Noisy Miner

[Jay Gould]

Hi, I was at small lake practicing HH and shooting when behind me Noisy started to make noise. I quickly turned and pressed the shutter - all of 3.9 fps/wrong camera for birds. I was using the center sensor. The bird was in a tree and surrounded with twigs - 40+% crop. Slight increase in yellow saturation.

Camera: 5D2
Capture date/time: 7 AUG 09; 11:45 am
Light condition: Sunny
Lens: 300 f/2.8
Focal length: 7.4
Extender: 2x
Tube: none
Flash/Comp: no; none
ISO: Auto - 1000
Exp Prog: Tv
Speed: 1/3200 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Exp Comp: +2/3
Metering: Partial
WB: Auto
AF Drive: AI Servo
Tripod: no

All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!

[Nick Palmieri]

Very nice capture at a neat moment.

[Ron Boisvert]

Hello Jay!
When I first looked at your photo and saw the tongue, I didn't know what to think. I'd never seen anything like it. So I looked it up and learned the fascinating nature of that tongue and the honeyeater family. The tongue is so weird looking!!
It looks like it must have been slightly turned away from you, as the beak and tongue are tack sharp, but the eye is a little soft. To me, the yellow looks too saturated and bright. I would suggest a look at the histogram and the info panels to check out the values, especially the reds in the beak. I think there's some clipping there.
I'd clone out the BG brushy under the lower beak, too.
Jay, this is a really cool image of the noisy miner, and I'd love to see some more of them. ;) It's a neat bird that I didn't know of, and I learned a lot thanks to your posting. I can't wait to see more of your work as you prepare for your next great adventure. Keep them coming!!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Jay

Neat beahavior captured !!!! wished the af would have locked on the eye !! Agree with Ron the yellow is a bit over which is farily normal for the color, easy PS fix and you did come up with a good exposure.

Tech wise why are you using Centered-Weighted metering? Progably about the only one I would never use but it was the standard for many years before the new metering systems became available.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Jay,
This is one heck of a capture...I like it very much...I agree with the good advise given, I would like to add that you can crop from the top slightly, to put more attention on the behavior...well done Sir...keep them coming...:cool:

[Jay Gould]

Hi Jay

Neat beahavior captured !!!! wished the af would have locked on the eye !! Agree with Ron the yellow is a bit over which is farily normal for the color, easy PS fix and you did come up with a good exposure.

Tech wise why are you using Centered-Weighted metering? Progably about the only one I would never use but it was the standard for many years before the new metering systems became available.

First, regarding the yellows I in fact did boost the saturation; I will repost with a bit off the top, yellows toned down and also an attempt to sharpen the eye (haven't yet attempted selective sharpening).

wished the af would have locked on the eye

The AF point was on the back curve of the mouth between the base of the tongue and the eye. From the moment I heard the noise until I stopped shooting was simply a matter of seconds.

Regarding the choice of center-weighted, first ugh - yet another Senior Moment. My choice was actually partial metering rather than center-weighted.

Let's use this for a brief - is anything brief on BPN? - discussion of metering choices:

Evaluative - all-around mode that meters the whole scene as your starting point and then you apply EC.

Partial - best when BG is brighter or darker than the subject; meters the center 8%.

Spot - meters the center 3.5%.

Center-weighted - weighted at the center and then averaged for the whole scene.

To expand this, can someone add the Nikon equivalents so that those of us on the White Side ;) can understand the Dark Side terminology?

While I know a lot of the avian and critter images presented are done with Evaluative metering, I am not sure why that is chosen by so many since the purpose of the image is to present a central singular subject rather than presenting the whole area as in a landscape. Recently, the only time I use Evaluative is with landscapes.

This is going to be a learning experience!

All of Artie's images are with Evaluative metering.

Wouldn't it make a difference the metering you choose depending upon how close you are to your subject? For example, if you have big glass, e.g., 800 + 1.4 or 2.0x and the subject is filling the view finder, that would be similar shooting a landscape since the subject is encompassing most of the area metered.

On the other hand where you are shooting with a 100-400, or a 300 + 2X and the subject is filling less than 1/2 of the area, aren't you better off limiting the area considered by the meter?

Isn't that where you would choose either partial or spot as your starting point before applying EC?

Thanks,

[Jay Gould]

I'd clone out the BG brushy under the lower beak, too.

Hi Ron, thanks for all of the thoughtful comments.

The only blinkies are on the tiny white line on the upper beak.

I looked cloning out the brush and it blends right into the wing almost down to pixel level. At 3200 ISO there is definitely noise as you enlarge and my attempts looked terrible. I am actually saving this particular image for my Photoshop workshop with Robert O'Toole in October. :)

Any cloning tutorials that will make this removal look natural will be greatly appreciated. :D

[Ron Boisvert]

Hi Jay,

How are you checking your blinkies?

Here's how I found the clipped pixels:
1. Open up a Curves adjustment layer (click the half white/half black circle in the Layers palette)
2. Under channel, switch to Red
3. Make sure the Show Histogram box is checked at the bottom of the window
4. At the bottom right corner of the Curves histogram there is a small white triangle. On the PC hold down the Alt key (Command on Mac?), click on the white triangle, hold it and drag it to the left. Drag it back to the input level of 255. You have red pixels clipped; those are the ones showing red on the bird's beak. You can see this graphically on the histogram as well; pixels are hard up against the right side.
5. Repeat the procedure for Green and Blue channels. In your image there are fewer green and blue clipped pixels.

*Another less effective way to find clipped pixels: If you look at your image with the Info panel showing, and move your cursor over the areas that you suspect as clipped (or were highlighted in Curves), you will see the Red values at 255, with some very close to 255.

Also, my understanding is that any value at 245 or above will print as pure white, so that should be the upper limit in any channel. As well, 10 or below will print as pure black.

If I have outlined a faulty method for discovering clipped and near-clipped pixels, I would greatly appreciate someone correcting me, as this is my primary current practice.

As for the cloning tutorial see Artie's bulletin for Divide and Conquer/Protect and Defend A FREE DIGITAL BASICS EXCERPT: GETTING RID OF THAT BRANCH!
at this link:

http://www.birdsasart.com/bn275.htm

I've reposted the cloning to show it can be done, and learned with practice. It didn't take long; about 2 minutes tops. I also cropped per Gus's suggestion, and selectively sharpened the eye. To recover the highlights and control the yellow will require going back to your raw converter, I think.

I hope you find some of this useful.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Jay

Metering wise I have my Mk3 set up for only Evaluative, the others don't even come up on the readout ... make sure I don't change it by mistake. There is not much point on the others except spot. More often than not I don't have time to spot meter and if I do I'm not sure the spot is only on the selected color.

Jay for getting some density in marginal areas selecting by color seems to do the best After you select by color make a layer and set it to multiply. Can play with opacity if needed and even select and multiply again.
Great comment Ron !!!! Regarding the whites if you want to be safe posting don't let them go much over 235 Some monitors will see those as hot, high end monitors can do better.