{"id":7716,"date":"2011-12-05T10:25:41","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T14:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/?p=7716"},"modified":"2011-12-05T10:29:49","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T14:29:49","slug":"unusual-flight-photography-cropping-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2011\/12\/05\/unusual-flight-photography-cropping-options\/","title":{"rendered":"(Unusual?) Flight Photography Cropping Options"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Sandhill Crane in flight, Bosque del Apache NWR, San Antonio, NM. From the recently concluded Bosque IPT. This image was created with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens<\/a>, the 1.4X III TC<\/a>, and the EOS-1D Mark IV<\/a>. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1\/3 stop off the grasses: 1\/800 sec. at f\/8 set manually. <\/p>\n

Central Sensor (by necessity) Rear Focus\/AI Servo AF active at the moment of exposure. Click here<\/a> if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Lens\/TC\/camera body Micro-adjustment<\/a>: +4. For a greater appreciation of the image, click on the photo. Then click on the enlarged version to close it.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

(Unusual?) Flight Photography Cropping Options<\/h3>\n

Most times when I clip off the end of a wing or wings so severely that repairing the missing primaries is impossible, I simply delete the images. But there are times when I think, “Jeez, that is so sharp with so much detail, there must be a way to do something with it.” So following the principles detailed in the Advanced Composition and Image Design section in The Art of Bird Photography II<\/a> (ABP: 916 pages on CD only), and following my own advice from the same source: “cut don’t clip,” I hit C for the Crop Tool for all of the images presented in this post and went to work. For the image above a quasi pano-crop worked best. Note that rather than clipping the primaries I chose to cut them dramatically while cropping from the top and the bottom. Having the eye wind up in the upper right corner worked very well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
ngg_shortcode_1_placeholder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Snow Goose, adult braking hard, Bosque del Apache NWR, San Antonio, NM. From the recently concluded Bosque IPT. This image was created with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens<\/a>, the 1.4X III TC<\/a>, and the EOS-1D Mark IV<\/a>. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1\/3 stop off the grasses: 1\/1600 sec. at f\/8 set manually. <\/p>\n

Central Sensor (by necessity) Rear Focus\/AI Servo AF active at the moment of exposure. Click here<\/a> if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Lens\/TC\/camera body Micro-adjustment<\/a>: +4. For a greater appreciation of the image, click on the photo. Then click on the enlarged version to close it.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

With the image above it would have been possible to repair the wing tips as I barely clipped the primaries top and left. That, however, would have been a lot of work and adding the needed canvas would have made the task that much more difficult and time consuming. So I opted to crop from all sides in order to wind up with a balanced image that showed more detail. Again, note that “cut don’t clip” was the best road to follow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
ngg_shortcode_2_placeholder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Sandhill Crane, immature landing, Bosque del Apache NWR, San Antonio, NW. From the recently concluded Bosque IPT. This image was created on the morning of 11\/23\/2011 with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens<\/a> and the EOS-1D Mark IV<\/a>. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1\/3 stop off the grasses: 1\/1600 sec. at f\/6.3 set manually. <\/p>\n

Central Sensor\/AI Servo Rear Focus active at the moment of exposure. Click here<\/a> if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Lens\/camera body Micro-adjustment<\/a>: +2. For a greater appreciation of the image, click on the photo. Then click on the enlarged version to close it.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

With the legs well forward and the great sharpness in the image above there was no way I was deleting this one because of the clipped primaries on the far wing so I took a bit off the top, cropped from the bottom, and then Quick Masked out the backs of the two birds in the bottom of the frame. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
ngg_shortcode_3_placeholder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

Snow Goose, immature landing, Bosque del Apache NWR, San Antonio, NW. From the recently concluded Bosque IPT. This image was created on the morning of 11\/18\/2011 with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens<\/a> and the EOS-1D Mark IV<\/a>. ISO 640. Evaluative metering +1 1\/3 stops off the low blue sky: 1\/1000 sec. at f\/5.6 set manually. <\/p>\n

Central Sensor\/AI Servo Rear Focus active at the moment of exposure. Click here<\/a> if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Lens\/camera body Micro-adjustment<\/a>: +2. For a greater appreciation of the image, click on the photo. Then click on the enlarged version to close it.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

In the image above I loved the sharpness and the super detail afforded by the tight framing. By checking out the original capture below you can better understand the thought processes that go into making these unusual crops successfully. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
ngg_shortcode_4_placeholder<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Share Your Thoughts<\/h3>\n

I invite you to leave a comment and to share your thoughts on these unusual crops. Do they all work for you? Do you have a faveorite? Would you have done anything different? I do like all of them :). <\/p>\n

BOSQUE del APACHE 2012 IPT DATES ANNOUNCED<\/h3>\n

BOSQUE del APACHE 2012 IPT: \u201cThe Complete Bosque Experience.\u201d NOV 21-27, 2012. 7-FULL DAYS: $3299. Introductory Slide program: 6:30 pm on 11\/20. Limit: 12\/Openings: 10. <\/h2>\n

Tens of thousand of Snow Geese, 10,000 Sandhill Cranes, ducks including point-blank American Wigeon and Wood Duck, amazing sunrises, sunsets, and blast-offs. Live, eat, and breathe photography with one of (if not the) world’s premier photographic educators at one of his very favorite locations on the planet. Top-notch Photoshop instruction. Next year will make 18 consecutive Novembers at Bosque for me. Nobody knows the place better than I do. Join us to learn to think like a pro, to recognize situations and to anticipate them based on the weather, especially the light and the wind direction. Every time we make a move we will let you know why. When you head home applying what you learned will prove to be invaluable.<\/p>\n

Earn Free Contest Entries and Support both the Bulletins and the Blog by making all your B & H purchases here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

More and more folks are earning multiple contest entries with their B & H purchases. See here<\/a> for details on that. Eleven great categories, 34 winning and honored images, and prize pools<\/a> valued in excess of $20,000. Click here<\/a> to visit the competition home page. <\/p>\n

Shopper’s Guide<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Below is a list of the gear used to create the image in today’s blog post. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins. Before you purchase anything be sure to check out the advice in our Shopper’s Guide<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Canon 800mm f\/5.L IS lens.<\/a> Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.
\nCanon 1.4X III Teleconverter<\/a>. Designed to work best with the new Series II super-telephoto lenses.
\nCanon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body.<\/a> My two Mark IVs are my workhorse digital camera bodies. <\/p>\n

And from the BAA On-line Store:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

LensCoats<\/a>. I have a LensCoat on each of my big lenses to protect them from nicks and thus increase their re-sales value. All my big lens LensCoat stuff is in Hardwood Snow pattern.
\nLegCoat Tripod Leg Covers.<\/a> I have four tripods active and each has a Hardwood Snow LegCoat on it to help prevent further damage to my tender shoulders \ud83d\ude42
\nGitzo GT3530LS Tripod.<\/a> This one will last you a lifetime.
\nMongoose M3.6 Tripod Head.<\/a> Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with lenses that weigh less than 9 pounds. For heavier lenses, check out the Wimberley V2 head<\/a>.
\nCR-80 Replacement Foot for Canon 800<\/a>. When using the 800 on a Mongoose as I do, replacing the lens foot with this accessory lets the lens sit like a dog whether pointed up or down and prevents wind-blown spinning of your lens on breezy days by centering the lens directly over the tripod.
\n Double Bubble Level.<\/a> You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am not using flash.
\nBe sure to check out our camera body User’s Guides here<\/a>.
\nThe Lens Align Mark II.<\/a> I use the Lens Align Mark II pretty much religiously to micro-adjust all of my gear an average of once a month and always before a major trip. Enjoy our free comprehensive tutorial here.<\/a>
\nCanon EOS-1D Mark IV User’s Guide<\/a>. Learn to use your Mark IV the way that I use mine. Also available for the 7D and the Mark III here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ngg_shortcode_5_placeholder <\/p>\n

Sandhill Crane in flight, Bosque del Apache NWR, San Antonio, NM. From the recently concluded Bosque IPT. This image was created with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X III TC, and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1\/3 stop off the grasses: 1\/800 sec. at f\/8 set manually. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-90","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}