The Osprey Flight Direction Reveal and DB III: VOL I/#2

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.

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.

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This image was created on 21 November 2023. Standing at full height, I used the Robus RC-5558 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. ISO 500: 1/400 second at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 6:51:30am, right after sunrise on a partly cloudy morning. 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.

This image was created on 5 May 2022 at Indian Lake Estates, FL. Standing at full height by the Osprey nest at the foot of the pier, I used the Robus RC-5558 Vantage Series 3 Carbon Fiber Tripod/Levered-Clamp FlexShooter Pro-mounted Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. ISO 1000: 1/3200 second at f/5.6 (wide open) in Manual mode. AWB at 8:19:03am on a mostly sunny morning. 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.

You can purchase the five video series here.

Digital Basics III Volume I/#2

Digital Basics III, Volume I/#2

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.

You can purchase Volume I/#2 here.

Retroactive Discount Savings

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.