A Solitary Sandhill Crane in Flight at the Bernardo Wildlife Area

[Jim Keener]

No crop.

I've received several suggestions recently from accomplished avian photographers to get closer to the bird(s). So I went to the Bernardo Wildlife Area (about 50 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico) to practice getting closer optically. The area is flat and without cover. If I were to advance by ten steps, the birds would withdraw by 11.375.

The setup:
1DX
500mm f/4
2X TC
Tripod/gimbal head

I experienced problems with the setup that you likely envision, plus one that is pretty much mine. The narrower viewing angle, of course, made it much more difficult to get a bird in the viewfinder. And the single point focusing limitation makes acquiring focus noticeably slower and losing focus somewhat more likely. And just for me, every time I've used the 2X TC, I forget its limit of single point focusing. And frantically try to find a way to expand it. Then I slap my forehead and get on with hit.

This is not my favorite from the day's shoot. But it is my favorite of those I didn't want to crop.

• Canon EOS-1D X
• EF500mm f/4L IS USM +2x III
• ƒ/8
• 1000mm
• 1/2000s
• ISO 640
• James Keener rs
• Flash not fired
• Fri, 29 January 2016 2:35 AM
• Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.4 (Macintosh)

ORIGINAL

• Canon EOS-1D X
• EF500mm f/4L IS USM +2x III
• ƒ/8
• 1000mm
• 1/2000s
• ISO 640
• James Keener rs
• Flash not fired
• Fri, 29 January 2016 2:35 AM
• Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.4 (Macintosh)

1/2000, f/8, ISO 640
Single point autofocus, AI Servo
Evaluative metering, +1 stop

LR: Highlights and Blacks to the left; Shadows and Whites to the right. Added Clarity. Up saturation red. I found that the sky had a fair amount of green and aqua. Desaturated those.
PS: Added layer, selected the bird, inverted selection, and filled with a dark blue. Lessened opacity. Smart sharpened.

I concentrated on getting closer, and I got closer. Am eager to get others' eyes and responses. Thanks.

 

[Glennie Passier]

Wow Jim! Getting closer has paid off IMO! This is great. I would say your best yet...even though the crane is missing a leg.

I can really appreciate how difficult it is to get close to any bird. Your persistence has paid off here. The bird is in perfect composition. I love the upward wing beat and you've done well with the background although by looking at your original, maybe there were some very light clouds giving a soft variation in colour? Maybe just my eyes.

Love this Jim.

 

[Jim Keener]

Of course, Glennie, I thought of you when I saw that the leg was missing!

I did an overlay of the BG because I didn't like the bilious color of the sky in the original. I had some difficulty with it. And although I lowered the opacity of the top layer, it did diminish the variations that I liked in the original.

 

[Eric Dienesch]

Hello,
for me you ve done a very good job.
good position of the wings, the head ist sharp and the eyes are faszinating.
a good in flight picture from this great bird. for sure a few clouds could be nice..
but this is wildlife, not an requested concert, we would say in germany :c3:

 

[Jess M. McKenzie]

Jim, it's a stunning image, IMHO. We used to watch (not hunt) those birds on the Central Flyway. Clouds of them fly over central OK. We watched them at Creamer's Field in Fairbanks. Too bad the Whooping Cranes don't fly through your part of the world -- you wouldn't need to get so close...;-)
Thanks for reminding us about layering on a better sky.

 

[Diane Miller]

OK! Much better to fill the frame! Lovely pose, nice underwing light.

I would first deal with funky sky colors with Temp and Tint, to the best extent possible. (But first have a look at the more restrained camera profiles.)

Doing BIF with the 500 + 2X, even with the 1DX is tricky for AF. Hope you are on burst mode. You my see one that is sharper than others, but of course the sharpest ones will have the worst wing positions. (Murphy's 378th Corollary.)

It looks a bit soft here, but wonder if that is happening in posting. (Is the raw file sharp at 100%? And does the catchlight show any elongation that would indicate there is some camera shake or panning issue?) I'm never sure at what speed of movement to use panning mode on the IS vs. regular.

Are you posting directly from your computer, or through some hosting service? How are you resizing to post?

At any rate, this is huge progress -- you have to pay extra for miracles up front, but you are well on the way to earning them!

 

[Jim Keener]

I would first deal with funky sky colors with Temp and Tint, to the best extent possible. (But first have a look at the more restrained camera profiles.)

I did work with Temp and Tint and ended up with a blue so ugly it ought to be banned. But. [Slaps head, an oft-repeated step these days.] It did not occur to me to work with camera profiles. I'm eager to do that for the RP.

Doing BIF with the 500 + 2X, even with the 1DX is tricky for AF. Hope you are on burst mode. You my see one that is sharper than others, but of course the sharpest ones will have the worst wing positions. (Murphy's 378th Corollary.)

I was on burst mode, and there are some sharp images. But . . .

It looks a bit soft here, but wonder if that is happening in posting. (Is the raw file sharp at 100%? And does the catchlight show any elongation that would indicate there is some camera shake or panning issue?) I'm never sure at what speed of movement to use panning mode on the IS vs. regular.

I went back to 300% and now know the difference between sharp and tack sharp! Even in raw. And! Way cool. The catchlight is elongated. I'm so very glad to learn that. I think this is a good place to ask. I left IS on, even though the camera/lens were mounted on a tripod and gimbal. What is your experience? On the V1 IS 500mm f/4, there are two choices for IS.

Are you posting directly from your computer, or through some hosting service? How are you resizing to post?

I post through the Comcast server and am resizing with the LR export dialog box.

Thanks, Diane. This puts me further along the road. Any more suggestions before I work on the RP?

 

[Jim Keener]

Elongated catchlight:

 

[Diane Miller]

The catchlight shows why the image is soft. The pan speed wasn't enough or you just had random camera shake at that frame. That much will give you softening like this. (I know that from learning the hard way, so don't feel bad.) Panning with that much focal length is very difficult. You have to be exact in following the motion. Some people say it's better to handhold -- that you can follow more accurately. I think that's something you would need to find for yourself. For me and this sort of bird action (and that much focal length), I would favor the gimbal and just settle for birds whose flight path I could frame well -- i.e. close to horizontal. And practice and pray.

I've always left IS on for BIF, and have tried both modes without seeing much difference. But theoretically, Mode 2 should be used. The advice to turn it off for on a tripod is for very slow SSs -- maybe 0.5 sec or more. If there isn't camera motion it will cause a swimming effect as it searches for something to lock onto. Proof: go for longest focal length and focus on a crescent moon and go to Live View and watch the image on the LCD screen -- it will look like a reflection in ever-so-slightly disturbed water. But that's occurring at a very low rate and wouldn't be a factor at BIF SSs. I'd try Mode 2 and see how you do. It will need a statistical study of a lot of data, of course.

Not sure how best to deal with the sky color problem but looks like you did OK.

Comcast is only a pipeline, so it isn't changing the image. Things like Facebook are said to cause problems with IQ from resizing.

 

[Jack Dean III]

Great shot Jim.

 

[Bob Smith]

I typed a comment on this some days ago but somehow it doesn't to have made it into the line-up. It's an excellent image you've captured Jim--a real keeper for sure. The back area of the wings appear to be a bit OOF but that's no surprise given the wing span of these birds. I'll bet it was moving at a pretty good clip, although big birds like this can appear deceptively slow, so you did well to get on it a stay with it. I think you nailed the exposure too , getting both the brights and the blackish wingtips. Where on the bird did you have your single autofocus point?<script type="text/javascript" src="safari-extension://com.ebay.safari.myebaymanager-QYHMMGCMJR/69faf8ae/background/helpers/prefilterHelper.js"></script>

 

[Jim Keener]

Where on the bird did you have your single autofocus point?<script type="text/javascript" src="safari-extension://com.ebay.safari.myebaymanager-QYHMMGCMJR/69faf8ae/background/helpers/prefilterHelper.js"></script>

Thanks, Bob. Good question. With this lens/camera/tc combination, I'm limited to a single point. Some say that there are four expansion points if that is set, and I do set it, but don't see the effect of the expansion. And at 1000mm, keeping the bird in the viewfinder is an achievement for this unpracticed photographer. So. To give you an answer. Center mass. In this case, it's not too bad, as the leading edge of the near shoulder and the bird's eye are almost on the same plane.

 

[Jim Keener]

And practice and pray.

I've been thinking about this since reading your initial comments. I awaken thinking about it! Not that I obsess . . . Anyway. Your solution is what I keep coming back to. One of the things that is happening, and I doubt you would be surprised, is that I am accepting less and less of what I had accepted before. A good part of my time in LR now is deleting old photographs. There were some beautiful photographs I made on the same visit as the one above. But the quality isn't there. It reminded me of what Steve wrote about basics. I went back and looked at these beautiful photographs, and they were almost all out of focus. Not as bad as this one, but still enough that they aren't at an (now) acceptable level.

 

[Diane Miller]

Be pleased -- you are making great progress! This isn't an easy hobby.

My first pass inspecting a new import is at 100% (1:1 in LR), on the most important part of the image. If one doesn't quite pass muster, a glance at the whole image in the Navigator box might convince me to keep it for round 2 if it looks somehow spectacular.

And I do put more stock in practice than prayer, but a little luck never hurts... :w3

 

[Jess M. McKenzie]

Jim, please don't throw away any images -- even those with (slight) imperfections -- that could have value to birders.
Maybe you could start a special folder for those. This Sandhill, i think, is too valuable to toss. If you don't wish to be known for it, just remove your signature.

 

[Jim Keener]

Thanks, Jess. I hadn't considered that.

Diane, I will be getting more practice. The loaner 800mm from Canon came in this morning, and I'm going to Bernardo this afternoon to play with it. And to show that there's still some boy left in this 72 year old man, I'm going to attach a 2X TC and the 7D II for an effective focal length of 2560mm. I should get some atmospherics then! Of course I'll have to focus in live view. But I will have time both on this visit and others to gain some more experience at very long focal lengths. I am very grateful for your help and encouragement. Have you ordered your 1DX II yet?

 

[Bob Smith]

Thanks, Bob. Good question. With this lens/camera/tc combination, I'm limited to a single point. Some say that there are four expansion points if that is set, and I do set it, but don't see the effect of the expansion. And at 1000mm, keeping the bird in the viewfinder is an achievement for this unpracticed photographer. So. To give you an answer. Center mass. In this case, it's not too bad, as the leading edge of the near shoulder and the bird's eye are almost on the same plane.

That makes sense Jim. Keeping a single point on the eye of the bird would be a bit of Annie Oakley-certainly for this old guy anyway.
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[Diane Miller]

Hope you'll also try the 800 without the TCs -- you'll really be pushing the limits of camera shake and atmospheric effects with that much magnification. Try "silent shutter" (it may or may not help) and a remote release, with a wait in live view for any mirror slap to die down.

I put in a pre-order for the 1DX II as soon as I saw the announcement! If I had the 1DX I would probably wait for results on noise and dynamic range. It will surely be an improvement, but how much? But with the 5D3 and 7D2, I'm confident it will be a big improvement.

 

[Jim Keener]

Hey, Diane. Yes, I plan all those things. And. I just thought: "Add the 1.4X to the mix." This is for fun. And my guess is that I won't be the first to try it. But I'll put in some serious practice as well.

The big things for the 1DX II for me are the 61 focus points at f/8, 175 images without shutter stutter, and a more powerful battery. That big 1DX battery slams the long lenses into focus, and my thinking is that bigger is better. Besides. New gear!