2000th Post

[Arthur Morris]

I have been speaking/teaching at the CNPA (Carolina Nature Photographer's Association) Annual Meeting in Charleston, SC for the past few days and head home (via SUV) tomorrow. 250 of the nicest folks I have ever been around and lots of great programs by Darrell Gulin, Bill Lea, and Kevin Adams. Anyhone in the Carolinas or surrounding states should strongly consider joining this great group. Kudos to President Doug Holstein and the incredible growth of CNPA and the great event.

I got out to Beidler Forest with friend and student Bruce Metcalf on Thursday. We got lucky with two different male Prothonotary Warblers. While I rarely create images of backlit songbirds I am very happy with this one, esp.with the light coming through the undertail coverts.

Canon 500mm f/4L IS lens with the 2X II TC and the EOS 1D-MIII. ISO 1600. Evaluative Metering +2/3 stop set manually: 1/60 sec. at f/9. I used "extra" fill-flash at -1 stop. (For relatively front-lit subjects in the shade I normally use -3 stops. Mongoose M3.5 on Gitzo 3530 LSV CF tripod.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Isak Pretorius]

What I really like here is the excellent lighting and use of fill-flash. Also, perfect in all other departments. Well done to get it so sharp with 1000mm at 1/60!

[susanschermer]

So very lovely. What DOF with a 2x. Is that the reason for the high ISO?

[Arthur Morris]

Above is the original. Did some extensive (and excellent) Quick Mask work (Thanks ROT!) to eliminate the small projecting ranch coming out of the perch branch in front of the bird, and some Patch Tool and Quick Mask work in other areas to clean up the BKGR. Also, this beautiful little bird had what we thought was a tick on the top of its head but it was gone on my second visit to his territory and removed here with a Quick Mask.

[Arthur Morris]

So very lovely. What DOF with a 2x. Is that the reason for the high ISO?

The reason for the high ISO is that I was in the woods in the shade. Note the low shutter speed of 1/60 sec. Could not go any lower than that. Had been in Av mode at ISO 800 and lost the greatest image due to a shutter speed of 1/25 sec... Learned my lesson fast.

[Doug Brown]

Very nice Artie! Congrats on 2000 posts and a great photo. The Mark III really does a great job at ISO 1600; a combination of great feather detail and low noise.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Artie Happy seeing the critically sharp image form the Mk3 Noise wise it does look good Love the strong fill flash and does look natural !!!! Have a safe return trip !!!

[Arthur Morris]

Happy seeing the critically sharp image form the Mk3.

Alfredo. I have never had a problem making mega-sharp images with the MIII with static subjects, and with birds in flight, the sharp ones are really sharp.

[Harold Davis]

i love the backlit bird. the light coming through the under belly feathers lets you see how truly small he actually is. that's some nice PS work too.

[Raul Quinones]

Great picture, it was mentioned before, but 1000mm @ 1/60... WOW!
I am still struggling making sharp pictures at 700mm with anything below 1/250.

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Artie,

Love the pose and head angle on this one. The fill flash works very, very well. I have a friend that attended the event. I have a question. Did you use any noise reduction software to eliminate the noise in the BG?

Drive safe!

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie, Love the pose and head angle on this one. The fill flash works very, very well. I have a friend that attended the event. I have a question. Did you use any noise reduction software to eliminate the noise in the BG? Drive safe!

Thanks Max. No in-camera or other noise reduction at all. The MIII is amazing with noise...

[Fabs Forns]

Lovely 2K image, at least it's not on your website already ;)

Looking forward to seeing you :)

[Linda Robbins]

A fitting image for your 2000th post! Gorgeous subject and pose, but your skillful fill flash made this image special - Love the light coming through the plumage....he really is tiny! Needs a pedicure!

[James Salywoda]

Stunning shot Artie thanks for explaining your workflow on this.

[Paul Pagano]

Beautiful shot, Artie. Lovely specimen. Never seen one.

[Mike Lentz]

You dirty dog! :D A beautiful bird and a beautiful image!

[Victor Soares]

Lovely bird and great PP. Really love the light coming through the bottom feathers. Arthur, if you don't mind me asking ... what f-stop would you have needed to select in order to get the tail in focus too. Were there too many twigs and brush closeby that prevented you from going for a larger f-stop or was the SS the deciding factor. Also, I have always been told that 2xfocal length is a good rule of thumb in order to get sharp images but I see here that even at 1/60 on a 500mm, you have a sharp original.

[Gerald_Gilligan]

Arthur,
Great digital darkroom on this one! I really like the work done one the left side BG of the photo. I just received my APTATS 1 and have begun to see the opportunity that these techniques can bring to an image...just a thought, would a catch light in the eye be out of line in this situation?
Thanks for your wisdom...
Jerry

[Arthur Morris]

Victor, I was already at ISO 1600 and f/9 at 1/60 sec. I cannot make them sharp at a slower shutter speed even with Image Stabilization... I am working at approximately 26X.

Gerald. Thanks for your purchase of APTATS. In the full size optimized TIFF file, there is a tiny catchlight in the eye from the flash; in a backlit situation a catchlight is somewhat unnatural so there is no way that I was gonna expand it.

James: YAW

Thanks to all for their comments.

[Mike Tracy]

There is nothing not to like in the bird itself. I really enjoy the light filtering through his feathers. I do find the little twig jutting out from the right a little distracting.

[Blake Shadle]

Congrats on 2000 posts, Artie. It's been a wild ride :) Nice image, and great work in PS. The bg is a bit noisy and busy for my taste, but I always love to see a Prothonotary Warbler.

EDIT: just noticed this was ISO 1600! That's pretty dang good.