Least Terns - Flight and Nesting Images

[Canon_Bob]

Here are a few from Saturday. the Least Terns are nesting on a local beach now. These are a VERY tough bird to photograph do to the very bright whites and very dark blacks. Add that to the fact that they are fairly small, and very fast....and you've got to bring your "A" game with you on these guys. Everything here is in manual mode.

One other VERY important point with the Least Tern (and most Tern and Plover species) is that you have to be very conscious of their behavior while in the nesting area. If they don't sit on the nests, the eggs die. It's that simple. They are very aggressive nest defenders, so you have to make sure they go right back to the nests after they attack you. If they don't, you're too close and you need to back off. I can usually creep in fairly close without disturbing them. It's usually when I get up to move to another location that they come after me, but they always go right back to the nests. I make it a point NOT to share critical nesting locations like this with other photographers unless they come there with me so I can teach them proper concern for the birds while in the nesting area. Other than exceptions like this, I'm usually fairly open about my locations.







Sitting on the eggs - Notice the speckled egg under the parent.

[AgingEyes]

Hey, may be they should learn from the killdeers

Like the third one; color and details are wonderful ! The crown area looks a bit blown though.

[Canon_Bob]

Hey, may be they should learn from the killdeers

Like the third one; color and details are wonderful ! The crown area looks a bit blown though.

The crown is definitely a bit warm on both three and five. They are not blown, though. What I do is a technique called "exposing to the right". I push the whites as far into the right side of the histogram as I can without getting "flashies". This allows you to bring out the details in the blacks without adding noise. You will usually have to adjust the exposure on the RAW, however, down just a bit. What I usually do is just selectively adjust the whites, without moving the blacks. I just didn't do it on these. I'm actually not that pleased with this lot myself, as I had a camera setting wrong on my 50D (the camera used for the BIF images), and my ratio of good-to-bad was not up to my normal standards. I will try them again this coming weekend and see if I can get some better BIF images.

[SARtech]

Nice!
Question.... How the heck do you manually focus for BIF's? (especially fast birds)
I just can't do it.

Kristine

[Canon_Bob]

Nice!
Question.... How the heck do you manually focus for BIF's? (especially fast birds)
I just can't do it.

Kristine

LOL - I don't even think Loupe could keep up with these guys! Only the exposure is manual. The images were autofocused. Sorry for the confusion.

[SARtech]

Oh, ok...whewwww. I was like, there is NO WAY! LOL

Another question if you don't mind... Do you think one reason I can't get excellent quality images would be because I don't have a fixed lense? All I have is my 70-300.

[Canon_Bob]

Oh, ok...whewwww. I was like, there is NO WAY! LOL

Another question if you don't mind... Do you think one reason I can't get excellent quality images would be because I don't have a fixed lense? All I have is my 70-300.

Honestly, I doubt it. I take excellent images all the time (even BIF images) with my 100-400 and my 70-200. It's usually a matter of technique. Tell you what....I'll team up with Loupey, and see if we can't put together a nice "BIF" technique thread that covers the best practices for the best images.

[SARtech]

That would be AWESOME! Could you include which auto focus mode to use? Centering spot or auto with all of the focusing dot thingies? I try both and with the latter I get more of the shots in focus.
Thanks! You guys ROCK.

Kristine

[AgingEyes]

The crown is definitely a bit warm on both three and five. They are not blown, though. What I do is a technique called "exposing to the right". I push the whites as far into the right side of the histogram as I can without getting "flashies". This allows you to bring out the details in the blacks without adding noise. You will usually have to adjust the exposure on the RAW, however, down just a bit. What I usually do is just selectively adjust the whites, without moving the blacks. I just didn't do it on these...

Perhaps. Perhaps also we have different ideas of what "blow highlight" is. Using the third photo as an example, as is, the RGB values of the crown area, especially the area above the left eye of the tern, read higher than 251. My impression is, if printed, this area will show no details. That's my understanding of blown highlights. However, it seems to me that at least some details are there, and, perhaps, it's a matter of personal preference of how many you want them to show in the final image or print. In situation like that, my preference is to tune it down to around 245 by reducing the exposure and adjusting the recovery in Camera Raw, in order to make the details a bit more obvious.

Of course, it very well be just my personal taste though.

Still, it is a great image. I especially like your rendition of the underwing details. It's like the wings are glowing. The blue sky definitely adds to it, too.

[Canon_Bob]

Perhaps. Perhaps also we have different ideas of what "blow highlight" is. Using the third photo as an example, as is, the RGB values of the crown area, especially the area above the left eye of the tern, read higher than 251. My impression is, if printed, this area will show no details. That's my understanding of blown highlights. However, it seems to me that at least some details are there, and, perhaps, it's a matter of personal preference of how many you want them to show in the final image or print. In situation like that, my preference is to tune it down to around 245 by reducing the exposure and adjusting the recovery in Camera Raw, in order to make the details a bit more obvious.

Of course, it very well be just my personal taste though.

Still, it is a great image. I especially like your rendition of the underwing details. It's like the wings are glowing. The blue sky definitely adds to it, too.

Here ya go. All I did was select the crown, do a quick exposure layer adjust, and pull it down just a bit (I only had to come down about .17). That's fairly common when you push the histogram right like I do. I find doing a selective exposure layer adjustment on just the whites is preferable to trying to adjust the entire RAW file. That usually just winds up removing detail from the blacks.

You don't insert any noise when you push right, and then back off the whites. If, however to expose to the whites, and then try and push the blacks later, you definitely have much more noise to contend with. Definitely the worst of 2 evils in my book.

As long as you push the historam over to the right, but don't hit the wall or see any "flashies"....you're fine. You have details in the whites and you just have to do a quick layer and adjust them down a bit. I didn't bother with these because I'm frankly not that happy with them. I had my IS mode and focusing limiter set wrong on 2 lenses, and consequently lost all the best BIF images due to my own oversight.

Another thing about these guys is that they are not only very black and very white....but they are also very reflective! Fun to photograph, though, because of the challenge.

[AgingEyes]

Here ya go. All I did was select the crown, do a quick exposure layer adjust, and pull it down just a bit (I only had to come down about .17). [snip] I find doing a selective exposure layer adjustment on just the whites is preferable to trying to adjust the entire RAW file. ..

That's what I do, too.

Thanks for the repost, Bob !

[paulnj]

That last one hovering is awesome Bob!