Almost Home...

[Arthur Morris]

I am bleary eyed in the Minneapolis Airport on my way home from the bear boat trip. To learn of the groups travel adventures check out today's blog post here: http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/. This sweet looking coastal Brown Bear was photographed with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D MIII. ISO 1600. Evaluative metering +2/3 stop: 1/250 sec. at f/5.6.

At times, we had bears--including this one--as close as 6 feet from us. She was hiding behind my group in an effort to avoid the amorous advances of an old boar.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Derek Griggs]

Great detail on the bear, love the soft colors in BG! Congrats

[Grace Scalzo]

Real cool image, there's something almost comical about the bear's expression. Alot of nice detail and interest. Did it bother you that she was using you to hide behind as the amorous bear was looking for her??? :)

[Mike Tracy]

The look in his eyes is priceless and I also like the position of his lower jaw. I have encountered the same challenging circumstances in regards to properly exposing them. I think if you had gone only +.3 the ear tufts and the top of his head would not be so bright or spot metered on those areas as another option.

Glad you made it back safe.

[Dave Phillips]

love the sly smile.....the glimpse of the far eye keeps this one together IMO.
Are you getting some sleep Artie??

[Arthur Morris]

Did it bother you that she was using you to hide behind as the amorous bear was looking for her??? :)

If you mean "Were we scared?", the answer would be not particularly. Several bears approached us within 6 feet or so while sniffing us. We stay together as a group and move very slowly. A very great percentage of the Katmai bears are totally comfortable around people. In recent decades, only Timothy Treadwell (and his girlfriend havebeen attacked (and killed and eaten), and if you know the story, he was asking for it big time.

[Arthur Morris]

I have encountered the same challenging circumstances in regards to properly exposing them. I think if you had gone only +.3 the ear tufts and the top of his head would not be so bright or spot metered on those areas as another option. Glad you made it back safe.

I am safely home now; thanks. As for the EXP comments, I am not sure where you are going. The EXP was perfect. There are no overexposed pixels. And the image looks exactly as I want it to. Therefore, no need to meter any differently. (In fact, my MIII bodies are set up so as only to allow Evaluative metering.)

The brightness of the fur on the ear tufts and the top of the head is a matter of personal choice and can easily be controlled during optimization, but their appearance has nothing at all to do with the metering.

Did I miss something?

[Mike Tracy]

I am safely home now; thanks. As for the EXP comments, I am not sure where you are going. The EXP was perfect. There are no overexposed pixels. And the image looks exactly as I want it to. Therefore, no need to meter any differently. (In fact, my MIII bodies are set up so as only to allow Evaluative metering.)

The brightness of the fur on the ear tufts and the top of the head is a matter of personal choice and can easily be controlled during optimization, but their appearance has nothing at all to do with the metering.

Did I miss something?

I am taking off in 20 minutes for Peregrines at Niagara Falls ( hopefully ). I probably didn't word it correctly. Will phrase it better later. Bright and overexposed are not one and the same though. I do like the image and understand optimization.

See you folks in a week.

[Arthur Morris]

Have a good trip. And don't fall in.

[Harshad Barve]

I am loving looks on that face. It will look great if printed on BIG size
Thanks for sharing
Harshad

[Stu Bowie]

These are are amazing animals. I watch a lot of programmes on TV on National Geographic, about these animals. Good sharp detail, and looks like he is trying to smile. Well captured.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Arthur, good to hear you're back in one piece. Re. the image I really like the portrait and the close to naughty look on her face. I agree with you that the image and exposure should look as you saw the scene, or as you wish it to be seen and it looks good.
But I also do agree with Mike, the ears 'look' a bit on the bright side. It is something I experience sometimes too, when pushing the exposure to the far right by histogram check. To emphasize what I mean, I add a bird picture here for education puposes (...NB I need the education). The bird was photographed with the histogram to the far right and a few blinks on the birds neck. With the recovery slider this was fixed, but other than that no changes were made to the image. If you ask me, I find the picture as a whole too bright and toning down is required. Would like to hear your opinion and your advice.

Hi Peter,

Yes, home safe and actually lost one poud despite an incredible cook and tons of food.... I am fine with folks who think that the ears are too bright. They look fine to me or I would have darkened them. My problem with Mike's comments were that he did not say "The ears look too bright to me." He hinted at the fact that with a better exposure and/or by using a different metering method that I could have made a better image (with the ears not so bright).

As far as your very nice bird image (is it a Purple Heron?), when I opened your JPEG I noted quite a few small blinkies in the whites.

Yes, the image as you presented it looks terribly washed out. You are however missing a huge point: it is proper to expose to the right and proper for the image on the back of the camera to look washed out and it is proper for the image to look washed out when you open. What you are missing is that once you optimize the image you will darken it considerably in order to make it look as you want it to (which may or may not be the way it looked in the field...)

Why go through all that trouble? Files for images exposed to the right have more data and more color information.

In theory, the best histogram for a photograph of a piece of black velvet would be a single line just to the left of the right-hand (highlight) axis. It is then your job to make it look black during the optimization process.

In the repost here I simply did a Levels adjustment and added some Black to the Blacks and to the Neutrals in Selective Color.

Let me know if that makes sense? (And see below).

[Arthur Morris]

Above is the original capture for a different bear image. It showed overexposure of the rim-lit fut in ACR but not in BreezeBrowser (during conversion). See more below.

[Arthur Morris]

Above is the optimized image which pretty much reflects what I saw in the field. I leveled the image, cropped from the bottom, cleaned up some dead leaves lower right and eliminated a few gnats in strategic positions. Another version could easily feature the bear darker as in the ORIG.

[Arthur Morris]

Finally, this is the image that I envisioned while in the field. It was inspired by Miguel Lasa's BBC honored Polar Bear image.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Arthur, I fully agree with pushing to as far as one can in the 5th box, without blowing the whites. So that makes sense. What I didn't get thus far is how to get all that information out once I captured it. You did give me the hints and tips to get there, with your blacks and neutrals. Thx for the update and lecture. Yes, it is a Purple Heron.

Thanks. Most of the darkening is usually done in Levels (or in Curves). Also, you don't actually "get the information out." It is simply there. What you do is darken the image to taste.

[Jay Gould]

Yes, the image as you presented it looks terribly washed out. You are however missing a huge point: it is proper to expose to the right and proper for the image on the back of the camera to look washed out and it is proper for the image to look washed out when you open. What you are missing is that once you optimize the image you will darken it considerably in order to make it look as you want it to (which may or may not be the way it looked in the field...)

Why go through all that trouble? Files for images exposed to the right have more data and more color information.

In theory, the best histogram for a photograph of a piece of black velvet would be a single line just to the left of the right-hand (highlight) axis. It is then your job to make it look black during the optimization process.

Artie, welcome back! What a wonderful simple explanation of why it is important to ETTR; thank you.

Curious: for this trip what gear did you carry? Was there any room for a change of clothes ;) amongst all of your lenses and bodies?

Cheers Mate, hope to see you in Florida in Sept/Oct when I am with Jim and James.

PS: you posted the surrealistic bear while I was typing - absolutely love it!!

[Arthur Morris]

Thank you sir. No room for clothes. I pretty much stunk. In the big Think Tank rolling bag I got the 800, the 400 DO, the 70-200 f/4, the 24-105, the 15mm fish eye, two 1D Mark III bodies, one 50D body, stacked 1.4 and 2X TCs, a single 1.4X TC, the 580 EX flash, the Canon external flash battery, the two cords, the Mongoose Integrated Flash Arm, my flash card wallet, and a few extra camera batteries. 46 pounds. No hassles. Those who will be purchasing anyy Think Tank product can click the link to revceive a free $50 gift bag of their choice: http://www.birdsasart.com/thinktank.htm

[Arthur Morris]

Even if you know it is there (you did all you could to get the information in the 5th box), this not always garantees one gets it out = one knows to use it well.

I have to bust you on semantics again. Even if you are dumb, the info is still there :) :D :)

It is not however, guaranteed that you will make the image look good (even with all the data there)....

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Arthur - I really like the facial expression of the bear - makes her seem almost human. great detail as well. I have nothing to fault - I hope to one day make a trip to Alaska and photograph the wonderful scenery and wildlife.

[Danny Laredo]

Finally, this is the image that I envisioned while in the field. It was inspired by Miguel Lasa's BBC honored Polar Bear image.

Lovely image Arthur, stunning detail and great eye contact.

I would appreciate details on the proccessing you did on the inspired Miguel Lasa bear :)

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely image Arthur, stunning detail and great eye contact. I would appreciate details on the proccessing you did on the inspired Miguel Lasa bear :)

Thanks for your comments on the ORIG post. I think that you meant the Miguel Lasa-inspired bear as the bear was not inspired by Miguel, I was :) :D :)

IAC, you can play around with the Exposure, Blacks, Recovery, and Brightness sliders in ACR during conversion. That is one way. I did not do that here. I converted the image normally to yield a file with no flashing highlights in the rim lit fur. Then I did a Levels adjustment pulling the left-hand slider far to the right while holding down the Alt key (until the shape of the bear appeared almost solid black). Then I moved the middle toned slider to the right to make the image even darker. I do these two things often to create blacker SILHs. Then I add Black to the Blacks and to the Neutrals in Selective Color as described in Digital Basics.

Let me know if that works for you. BTW, the trick is to recognize the potential black-lit situation while you are in the field and to create an image with few or no flashing highlights. See today's blog post for more on blacklit images.