“How do you get your images so sharp?” Sharpness is one of the first quests photographers and wildlife photographers in particular seek in their photography. There’s a very important reason why, it’s the 2nd thing our mind subconsciously grabs onto in a photograph in finding the subject. Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to have my own version of a mini-series here on the blog as I explore aspects of capturing a sharp images. These lessons will all be based on camera craft where sharpness has to be exact from the moment you go click. The 1st in the series is just basic settings.

We’re amazingly fortunate these days that we have camera’s with brains! Seriously. Personally, I strive to remove every “camera based” element when I’m shooting so I’m concentrating on just one thing and one thing only, the subject. The Nikon AF system fits my simple mind to a T (I can’t walk and chew gum at the same time). The new AF system in the D3 has become a good friend, permitting me to not really think about AF operation. Along with the M/A function of the AFS lenses, I’m able to make better photos, faster and as sharp because I’m concentrating on the subject.

There is no guarantee you’ll have the exact results from these setting that I have, but you can see what I use viewing this video and then this video. What variables change? The biggest being experience behind the camera. Familiarity with the camera makes a huge difference. The only way I know of remedying this is time behind the camera. Every day, whether I’m shooting or sitting here at the computer, the camera is in my hand so it remains familiar. The camera has to be your best friend, I’m a firm believer of that.  This shot is an sample of that, this is a hand heldshot of a Roseatte Spoonbill taken and it’s coming in for the night at the rookery. I hope this helps all those who emailed in recently asking this question. There’s more to come, this is just the start on this topic.

Photo captured by D3, 600VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

]]> http://www.moosenewsblog.com/2009/01/sharpness-series-1/feed/ http://www.moosenewsblog.com/2009/01/how-do-you-expose-for-snow/ http://www.moosenewsblog.com/2009/01/how-do-you-expose-for-snow/#comments Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:00:27 +0000 Moose http://www.moosenewsblog.com/?p=3551

A great question of late from readers has been, “How do you (as in Moose) expose for snow?” Of course living in snow, I have a number of off the cuff answers, but I’ll move past those and get to the heart of the question as I look at it. What color is snow? Unless a Moose or dog has passed by, it’s white, right? I honestly don’t think there are few viewers of your photography who wouldn’t recognize the white stuff on the ground as snow. If that is true, then seeing detail in every crystal of the snow is not mission critical to tell the viewer the white stuff they are looking at is indeed, snow. With that assumption in place, why would one automatically dial in +1 exposure comp just because you’re shooting in snow? That is the common wisdom and common thread in the emails that are coming in. Exposure is YOUR greatest tool to express the feeling, mood and life in your photograph. Just because you see something white, don’t automatically do anything.

We have two photos here, both of snow. The feel of both is totally different. The top photo has a bluish-gray cast, the bottom photo the snow is your basic snow white. The top image makes me feel cold, that’s why I underexposed it in camera and did not remove the color cast in post. The bottom image, I exposed normally (no comp) and did remove the color cast in post. The key to both images is the RANGE of light in the entire scene  and not the fact there is snow in the scene. I exposed for the subject and not the white stuff. Like with most of my photography, I try to keep the light range within 3 stops. When that’s the case, then I just have to click, the D3’s meter will do the rest. When it’s outside that 3-5 stop range, well then you have to resort to something like this to deal with the greater range of light. Look at the light between the photos in that post and this. Can YOU see the difference in the light falling on the scene? It is exacerbated by the snow, but not determined in whole by the presence of snow.

SO how does Moose expose for snow? Just like any other scene, it depends on the subject, the light on the subject, the light on the rest of the stage and then the story I want to tell within the confines of my viewfinder. Exposure is way too powerful a tool to just dial in some value of exposure compensation. The world doesn’t need another technically perfect photograph. The world needs another photograph with passion to move the viewer!

Photos captured by D3, 200-400VR / 14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

Goobers, an official computer technical name, can occur on your CF Card. When they do, you receive the infamous CHA error message on your camera. Not to panic, there are two easy fixes, both assure you your images will be safe in the end.

The best option, the one I’ve used since day one of my digital shooting is PhotoRescue. This program just rocks and is loaded on everyone of my computers! I don’t know how many times for example at DLWS I use PhotoRescue to rescue someone’s card. It’s a no-brainer program to use and it does just as it says, it rescues your images. They just released their latest versions, you can find them here for only $29. $29, that’s nothing compared to loosing an image, what are you waiting for?

The other option which I’ve done since 1998 and the Coolpix 900 is own Lexar Cards. I’m always surprised by how many folks don’t realize that Lexar stands behind their cards (here’s it is in writing). The card has a problem, send it back to Lexar and they will not only replace the card, they rescue all the images on the card you return and send them to you on a CD. This is all included in the price of the card (Pro & Platinum Series)!

Why do cards have a problem? The most common cause is the cards are not properly formatted after EVERY upload.  That simple step an save you from having any problems. It’s that goober thing.

A number of folks have emailed in asking for a list of my favorite places to shoot. To be quite honest with you, my favorite places if I made them public, probably wouldn’t remain my favortie places for long. There are some public places though that I really enjoy visiting and I wrote about one in the current issue of Outdoor Photographer, the  St Augustine Aligator Farm (introduced to me by my then assistant Laurie). This is a really cool place where you can see literally first hand, up close and often too personal (hope you like white wash) an active rookery. The article has the info you need to work this great place.

What’s not covered is depth is how images like this were created. Would you believe that in the background behind this nest is a tangled world of branches, moss and a building? Why can’t you see all of that? You sure could with your eyes but the camera couldn’t. Why? The photo was all lit with flash and it is one of the rare instances when I set the camera to Manual Exposure mode, 1/250, f/11 to control the background so none of that “stuff” in the background would literally not see the light of day. Exposure is a great tool for controlling background, especially when flash is being used. The range of light from the white Great Egrets to the shadows was a minimum of 6 stops, add flash and raise the shutter speed and basically all you’re going to see is what the flash will light. Since I was at f/11, the light from the flash falls off so quickly, what you see above is all you’re going to see. In photographic terms, the flash was the key light, the ambient light was the fill.

Biologically, nothing really much going on. One of the parents is preening, waiting for the other parent to comeback with food, as are the chicks. The chicks crack me up at this age, the are so comical, so alien looking and so loud. And, take this as a warning, seem to know where the photographer is standing when it comes time to spray.

Photo captured by D2H, 200-400VR, SB-800 on Lexar digital film

Wildlife photography is so full of challenges, it’s amazing we live through it. But we do and as we keep pushing forward the rewards come to our photography. Nearly all of us start out with lenses with less umph than we’d like, especially when you compare them to someone established like me who loves the long glass. We started to talk about solutions to this dilemma in the roadrunner Moose Cam where we used basic biology to get close physically. Shooting with a 300mm lens at 8 feet yields the same basic image size as shot with a 600mm lens (camera body doesn’t matter) at 16feet (just compare my photo with Jake’s to see what I mean). While you can get the same image size by getting closer, your challenge of background control becomes bigger the shorter the lens you use.

Here’s a perfect example, a female Spruce Grouse photographed up in Alaska. We were out cruising for big game (my Alaskan cousin actually) and we came across this small group of grouse. They aren’t a very smart bird which is why they hunt them with a bow & arrow, you can walk right up to them. That’s if you go slow and don’t corner them. All I had on at the time was my faithful 200f2VR. Getting close wasn’t the challenge, it was background control. As you can see in this photo, we were in a spruce forest with light falling in places not making for nice photography.

This particular hen stopped where you see her. I slowly walked around a tree and got to where I previsulized the background I wanted. I then, and this you can only do with really stupid subjects, lowered myself to the ground (yes, my butt was sticking up in the air). With only 200mm, I had to put myself as close as possible and position the lens so I controlled the foreground and background the best that I could. I was about 9feet away when I took this snap. It can be done with short lenses and it’s a great teacher for cleaning up backgrounds but to be honest with you, I prefer the ease of shooting with the 600VR.

Make it your weekend challenge, to shoot something physically small with a short lens and yet make it big in the frame. It’s a great lesson for improving your photography.

Photo captured by D3, 200VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

Oh, the curiosity for doing what one called “natural” HDR is pretty dang high, lots of emails have come in asking questions on my technique. Like I mentioned before, you want the “recipe” how I do it, you’ll have to venture to Photoshop World. A guy’s got to make a living. The most common question has been how do you know if you want to do a 3, 5 or 7 frame bracket set for your HDR. I hope this helps answer that question.

Yes, I turned the P6000 vertically, I can’t learn if I don’t try new things. I knew I wanted a vertical image and wanted to see if I could show that with the video. Another work in progress to add to my growing list.

Ever since the first snow, I’ve been working with the extreme light that falls on the snow trying to capture photographically the feeling I get standing there in its presence. I’m not 100% happy with the results but I’m a whole lot closer than a few weeks ago when I started. I gotta be ready for Yellowstone in a couple of weeks, I know exactly where I need to use the technique there from my failures last year.

Photos captured by D3, 14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

Moose Cam captured by P6000 on Lexar UDMA digital film

While shooting on Saturday with Jake and Jeff, we had the perfect opportunity to answer a very common question asked in response to this post. “Please tell us how to take big pictures with short lenses.” I more than understand that the price of the 600VR puts it out of range for many, it did for me for the first four years of my career. My 400f5.6 EDIF taught me many an important lesson those early years, the biggest one was to learn basic biology and use it to get close physically.

We had a Greater Roadrunner on a killer perch out in not so great light. No matter, it made for a great shoot because of what the roadrunner is doing. It’s not just sunning itself, it has flared its feathers on its back so the sun can kill the feather lice. The roadrunner wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere unless we gave it one. Knowing this basic biology permitted the three of us to make some cool images using big and small glass. See if this Moose Cam helps you make the most of your small glass (if it does, share it with your friends!).

All of us at WRP wish everyone a great Happy New Year!

Photo captured by D3, 600VR on Lexar UDMA digital film

Moose Cam by HF10 on Lexar UDMA digital film.

We were incredibly lucky to experience this past summer an adventure long in the making. It was so special, so amazing, we have dedicated an entire  issue of the BT Journal to it, just one piece running its entire 28pgs, The Greatest Grizzly Bear Viewing in the World! Wanta small taste, you can read a very small portion of it here. It will go in the mail shortly, we don’t think you’re going to want to miss it.

RC and I finally got our calendars to match, the next YCDIT will be 16-19 April, 2009 held at our office in Mammoth Lakes, CA. Just what happens at YCDIT? We take pictures, we talk about the business of photography revolving around the editorial marketplace (where it all begins) and how to exploit the web in your business plan. To quote one of our last participants,

“Thank you very much for opening up your office and home to us. As with all you do, you provided more information than I ever thought could be presented in just four days, my head is still spinning. The ideas and approaches you use in your business are so obvious, once you spelled them out to us. No wonder you’ve been so successful! And that RC, his presentation on blogging and using it as a business tool was simply mind blowing! I now see why’s he’s part of the team. Thanks so much!”

If you’re wondering about what it takes to get into the biz, you’re about to get into the biz or you’re already in it and want to know how to expand during these times, there is no other photographic business workshop like this one. The price is $925 and is limited to six participants.

We were blessed with a gorgeous Sunday morning so we headed out early to another favorite locale. Jeff wanted to do a water & ice type photo and there is no better place for this than Lee Vining Canyon (4 wheel drive required in winter). After breaking trail through the snow we reached the falls and they were beautiful. On the down side, there was full sun breaking through the canopy here and there. That called for a little extra camera and computer craft. Well, here….

Photo captured by D3, 14-24AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film

Moose Cam captured by P6000 on Lexar UDMA digital film