleasingly out of focus canvases for your avian images.

From Chapter Seven, Designing the Image (page 108), of the original The Art of Bird Photography (Amphoto, NY: 1998)

If the subject is positioned against an uncluttered background or if there is a cluttered background well behind the subject, telephoto lenses — with their narrow angles of view — and the shallow depth of field that comes with the use of wide apertures, will produce lovely soft, out-of-focus backgrounds. I’ll take still blue water or well lit green foliage every time.

Shooting wide open (at your lens’ widest aperture heightens this effect; with subject size constant, it is the aperture rather than the length of the lens that determines the depth of field. Large apertures such as f/2.8, f/4, and f/5.6, minimize depth of field and reduce background detail. Conversely, small apertures, such as f/16 and f/22, maximize depth of field and increase background detail.

Note: I changed a single word in the second paragraph above to improve the clarity of the writing.

More 100-400 II Versatility

The hand held Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens is deadly on the cliffs of La Jolla with or without the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III. Its focal length range, its relatively light weight, and its amazing close focus (down to less than one meter) make it my most valuable lens when visiting San Diego. In addition, it is quite an excellent flight lens and being able to zoom out on close-flying pelicans and gulls can save the day.

The DPP 4 Screen Capture for today’s featured image

Understanding the Color of Light/Part I

Note the RGB values for the brightest WHITEs: R=240, G = 233, B = 216. Not the high value for RED and the low value for B despite the fact that I moved the Color fine tune dot toward BLUE. Note also that this image was created at 7:39am. On clear mornings not long after sunrise the light is rich in REDs and YELLOWs; much of the BLUE is filtered out as the light travels obliquely a long way through the earth’s atmosphere. The result is what we call “early” or “sweet” light (as opposed to the colder light later on in the day when the sun is much more directly overhead. As a guideline folks often state that the really “sweet” light occurs on clear days when your shadow is three time longer than your height. I am generally fine with twice my height. Note that the lower the sun in the sky the more comfortable I am working a bit off sun angle.

As I like the look of the rich, warm light in this image I was not at all concerned with having the WHITEs completely neutral, say 235, 235, 235. I could have worked toward that end if I wanted to either during the RAW conversion in DPP 4 or during the image optimization in Photoshop. But I am a firm believer in “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The Lesson

There is no need to work towards having perfectly neutral WHITEs or a perfectly neutral White Balance if you are happy with the colors in an image.

High-Level AF Point Selection Question

Why did I abandon my usual AF Expand for this particular situation and go with Manual selection (i.e., with a single AF point)?

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 🙂

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).

Stuff

I started off Thursday watching the Yankees complete their amazing comeback on Tivo. The plan for Thursday night is to Tivo both the MLB playoff game — the Cubs v.s the Nats, and the NFL Thursday Night game — Philly vs. Carolina, and then watch first one then the other toggling back and forth. I am slightly pulling for the Nationals in the baseball game as they too were down 2 games to nothing and have never won a post-season series. And the Cubs did OK last year. On the NFL channel I will be rooting hard for the Panthers. Again I enjoyed a midday and an early evening swim totaling an even mile, 88 lengths. And lots of exercising and stretching.

With only a single slot open on the San Diego IPT, I added a second San Diego IPT — shorter and less expensive. I was glad to learn that Fort DeSoto Fall IPT participant Lee Sommie was the first to sign up for San Diego #2. See the announcement in the blog post here.

New Listing

Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS w/free 1.4X II TC!

Francois Botha is offering a Canon EF 400mm f/4 DO IS (with Canon 1.4 extender in excellent condition) for the BAA record low price (for the lens alone!) of $2098. The sale includes the rear lens cap, the front lens cover, both teleconverter caps, LensCoats for both the lens and the TC, the original product box, and insured ground shipping via UPS to US addresses only. Photos are available via email or DropBox.

Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Francois via e-mail or by phone at 1-859-325-1785 (Eastern time).

I used this lens for several years with great success, especially for birds in flight and while working from various type of water craft. In addition, it would make a great prime super-telephoto lens for folks with a 7D II. Gannets in Love was created with the 400 DO. You can see that one and 13 other killer images that I made with my old 400 DO here. The title of that blog post is “The Canon 400mm f/4 IS DO Lens: Fourteen Images that Prove that the Internet Experts are Idiots.” Francois’ lens is priced to sell. artie

Price Drop!

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Zoom Lens

Price dropped $100 on October 12, 2017.

Les Greenberg is offering a used Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM zoom lens in mint condition for a very low $1499 (was $1599). The sale includes a Kirkphoto LP-2 lens plate, the tripod collar, the lens case, the rear lens cap, the hood, the front lens cap, the original product box, and insured ground shipping to US addresses only. The lens was purchased new in 2010 and used less than a dozen times. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Les via e-mail or by phone at 1-216-571-3636 or 1-216-292-7510 after 6:00 PM (Eastern time).

The 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II lens is amazingly versatile. I still own one and have made zillions of great images with it. It works well with both the 1.4X III and the 2X III TCs, even with the 7D II! It is easily hand holdable. It is great for tame birds, landscapes, urbex, indoor stuff likes concerts and recitals, and just about anything you want to photograph. A new 70-200 II currently sells for $1,949 so you can save a cool $350 by buying Les’s mint copy asap. artie

ps: the 1.4X II TC is optically identical to the 1.4X III TC. The latter has better weather sealing and offers advance AF communication with the new Canon Series II super-telephoto lenses.

2017 in San Diego was a very good year ….

2018 San Diego 3 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART IPT #2: Sunday, JAN 28 thru and including a morning session on Wednesday, JAN 31, 2018: 3 1/2 days: $1699. Limit: 8: Openings: 7

Meet and Greet at 6:30pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Saturday, Jan 27, 2018.

San Diego IPT #2: Shorter and Less Expensive!

Please remember: I go with one.

Click here for details.

The Streak

Today makes seventy-eight days in a row with a new educational blog post! This blog post took less than an hour to prepare. With all of my upcoming free time (or not …), the plan right now is to break the current record streak of (I think) four hundred eighty something … Good health and good internet connections willing.

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.

This image was created at La Jolla, CA with the hand held Fujifilm XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR lens with the Fujifilm XF 2x TC WR Teleconverter (at 670mm–effective 1005mm) with the Fujifilm X-T2 Mirrorless Digital Camera Body with the Power Booster Grip. ISO 800. Pattern metering +1/3 stop as framed: 1/800 sec. at f/10.8 in Manual mode. AWB. Shutter Button Continuous Autofocus. Additional AF information is unavailable. Sanderling, winter plumage adult

Fujifilm XT-2 Advantages

The huge advantage of using the Fujifilm 100-400//2x/XT-2 combination to get out to effective 1200mm as compared to using the Canon 600mm f/L IS II/2X III TC combo at 1200mm is that the size and weight of the Fujifilm gear is but a fraction of the weight of the Canon gear. This makes it far easier to hand hold, handle, and travel with the Fujifilm stuff. The Fujifilm XF 2x TC WR Teleconverter with the XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR lens is sharp. In addition, you are able to zoom in an out from 200 to 800 mm (effective 300 to 1200mm).

So why didn’t I include the latest Nikkor 600mm f/4 lens with the latest version of the TCE 20? I do not know of any Nikon shooters who consistently use or create sharp images with this combination.

So Why Do I Stick With Canon?

So why do I continue to use my much heavier, much bulkier Canon gear? For now, at least, the image quality of my 5D Mark IV images is significantly superior to the image quality of the (smaller) XT-2 image files. In addition, I like the more natural color of the Canon images. The latter may be due to the fact that I use DPP 4 to convert my Canon RAW files and my experience with that process. Lastly, the Fujifilm stuff made flight and action photography nearly impossible. As I will be 72 next June, switching to a lighter system might be in my future. But not just yet.

Another Fujifilm X-T2 Mirrorless Digital Camera Body Image

Regular readers will likely remember that I experimented with the Fujifilm X-T2 Mirrorless Digital Camera body on my last trip to San Diego. You can learn more about that experience in the Quite Impressive: First Fujifilm XT-2 Image blog post here and in several blog posts that followed. For more on using the Fujifilm 100-400//2x/XT-2 combo handheld check out the Is the Fujifilm XT-2 Capable of Creating Sharp Images Hand Held at Effective 1200mm? blog post here.

Image Question

There is one thing that really bugs me about this image. What do you think it is? Does anything bug you?

The ACR conversion for today’s featured image Please click on the image so that you can read the fine print.

The RAW Conversion in ACR

As detailed in the The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II), I followed these steps for converting the RAW file in Photoshop using ACR:

1: I placed the eyedropper on the brightest WHITEs.
2: I reduced the exposure to -.2 to bring down the WHITE RGB values.
3: I set the White Point at +15 and set the Black Point at +5 (both while holding down the ALT key).
4: I pulled down the Highlights slider to -55 to restore detail to the still very bright WHITEs.
5: I set the Clarity slider to +28.
6: I clicked on Open Object to convert the RAW file to a 16-bit TIF file and open that in Photoshop.

The Image Optimization

First, I cleaned up the white specks on the rocks with the Spot Healing Brush (J). Then I cleaned up a bit of the lower center frame edge in two spots with Content Aware Fill (Shift + Delete). The big job was to eliminate the BLUE cast from the dark rocks. To check for a BLUE cast go to Hue/Saturation, select the BLUE channel from the dropdown menu, and move the Saturation slider to +100. That revealed lots of BLUE in the rocks (and of course in the BLUE sky). Then I moved the Saturation slider to -100. This eliminated the BLUE cast on the dark rocks but left the sky grey. I liked the “grey” look a lot but decided to go with the original blue sky. As I was working on a layer, I simply added a Regular Layer Mask and erased the BLUE desaturation from the sky and the bird using a large, soft, 100% opacity brush.

Noise Reduction

In general, XT-2 images show more noise than 5D Mark IV images. With the basically white subject, I decided to do my NeatImage noise reduction on the whole image. Working on a layer, I wound up applying the noise reduction with the Y-value set to a rather high 85 (to smooth the noise in water and the rocks). This however, affected the fine feather detail so I added a Regular Layer Mask and — using a 50% opacity brush, painted away half the noise reduction on the bird only using a soft brush. To learn everything that there is to know about noise reduction using NeatImage (and lots more!) see the Professional Post Processing Guide by clicking here.

The BIRDS AS ART Current Workflow e-Guide (Digital Basics II) will teach you an efficient Mac/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)

Everything mentioned above 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.

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 🙂

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.

Amazon.com

Those who prefer to support BAA by shopping with Amazon may use the logo link above.

Amazon Canada

Many kind folks from north of the border, eh, have e-mailed stating that they would love to help us out by using one of our affiliate links but that living in Canada and doing so presents numerous problems. Now, they can help us out by using our Amazon Canada affiliate link by starting their searches by clicking here.

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 :).