13 June 2010
Food
17/06/10 22:08 Filed in: Bugs
This photo teaches a great lesson. Great equipment helps you get good photos, but in order to get the photos you must get out and take the pictures. This photo is the first picture I took with my new macro lens two years ago. I took this photo with in minutes of receiving the new lens. So get out and take lots of pictures.
Thanks for visiting.
~wr~
When Size Matters
16/06/10 17:47
Here is another edition from Dave of DCStep. Dave has some incredible photos. His descriptions on how he took them are detailed and very educational. I think you will enjoy this post as much as I did. After reading this post, please take the time and look at the many wonderful images that Dave has collected.
~wr~
When Size Matters
I thought it’d be interesting to compare two very similar images taken with two of Canon’s very sharpest and most popular lenses for bird photography, the EF 400mm f/5.6L and the EF 500mm f/4L IS.
The subject in each image is a Western Meadowlark, known most for its strong and beautiful song that can be heard throughout the Rocky Mountain region and many other parts of the USA. Its back is a complex brown, but its breast, throat and part of its face are a rich, photogenic yellow that really shows off well in morning and evening light. They also look like they’ve got a little black bib on their upper chests. Particularly endearing is the gusto used in the delivery of its song, as it rears back and belts out a melody that can be heard for couple of hundred yards.
One “trick” used in both of these images is taking full advantage of the Canon 7D’s high shutter burst rate of 8-frames per second. Back in the old dark ages of film I might have waited and tried to time my shot to happen at the peak of his song delivery. Now, with glorious digital where multiple images are almost free, I simply press the shutter when he starts his song and hold it down until he finishes. I use a 32-gigabite Compact Flash (“CF”) card in my camera and carry an 8-gigabite “spare” so that I never worry too much about running out of space for another shot. Remember, once you’ve invested in the equipment, digital shots are almost free. Shots are not “wasted” if you take twenty and only use one because the unused nineteen allowed you to get that one “special” shot.
Another couple of techniques that both images have in common are using my “car blind” and hand holding the camera/lenses while resting the lens on my arm which is resting on the car window. You can approach many animals much more closely in your car than you can on foot. Their comfort zone seems to at least double when you’re inside a vehicle. I took advantage of this by slowly cruising Colorado’s Cherry Creek State Park in my car, with the windows down while listening for meadowlarks, spotting them and driving my car as close as practical.
When outside my car, I typically use a sturdy tripod and gimbal head for shooting birds, but in the car I find it very effective to rest the camera on my forearm which is resting on the windowsill of the car. I scrunch down a little and get a good view through the viewfinder. Lenses that are 400mm and longer are really hard to hold still, even when the lens has Image Stabilization (“IS”). My 500mm lens has IS, but the 400mm lens does not. Many people use beanbags on the car window sill and a few actually mount a gimbal head on their car window.
The first image shown below was taken with my EF 400mm f/5.6L lens on my Canon 7D body around 4 p.m. using Aperture Priority at f/5.6 (wide open for this lens), ISO 800, +1EV (to account for slightly soft light), resulting in 1/3200-second shutter speed. I could have used ISO 400 and still had plenty of shutter speed, but the light was changing fast and I didn’t want to under expose.
The resulting image is the most “Interesting” on my Flickr site, as determined by Flickr’s formula that considers the number of views, number of comments and number of viewers that mark the image as a Favorite. Note the background bokeh, the bird’s tongue showing, the nice perch and, of course, the singing pose, which are all positive elements.
This next image was taken with my EF 500mm f/4L IS with the EF 1.4x Extender attached, also on my 7D. As usual, I used Aperture Priority, set at f/8, ISO 800 and -1/3EV due to bright sun, resulting in 1/2500 second shutter speed (I’m always ready in case a bird flies). Using hindsight, I would have had plenty of shutter speed at ISO 400.
The Flickr members also like this image and it’s quickly moved up in my “Interestingness Set”. Some of the elements that people like are the pretty bird with rich colors, nice background bokeh, pleasing perch and the classic meadowlark singing pose. Comparing the two poses, I prefer the second slightly because the head is turned toward me where in the first his profile is slightly away from the camera, but that negative is offset somewhat by his tongue showing. There is no highlight in the eye of the second shot, which is a small negative, which I could fix in Photoshop by cloning a pixel or three from a light area into the eye.
In both cases I had about twenty images of the same bird and chose the strongest pose for posting. I often arrive at a photo opportunity and take some “safe” pictures of a bird that’s sitting with its back to me, or somehow posing in a less than ideal position. Often, if I keep waiting and keep taking shots, the bird will finally move to a better pose. This may involve waiting and watching for fifteen to thirty-minutes and sometimes more. On Memorial Day, I spent two-hours and took close to 1,000 images of a group of American white pelicans in their cooperative hunting behavior, trying to get them all lined up, with the right light, simultaneously going through their motions. I got some nice stuff, but never got the image that I had in mind.
The range on both images was in the 60 to 80-feet distance. With the 500mm lens and the 1.4x extender, I did very little cropping of the RAW image, but with the 400mm lens I had to crop ten times as much. The first image’s compressed jpeg file is 734KB while the second image’s compressed jpeg is 7.8MB!
Comparing them at this size (95KB for the first image and 86KB for the second) you can see that the second image is a little sharper and shows a little stronger contrast, but that’s only evident when you try hard. Small, internet image sizes are a great equalizer. Flickr viewers seem to like these two images equally well, so the compromise in quality seems small, even though I had to crop the image taken with the 400mm lens ten-times more severely than I had to with the 500mm and the 1.4x extender.
Differences become more apparent as you compare the images in larger sizes. This link takes you to the first image (taken with the 400mm lens) at its “Original” size.
This link shows you the second image at its “Large” size.
No sharp eye or magnifying loop is required to see that the second image is much clearer, more detailed and shows better contrast. Still, if you’re never going to look at large sized image files, then it may not matter to you and spending six-times as much to go from a 400mm to a 500mm lens may seem like a total waste of money. Many people, maybe most, never look at image files larger than those shown in the body of this blog.
I don’t tend to make large prints of my images and mount them on the wall, but if I did, the 500mm images are the more likely ones that I’d chose to print. One thing that I do regularly is view my images on a 47” HDTV at 1080 resolution. At that size, even from a normal viewing distance, it’s easy to see the differences between the two lenses. If you don’t already view your images on your HDTV, I highly recommend that you try it.
Oh, I just realized, some of you may be asking, “Why not put the 1.4x extender on the 400mm lens?” I would, but the f/5.6 maximum aperture is too slow for the autofocus to work on my 7D. I’ve tried it and it’s just too slow for anything moving. The 7D and most modern digital dslr cameras are not designed for manual focus, although you can change the image screen in the viewfinder if you want to attempt manual focus.
The focal length of the 500mm is 25% longer than the 400mm and the aperture is only a stop larger, but the lens is around four-times as large and cost six-times as much. You can reduce bulk, weight and cost by either shortening the focal length or slowing the aperture speed, but one or the other has to give. The Canon’s 500mm is more of a “no compromise” lens.
The 500mm lens’ f/4 aperture is fast enough that the 1.4x extender does not slow its autofocus function appreciably, so I leave it on almost all the time. I take it off when I plan to shoot birds in flight because it’s too hard to accurately track a fast bird when the 1.4x extender is installed. That’s a human failing, not an equipment failing. As I practice more and more, I hope that I’ll be able to track ducks and other fast birds with the extender installed, but my skill level hasn’t reached that high yet.
I took the extender off yesterday to shoot an American Bison allowing more than its head and shoulders in the shot.
So, you see, for taking pictures of small birds, size matters, but it may matter little or none, depending on how you plan to use the images.
Click here for my most “Interesting” images on Flickr.
Dave
~wr~
When Size Matters
I thought it’d be interesting to compare two very similar images taken with two of Canon’s very sharpest and most popular lenses for bird photography, the EF 400mm f/5.6L and the EF 500mm f/4L IS.
The subject in each image is a Western Meadowlark, known most for its strong and beautiful song that can be heard throughout the Rocky Mountain region and many other parts of the USA. Its back is a complex brown, but its breast, throat and part of its face are a rich, photogenic yellow that really shows off well in morning and evening light. They also look like they’ve got a little black bib on their upper chests. Particularly endearing is the gusto used in the delivery of its song, as it rears back and belts out a melody that can be heard for couple of hundred yards.
One “trick” used in both of these images is taking full advantage of the Canon 7D’s high shutter burst rate of 8-frames per second. Back in the old dark ages of film I might have waited and tried to time my shot to happen at the peak of his song delivery. Now, with glorious digital where multiple images are almost free, I simply press the shutter when he starts his song and hold it down until he finishes. I use a 32-gigabite Compact Flash (“CF”) card in my camera and carry an 8-gigabite “spare” so that I never worry too much about running out of space for another shot. Remember, once you’ve invested in the equipment, digital shots are almost free. Shots are not “wasted” if you take twenty and only use one because the unused nineteen allowed you to get that one “special” shot.
Another couple of techniques that both images have in common are using my “car blind” and hand holding the camera/lenses while resting the lens on my arm which is resting on the car window. You can approach many animals much more closely in your car than you can on foot. Their comfort zone seems to at least double when you’re inside a vehicle. I took advantage of this by slowly cruising Colorado’s Cherry Creek State Park in my car, with the windows down while listening for meadowlarks, spotting them and driving my car as close as practical.
When outside my car, I typically use a sturdy tripod and gimbal head for shooting birds, but in the car I find it very effective to rest the camera on my forearm which is resting on the windowsill of the car. I scrunch down a little and get a good view through the viewfinder. Lenses that are 400mm and longer are really hard to hold still, even when the lens has Image Stabilization (“IS”). My 500mm lens has IS, but the 400mm lens does not. Many people use beanbags on the car window sill and a few actually mount a gimbal head on their car window.
The first image shown below was taken with my EF 400mm f/5.6L lens on my Canon 7D body around 4 p.m. using Aperture Priority at f/5.6 (wide open for this lens), ISO 800, +1EV (to account for slightly soft light), resulting in 1/3200-second shutter speed. I could have used ISO 400 and still had plenty of shutter speed, but the light was changing fast and I didn’t want to under expose.
The resulting image is the most “Interesting” on my Flickr site, as determined by Flickr’s formula that considers the number of views, number of comments and number of viewers that mark the image as a Favorite. Note the background bokeh, the bird’s tongue showing, the nice perch and, of course, the singing pose, which are all positive elements.
This next image was taken with my EF 500mm f/4L IS with the EF 1.4x Extender attached, also on my 7D. As usual, I used Aperture Priority, set at f/8, ISO 800 and -1/3EV due to bright sun, resulting in 1/2500 second shutter speed (I’m always ready in case a bird flies). Using hindsight, I would have had plenty of shutter speed at ISO 400.
The Flickr members also like this image and it’s quickly moved up in my “Interestingness Set”. Some of the elements that people like are the pretty bird with rich colors, nice background bokeh, pleasing perch and the classic meadowlark singing pose. Comparing the two poses, I prefer the second slightly because the head is turned toward me where in the first his profile is slightly away from the camera, but that negative is offset somewhat by his tongue showing. There is no highlight in the eye of the second shot, which is a small negative, which I could fix in Photoshop by cloning a pixel or three from a light area into the eye.
In both cases I had about twenty images of the same bird and chose the strongest pose for posting. I often arrive at a photo opportunity and take some “safe” pictures of a bird that’s sitting with its back to me, or somehow posing in a less than ideal position. Often, if I keep waiting and keep taking shots, the bird will finally move to a better pose. This may involve waiting and watching for fifteen to thirty-minutes and sometimes more. On Memorial Day, I spent two-hours and took close to 1,000 images of a group of American white pelicans in their cooperative hunting behavior, trying to get them all lined up, with the right light, simultaneously going through their motions. I got some nice stuff, but never got the image that I had in mind.
The range on both images was in the 60 to 80-feet distance. With the 500mm lens and the 1.4x extender, I did very little cropping of the RAW image, but with the 400mm lens I had to crop ten times as much. The first image’s compressed jpeg file is 734KB while the second image’s compressed jpeg is 7.8MB!
Comparing them at this size (95KB for the first image and 86KB for the second) you can see that the second image is a little sharper and shows a little stronger contrast, but that’s only evident when you try hard. Small, internet image sizes are a great equalizer. Flickr viewers seem to like these two images equally well, so the compromise in quality seems small, even though I had to crop the image taken with the 400mm lens ten-times more severely than I had to with the 500mm and the 1.4x extender.
Differences become more apparent as you compare the images in larger sizes. This link takes you to the first image (taken with the 400mm lens) at its “Original” size.
This link shows you the second image at its “Large” size.
No sharp eye or magnifying loop is required to see that the second image is much clearer, more detailed and shows better contrast. Still, if you’re never going to look at large sized image files, then it may not matter to you and spending six-times as much to go from a 400mm to a 500mm lens may seem like a total waste of money. Many people, maybe most, never look at image files larger than those shown in the body of this blog.
I don’t tend to make large prints of my images and mount them on the wall, but if I did, the 500mm images are the more likely ones that I’d chose to print. One thing that I do regularly is view my images on a 47” HDTV at 1080 resolution. At that size, even from a normal viewing distance, it’s easy to see the differences between the two lenses. If you don’t already view your images on your HDTV, I highly recommend that you try it.
Oh, I just realized, some of you may be asking, “Why not put the 1.4x extender on the 400mm lens?” I would, but the f/5.6 maximum aperture is too slow for the autofocus to work on my 7D. I’ve tried it and it’s just too slow for anything moving. The 7D and most modern digital dslr cameras are not designed for manual focus, although you can change the image screen in the viewfinder if you want to attempt manual focus.
The focal length of the 500mm is 25% longer than the 400mm and the aperture is only a stop larger, but the lens is around four-times as large and cost six-times as much. You can reduce bulk, weight and cost by either shortening the focal length or slowing the aperture speed, but one or the other has to give. The Canon’s 500mm is more of a “no compromise” lens.
The 500mm lens’ f/4 aperture is fast enough that the 1.4x extender does not slow its autofocus function appreciably, so I leave it on almost all the time. I take it off when I plan to shoot birds in flight because it’s too hard to accurately track a fast bird when the 1.4x extender is installed. That’s a human failing, not an equipment failing. As I practice more and more, I hope that I’ll be able to track ducks and other fast birds with the extender installed, but my skill level hasn’t reached that high yet.
I took the extender off yesterday to shoot an American Bison allowing more than its head and shoulders in the shot.
So, you see, for taking pictures of small birds, size matters, but it may matter little or none, depending on how you plan to use the images.
Click here for my most “Interesting” images on Flickr.
Dave
Lewis River
15/06/10 21:20 Filed in: HDR
Two weeks ago when we were in the Teton’s and Yellowstone the weather was rainy and less then ideal. This was one of the brief windows we had of no rain and some sunshine. This was the point at which things started to go against my plans. My sinus headache started and I realized I had left my tripod at home. This area was spectacular. There were small waterfalls everywhere. They were being fed by the three feet of snow still on the ground. For this photo I walked through the snow to the edge and quickly took a photo. This was the last I took during our time in Yellowstone. The sinus headache was too painful.
I processed this HDR from a single exposure and then finished the look with a touch of Topaz Adjust.
Thanks for visiting today.
~wr~
Jenny's Lake
13/06/10 16:36 Filed in: Topaz
This photo was taken at Jenny’s Lake in the Grand Teton’s. This photo was taken by my ten year old daughter using my Nikon D300 with an 18-135 lens attached. I processed this one in much the same way I did the earlier version. I used Lightroom 3 and then finished up by enhancing the details and color with Topaz Adjust 4. The final touch was to reduce the noise.
I like this photo because it shows the rugged life of the rocky mountains.
I like the waves and ever so slight reflection.
I like the color of the water.
I like the mountains on the top and the water being framed by the trees on the bottom.
The specs:
Iso 200
18mm
f/13
1/125 second
Thank you for visiting today.
~WR~