Northern harrier in low light-and a tip about post processing

I got this frame in Vancouver area yesterday. It was somewhat dark and rainy. The harriers were active despite the rain and gave me a couple of close passes.

Shot with Canon 1DX and 300 f/2.8 II plus 2X III. ISO 2000, f/5.6 at 1/2000sec. Hand held.


Attachment 147731


Because of changing light this frame was significantly underexposed ( should have used 1/1600sec at ISO 4000) however thanks to the DPP4 (and the image sensor in 1DX) I was able to get a good quality output. I will post the original frame below

This is the original file, post cropping but without any other adjustment. I increased exposure by 1.3 stops and applied a shadow adjustment of +3 in DPP 4. so it was a pretty aggressive adjustment. I used chroma NR to take out the color noise then luminance NR to suppress the grains in DPP4. The key here was that the RAW file was tack sharp (nailed the focus), thus I was able to recover it.

Attachment 147735

now who can guess how much of a crop this was? :bg3:

thats a beauty, love when these are out cruising low. In your experience, would 1/1600 stop the action enough to get the great detail that you have here? Also, I am so reluctant to use 5.6 for fear of losing DOF on flight shots and yet yours is fine here, what am I missing? Your DPP 4 guide is helping me a lot, what a nice upgrade that software is!
Just saw the original, amazing save. I'll stick my neck out, no more that 10-15% was cropped.

Hi Willie,

It depends, here the harrier wasn't diving so 1/1600sec was enough but usually I prefer 1/2500sec or faster. F/5.6 is enough to get the head and body inside DOF, if you pay close attention the primaries of both near and far wing are outside DOF but IMO it doesn't distract from the image. I would shoot wide open and use as much SS as I can

I'm glad you are enjoying DPP 4.

best

Arash

Gorgeous, as usual!

The more distant the subject, the more the DOF increases. From Arash's statement, I'd guess it might be a pretty big crop, so the DOF would be enough at 5.6. Wingtips are often softened with a little bit of motion blur anyway so nailing focus on the head is a major key to maximizing sharpness -- and the camera body and lens are big factors, too.

Thanks for the feedback Dianne and Arash to my questions. I missed the fact that the original file was POST crop, so yes, I would agree with you Diane that at distance the 5.6 would get this DOF. It must be a bigger crop than I guessed.
Also, I meant to say, the original file is pleasing in an artistic way to me.

Thanks Diane and Willie,

DOF is not issue for flight shots. In fact, I almost never stop down my lens, even for full frame shots such as eagles at close range. Attractive flight shots are those with either a banking pose or with wings in full up or down stroke so f/5.6 is sufficient. Usually, If you are so close that DOF becomes an issue you will most likley clip the wings anyway.

In case of bird coming towards the camera the tail and belly may fall outside DOF, but again it's the head that matters and where the viewer will focus.

For flight photography, don't worry about DOF much, get the shutter speed as high as you can (don't be afford to raise ISO) and try to nail the focus.

Hope this helps

Hi Arash,
Nice recovery on this shot for sure. I see that the 1DX handles the noise pretty good. Strangely enough, I had a very similar experience with a harrier over here in Nanaimo. In this case however it was over exposed and I had to pull the exposure down by almost two stops.

When you said Vancouver did you mean Vancouver B.C.? If so, too bad you couldn't make it over for a close encounter with our rough-legged hawk.

TFS

Steve Large

Arash;

Very nice processing of the image to save it. The newer cameras really have a remarkable exposure range that can be saved in post. Skillful noise control.

Cheers

Randy

Wonderful, Arash. And thanks for the tips.

Nice BIF shooting and excellent PP work.

This is great, Arash! You got the look, full downstroke, and great bg. If you hadn't told us it was underexposed I never would have known. Well done as usual.

300 w/ 2X?
Travel Gear?
Very nice work and info on PP.....

Thanks everyone,

Yes Dan, the larger lenses don't fit in the overhead bin of CRJ aircraft

Impressive PP work. I would never have thought that it was that underexposed...Nicely done Arash!

Thanks for the tips, Arash, and nice save on this one! Your raptor works SO well against this BG with the perfect pose!

Thanks everyone for the nice comments.

PS. nobody guessed the crop....

Hi Arash nice frame with some good tonal range , looks very clean as low res file , wonder what this looks as hi res ?
What have you done with the whites ? pushing the exp +1,3 should normally blow the HL , at least in parts .

I am using DPP 4 myself , too , and i am very pleased with the new software even if still a bit clunky , but the output is great and that is what it is all about .

Cheers Andreas , PS no idea how large the crop is , i guess a larger one otherwise you would not have asked that question :bg3:.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andreas Liedmann

Hi Arash nice frame with some good tonal range , looks very clean as low res file , wonder what this looks as hi res ?
What have you done with the whites ? pushing the exp +1,3 should normally blow the HL , at least in parts .

I am using DPP 4 myself , too , and i am very pleased with the new software even if still a bit clunky , but the output is great and that is what it is all about .

Cheers Andreas , PS no idea how large the crop is , i guess a larger one otherwise you would not have asked that question :bg3:.

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Hi Andreas,

It looks pretty good at high res. too. I used highlight compensation in DPP to avoid blowing the highlights (-3)

I actually find DPP4 really easy, fast and smooth to use compared to say LR which is slow, redundant and clunky IMO. I am using check mark to tag species independent of rating which has helped me quite a lot with sorting.


stay tuned on the crop

Great salvage job Arash. Love the pose and the HA with the solid eye contact. Nice details and the PP work is killer as usual.
I figure that knowing Harriers, and that you were shooting at 600mm as apposed to 840mm, this has to be a pretty big crop. 60% or bigger is my guess??
See ya soon

Dave got it right, the image was about 40% of the full frame! :S3:

Arash -

Stunning image, and fantastic PP. Was there any additional PP in Photoshop, and, if so, what?

Thanks!

Loren