50d A

[Arthur Morris]

This Surfbird was photographed in La Jolla with the Canon EOS-50Dand the 500mm f/4L IS lens on the Mongoose M3.5 and the Gitzo CF 3530 LS tripod. This species is one of the warier shorebirds on the cliffs so getting close required lots of slow movement...

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

Oops. Forgot the EXP: ISO 400: 1/2000 sec. at f/4 set manually after histogram check. With the BKGR changing from dark blue to pure white when a wave broke to anywhere in between it was mandatory to be in manual mode.

[Ramon M. Casares]

LOVE IT! The BG color agains the bird is stunnig! The pose is nice and the comp is perfect! Light, exposure and detail are simply excellent! I only feel the yeloow in the legs a it washed out (I don't know this species so it might be that that is the actual color) But still, Big congratulaitons Arthur!

[Taylor Yeager]

Definitely sharp. Did you blur the BG more in post? The bird looks very 3D.

[Arthur Morris]

Definitely sharp. Did you blur the BG more in post? The bird looks very 3D.

The 50D images are screamingly sharp. And the color is rich and vibrant. I ran Photoshop noise reduction on the background only and then a 2 pixel Gaussian blur. The effects of the NR and GBlur are not evident unless you zoom way in. The 50D is noisier than the MIII due to the smaller pixels. In short, image quality (aside from nose) is killer good.

[James Salywoda]

Awesome shot! The Pacific Ocean looks gorgeous and the pose is perfect very nice Artie....

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The 50D seems to be worth considering as a backup camera. I like the angle, details, pose and BG in this one.

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Stunning image Artie. . Love the pose and the tack sharp detail and pose. The BG is gorgeous in this capture.

[Juan Aragonés]

Artie this one is outstanding and I have to say that the small thumbnail does not made justice to the image. The light is fantastic and the BG is superb. I think that you did very well using a gaussian blur of only 2 pixels because it helps a lot to smooth the BG withot having a noticeably and unnatural impact on the image. Terrific pose, low angle, head turn and eye contact. BTW I like a lot the detail of th esmall shell near the feet and the blue cast produced by the water on the top of the rock, very sweet. Glad to hear that you are enjoying the new toy

[Simon Bennett]

Excellent pose, light and detail. Artie, I think the bird looks somehow detached from the noise reduced/blurred background. Perhaps a dedicated noise reduction add-on like Neat Image would do a better job of dealing with any noise/grain - I use it all the time with my 40D images.

[Glenn Bartley]

Really nice Artie. I love taht deep blue BG!

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Terrific. Lovely BG. The blue colour looks nice. Looks very sharp. Exposure is perfect, as always. I was hoping that the noise would be better than the Mark III despite the size of pixels.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[bill kominsky]

Absolutely stunning Maestro and waiting for my 50-D to do the same, wonderful image and superb quality. Artie please tell me a good starting point for the P/S noise reduction.

Bill

[Arthur Morris]

Absolutely stunning Maestro and waiting for my 50-D to do the same, wonderful image and superb quality. Artie please tell me a good starting point for the P/S noise reduction. Bill

Thank you sir. In cases where I can easily select the BKGR, I usually use the Magic Wand followed by Refine Edge at the defaults and then put that on its own layer. Alternatively, I will paint a Quick Mask when faced with a complex BKGR. (I will soon be sharing info on an absolutely amazing selection plug-in that can accurately select feathers and fuzz...)

Once I have the selected area on its own layer (Control J), I start with Axel's oft-recommended settings for Filter/Noise/Reduce Noise:

Strength: 5-10 depending on the noise
Preserve details: 45%
Reduce Color Noise: 45%
Sharpen Details: 0%
Remove JPEG Artifact

At times I use higher settings for Perserve Details and Reduce Color Noise and have even experimented with higher settings for Sharpen Details. When you do experiment I would recommend working at 600 or 700% maginifaction.

The final piece to my NR puzzle is to run a 1-2 pixel Gaussian Blur on the layer, again working at 600 - 700%

I am going to copy this to Educational Resources and ask some questions. And I will see if I can add some NR images at 600%...

[Arthur Morris]

If you have read this far and have an interest in learning more about NR and what others are doing, check this out: http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...341#post167341

[Grady Weed]

Nice image Art. Very nice.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

I love the deep blue BG!
Nice details and composition too!

[Fabs Forns]

What strikes the most is the beautiful colors, Maestro.

[Nagesh Mula]

Hi Arthur, I too like the light on the bird and sharpness very much as well as the smooth background.
But one of the things which I'm noticing is the region containing the contour of the beak, top of head, and the upper part of neck. If I see these regions alone its giving me a feeling of 2D (as if someone has pasted the picture on a background). I dont know whether thats how the picture should be as I'm still in the learning stage. Please throw some light ;-).

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Arthur, I too like the light on the bird and sharpness very much as well as the smooth background. But one of the things which I'm noticing is the region containing the contour of the beak, top of head, and the upper part of neck. If I see these regions alone its giving me a feeling of 2D (as if someone has pasted the picture on a background). I dont know whether thats how the picture should be as I'm still in the learning stage. Please throw some light ;-).

As I said above, the 50D images are so, so sharp that at times they do look like cut outs. I am thinking that I will need to lower the generic sharpening settings in my 800 JPEG action...