The eight of us who journeyed to Tandayapa Bird Lodge by bus yesterday had a grand time. It was sunny bright in the morning and thus difficult to create pleasing images in the harsh light but we were blessed by a cloudy afternoon. And unlike on my last visit, the food was excellent. The bus got stuck in the mud halfway up the entry road so we had to make the climb up to the lodge with all or our gear. We did get some help from the staff guys led by the always smiling Richard.

As the fog in the cloud forest thickened and light levels dropped I opted to create some pleasing flash blurs and those in the group were eager to follow.

This image was create with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/60 sec. at f/5.6 with flash at -1 stop and the Better Beamer. Here I opted to stay in Av mode and adjusted the ISO so that my shutter speed fell in a range of from 1/30 to 1/60 sec. so that I could make sharp images of the perched birds and intentionally blurred images of the birds hovering in front of the feeders. The feeder was removed from this image with a series of Quick Masks.

It is 6:15am here in Quito as I type. At 8:00am we leave for the airport for our 10:00am flight to Baltra and the start of our killer two week Photo-Cruise of lifetime of the Galapagos Archipelago. I will not have internet access until the evening of July 21. Till then, breathe deeply and have fun. And great picture making. artie

ps: You will soon be able to learn more about creating flash blurs in “A Guide to Pleasing Blurs” by Arthur Morris and Denise Ippolito. We hope to have it completed some time in August.

As Denise Ippolito and I approached this bird in the predawn we were thinking silhouettes but the pink in the eastern sky faded almost instantly so I went back to the vehicle and set up my flash with the Better Beamer. I had the 800 with the 1.4X TC on a tripod with the Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1 2/3 stops. I knew that for a proper exposure for the bird I would have had to add close to four stops of light to the suggested ambient exposure. To avoid having to do that I set the flash to ETTL at zero. In effect, I was telling the flash to fully light the shadowed side of the bird. Everything worked to perfection. When you want to reveal the detail on the shadowed side of your subject set your flash to ETTL at zero; if you think “fill flash” and dial in some minus flash compensation the shadowed side of the bird will be underexposed.

In this image the flash did not fire. Even with 1 2/3 stops of over-exposure, the bird is dramatically under-exposed.

Do note that I removed the branch behind the bird’s legs and cleaned the whitewash off the perch using the Protect and Defend techniques for the former and the Patch Tool for the latter. All as described in detail in Digital Basics. Click here and scroll down for DB info: https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=32.

Jim Neiger had three Flight School Photography clients on his pontoon boat this morning and asked that I work without my tripod. I did not let that request keep me from making a few of my beloved head portraits.

With the set-up above I was working at approximately 29X maginfication. Even when handholding I felt confident that I could make at least a few sharp images at 1/1000 sec. It is only possible to hold the lens up for 10-20 seconds at a time so I rested it on a deck chair until Jiim had the boat in perfect position.

Many folks do not understand that with the 800 being an f/5.6 lens that once I add the 1.4X TC the central AF sensor is the only one available (and that only with a pro body….) With the wind up a bit the boat was rocking; I knew that keeping the sensor on the bird’s head would be a challenge so I quickly set CFn III-5 ( Lens drive when AF impossible) to “1: Focus search off.” This prevents the system from searching for the background when the sensor momentarily falls off the subject. In addition, I was hoping to make an image that featured the baby bird’s head in the lower right corner of the frame. The last thing that I wanted was to have the AF system search for the distant trees. So setting CFn III-5 to 1 had two probable benefits; my plan worked to perfection and I was able to capture the image that I had visualized

Both the Mark IV and the 7D Guides are chock full of such tips, tips that will help you to create better images on a consistent basis. You can learn more about these guides as well as the MIII Guide by scrolling down here: https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=32

On the way to the Santa Clara ranch in Starr County, TX last week we stopped to photograph the huge sunflowers in early morning light. I had long ago learned the trick of creating one sharp image of a flower and one defocused image and then laying one atop the other and playing with the opacity to produce a sort of glowing rendition of the flower. To create the image above I came up with a new twist.

The image below was my base image:

This image was sharply focused.

This next image would be the top image:

Before pressing the shutter button I defocused the flower. I actually made several variations to give me several choices for my soft image.

I brought both images into Photoshop. The sharp image served as the base image. While working with the soft image I hit Control A, Control J to place the entire image on a layer. Then I used the Move Tool (V) to drag the soft image layer on top of the sharp base image. I reduced the Opacity of the upper (soft) layer so that I could position it directly above the sharp image. (I had neglected to lock the tripod.) Then came the twist. I set the opacity of the soft image layer back to 100%, created a layer mask (as I learned to do from Robert O’Toole’s APTATS II CD), and then erased the center portion of the soft flower revealing the sharp center below. The image looked OK but I continued to experiment by erasing the dark triangular spaces between the bases of the petals. Volia.

I have been inspired to think out of the box by Denise Ippolito, BPN’s Out-of-the-Box Forum Moderator. She is incredibly creative. To see what Denise and others thought of my sharp/soft with a twist sunflower, check out my BPN post here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=63329 After you read the thread, be sure to check out the great stuff that Denise and the regular OOTB folks are doing on a daily basis by visiting the Forum and checking out the thumbnails.

To learn more about APTATS click here: https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=33

Notice that each of the four tallest perches is set in front of a pure green background and that we have taken the time to clean the edges of the far side of the tiny pond of all pebbles, roots, and seeds and to wet and smooth the red mud.

As you look back at the images in previous blog posts from Texas and the images in BAA Bulletin #326 (link below) see if you can figure out which perch the birds were using in each photograph.

This was my morning set-up at the Cozad Ranch on the morning of May 4. The image was created with the handheld Canon 24-105mm IS lens at 24mm.

Note here that the feeding table has been removed from the set to keep the birds from landing on the legs of the table. Again, the tip of each perch has been set against a background of pure color; that did not occur by accident. The orange on our right was impaled on a stake and placed just far enough from the perch so that the golden-fronteds would have to stretch to reach it. We placed a lichen-covered branch in the hollow handle of the tiny tripod so that small birds coming to water might land on it.

This image was created on the morning of May 2 with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, a 25mm Extension tube, and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 800. Evaluatve metering +2/3 stop: 1/80 sec. at f/5.6. Fill flash at -2 stops with Better Beamer.

Bronzed Cowbirds are stunning with their bright red eyes and Victorian ruffs.

BIRDS AS ART Bulletin #326 is on line and can be found here: http://www.birdsasart.com/2010/05/07/birds-as-art-bulletin-326

Here are the features:

HUNT’S DIGITAL DAYS SALE
THE COZAD RANCH, LINN, TX
2011 IPT DATE ANNOUNCEMENTS: SAN DIEGO & SW FLORIDA PRESIDENT’S WEEK
EOS-7D USER’S GUIDE INFO
EOS-1D MARK IV USER’S GUIDE INFO
POSSE NEWS/ROBERT O’TOOLE
IPT DATE UPDATES

This is image two, full sun with lots of flash, as presented in the April 25th post, presented here for comparison.

First off, thanks all for playing. Image two and image three were the favorites of the group by a good margin, but image one, the one made in full sun with no flash, did have a few supporters. If I had more time, I would do a formal tally I am still in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas with the last two clients and things are quite busy. We are having a great time; I head home on Thursday.

With due respect to to the folks who liked image one best, it is my least favorite by far. It is just too contrasty for me even with my best efforts processing it. I thought that I would like image 3, the fill flash image, best; I was quite surprised that I liked image two a bit more as presented in the April 25th post. In that post, image two had the richest color. I did like the head angle in image 3; it was much nicer than in either image one or image two.

In the image above, I took the posted fill flash image, number three, darkened the color on the brow a bit, and increased the saturation in the rest of the yellows. My final call, by a slim margin over image two, is for image three, the fill flash image, as presented above. I hope that I got my numbers right!

I created the image above (yeah, I know; it’s pretty bad as is…) this morning at the Cozad Ranch in Linn, TX. Working with the 800 things were tight. I knew that I had at least one good head angle with the whole bird in the frame but the compositions were poor and unbalanced at best. The bird was moving up and down the perch rapidly in search of the almond butter mix on the rear side of the perch. Thinking digitally, knowing that I would need source material for the perch so that I could lose the orange, I created the image below:

Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaulative metering +1/3 stop: 1/640 sec. at f/7.1 set manually. Fill flash at -3 stops with the Better Beamer.

Then I realized that creating a pano that included the entire top of the perch might be the best plan so I created a third image (below).

Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaulative metering +1/3 stop: 1/640 sec. at f/7.1 set manually. Fill flash at -3 stops with the better beamer.

I brought the three images into Photoshop, expanded canvas top and left, brought in the Quick Masked sections from the two source material images, aligned them, adjusted the brightness by pulling the curve up or down as needed, blended the edges, filled in missing background areas, reduced the background noise, cleaned up the perch, and did a bit of Eye Doctor work. Voila: in about fifteen minutes I had the image that I had visualized. In my head

This quasi-panoramic image of a male Golden-fronted Woodpecker was created by compositing three images.

The key to the success of the final image was made possible because I thought to create the source images in the field immediately after viewing the image captures of the bird on the camera’s LCD. By learning to think digitally in the field you can do the very same thing. I used a variety of techniques from Digital Basics and Robert O’Toole’s APTATS I and APTATS II files. See the BAA Store for details on these great educational PDFs.

BTW, apologies to Johnny Cash on the title of this blog-post

This is the image captured in full sun with ETTL flash set at +1 stop. Let’s call this one image two.

This is the image made with Fill Flash when the sun went behind a cloud. Let’s call this one image three.

Each of the images above was processed by me to the best of my ability using the normal BIRDS AS ART workflow as described in detail in the re-written, reorganized version of the Digital Basics PDF.

Let me know which you like best and why. I will let you know my preferences in a few days. You may be surprised….

I believe that the captive bird in the photograph is a Masked Lapwing (Vanellus miles), previously known as Masked Plover.

Note: BAA Bulletin 325 can be found on-line here: http://www.birdsasart.com/2010/04/29/birds-as-art-bulletin-325.

So, do you like the sun for your nature photography? I do, in early mornings and on late afternoons, but during the midday hours on clear days the sun is not what I want. In the image above the contrast in the image is high and the dark shadow in the eye socket is dis-pleasing (even though I pointed my shadow at the subject. The bright, high-in-the sky sun was the culprit. (Note: I could make the image look somewhat better with some Photoshop work but I would never be really happy with it.)

Here I used ETTL flash at +1 stop. Again, ISO 200. Evaluative metering at zero: stop: 1/640 sec. at f/7.1.

To create the image immediately above, I turned on my flash and set the flash compensation to +1 stop in ETTL mode. This told the flash to put out an additional stop of light, one stop more than it would normally need to properly light the subject. Why did I tell the flash to use extra light? So that it would reduce the hard shadows, especially those in the eye socket. (I learned this technique through experimentation.) It gotta say that it worked pretty well. Do understand that even though I used the flash at +1 stop I was using “Flash as Fill” not “Flash as Main Light” techniques.

This image was created when the sun ducked behind the clouds with the flash set to -1 1/3 stops. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/160 sec. at f/7.1.

Just before I created this image, a cloud drifted in front of the sun (much to my delight). I set the flash to -1 1/3 stops so that it acted as traditional Fill Flash. None of the three images in this blog post have been processed. They were extracted using Breezebrowser Pro and sharpened via my e-mail JPEG action.

Which of the three images do you like best? I know that when I process each of them that the third image, the one made when the sun went behind a cloud, will be my favorite. To sum up: if you must photograph in bright sun during the midday, use lots of flash. If a cloud covers the sun or if your subject ventures into a shaded area, you have the option of using traditional Fill Flash.

Be sure to note the different exposure compensations used when the sun was out versus when the sun was in. If they confuse you, and/or if you do not understand the difference between Flash as Fill and Flash as Main Light, you will want to get yourself a copy of “The Art of Bird Photography II” (916 pages on CD only): https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=32

Whenever I take a new camera out of the box, I head down to the lake and create some images just to make sure that the camera is capable of focusing accurately.  I have never had a camera that did not create razor sharp images when I did everything right.   That said, on rare occasion, folks do get a bad camera.  If you are relatively new to photography, reading the article below will be a great help and includes some basic tests so that you can check and see if your camera is a rare dud.  I have never had to perform any of the tests below because my initial  ”test” images with new cameras have always been sharp, that a result of quality products and excellent sharpness techniques.  (See the same in ABP II.)

Basic Sharpness Testing

I receive several e-mails each week from folks who state that this camera does not focus properly or that that lens is not sharp.  In 99% of the cases I am sure that operator error rather than equipment malfunction is the cause.  That said, on rare occasion, folks using quality equipment from Canon or Nikon do experience real problems with focusing accuracy. 

If you are handholding, please do not complain about unsharp images.  I was walking around in Sabine Woods on a spring trip least year.  It was cloudy dark.   I was working at ISO 800 with shutter speeds of about 1/60th second and even slower at times.  There were two folks walking around handholding 500 f/4 lenses; they might as well have gone fishing as there was no way that they could create a sharp image without a tripod in those conditions.  It is best to work on a tripod at all times when using your longest lens (unless you are handholding for flight or for action).

Another factor to consider is that most of the folks who write complaining of unsharp image are using cameras with 1.6X or 1.5X multiplier effects.  They need to realize that these cameras multiply vibrations and movement caused by operator error by the square of the equivalent focal length!

If you are using a tripod you need to check and note the shutter speeds of your unsharp images.  I had one guy on an IPT complaining that none of his images were sharp.  I checked his set-up and saw that he was working in near darkness at ISO 100 with shutter speeds in the 1/8 to 1/15 second range.  Making sharp images with a long lens at such slow shutter speeds is simply not possible for most folks.  When working at long effective focal lengths I am confident that I can make sharp images down to 1/60 second as long as I have time to lock the tripod head and provided that the bird does not move during the exposure.  With the prime lenses alone, I can usually get down to 1/30 second.  With the relatively new Canon 800mm lens and its new 4-stop IS system, I have made some sharp images at shutter speeds as slow as 1/6 sec.

 Below are two simple tests to determine if you have faulty equipment. 

1. Tape a sheet of newspaper to a sunlit outdoor wall on a relatively still day.  Make sure that it is as taped down as flat as possible.  (A magazine cover with fine print or a plastic or cardboard test chart are of course better options.)  Mount your telephoto rig on a tripod.  Lock down the tripod and the lens collar.  Make sure that you are beyond the minimum focusing distance of your lens and that the distance range switch (if your lens has one) is set to full.  Make a few images at the wide open aperture using both One-Shot or AI Servo with Canon gear or Single (S) or Continuous (C) with Nikon.  Then do the same thing at f/8.  As long as the wall is sunlit you will have more than enough shutter speed to know that your focusing issues are not caused by too-slow shutter speeds. Now download your images and check them for accurate focusing.  If all of the images are sharp, then you can be sure that your unsharp images were being caused by operator error.
2. Stand well off a somewhat busy road with the sun angled so that the approaching vehicles are coming right down sun angle.   Use the wide open aperture and choose an ISO that results in shutter speeds greater than 1/2000 sec.  Choose AI Servo (Canon) or Continuous (Nikon) and select the center AF sensor.  As the cars approach, place the central sensor on the license plate and hold the shutter button down once focus is acquired.  Even this simple task requires some practice so be sure to take lots of images.  Download the images and sort them into two groups: sharp on the license plate and unsharp on the license plate.  Now using an application that allows you to see the position of the active focusing sensor, in this case the central sensor, note the position of the sensor in the unsharp images.  If the sensor is consistently on the license plate and the images are unsharp, then you likely have equipment problems.  You can repeat this test with various camera bodies and various lenses in an effort to determine the cause of the problem.  When you are pretty sure that you have an equipment problem it is best to send the gear to the manufacturer along with a CD of the test images.

In most cases, folks will learn that their equipment is perfectly fine but that their poor sharpness techniques are the cause of the unsharp images.  Do also realize the importance of subject movement.  While working at the Cozad Ranch probably well more than half of my images were unsharp.  This was due in most cases to subject movement.  In other cases, the unsharp images were a result of the AF system being unable to maintain sharp focus on the tiny songbirds as they leaped off of their perches.   It is important to understand and to realize the limitations of our equipment.   

The above text was adapted from a feature in BIRDS AS ART Bulletin #289:  http://www.birdsasart.com/bn.html.  The Bulletin Archives here: http://www.birdsasart.com/bn289.htm are a tremendous free resource.   And there is a great Google search feature that can help you find what  you need quickly.