BAA Blog Readers are pretty darned good at editing (picking their keepers)… « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

BAA Blog Readers are pretty darned good at editing (picking their keepers)...

What’s Up?

I prepared this blog post in about 3 hours after arising at 4am on Wednesday morning. As it has warmed up nicely I am planning to swim at about 12:30pm today. I just learned that the sale of Asta Tobiassen’s Canon 100-400mm IS L lens in very good condition for $599 has been completed.

600 II

I still have a Canon 600 II in excellent plus condition for a Canadian buyer at a ridiculously low price. Please contact me via e-mail if you live in Canada and are interested.


The Streak

Today’s blog post marks 120 days in a row with a new educational blog post. This post took me about 90 minutes to assemble including the time spent on the image optimization. As always–and folks have been doing a great job recently–please remember to use our B&H links for your major gear purchases. For best results use one of our many product-specific links; after clicking on one of those you can continue shopping with all subsequent purchases invisibly tracked to BAA. Your doing so is always greatly appreciated. Please remember: web orders only.


western-gull-adult-preening-scapulars-_r7a5440-la-lolla-ca

This image was created on the January 2016 San Diego IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. All exposures set via histogram check: 1/800 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode.

I selected the AF point that was two AF points above the center AF point and used AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF. For this image I held the star button in so that AF was active (as framed) at the moment of exposure. The selected AF point was on the bird’s neck. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.

This is the optimized version of my top pick, Image #16

Editing Practice and Principles Follow-Up

In the hugely popular Editing Practice and Principles blog post here I presented 16 images. Folks were asked to pick five keepers and their very favorite image. The response was gratifying.

My five keepers were #s 1, 10, 11, 15, and 16. My very favorite was #16; the optimized version opened this blog post. My four other keepers can be seen below with a brief comment.


r7a5399-la-lolla-ca_ijfr_1

All of the images in the editing practice quiz were created on the January 2016 San Diego IPT with the Induro GIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and the mega mega-pixel Canon EOS 5DS R. ISO 400. All exposures set via histogram check: 1/800 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode.

I selected the AF point that was two AF points above the center AF point and used AI Servo Expand/Rear Focus AF. For some of the images I held the shutter button in so that AF was active (as framed) at the moment of exposure and for others I set the focus via rear button AF, released the button, and re-composed slightly (if at all). Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Image #1

Image #1

Image #1 was similar to my top choice; it features a nice look at the bird’s left leg and foot but Image #16 has a better head angle and, in addition, we get a much better look at the feather in the gull’s bill in #16 than in #1.


r7a5422-la-lolla-ca_ijfr_0

Image #10

Image #10

In retrospect #10 is the weakest of my five keepers. The head angle is nothing special and the eye is not as sharp as it should be. If I did this over again I would likely lose this one and bring in #12… See same well below.


r7a5424-la-lolla-ca_ijfr_0

Image #11

Image #11

I love the head angle and position in #11 as well as the fully splayed body feather on the left side of the bird (also seen well in #10).


r7a5431-la-lolla-ca_ijfr_0

Image #15

Image #15

Though the bird is not actively preening this is my #2 pick for the dead perfect head angle and the fully splayed scapulars on the right side of the bird. These two factors made Image #14 a quick reject.


r7a5425-la-lolla-ca_ijfr_0

Image #12:

Image #12

In retrospect I would have included this image in my five best and gotten rid of Image #10 as noted above. The head is much closer to parallel than in #10 and the open bill is a big plus.

My Rejected Losers and Why

Images #2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 13 all feature a very similar and very poor head angle; folks who picked any of these images in their top five need to go to Head Angle School. Best advice to them: study the BPN Head Angle Fine Points post here with due diligence. There are lots of other excellent tutorials in BPN’s Educational Resources forum here.

With #6 I like the outstretched grab of the feather but the gull’s face is angled well way from the plane of the imaging sensor. With #7 the face is pretty much hidden. Image #9 is close but again the head needed to be parallel to the plane of the imaging sensor. #12 is very strong and in retrospect I should have had it in with my top five while losing Image #10. (See Image #10 just above.)


editing-bar-graphsa

Bar Graphs courtesy of Warren Howe

Editing Picks Bar Graphs

My choices are in red. In retrospect I would replace Image #10 with Image #12 in my top five. I would say that overall the folks who participated did a great job. Note how many folks agreed with my top choice, #16. I have said this often: “If you have ten photographers lined up with the same gear photographing the same bird and each picks their top three images there will usually be 90% agreement on the single best image (out of the thirty). Editing (picking your keepers) is a skill that can be learned. We will do another one of these soon.

Questions Welcome

If you have any questions about my picks or any of the images or image comparisons, please feel free to leave do so in a comment.


san-diego-card-neesie

San Diego offers a wealth of very attractive natural history subjects. With annual visits spanning more than three decades I have lot of experience there….

2017 San Diego 4 1/2-DAY BIRDS AS ART Instructional Photo-Tour (IPT) JAN 11 thru and including the morning session on JAN 15: 4 1/2 days: $1999.

(Limit: 10/openings 8)

Meet and Greet at 7:00pm on the evening before the IPT begins; Tuesday 1/10/17.

Join me in San Diego to photograph the spectacular breeding plumage Brown Pelicans with their fire-engine red and olive green bill pouches; Brandt’s and Double-crested Cormorants; breeding plumage Wood and Ring-necked Duck; other duck species possible including Lesser Scaup, Redhead, and Surf Scoter; a variety of gulls including Western, California, and the gorgeous Heerman’s, all in full breeding plumage; shorebirds including Marbled Godwit, Willet, Sanderling and Black-bellied Plover; many others possible including Least, Western, and Spotted Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Black and Ruddy Turnstone, Semipalmated Plover, and Surfbird; Harbor Seals (depending on the current regulations) and California Sea Lions; and Bird of Paradise flowers. And as you can see by studying the two IPT cards there are some nice bird-scape and landscape opportunities as well.

With gorgeous subjects just sitting there waiting to have their pictures taken, photographing the pelicans on the cliffs is about as easy as nature photography gets. With the winds from the east almost every morning there is usually some excellent flight photography. And the pelicans are almost always doing something interesting: preening, scratching, bill pouch cleaning, or squabbling. And then there are those crazy head throws that are thought to be a form of intra-flock communication.

Did I mention that there are wealth of great birds and natural history subjects in San Diego in winter?


san-diego-card-b

Though the pelicans will be the stars of the show on this IPT there will be many other handsome and captivating subjects in wonderful settings.

The San Diego Details

This IPT will include five 3 1/2 hour morning photo sessions, four 2 1/2 hour afternoon photo sessions, four lunches, and after-lunch image review and Photoshop sessions. To ensure early starts, breakfasts will be your responsibility.

A $599 non-refundable deposit is required to hold your slot for this IPT. You can send a check (made out to “Arthur Morris) to us at BIRDS AS ART, PO Box 7245, Indian Lake Estates, FL, 33855. Or call Jim or Jennifer at the office with a credit card at 863-692-0906. Your balance, payable only by check, will be due on 9/11//2016. If we do not receive your check for the balance on or before the due date we will try to fill your spot from the waiting list. Please print, complete, and sign the form that is linked to here and shoot it to us along with your deposit check. If you register by phone, please print, complete and sign the form as noted above and either mail it to us or e-mail the scan. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Please Remember to use our Affiliate Links 🙂

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 BIRDS AS ART Online Store, especially the Mongoose M3.6 tripod heads, Gitzo tripods, Wimberley heads and plates, LensCoats and accessories, and the like. 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 we are 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 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 visiting the BAA 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 🙂

6 comments to BAA Blog Readers are pretty darned good at editing (picking their keepers)…

  • avatar Ronald Rytter

    Jim Keener’s 7D Mark III – this error must have happened just before turning out the bedside lamp.

  • avatar Warren H

    I really like the tips on editing. I think we all struggle with this one and many people probably spend too much time on it. It also makes your readers think and participate!

    Look forward to these in the future!

    • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

      Great and thanks. Another one is in the works. a

      ps: we do these exercises often on IPTs and folks absolutely love it when I edit a complete session’s worth of images while commenting on why keep or why delete…

  • avatar Neil Hickman

    Gee! All you guys just missed one! What a great post, and I liked reading the range of views. Now all I have to do is have a real good clean-out of all those folders. Better still, I will make smaller folders in future. VERY instructional and timely for me. Thanks Artie!

    • avatar Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

      You are welcome. I have always edited tightly and now with the huge 5DS R files, tighter still… a