Lake Blue Cypress Landing Osprey

[Arthur Morris]

This Osprey image was created on Jim Neiger’s pontoon boat on Lake Blue Cypress on Friday morning, March 21, 2014 at 8:20am in full but still soft sunlight with the the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (hand held with the internal extender in place at 436mm) and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop off the blue sky 30 degrees up from the horizon: 1/3200 sec. at f/8 in Manual mode. AWB.

61-point/AI Servo-Surround/Rear Focus AF on the base of the far wing that was on the same plane as the bird’s eye was active at the moment of exposure. Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.

To see the original with 3 clipped primaries and learn about the image repair, see the 200/400 With Internal 1.4X Extender/5D Mark III for Birds in Flight??? blog post.

If you'd like to join Jim and me on Lake Blue Cypress for a day soon, see the info here. Available dates: April 8, 9, 11 & 12, 2014.

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

[Karl Egressy]

Great pose with full wing stretch and fanned tail. Nice showing the talons. Nice light , excellent IQ. The PP. work on the close wing is impressive.

[Arthur Morris]

Great pose with full wing stretch and fanned tail. Nice showing the talons. Nice light , excellent IQ. The PP. work on the close wing is impressive.

Thanks Karl. I originally had the sky in the ULC too dark. Denise Ippolito pointed it out to me. So I took the URC, flopped it, matched the tonality, and brought the wingtips back with a Regular Layer Mask....

[Karl Egressy]

Thanks for the description, Artie. If you had not mentioned and I had not seen the original on your blog I wouldn't have known that the wing tips were missing.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very nice one, great warm light and with excellent pose. I also, did not notice the ''fix'' so kudos to you, I must say that it was a job well done!

[Rodney Flowers]

Great job on the repair. I would not have known. The positioning of osprey in the frame is great and of course you captured an excellent pose with the wings spread wide.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

The clear blue sky really accentuates the sharpness of the bird - nice & well done, Arthur!

[Neil Burton]

Excellent flight shot. I am seeing a slight sharpening halo around those wings, probably just the web version though?

[Arthur Morris]

Excellent flight shot. I am seeing a slight sharpening halo around those wings, probably just the web version though?

Thanks Neil. I am not seeing any sharpening halo on the version here. I used to sharpen all of my 1200 wides at 140/.3/0 and never had a single halo comment. Recently I have cut that back to 130/.3/0 for really sharp images like this one.

[Neil Burton]

Fair enough but it is most prevalent along the shoulders. My EIZO seems to show it worse than my old Dell.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Great pose super detail in the darks and lights, the repair job is excellent - I saw the blog but if I hadn't I wouldn't have known the wing had been repaired.

[Arthur Morris]

Fair enough but it is most prevalent along the shoulders. My EIZO seems to show it worse than my old Dell.

Fair enough. When I tilt the screen I see a small halo on the bird's right wing.

[Jonathan Ashton]

After it is mentioned I see a halo but I must admit I did not spot it originally.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the wing position, talons, exposure, IQ and PP work. Excellent image Arthur!

[Arthur Morris]

After it is mentioned I see a halo but I must admit I did not spot it originally.

Having to tilt the screen is dirty bumper pool :). Actually, I am thinking that the algorithms for Unsharp Mask in CS-6 are a good bit stronger than in CS-5. I never had a single halo in CS=5 on a 1200 wide JPEG at 140/0.3/0. I must have sensed the difference as I have already cut back to 130/0.3/0. Thanks to Neil I will cut back even further.... You gotta love BPN.

[Andy Astbury]

Hi Arty

If you must sharpen in PS with USM here's something I always teach folk - and it works every time.

Set the USM values to 30, 0.3 and 0.0 - it's very gentle - then hit Cmd + F or Ctrl + F (mac or windies) to re-apply it. Keep adding the cumulative USM until you just begin to detect a halo then go EDIT>Fade USM - select between 40% and 60% AND switch the blend mode to LUMINOSITY then click okay.

Tack sharpness usually appears after 3 or 4 passes of USM at the above settings.

All the best Arty, and it's a cracking Osprey shot, but I can see a monster halo, especially on the birds right wing (left in image) and it's especially apparent between the birds shoulder and the alula - and I'm not tilting my monitor either!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Andy. I will try that or something similar. I don't like to spend too much time sharpening JPEGs :). As I said, this is the first halo complaints I've had in about two years....