Photographing House Wrens and A Quick Primer on Light

April 28, 2016Wrensnmckown

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Photographing House Wrens

The skies were overcast when the first male House Wren arrived to our yard. He has been dashing from tree to bush, in full view, heartily singing his bubbly rhapsody. Apparently no female has arrived yet because he has not commenced his nesting ritual of building multiple starter homes from which the female will choose.

A Quick Primer on Viewing Light

Since it is often counterproductive to try to enhance and manage natural light with extra light equipment, bird photographers have to be more observant about how light plays on their subjects, and act accordingly. Knowing how to observe light involves understanding the following terminology:

“Highlights” are the brightest part of the photo. They indicate where the light source is the closest and most unobstructed.
“Shadows” are those blocked areas that receive little or no direct light. If shadows are lit, it is from scattered, diffused light reflecting off the highlights.
“Mid tones” often make up the majority of the light and are those tonal areas between the highlights and shadows.

Bright sun creates much more contrast between the lighter and darker parts of your image, and thus makes it much easier to identify the highlights, shadows and mid tones. Diffused light softens the contrasts across the whole image, making for a more even and balanced look.

NOTE: This tonal information is mapped on the camera’s histogram. The shadow areas are on the left side; highlights are on the right, and mid tones are represented in the middle. The histograms for both of these photos show a rich range of mid tones heavily weighted in the center of the graph, with very little activity on the right or left side.

Photo of House Wren — House Wren with the signature Perky Tail.
ISO1600; f/71; 1/640 Second

Pay Attention to the Light

Shadows help bring out dimensionality, texture and perspective. Highlights (from the dominant light source) throw excess, diffused light into recessed shadow areas, uncovering detail. If the light is overly bright on the subject, the edges of the highlights and shadows become sharply defined, creating harsh, unattractive contrast.

Light creates mood, purpose, drama – and thus draws visual interest. Bird photographers pay attention to the intensity and directionality of light, and evaluate how the sun scatters light and cast the highlights, shadows and mid tones. They watch how the light interacts with the shape and size of the subject to determine where to position the camera.

NOTE: On a cloudless day, the sun’s position (orientation and distance) in the sky determines the location, size, shape and length of the shadows.

Softening the Effects of Harsh Light

It’s almost impossible to adequately soften harsh shadows after the image is shot. That said, there are tools you can use to mitigate the effects of glaring, contrasty light.

The Shadow/Highlight Sliders in Post Processing

You can balance the light on your images by using the highlights and shadows sliders in Lightroom. NOTE: It is common to use a heavy hand and overuse the shadow slider; over brightening the shadows and reducing tonal richness. In addition, the more you push that shadow slider, the more likelihood of noise in the shadow areas.

Canon’s Camera-Auto Lighting Optimization – ALO

Auto Lighting Optimization (ALO) is in-camera processing that automatically softens contrasts and restores highlight and shadow detail immediately after the shot is taken. You can choose from 4 settings…”Standard”, “Low”, “Strong” and “Off”.

Ultimately, I prefer to handle the shadow recovery myself in post processing. I leave ALO “Off” for the following reasons:

Camera processing time slows as the camera writes the ALO optimization data to the memory card.
ALO will have an impact on other camera exposure adjustment functions that are engaged, like exposure compensation, flash compensation, automatic exposure bracketing, and others.
ALO will be automatically disabled if Highlight Tone Priority or High Dynamic Range functions are turned On.
ALO settings are reflected in the shape and position of the histogram as well as the highlight alert warnings (Blinkies) in the camera’s preview LCD screen. I like to review this data unencumbered with ALO effects.

The Photographer’s Greatest Challenge

In bird photography, rarely are there assistants available to manage heavy spotlights intended to project light onto your subjects, or scrims to block harsh sunlight, or reflectors to throw back light and fill the shadows. These light enhancing strategies (and the assistants) would most likely backfire and scare away the birds.

Placement of the different types of light affects every feature of your image and is the photographer’s greatest challenge. It pays to be watchful of the light.

To read more about House Wrens and Bird Personalities, press this link.

To read more about histograms and dynamic range, press this link.

Photographing Cattle Egrets – Details in White

April 21, 2016Egretsnmckown

Photographing Cattle Egrets

Cattle Egrets are tropical herons. These images were taken in March, 2016 in Hawaii on the garden island of Kauai where they are found on every golf course, roadside and back yard.

The Cattle Egret is one of the few herons that typically hunts for insects and invertebrates in open grassy areas, fields and marshes, especially where humans keep domesticated grazing livestock. They are often seen following anything big enough to stir up insects, like cattle and farm equipment. Somehow, they still manage to look elegant, even when following a tractor or riding atop a cud chewing cow.

Photo of Cattle Egret — Cattle Egret in Summer Plumage.
ISO320; f/9; 1/1000 second

Proper Exposure of White Subjects

It was early morning and the foraging Cattle Egrets were cautiously keeping their distance from the camera. Just as well. The light meter was reporting a fairly balanced exposure from where I was standing.

When photographing white birds, I try to set exposure to bring out texture and detail in the plumage. During this shoot, the histogram showed lots of dark and light variation because of the wispy golden spring plumage (on the bird’s head, breast, and back), yellow legs, black feet and lots of vibrant green grass. There were no light pixels creeping up the right side of the histogram, indicating that details data in the birds’ feathers would be preserved. (NOTE: Keep those blinkies turned on.)

Canon’s Evaluative Mode

For this shoot, light meter was set to Evaluative Mode and due to the advantageous mix of light and color, exposure was spot on. It is true that modern day in-camera light meters are designed to work best when there’s “normal” and “average” light, but Canon’s Evaluative Mode has been engineered to be smarter than that. It does a fabulous job compensating for extremes in brightness (light and dark) because algorithms built into this metering mode selectively compare and evaluate the scene and give more weight to the active auto focus points. Spot metering would have allow me to take a meter reading right off the bird, but given so much diversity in the scene, it was not necessary.

With photo shoots like this, I rarely have to use exposure compensation (EV) options available to me unless backlighting is an issue, the white bird fills the frame, or a blanket of snow covers the scene.

Nailing Exposure of White Birds

I usually complain about being too far away from the wild birds I photograph. This is one of those times when benefited from NOT getting close to the subject.

The photos shown here are of white birds, but photographing them was not much of a challenge because there was plenty of color and light variety from which to measure accurate exposure. The REAL exposure challenge will come when I am lucky enough to be able to fill my viewfinder frame with a beautiful white feathered bird.

Photographing House Finches Eating Spring Flowers and Noticing Lens Flare

April 14, 2016Finchesnmckown

Photographing House Finches

House Finches are primarily herbivores consuming nutritious foods wherever and whenever they can. It was rather easy to find and photograph House Finches in San Diego engaged in some serious pruning; tearing the base off of flowers and consuming the soft buds, blossoms and nectar from blooming bushes.

Female House Finch — House Finch – Female – Eating A Flower.
Lens flare and Some Reflective Glare potmark the background.
ISO1000; f/6.3; 1/800 Second

Lens Flare Everywhere

Take a good look at the photos of the House Finches above and below. In the first image, the background foliage is potmarked with small polygon shaped, bright white ghost images and some glare. At first I thought that those white spots were a consequence of how the light played in the shadows on the leafy background. Looking closer, it is easy to see that these bright white points of light are indeed lens flare combined with leaf glare.

The second photo below is a less cluttered image because an olive colored wall takes up the majority of the background, but you can still see tiny lens flare orbs in the leafy foliage of the plant.

Photo of Male House Finch — House Finch, Male, Eating Flower Buds.
Lens Flare in barely evident in the
in the Leafy Foliage below the Finch.
ISO1000; f/6.3; 1/800 Second

Sun Flare Sneaking Into the Lens

Lens flare is no more than stray light (usually unintentional and undesirable) sneaking in and bouncing around the inside of a camera lens and leaving on your images an assortment of light specters shaped like the diaphragm of the lens. Lens Flare is almost always a consequence of backlighting coming from within or outside the frame.

These photos were taken with my 300mm L 2.8 IS II lens pointed at the birds, but also toward the sunlight. Despite the multi-coated technology on the lens, the use of an attached lens hood, and my hand blocking extraneous light from coming into the viewfinder cup, the sun’s position and the light’s angle must have been just right to enter the lens (and ultimately reach the sensor) and blast the images with little orbs.

You can see in the second photo that as I repositioned myself and altered the angle of the lens, the intensity of the lens flare became much more subdued. The backlighting at this angle also helped create a soft glow around the bird’s head.

AutoFocus Challenge

Chaotic backlighting can trick the auto focus system, causing the lens to act erratically and incorrectly lock focus. For both of these photos, the backlighting causing the lens flare did not impact auto focus- in part because spot autofocus was set and the camera was able to securely and correctly lock down focus on the bird’s body.

Not Necessarily Operator Error

Flare and glare happen all the time and often goes unnoticed. In this particular shoot, lens flare was widespread within all of my images.

In bird photography, I find lens flare and glare to be unattractive and distracting- an operator error which can be remedied. But it’s a personal preference. Some photographers find it desirable and creatively insert lens flare into their images….either in the field or afterwards in post-processing.

See this post for photos of Eastern Bluebirds subsisting on plant materials during the Michigan winter.

Photographing a Blackpoll Warbler and Thoughts About Monocular Vision

April 7, 2016Warblersnmckown

Warbler Lover

It’s no secret to people who read this blog that my favorite birds to photograph are warblers. These birds present an exhilarating challenge to find and photograph, especially in the spring when their breeding plumage is resplendent and they have reason to display and sing.

The 38+ species of wood warblers who breed in Eastern North America display a wide variety of color and melodic embellishments; and peculiar names. Though a certain warbler species may be difficult to precisely ID without being fairly close (and for me, accompanied by a confirmation photo) the behaviors marking them as warblers are quite consistent. Tiny, (avg 5″ and less than 10 grams) jittery, purposeful, arboreal birds with broad ranging migratory habits, warblers skitter about on the ground or in dense brush and rarely pose on the perfect photo perch.

Photo of Blackpoll Warbler — Blackpoll Warbler
ISO1600; f/4; 1/500 Second

Monocular Vision

When I placed my dominant right eye up to the viewfinder eye cup to photograph this Blackpoll Warbler, my left eye automatically shut, effectively blocking out any other birds that may have been outside the center of my one-eyed gaze.

The most obvious reason my left eye closes is that binocular vision only works when both eyes are working together. It is too disorienting when one eye is looking through a long lens showing a limited field of vision and the other is looking without magnification at a much wider field of view.

So, I keep my left eye closed when photographing birds and have honed my skills at transitioning quickly between binocular vision (with overlapping fields of view) to the one-eyed magnified view I see through the viewfinder.

Through-the-Lens Bird Relocation

It is not uncommon for me to spend many frustrating moments trying to re-find a fast moving warbler that I saw with two eyes, but lost once I peered through the lens. I must direct the lens and quickly re-locate that spot while looking through the much narrower field of view of the lens, all in a highly charged instant. If the warbler is bouncing in and out of the viewfinder, and then gets lost in densely packed undergrowth, there is no choice but to lift my head again until I catch sight of it and am able to redirect the lens.

NOTE: With time and lots of practice, my through-the-lens warbler re-location skills have improved.

Blackpoll Warblers

This female (or immature male) Blackpoll Warbler is a new one for me. She is not as distinctive as the male Blackpoll, with his black cap and white cheeks, but lovely none-the-less. As is often the case, I saw only the less colorful bird in my yard. The females or immatures look very similar to the BayBreasted Warblers. I was lucky enough to see them last Fall as well.

This Blackpoll Warbler stayed less than 5 minutes, looked around at all the commotion the other birds were making, and then decided not to play.

Photographing a Anna’s Hummer Bathing – Lightroom’s “Auto” White Balance

March 31, 2016Hummingbirdsnmckown

Photographing An Anna’s Hummer Bathing

It was early in the morning in San Diego with the sun (my only illuminate) rising fast in the sky. We came upon a small house decorated with a bubbling stone bird bath pushed up close to a creamy stucco wall. A dozen or so palm fronds leaned against the wall, their green and brown shoots mingling with the creamy wall and creating distracting shadows on my background. Two bathing Anna’s Hummingbirds darted in and out of the gushing water. My presence did not disrupt their activities, so I positioned myself so the sun was slightly to my left. White balance on my camera was set to “Cloudy” (as usual), to bring out the warm tones that I prefer.

Photo of Anna's Hummingbird — Anna’s Hummingbird in
Early Morning Light.
ISO2000; f/7.1; 1/1600 Second

“As Shot” White Balance Setting In Lightroom

In post processing, I try not so much to accurately reproduce the color temperature, but to create a pleasing balance between warm and cool tones. The first image (above) illustrates how the camera interpreted the “Cloudy” white balance setting. (NOTE: To bring out the detail, I had to heavily adjust the highlights and shadows sliders in Lightroom.)

I generally like the golden tones I get from the “Cloudy” setting, but the color cast in these photos looked very unnatural to me-a gaudy and unpleasant yellow.

In Lightroom, I corrected these brassy colors by changing the “As Shot” white balance setting to “Auto”. As you can see in the second image below, “Auto” rather drastically neutralized the color temperature to a cooler and, to my eye, a more natural and pleasing tone.

NOTE: Sadly, no matter what white balance color hue I chose, the bird’s chin and breast area closely matched its stone perch, making the subject rather indistinct from its surroundings.

Color Tint and Temperature

White Balance allows you to choose how the camera sees the color temperature. (Almost all cameras have an “auto” white balance setting, allowing the camera to guess at the color of light appropriate for the scene.) The “goal” of setting the white balance is to customize color tint and temperature to get an image with a specific color tone. It can be warm, neutral or cool; as true-to-life or as unorthodox as you want it. White balance settings allow you to paint with the hue of light you prefer and cast the mood appropriate to the image.

Trust Your Creative Judgment

Assuming you shoot in RAW and are photographing birds using only sun light (not a mix of natural and artificial light) Lightroom’s AUTO white balance setting generates reliably good results. If you want to experiment further, Lightroom and most other post processing software offer the resources to fine tune from a wide variance of color temperature and tints, no matter how white balance was set on the camera.

When reviewing your bird photographs, take the time to become more discerning about how temperature and tint of light affect your images. Most of all, trust your creative judgment.

Photographing Black Phoebes Close to Sunset

March 24, 2016Phoebesnmckown

Photographing Black Phoebes

Most mornings, I’m up early enough to greet the dawn. It’s not always sunny, but I still get excited thinking about photographic prospects that may come with the glorious morning light.

One recent morning in sunny San Diego, I woke to a cloudy gray morning with no promise of favorable light for bird photography. I decided to scout around for possible locations that might offer the likelihood of engaging sun-set lit images.

Photo of Black Phoebe — Sunset Lit Black Phoebe
Plumage is More Brown than Black.
ISO1600; f/8; 1/1250 Second

Dawn v Dusk

At dawn, soft luminosity rapidly intensifies into a day long burst. The light seems cleaner, clearer with warm colors embellished by the mist in the air. Moving from darkness into light, my eyes do not struggle to adapt. But sunset feels entirely different. Vision rapidly declines as light fades quickly to murky gray. My impaired vision struggles to discern birdish contours in the diminishing light. Once the sun dips below the horizon, there is only enough light for silhouettes.

Sunset Lit Black Phoebes

Bird photography is always a waiting game, but it has been my experience that birds are more actively foraging during the early morning hours. On this particular evening, a few aerobatic Black Phoebes swooped up, down and around, catching flying insects while airborne. They momentarily rested on lower tree limbs, quickly pounced on unsuspecting ground quarry, then reclaimed their perches to swallow and prepare for the next strike.

I stood with my tripod fairly close to the activity, approximately 8 feet away. (Minimum focusing distance for the Canon 300mm f/2.8L II IS Lens = 78.7″) Long shadows extended in front of the camera…. so much so that I had to move the equipment further back so my shadow did not obstruct light on the subject in front of me.

Wildlife Activity Down

When I searched out possible sunset shooting locations that morning, I saw a lot of potential in way of light and bird activity. I did not however, factor in the influence people have on the behavior of wildlife. Ordinarily, very few people are around to disturb the early morning calmness. Thirty minutes before sunset when I set up my camera and tripod, people were everywhere.

I should have known. Birds were scarce because people generated road and foot traffic was up. Most of the human transients ignored me and continued with their activities and conversations, but some stopped to stare, walked over to investigate the area where the camera was pointing, or just walked by in front of the camera.

Sunset Success

It didn’t take long before the sun’s angle was low enough to flood the Black Phoebe straight on with soft and flattering light (except for a few branch shadows on the tail feathers). The creamy brown bokeh is the result of light intermingling with densely packed wooded tree trunks. Thankfully, there was a good 12 feet between my subject and his background. This distance helped achieve a seamless blur despite using a fairly tight aperture – f/8 – on my Canon 300mm 2.8 L IS lens with 1.4 telephoto attached. I think this rich background contrasts nicely with the subject and helps bring out the detail in the bird’s plumage.

NOTE: “BOKEH = noun, a Japanese term for the subjective aesthetic quality of out-of-focus areas of a photographic image.” No matter how visually appealing, Bokeh is wasted on an image that doesn’t have an interesting subject and composition.

Photographing Japanese White Eyes and Taking Off the Telephoto Extender

March 17, 2016Japanese White-Eyenmckown

Bonus Reach Needed?

I often pair my 300mm and 500mm lenses with either a Canon EF 1.4X III or 2.0X III telephoto extender…both of which were designed specifically for Canon’s newest telephoto lenses. Birds are small and seemingly always out of reach..and even though I consider myself to be a stealthy stalker of birds, I regularly assume that I will need that bonus reach; that extra level of magnification when I’m out in the field.

Photo of Japanese White-eye — Japanese White-eye
The Clarity (note the relatively low ISO)
and the Background Make this Photograph
Look like an Audubon Print.
ISO 400; f/6.3; 1/640 Second

Remove the Tele-Extender

So, despite the fact that I can state unequivocally that I have achieved pro quality results on images I simply would never have captured without the extra reach of an extender, I decided (just this once) to remove the 1.4x extender on my relatively fast Canon 2.8L 300mm IS II prime telephoto lens.

I have to admit that I thought about this long and hard…felt a little trepidation thinking that some wondrous bird would come out of nowhere and perch just a little too far away from the 300mm’s reach. But I did it anyway… purposely took off the telephoto extender just to remind myself why I bought a 300mm L II lens. I distinctly remember that I did NOT buy this highly rated, fast, tack sharp, expensive and reliable prime lens to put an extender on it.

Found a Bird Close Enough

It took me awhile, but I finally came upon a couple pairs of small, quick Japanese White-eyes willing to pose close to the camera. (We visited the island of Kauai in early March, 2016. Japanese White-eyes are one of the most common birds in Hawaii.) The lens’s ultra-sonic auto-focus motor felt adept and nimble as I tracked the birds. It locked focus almost immediately on the fast moving Japanese White-eyes.

Overall, I am very happy with the quality of these images, especially the image above where I was able to maintain a relatively low ISO. Giving up the bonus reach during this photo shoot was definitely worth it.

Photograph of Japanese White-Eye — Japanese White-Eye
ISO1600; f/6.3; 1/500 Second

Disadvantages of Telephoto Extenders

To work well, a telephoto extender must be compatible; designed to physically and electronically interface with specific lenses. The main reason photographers buy telephoto extenders is so they don’t have to purchase and haul around a larger prime telephoto lenses. Attaching a telephoto extender is very convenient, but there are disadvantages:

Probably the most significant drawback: Image quality is impacted. Whenever you disrupt the path between a lens and the DSLR by inserting additional “glass”, you sacrifice quality in contrast and sharpness. Images look softer. Questions a bird photographer must ask: How much clarity is sacrificed? and…Does it matter?
Attaching an extender will reduce the maximum aperture on the lens, and consequently decrease the lens’s potential to bring in light. NOTE: This is not usually a problem because with long lenses and bird photography, sufficient depth of field requires that you tighten up the aperture, not open it.
You make the lens longer when you attach a telephoto extender, and consequently, you magnify camera shake. Increasing the shutter speed may help stabilize the lens, but in low light bird photography, that is not often an option.
Autofocus is slower and less accurate with a telephoto extender attached, especially when your bird is positioned in low light or with insufficient contrasting background.

No Matter How Long the Lens

I complain a lot about not having enough reach to get the shots I want. The truth is that in most circumstances, no lens is long enough in bird photography. The perfect bird shot would be, more often than not, out of reach, even if I bought a Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6 L USM lens.

That’s OK. I still plan to get out there with the bird lenses and telephoto extenders that I have and do my best.

Photographing A Black-Crowned Night Heron and Experimenting with “Live View”

March 10, 2016Heronsnmckown

Photographing a Black-Crowned Night Heron

I observed this Black-Crowned Night Heron, squat and thick, stalking huge Koi fish swimming in an outdoor pond. I had been photographing people at a San Diego bayside resort and consequently had my wide angle zoom (Canon 17-40mm f/4.0L) lens attached to the 7D Mark II DSLR camera.

The heron seemed comfortable using the resort’s tropical water features as his own exclusive aquatic habitat. I did not see any fish in the pond that were smaller than the heron–(most were at least 18″ long – approximately 3-4 lbs). Still, he held himself motionless, his red eyes intent on tracking his prey.

Lacking Visual Harmony

The heron seemed oblivious to my presence. I had only my Canon wide angle zoom lens, so I quietly crept toward him as close as I could. The late morning sunlight was overhead and haphazardly filtered by palm trees.

All of the 30+ photos that I took of the heron were disappointing. Insufficient contrasting colors and unattractive shadows made the heron appear to blend with his background rather than be the primary focus of the photo. Overall, the images were visually confusing and unappealing. (See below.)

Photo of Night Heron — Night Heron Intent on Action Beneath the water
ISO250; f/5; 1/400 Second

The Night Heron was clearly accustomed to humans milling about and was not about to be distracted by me. Despite the poor light, I decided to take advantage of the bird’s close proximity and experiment with a feature I don’t often use: Live View Mode.

Looking Through the Viewfinder

Most photographers know the basics of how a DSLR camera works: 1) Light travels through the lens; 2) The reflection hits a tilted mirror; 3) The light bounces upward through a prism and; 4) The reflected image appears when you look through your viewfinder. When you press the shutter, the mirror flips up, shutting off light to the viewfinder. The sensor records the image and saves it to a disk.

Live View Mode

In Live View mode, instead of using that larger LCD screen to review images after you snap the shutter, you use it to preview streaming images before you take them. Consequently, there is no need to compose your shot by lifting the camera to your eye and peering through the small view finder atop the camera. NOTE: Every modern point-and-shoot mirrorless LCD digital phone camera operates this way.

When operating in Live View Mode, the camera and lens are not lightning fast. Light captured by the lens reaches the sensor and then is continuously streamed back to the LCD screen. You are operating “mirror less” because the mirror automatically locks in the up position and blocks the optical viewfinder. When you are ready, you can capture a copy of the real-time streaming image to your memory card by pressing the shutter. (The quality and resolution of the camera’s LCD screen definitely impact what you see.)

Advantages and Disadvantages of Live View Mode

Advantages and disadvantages of Live View Mode include:

Live View is very convenient when you can not easily place your eye to look through the viewfinder eye cup. (For instance, when you must point the camera upward to capture a bird perched in a tree top canopy.)
Live View is not convenient if you rely on the adjustable diopter in the viewfinder to sharpen your poor eyesight.
In Live View, you can readily observe (in real time) how your exposure settings, white balance, ISO, depth of field, etc will impact your image before you take the photo.
Since the optical viewfinder is blocked by the raised mirror, stray light can not influence the light meter by entering through that tiny portal. No chance of polygonal shape lens flare on your images.
Live View makes it easy to keep both eyes open while you shoot….(as opposed to closing one eye when looking through the optical viewfinder). You miss less action this way.
The Live View function offers multiple focusing options in its menu, one of which detects human faces.
Most DSLR’s allow you to superimpose a histogram onto the live view image.
Focusing is slower (the image sensor does the focusing instead of a separate, speedier auto focus sensor) but you can autofocus on any part of the frame, even the edges.
If you want the camera to focus quicker, you can select the “AF Quick” option, which allows you to use the camera’s faster and more precise auto focus sensor. (AF Quick momentarily shifts the camera out of mirror less mode by lowering the mirror and blanking out the LCD screen.)
You are able magnify or zoom the video stream to check focus and depth of field.
Time and tripod are essential for Live View shooting.
Since the mirror is raised, there’s no mirror slapping. This minimizes the chance of camera movement.

Out of My Comfort Zone

I’m usually eager to experiment with DSLR functions that are new to me, but Live View Mode took me out of my comfort zone. Lifting the camera’s eye cup to my eye is second nature to me and I’m use to an instantaneous responses (focus and shutter) after I frame my shots through the view finder. Live View was sluggish as it hunted for focus. It felt like I was missing too many shots and those that I did record were not tack sharp.

One shocking eye opener: Live View gave me a real time streaming lesson on how very wobbly a camera on a tripod can be when you are tracking and focusing on an moving bird.

I’m done with Live View mode for bird photography. Next time I am asked to photograph larger, more cooperative subjects (like humans), I will give LIVE VIEW mode another shot.

Photographing Brown Pelicans in the Early Morning Light

March 3, 2016Pelicansnmckown

Pre-Dawn Setup

Not yet pre-dawn…. setting up in the dark. I don’t really know where to stand for best light, so I follow the birds. Ready (I think) and waiting. It’s very quiet. Friends are with me, along with a scattering of other bird photographers scurrying about to place themselves and their equipment in position…. rising sun to their backs. This transitional time when the intense blue darkness gives way to golden light makes me feel warm and relaxed. The motion and rhythm of the water and the wind on my face have a calming effect. Dark transitioning into light happens quickly – so best not to get lost in the moment.

Pelican photo — Pelican Resting in Pre Dawn Glow
Minutes Before Sunrise.
ISO2000; f/6; 1/640 Second

That Space Between Pre Dawn and Light

The space between when the sun’s first glimmer of light emerges and when the luminous glow of full sun rests on the horizon line seems very brief. I quickly and nervously keep changing my position. In my mind’s eye I see a composition of wild grasses in the foreground-and a lone Pelican just beyond. I keep looking back over my shoulder to check the fast changing horizon-worrying that the best light has already passed.

Histogram Corroboration

It’s a good morning! A quick check at the back of the camera shows a wide range of dark and light variation on my images spread evenly within the bounds of the histogram. No blinkies!

Photo of Pelican — Pelican basking in the early morning luminous light of sunrise.
ISO1600; f/6.3; 1/640 Second.

Light Transitioning

Once the images are transferred into my computer, I can track the light transitioning from predawn softness to golden sunrise. The camera recorded lots of glimmering warm tones, lush color and soft shadows. Texture and three-dimensionality make the birds sparkle. I leave the images a little underexposed because I think that helps bring out the drama of the moment.

Balancing Light

The white balance setting on the camera tells the sensor how to see various types of light and interpret exposure. I usually set my white balance to “Cloudy” because: 1) I prefer to accentuate the warmer tones of the colors and intensities rather than let the camera’s sensor neutralized the color and; 2) I always shoot in RAW, so I can easily change the white balance in post processing if I don’t like how it looks.

Color Can Be a Distraction in Post Processing

When making shadow and highlight adjustments in post processing, lots of image color can be distracting. If I temporarily switch from color to black and white, I can concentrate on the overall look and better gauge how much highlight and shadow adjustment is needed.

In order to accentuate the warm colors for both of these photos, I moved the Highlights slider to -100% and the Shadows slider to between +26%-+57%. (NOTE: See bottom of this post to view the raw images as they were before I made adjustments in Lightroom.)

Photo of Brown Pelican — Pelican looking Back at the Camera.
ISO640; f/8; 1/640 Second.

Final Positioning of Camera

I moved my camera and tripod around quite a lot before the break of dawn. For these photos, I positioned myself so I was shooting downward at dozens of Pelicans promenading on the nearby rocks. My goals were to use the rich color of the fast moving ocean currents as my background and also to mostly avoid the unsightly look of white stain on the barren rocks. Overall, I am pleased with the images; definitely worth the time and effort I put into getting them.

Images Before Post Processing Adjustments:

For Beverly, Image #1 Before Post Processing — For Beverly, Image #1 – Pre- Dawn Glow…. Before Post Processing

Photographing Meadowlarks and Thoughts About Too Bright Light

February 25, 2016Meadowlarknmckown

The Quality of Light

I get so excited when a new bird ventures near my camera….to the point where the intensity and directionality of light is forgotten. Afterwards when I look at the images, I wonder why I bothered.

These sub par, late morning photographs of Eastern and Western Meadowlarks serve as a good reminder lesson about the indispensability of complementary light in bird photography.

Eastern Meadowlark in Bright, Overhead Sunlight.
Post Processing Did Little to Minimize the Harsh Shadows.

Light Falling Full Blast

I’ve learned over and over again that when the light is unfiltered and high in the sky, it’s a terrible time to photograph birds. Light falling full blast from overhead results in images with too much contrast, deep and harsh shadows, and blown out color. Post processing magic will do very little to fix these problems.

What Can Be Done?

Here are a few strategies I have used to help minimize the effects of the harsh overhead sun.

1) Light is Transitory

Unlike photographers of people, bird photographers can not simply move birds inside or into the shade where the light is softer and more even. The best solution may be to simply wait until the sun is no longer directly overhead. Bad light is as transitory as good light. While you wait (assuming the bird stays within range of your camera and lens) try to get yourself into a position where the angle of the sun falling on the subject is less harsh.

2) Bring Your Own White Reflector

I use to pack a big round 43″ collapsable white reflector with my equipment to either diffuse the sun and thus soften the impact of the light or try to bounce more light back on the subject to fill in some of those deep shadows. I rarely used it because it was practically impossible to set it up in a quick and stealthy manner, even when I had help. It does work well when there’s time to position it toward what you know to be a popular bird perching platform.

3) Drop-in Filters for Canon Telephoto Lenses

You can’t purchase filters large enough to put on the end of Canon’s big telephoto lenses. Most of Canon’s longer telephoto lenses come equipped (close to the base of the lens) with a drop-in gel filter holder with a clear glass filter installed. You can buy different kinds of Canon drop-in filter holders–for instance, a circular polarizer drop-in with an external control rotation wheel or a drop-in that accepts 52mm screw in filters (like varying degrees of neutral density filters).

These filters tame the light reaching the sensor and thus change the way your lens sees and measures light. It is then easier to manage your exposure parameters. Be sure to read about how different types of photographic filters impact color, glare and reflections before you buy them. Different manufacturers sell varying degrees (densities) of diffusion filters so you can control your filtering based on lighting conditions. The stronger diffusers can make the image look hazy or dreamy. NOTE: Some photographers will not use filters because they believe that inserting them between your subject and camera’s sensor will degrade image quality.

Western Meadowlark, Perched on an Unattractive Chain-link Fence in Heavy Wind and Bright, Overhead Light. I’m Photographing from Below to Help Minimize the Flat Look.
ISO500; f/8; 1/2500 Second

Eastern and Western Meadowlarks

The Eastern Meadowlarks are common in SW Michigan but the Western Meadowlarks are rather hard to find. Both nest in Michigan. The two species look very similar and are most reliably identified by their distinct songs. I had the help of a local birding expert who, after listening to this bird, confirmed that the second photo is indeed a Western Meadowlark. Hopefully, this summer I will have another opportunity to photograph Meadowlarks – this time in more complementary light.