Stitched Pano for Birds?

[Arthur Morris]

I found myself a bit too close to this bird when it started scratching so I made a single image of the rear of the bird after creating several of the front end.

This stitched pano of a scratching Royal Tern was created from two images made on last Monday’s In-the-Field Workshop at Fort DeSoto with the tripod-mounted Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS II USM lens, the Canon 2x EF Extender III (Teleconverter), and the Canon EOS-1D X Digital SLR camera. ISO 400: 1/1600 sec. at f/8 in Manual Mode confirmed via histogram check.


Central sensor (by necessity) Expand/AI Servo/Rear Focus AF on the base of the bill where it meets the head and recompose. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial.


You cannot beat the 600II/2XIII TC combo for reach (with phase detection AF).

See this image larger in the blog post comparing the Canon 500II and the Canon 600II here.

As for the photo, don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[gail bisson]

Very cool and excellent PP.
I like your pano crop and the teal/gray ocean in the BG. And such smooth clean sand.
Beak is so tack sharp.
I like the leg up but is that poop on his leg? If it is, I would clean it up.
I would also clean up the little blob on the bottom edge.
Nice shot,
Gail

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the image in terms of pose colour and composition, I think the stitch worked well - did you use the Photoshop facility or Canon? Exposure looks good but I wonder if you could possibly have teased a little more detail out of the dark head plumage? The poop on his leg doesn't bother me, I suspect you deliberately left it there to gauge people's reaction? The surface and background make for a pleasing presentation.

[nick clayton]

The thing I particularly like is the Tern is having a good scratch, it makes it more interesting than a static image. Very good exposure, the whites have plenty of detail as does the black head. No visual clues that it is a stitched pano. The background is nice and clean. Maybe you could have removed the white mark on the lifted leg but as usual a very pleasing image Artie.

[Diane Miller]

Love the rhythm here! Beautifully clean!

[Mike Tracy]

There is so much I like with this image. The comp, lovely background colors, the way the light is hitting his beak and the scratch pose itself. I wish there was more feather detail and if posted by a less accomplished photographer I would question why they applied such aggressive noise reduction.

[jack williamson]

Excellent stitch and a fine pose. I love the horizon of the sand and the bg is awesome.

[Arthur Morris]

There is so much I like with this image. The comp, lovely background colors, the way the light is hitting his beak and the scratch pose itself. I wish there was more feather detail and if posted by a less accomplished photographer I would question why they applied such aggressive noise reduction.

No NR was applied.

[dankearl]

Pretty cool Arthur, one would never know.
I might brighten the small catchlight or reflection in the eye to make it stand out a bit more.
Nice pose, FG, and BG.

[PhilCook]

Just learnt or realized something new to me.....stitch a bird shot when they are too close, the thought has never crossed my mind.....thanks, must remember this one Arthur.

I really cant see anything that I feel needs altering, maybe a bit more light on the eye as I find it hard to distinguish from the black head, but there are a number of plusses like good exposure, nice low angle and great subtle backdrop and I rather like the shadow as well

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot!!!
Love the low shooting angle, wondrful light, excellent details, and exposure is spot on.
Very well done.

[Frank Schauf]

Great pose and setting you have here. The combination works very well.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all. For some reason this image reminds me of a bullet train. As to the eye, I did lighten the eye skin to make it a bit more prominent. Otherwise it was so dark and so black that I could not even make out the pupil.... I should have mentioned that after getting my 600II and one of my 1D X bodies pretty much buried in sand I have begun using the Skimmer II Ground Pod.

[Sachin Saraf]

Excellent work in PP Guruji...Love the sharp beak and image design...I recently created images using the same technique. I learnt it last year when you posted image of GB Heron which was also sticthed from two vertical images. I have yet to PP that image but will share it soon. Thank you for all the knowledge you share on your blog and here on BPN.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice low shooting angle and great choice on composition.

[Bill Dix]

Terrific pose, great colors, and excellent stitching. I do wish the eye were just a tad more visible, and I'm a little surprised you didn't clean the leg since I've seen you comment on such things in the past. But a lovely shot and very well conceived in the field.

[vishaljadhav]

Arthur Bhai,
You have set a new direction here, love it
the details are good, i like the idea, since sometimes we all face such adilemma

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Artie, great work on the stitching, and a quick look on your blog explains it all - well done. I like the scratching behaviour with the raised foot, poop and all on the leg , and you pretty much nailed the overall exposure.

[Melissa Groo]

Fantastic job on this Artie. I will have to read the blog post and store your instructions. This looks just seamless. And looks like a studio shot as everything is just perfect, from light to sharpness to background.

[John Chardine]

It's a great idea for this kind of subject. With one image coming from the back end of the bird, where was the focus point for that image? The primaries and tail look a little OOF. A refocus would have increased the apparent DoF.