ETTR Processing in Lightroom

Posted on June 25, 2018 by Andrew Astbury

ETTR Processing in Lightroom

When we shoot ETTR (expose to the right) in bright, harsh light, Lightroom can sometimes get the wrong idea and make a real ‘hash’ of rendering the raw file.

Sometimes it can be so bad that the less experienced photographer can get the wrong impression of their raw file exposure – and in some extreme cases they may even ‘bin’ the image thinking it irretrievably over exposed.

I’ve just uploaded a video to my YouTube channel which shows you exactly what I’m talking about:

The image was shot by my client and patron Paul Smith when he visited the Mara back in October last year, and it’s a superb demo image of just how badly Lightroom can demosaic a straight forward +1.6 Ev ETTR shot.

Importing the raw file directly into Lightroom gives us this:

But importing the raw file directly into RawTherapee with no adjustments gives us this:

Just look at the two histogram versions – Lightroom is doing some crazy stuff to the image ‘in the background’ as there are ZERO develop settings applied.

But if you watch the video you’ll see that it’s quite straight forward to regain all that apparent ‘blown detail’.

And here’s the important bit – we do so WITHOUT the use of the shadow or highlight recovery sliders. Anyone who has purchased my sharpening videos HERE knows that those two sliders can VERY EASILY cause undesirable ‘pseudo-sharpening’ halos, and they should only be used with caution.

The way I process this +1.6 stop ETTR exposure inside Lightroom has revealed all the superb mid tone detail and given us a really good image that we could take into Photoshop and improve with some precision localized adjustments.

So don’t let Lightroom control you – you need to control IT!

Thanks for reading and watching.

You can also view this post on the free section of my Patreon pages HERE

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Lumenzia – Enhanced Twilight Colours

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Andrew Astbury

Lumenzia – Enhanced Twilight Sunset Sky and Lighting

Sunset lighting and sky as captured by the camera – image is in need of some enhancement.

Now THAT’S more like it!
Simple enhancement in Photoshop using Lumenzia.

I’m sure you’ll agree that the image looks fantastic after the processing, but if you watch the video below you’ll see that it’s such an easy, quick and simple procedure.

If you are reading this post via email then click HERE to see the video:

Get the LUMENZIA plug-in for Photoshop HERE

The first key to this simple adjustment is the mask from behind which the colour enhancement is made:

The L2 Lumenzia mask, modified slightly with a white brush in the Overlay blend mode.

There are a number of ways that this mask can be created, but all of them are more time-consuming to create then by using the simple Lumenzia interface.

The second key move is to switch the blend mode of the colour overlay layer (then one this mask applies to) to the Hard Light blending mode within the layers panel.

The overall adjustment process is, other than the minimal amount of manual brush ‘tweaking’ of the mask, simply a matter of a few clicks here and there – it couldn’t be simpler really now could it.

If you have not bought the Lumenzia plug-in for Photoshop then get it here

UPDATE: Greg Benz (the plugin author) has launched a comprehensive Lumenzia training course – see my post here for more information.

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Image Sharpness

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Andrew Astbury

Image Sharpness

I spent the other afternoon in the Big Tower at Gigrin, in the very pleasant company company of Mr. Jeffrey “Jeffer-Cakes” Young. Left arm feeling better yet Jeff?

I think I’m fairly safe in saying that once feeding time commenced at 3pm it didn’t take too long before Jeff got a firm understanding of just how damn hard bird flight photography truly is – if you are shooting for true image sharpness at 1:1 resolution.

I’d warned Jeff before-hand that his Canon 5Dmk3 would make his session somewhat more difficult than a 1Dx, due to it’s slightly less tractable autofocus adjustments. But that with his 300mm f2.8 – even with his 1.4x converter mounted, his equipment was easily up to the job at hand.

I on the other hand was back on the Nikon gear – my 200-400 f4; but using a D4S I’d borrowed from Paul Atkins for some real head-to-head testing against the D4 (there’s a barrow load of Astbury venom headed Nikon’s way shortly I can tell you….watch this space as they say).

Amongst the many topics discussed and pondered upon, I was trying to explain to Jeff the fundamental difference between ‘perceived’ and ‘real’ image sharpness.

Gigrin is a good place to find vast armies of ‘photographers’ who have ZERO CLUE that such an argument or difference even exists.

As a ‘teacher’ I can easily tell when I’m sharing hide space with folk like this because they develop quizzical frowns and slightly self-righteous smirks as they eavesdrop on the conversation between my client and I.

“THEY” don’t understand that my client is wanting to achieve the same goal as the one I’m always chasing after; and that that goal is as different from their goal as a fillet of oak-smoked Scottish salmon is from a tin of John West mush.

I suppose I’d better start explaining myself at this juncture; so below are two 800 pixel long edge jpeg files that you typically see posted on a nature photography forum, website or blog:

image sharpness, Andy Astbury, Wildlife in Pixels, Red Kite

IMAGE 1. Red Kite – Nikon D4S+200-400 f4 – CLICK IMAGE to view properly.

Click the images to view them properly.

IMAGE 2. Red Kite – Nikon D4S+200-400 f4 – CLICK IMAGE to view properly.

“THEY” would be equally as pleased with either…..!

Both images look pretty sharp, well exposed and have pretty darn good composition from an editorial point of view too – so we’re all golden aren’t we!

Or are we?

Both images would look equally as good in terms of image sharpness at 1200 pixels on the long edge, and because I’m a smart-arse I could easily print both images to A4 – and they’d still look as good as each other.

But, one of them would also readily print to A3+ and in its digital form would get accepted at almost any stock agency on the planet, but the other one would most emphatically NOT pass muster for either purpose.

That’s because one of them has real, true image sharpness, while the other has none; all it’s image sharpness is perceptual and artificially induced through image processing.

Guessed which is which yet?

IMAGE 1 at 1:1 native resolution – CLICK IMAGE to view properly.

Image 1. has true sharpness because it is IN FOCUS.

IMAGE 2 at 1:1 native resolution – CLICK IMAGE to view properly.

And you don’t need glasses to see that image 2 is simply OUT OF FOCUS.

The next question is; which image is the cropped one – number 2 ?

Wrong…it’s number 1…

Image 1 uncropped is 4928 pixels long edge, and cropped is 3565, in other words a 28% crop, which will yield a 15+ inch print without any trouble whatsoever.

Image 2 is NOT cropped – it has just been SHRUNK to around 16% of its original size in the Lightroom export utility with standard screen output sharpening. So you can make a ‘silk purse from a sows ear’ – and no one would be any the wiser, as long as they never saw anything approaching the full resolution image!

Given that both images were shot at 400mm focal length, it’s obvious that the bird in image 1 (now you know it’s cropped a bit) is FURTHER AWAY than the bird in image 2.

So why is one IN FOCUS and the other not?

The bird in image 1 is ‘crossing’ the frame more than it is ‘closing in’ on the camera.

The bird in image 2 is closer to the camera to begin with, and is getting closer by the millisecond.

These two scenarios impose totally different work-loads on the autofocus system.

The ability of the autofocus system to cope with ANY imposed work-load is totally dependent upon the control parameters you have set in the camera.

The ‘success’ rate of these adjustable autofocus parameter settings is effected by:

Changing spatial relationship between camera and subject during a burst of frames.
Subject-to-camera closing speed
Pre-shot tracking time.
Frame rate.

And a few more things besides…!

The autofocus workloads for images 1 & 2 are poles apart, but the control parameter settings are identical.

The Leucistic Red Kite in the shot below is chugging along at roughly the same speed as its non-leucistic cousin in image 2. It’s also at pretty much the same focus distance:

Image 3. Leucistic Red Kite – same distance, closing speed and focal length as image 2. CLICK IMAGE to view larger version.

So why is image 3 IN FOCUS when, given a similar scenario, image 2 is out of focus?

Because the autofocus control parameters are set differently – that’s why.

FACT: no single combination of autofocus control parameter settings will be your ‘magic bullet’ and give you nothing but sharp images with no ‘duds’ – unless you use a 12mm fish-eye lens that is!

Problems and focus errors INCREASE in frequency in direct proportion to increasing focal length.

They will also increase in frequency THE INSTANT you switch from a prime lens to a zoom lens, especially if the ‘zoom ratio’ exceeds 3:1.

Then we have to consider the accuracy and speed of the cameras autofocus system AND the speed of the lens autofocus motor – and sadly these criteria generally become more favourable with an increased price tag.

So if you’re using a Nikon D800 with an 80-400, or a Canon 70D with a 100-400 then there are going to be more than a few bumps in your road. And if you stick to just one set of autofocus control settings all the time then those bumps are going to turn into mountains – some of which are going to kill you off before you make their summit….metaphorically speaking of course!

And God forbid that you try this image 3 ‘head on close up’ malarkey with a Sigma 50-500 – if you want that level of shot quality then you might just as well stay at home and save yourself the hide fees and petrol money !

Things don’t get any easier if you do spend the ‘big bucks’ either.

Fast glass and a pro body ‘speed machine’ will offer you more control adjustments for sure. But that just means more chances to ‘screw things up’ unless you know EXACTLY how your autofocus system works, exactly what all those different controls actually DO, and you know how to relate those controls to what’s happening in front of you.

Whatever lens and camera body combination any of us use, we have to first of all find, then learn to work within it’s ‘effective envelope of operation’ – and by that I mean the REAL one, which is not necessarily always on a par with what the manufacturer might lead you to believe.

Take my Nikon 200-400 for example. If I used autofocus on a static subject, let alone a moving one, at much past 50 metres using the venerable old D3 body and 400mm focal length, things in the critical image sharpness department became somewhat sketchy to say the least. But put it on a D4 or D4S and I can shoot tack sharp focussing targets at 80 to 100 metres all day long……not that I make a habit of this most meaningless of photographic pastimes.

That discrepancy is due to the old D3 autofocus system lacking the ability to accurately discriminate between precise distances from infinity to much over 50 metres when that particular lens was being used. But swap the lens out for a 400 f2.8 prime and things were far better!

Using the lens on either a D4 or D4S on head-on fast moving/closing subjects such as Mr.Leucistic above, we hit another snag at 400mm – once the subject is less than 20 metres away the autofocus system can’t keep up and the image sharpness effectively drops off the proverbial cliff. But zoom out to 200mm and that ‘cut-off’ distance will reduce to 10 metres or so. Subjects closing at slower speeds can get much closer to the camera before sharp focus begins to fail.

As far as I’m concerned this problem is more to do with the speed of the autofocus motor inside the lens than anything else. Nikon brought out an updated version of this lens a few years back – amongst its ‘star qualities’ was a new nano-coating that stopped the lens from flaring. But does it focus any faster – does it heck! And my version doesn’t suffer from flare either….!

Getting to know your equipment and how it all works is critical if you want your photography to improve in terms of image sharpness.

Shameless Plug Number 1.

I keep mentioning it – my ebook on Canon & Nikon Autofocus with long glass.

Understanding Canon & Nikon Autofocus

for

Bird in Flight Photography

Click Image for details.

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Lumenzia – Not Just for Landscapes

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Andrew Astbury

Luminosity Masking is NOT just for landscape photographs – far from it.

But most folk miss the point of luminosity masking because they think it’s difficult and tedious.

The point, as I always see it, is that luminosity masking allows you to make dramatic but subtle changes and enhancements to your image with what are actually VERY fast and crude “adjustments”.

This in reality means that luminosity masking is FAST – and way faster than trying to do “localised” adjustments. But the creation of the masks and choosing which one to use is what crippled the “ease factor” for most.

But with this new Lumenzia extension is so snappy and quick at showing you the different masks that, if you know what area of the image you want to adjust, the whole process takes SECONDS.

Let’s look at a White-tailed Eagle taken just 15 days ago:

Straight off the 1Dx it looks like this:

RAW unprocessed .CR2 file (CLICK to view in new window)

Inside the Develop Module of Lightroom 5 it looks like:

RAW unprocessed – (CLICK to view in new window)

A few tweaks later and it looks like:

Tweaks are what you can see in the Basics Panel + CamCal set to Neutral, and Chroma Noise removal in the Lens Corrections Panel is turned ON – (CLICK to view in new window)

Sending THIS adjusted image to Photoshop:

(CLICK to view in new window)

All I want to do is give a “lift” to the darker tones in the bird; under the wings, and around the side of head, legs and tail.

Using a BRUSH to do the job is all fine ‘n dandy BUT, you would be creating a localised adjustment that’s all-encompassing from a tonal perspective; all tones that fell under the brush get adjusted by the same amount.

A luminosity mask, or indeed ANY pixel-based mask is exactly what it says it is – a mask full of pixels. And those pixels are DERIVED from the real pixels in your image. But the real beauty is that those pixels will be anywhere from 1% to 100% selected, or not selected at all.

Where they are 100% selected they are BLACK, and any adjustment you make BEHIND that mask will NOT be visible.

Pixels that are NOT selected will be WHITE, and your adjustment will show fully.

But where the pixels are between 1% and 99% selected they will appear as 1% GREY to 99% grey and so will show or hide variation of said adjustment by the same amounts…got it?

The Lumenzia D4 mask looks like it’ll do the job I want:

Lumenzia D4 mask (CLICK to view in new window)

Click the image to view larger – look at the subtle selections under those wings – try making that selection any other way in under 2 seconds – you’ve got no chance!

The “lift” I want to make in those WHITER areas of the mask is best done with a Curves Adjustment layer:

Select “Curve” in the Lumenzia GUI – (CLICK to view in new window)

So hit the Curve button and voilà:

The Lumenzia D4 mask is now applied to Curves Adjustment Layer – (CLICK to view in new window)

You can see in the image above that I’ve made a very rough upwards deflection of the curve to obtain an effective but subtle improvement to those under-wing areas etc. that I was looking to adjust.

The total time frame from opening the image in Photoshop to now is about 20 seconds! Less time than the Lightroom 5 adjustments took…

And to illustrate the power of that Lumenzia D4 Luminosity mask, and the crudity of the adjustment I made, here’s the image WITHOUT THE MASK:

The effect of the luminosity mask is best illustrated by “hiding” it – bloody hell, turn it back on ! – (CLICK to view in new window).

And at full resolution you can see the subtleties of the adjustment on the side of the head:

With Lumenzia (left) and just the Lightroom 5 processing (right) – (CLICK to view in new window).

If you want to get the best from your images AND you don’t want to spend hours trying to do so, then Lumenzia will seriously help you.

Clicking this link HERE to buy Lumenzia doesn’t mean it costs you any more than if you buy it direct from the developer. But it does mean that I get a small remuneration from the developer as a commission which in turn supports my blog. Buying Lumenzia is a total no-brainer so please help support this blog by buying it via these links – many thanks folks.

UPDATE June 2018: Greg Benz (the plugin author) has launched a comprehensive Lumenzia training course – see my post here for more information.

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Canon 1Dx & 200-400 f4 L IS USM

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Andrew Astbury

A Nikon users thoughts on using the Canon 1Dx and the 200-400 f4L IS USM.

The Canon 200-400 f4 L IS USM on the 1Dx – overall a staggeringly good pairing that I’m really going to miss when I have to give it back!

For years now, my “standard” wildlife photography lens has been the only 200-400f4 that was ever available, the Nikon.

An epic lens; sharp, good resolution in terms of line pairs per millimetre, and most importantly a boon to in-camera composition. It makes an excellent job of everything I ever ask it to do, from cute Red Squirrels 2 metres in front of me, to thumping great Norwegian Sea Eagles barreling towards me at thirty miles per hour and 30 metres out.

However; it’s not without it’s little idiosyncrasies, in fact I often describe it as “a pig” of a lens to use. Sharpness at 50 meters is questionable, and beyond 75 metres is pathetic – the bottom of a milk bottle could do better.

And it hates teleconverters as a rule – yes it’s sharp, but the resolution drops through the floor.

But if you wanted the compositional versatility that only a 200-400 can give you, then you had no option but to shoot Nikon.

Until that is, the day Canon did the unthinkable and launched their version of a 200-400 f4. And they gave it an internally switch-able 1.4x teleconverter giving you an effective 200 f4 to 560 f5.6 working range – WOW!

I first got hold of one of these babies about 4 weeks after they became available; a client at a Drummond Street workshop I was doing for Calumet brought it in stuck on the front of a 1Dx. I’d torn the lens from his poor hands before he knew what was happening, and whipped it outside, stuck the 1Dx in AF case 2, auto iso, 10 frames per second, manual exposure at 1/2000th and f6.3 and began rattling off frames of passing traffic – I was astounded by the lenses performance.

Over the following 18 months I had one or two further opportunities to “have a bash” with the 1Dx + 200- 400 combo, and it honestly impressed the “bejesus” out of me every time; so much so that I’ve recommended any Canon user that asked me to just BUY ONE. And buy one they did!

I’d also had access to a raft of CR2 raw files shot with this combo from one or two other photographers “who know what they are doing”; especially from my old pal Steve “Judith Chalmers” Kaluski of Untamed Images.

As many folk know, I run Eagle Photography workshop tours to Norway every now and again, and with a winter workshop in February 2015 coming up I was thinking that 200mm to 560mm would make this lens perfect for Norway.

Seeing as I “sold” half a dozen of these lenses for Canon I reckoned they owed me a favour – big time.

So I had a word in a few ears at Calumet, and Reece Piper kindly sent me a 1Dx on loan. Canon UK were not quite so forthcoming – basically saying they hadn’t the stock availability to lend me one for upwards of a month. But my favourite Geordie Lass June Lown came to the rescue and volunteered her newly acquired 200-400, bought on the recommendation of yours truly, for the testing and trip to Norway.

So the scene was set for an epic journey into the inner workings of the lens and the 1Dx you have to hang off the back of it in order to get the “best?” out of it.

Testing & Evaluation

Back in the days of yore, when we all shot film, lenses were tested on a full optical test bench, and the MTF charts produced thusly actually meant something. If the lens tested good, but you got soft images you KNEW you had a camera body lens mount problem, or that the pressure plate that held the film in the proper plane was distorted.

But now, certain manufacturers don’t even measure MTF – they use a calculator to work them out based upon theoretical values NOT real ones. And then we have entities like DXO Labs, who test lenses on cameras. This is lunacy if you are wanting to know about TRUE LENS performance, simply because the quality of lens output (the image projected into the sensor plane) is effected by the vagaries of the item that lives there – the sensor!

And on top of that, when testing under non-laboratory conditions, the performance of the lens is further clouded by inaccurate or unsuitable camera settings, especially those pertaining to auto focus.

So field testing of lenses is not simply a case of “point – squirt – evaluate”; it has to be done with more than a modicum of intelligence when it comes to camera AF settings. You have to do TWO things:

1. UNDERSTAND COMPLETELY how the AF system works and what the parameter control adjustments actually do.

2. Evaluate your subjects behaviour in terms of the aforementioned parameters and adjust them accordingly.

You may be interested in acquiring, for a small fee, my pdf guide to Long Lens Autofocus for Canon & Nikon systems.

Previous experience with the 1Dx had led me to treat the camera with a little trepidation for one single reason – its sensor. As a Nikon user I am used to working with sensors which have perhaps the highest Dynamic Range, lowest Base Noise, and highest Signal-to-Noise (S/N) ratios of any popular 35mm format camera body.

On the left is a Canon 1 Dx CR2 file, right is a Nikon D4 NEF file. Both images were shot at identical ISO, aperture, Ev comp and shutter speed within milliseconds of each other on a dual camera rig. The birds cheek patches are “blown” on the CR2, but the highlight detail is all there in the Nikon file.

This is indicative of the shorter Dynamic Range of the 1Dx sensor. The common perception is that the Nikon D4/4s sensors have roughly 1.5 stops greater dynamic range than the Canon 1Dx – this in effect means that the Nikon speed machine can cope with a least DOUBLE the subject brightness range that the 1Dx can handle.

Note: I find enabling Highlight Tone Priority, shooting menu tab 2 setting D+, does NOT sort the problem out in high contrast situations like this – it just gives you problems with the darker tones in the image.

So are there any other “sensor vagaries” on the Canon 1Dx that can effect the overall image quality – you betcha there is…

When I picked the camera up from Calumet I also “accrued” the 100mm f2.8 L macro lens, specifically to test the sensor base noise levels on a studio hi-speed flash shot I wanted to do. I had already done the setup shots the day before on the Nikon D4, as part of my drive to show single-body owners how versatile they can be with their photography.

You can read my article on the 1Dx sensor noise HERE

Canon 1Dx + 100mm f2.8 macro. Nikon SB800 flash & Calumet ProSeries wireless.

The original CR2 file looks like this (left) and the Nikon setup shot is on the right:

But if we open the images in Photoshop and use a standing wave curves layer over the top of them – as we would do when retouching the images – we see the extreme pattern noise in the 1Dx sensor (above), while we have virtually none in the Nikon file.

We can see more clearly the pattern noise in the 1Dx sensor if we view the images at 100% magnification.

Custom Curve layer at 100% – now that pattern noise on the Canon sensor is obvious.

We can derive from this shoot/test that the Canon 1Dx is a bit more “photon-hungry” than your average Nikon pro body sensor, but then doesn’t have the dynamic range capability to cope with lots of photons when it sees them.

Now let’s be real about all this for a moment; the 1Dx sensor is old tech in all fairness to Canon, though I’ll counter that by throwing the venerable Nikon D3 into the argument – that body is older than a 1Dx and has a sensor that performs far better in both dynamic range and base noise departments.

In reality though, the pattern noise, though always present in 1Dx images, is usually hidden or masked by actual image/subject detail so that, for the most part, you don’t see it AT ALL – just don’t try going for low ISO when photographing the “Black Cat in the Coal House at Midnight”, with a 1Dx if you have an aversion to heavy Photoshop work.

As I said before, as a Nikon user, the sensor output of the 1Dx leaves me grimacing a little to say the least. But, climbing back on the fence of neutrality I can see that dedicated Canon users might not notice the problems I see if only on the basis of “what you’ve never had you never miss”.

And as I was to discover, there’s something of a bonus with this sensor that this Nikon user was not expecting…..more later.

The ongoing banter between Nikon and Canon users is all very well, and usually good for a bit of a laugh between fellow photographers BUT, the reality is this – ALL pro level 35mm format camera bodies from either Canon or Nikon have their good points and bad points; and not a single one stands head- and-shoulders above the rest ON ALL COUNTS.

“What the Lord giveth with one hand, he taketh away with the other” is definitely the one saying that springs to my mind when I get asked about cameras! If you know what you are doing it doesn’t matter which one you use, you’ll invariably find 10 things wrong with it in the first 30 minutes!

I don’t like the feel of the 1Dx – it feels like I’m holding a brick – BUT SO WHAT?
I hate the menu system – it’s mental – BUT YOU GET USED TO IT
I dislike the sensor output – BUT IT’S FIXABLE for the most part.
Buttons & button+button or dial combos – COME ON GUYS, I’m neither double jointed or gifted with four hands!

There used to be a very large version of this image on the web that sums up Canon buttons, but I can only find a small version of it now:

Sadly the “Call Spock” button will not work any more – RIP L.N.

My list of gripes and niggles about the 1Dx could go on but, sensor output notwithstanding, that list could be easily matched or exceeded by my list of niggles about Nikon cameras! So expanding on them any further is a pointless exercise.

Likewise, comparing the two 200-400s as separate lenses is a somewhat pointless activity too – they are different beasts by a country mile, and I would liken the task to attempting a comparison between the iconic Z28 Pontiac Firebird and the equally iconic Aston Martin DBS – as I said, pointless.

But I feel justified in comparing certain aspects of the camera bodies, and seeing as I have already dealt with the sensor comparison to a degree, I’ll now look at the other main fundamental difference I see between Canon and Nikon; and that is the autofocus system.

Autofocus:

I am going to make a very broad and sweeping statement now, and that is Canon autofocus is generally better than Nikon autofocus – FACT.

What do I mean by better?

I mean that it is more controllable and furnishes the user with a greater ability to tailor the autofocus to suit the behaviour of the intended subject. But the more eagle-eyed reader will have spotted my use of the word “generally”; that is there to indicate a caveat – and the caveat is this:

Only if you know what you are doing!

If you DON’T, and you start fiddling with settings such Acceleration/Declaration tracking, then you risk getting in a proper old mess and you’ll wish you HAD bought Nikon!

My soon-to-come Autofocus Guide to Nikon and Canon – available from this very boutique – goes into the nitty-gritty of autofocus in great detail – so buy it..

In a nutshell, you can tailor the Canon autofocus system to cope with how the subject moves ALONG the lens axis; that’s where your AF has to do the most work. Is it moving towards the camera at a constant speed, or is it moving towards the camera in a stop-go-slow-fast-slow manner? With the Canon 1Dx AF system you have 5 different settings you can use to cover this manner of movement. And these settings are all independent of your AF point group settings.

On a Nikon you have NO independent way of setting the camera to cope with this aspect of subject movement. Using a nine point group on a Nikon tends to favour subjects that move in a constant direction and speed, while the 21 point group favours the more erratically moving subject; which has always seemed a little silly to me and somewhat short-sighted of Nikon.

After 6 weeks of working with the 1Dx in conjunction with the 200-400mm on all manner of moving subjects in terms of size, speed and proximity to the camera I have come to the conclusion that only Cases 2 & 6 are of any real use to me as a wildlife photographer. But I have a tendency to select Case 3 and modify it in terms of Tracking Sensitivity and Acceleration/Declaration Tracking as a scene/subject presents itself.

The third parameter adjustment – AF Point Switching – for the most part I have tended to leave at the default setting of 0, though a setting of 1 has proved useful when dealing with the more erratically moving subject when you too are moving somewhat erratically, such as being in a small boat at sea.

White-tailed Eagles locking talons – 1Dx + 200-400 hand held from boat, AF Case 6, 9 point AF expansion, AF point switching +1, Manual Exposure, Auto ISO 1/2000th, f6.3 ISO 640

For the sort of work that I do within this focal length range, I would only ever use the AF Area Modes of Spot, Expanded (what I call 1 with 4 friends) and Expanded AF Surround ( 1 with 8 friends). Under NO circumstances do I want to leave the camera to decide on what part of the subject I’m focussing on, so Zone and Auto are off my radar. For the same reason I never use the 3D tracking mode on my Nikons. But having said that, I can very well envisage photographers using much shorter focal lengths benefiting from the other modes in certain circumstances due to the greater inherent depth of field they have at their disposal.

But what impresses me most is the speed of the AF using this camera and lens combination, it makes my D4 and Nikon 200-400 look like a clockwork toy; even though I always thought it was fast enough….

1Dx + 200-400 hand held from boat, AF Case 6, 9 point AF expansion, AF point switching 0, Manual Exposure, Auto ISO 1/2000th, f6.3 ISO 640

I only hit the AF activation on this bird a split second before the shot was taken – razor sharp, see for yourself:

So, I get to this juncture and have to start asking myself a couple of questions:
1. Would this shot, for instance, look even better via a Nikon D4/D4S sensor ?
2. Would I have got this particular shot using the D4 or a D4S and my Nikon 200-400?

The answer to the first question is YES – it would; there would be somewhat less noise for starters, and the extra dynamic range would at least facilitate easier processing. Being so used to NEF files I find I have to do a more delicate balancing act between highlight and shadow tones when processing 1Dx CR2 files.

Using the 1Dx I’m a lot more concious of the fact that I need to “watch” my highlights when shooting, and that when it comes to processing it’s like I’ve gone back to 12bit RAW files – and it’s years since I’ve processed one of those babies!

The answer to question 2 though is a little more problematic. Under the EXACT same circumstances the answer is most likely a NO as it was basically “snap-shot”, and that sort of shooting rarely works out too well on Nikon using an f4 lens when a fast-moving subject is right on top of you.

Using an f2.8 would have pulled this shot off under the same circumstances without a problem.

Had I framed up on this eagle 4 or 5 seconds beforehand and let the AF track it until it got to this position then YES I would have got the same result; as long as I had been in a 21 point group. But I usually don’t favour a 21 point group on Nikon because it’s just that bit harder to be precise – I want focus on the eagles eye and I couldn’t give a you-know-what about its other bits – so I usually opt for a 9 point group.

Bearing in mind that this bird is DECELERATING RAPIDLY, the Nikon 9 point group and its fixed “speed tracking preset” might allow the predictive side of the Nikon AF system to advance the focus a little closer to the camera than needed at the moment the shutter opens; because the “preset” is more geared toward a CONSTANT subject speed.

And seeing that the camera isn’t exactly stable either, being in a small boat, the new Nikon 4 point group might have made an even bigger cock-up because it always attempts to focus on the nearest point – which ISN’T the eagles eye.

It’s all about the Accel/Decel tracking…..(ADT – my acronym!)

On the 1Dx Canon give you 5 totally independent ADT settings, and Nikon give you 2 fixed presets which are enslaved to separate AF point groups.

Shooting large subjects at distance – such as football – makes for light work in terms of ADT and predictive AF due to the inherently large depth of field for any given f-number. But shoot smaller, faster moving subjects at much shorter distances and those same ADT settings will make a huge difference to the focus accuracy of the captured image.

When shooting somewhat slower moving subjects I always like to switch to a single AF point and place it over the subjects eye.

I like the Spot AF setting on the 1Dx for this sort of work, especially when I can get the composition I want using one of the centre diagonal cross-type sensors, as in this Lynx below:

1Dx + 200-400 at 400mm AF Case 2, spot AF, Manual Exposure, Auto ISO 1/250th, f7.1 ISO 1000 IS Pos 2 – just because I could!

1Dx + 200-400 at 400mm AF Case 2, spot AF, Manual Exposure, Auto ISO 1/250th, f7.1 ISO 200 IS Pos 2 – just to see HOW low I could go!

The Arctic Fox above is shot with Spot AF using a conventional cross-type sensor from the centre left column.

The Wolves below are shot with a diagonal cross-type sensor from the centre column placed over the right eye of the wolf in the middle of the shot, but this time I’m in AF point expansion – 1 with 4 friends – with AF point switching set to +1. This covers off any movement of the wolfs eye up, down, left or right and increasing the point switching from 0 to +1 means that the active Af point will switch to one of those “4 friends” in order to follow the eye if I can’t move the camera fast enough:

1Dx + 200-400 at 366mm AF Case 2, single point AF expansion, Manual Exposure, Auto ISO 1/1000th, f7.1 ISO 4000 – I’m being a bit more sensible now – if you call standing taking pictures of this pair of bad boys with nothing twixt me and them except fresh air sensible!

Canon Spot AF uses just the centre portion of the selected AF sensor and so you can do some very precise focussing using this AF mode.

Where I find it a real boon is when working off a tripod or from a hide where the camera is rock steady on some form of gimbal or ball head, as in this type of shot. And it really comes into its own when using the 1.4x built-in TC on the 200-400:

As you can see from the screen-grab below I have a single AF point selected and located exactly where I want it:

What you can’t see is that Spot AF – which I think Canon ought to re-name “precision” – is only using the centre portion (perhaps 50%) of the area marked in red; so the main focus is concentrated where the eagles beak has dug into the side of the Pine Martens head – very cute and cuddly I must say…

Autofocus Conclusion:

Nikon AF is rather “simplified” and to be honest it has served exceptionally well over the years. But the one niggle I’ve always had is that I WANT to dictate what the AF does, and how and when it does it – I loathe and detest being dictated to, especially by some algorithm written by lab tech who wouldn’t know his “arse from his elbow” when it comes to a good picture.

It’s as if those Nikon guys think I’m an idiot and they know best – it’s not true fellas!

In all fairness, they sell cameras to folk who “aspire”, and those folk need some sort of instant gratification. Also, those same folk would not do the sort of photography that I do “as norm” – yes, I AM NIKON; but I am also a minority!

So I can see why Nikon make use of “preset averages” in a lot of their control algorithms – I just wish they made pro versions of their cameras with a lot of these so-thought-of Intelligent functions left out; I for one would certainly be a lot more chilled out of they did.

Canon have always been notorious for crediting their users with more than a modicum of intelligence, yet they still give the “L plate” folk half a chance by offering certain levels of automation and presets.

As someone who uses all the facilities on a camera body close to the boundaries of their design criteria – and sometimes past ’em! – I find the 1Dx AF system fabulous in terms of both speed and tractability, and it negates all the niggles and gripes about the Nikon system that I have soon got to return to….

Unless of course some retailer, or those lovely guys at Canon take pity on me!

A Nikon Users Final Judgement on the 1Dx + 200-400mm f4 L IS USM

For the least 6 weeks I’ve been on something of a journey that’s for sure.

Strange “buttonograhy” has caused me some head-scratching! I’m a back button focus man myself, so no prizes for guessing which button has given me most confusion – that’s right, the STAR BUTTON!

My brain simply cannot retain what its function is, so when I hit it accidentally with a gloved thumb, I’ve developed a really simple remedy for getting rid of it – TURN THE CAMERA OFF then back on again! That’s a proper Andy Pandy fix that is!

When I get into situations where my subjects are moving into and out of the sun, and scene contrast changes constantly, I still adopt my preferred method of shooting, and that is FULL MANUAL with auto ISO.

The venerable Nikon D3 didn’t handle this too well; the ISO was always a “little sticky” at at coming back down to the lower numbers. The D4 is a lot better, but still comes a little unstuck from time to time.

The Canon 1Dx has performed flawlessly and has just come back from 7 days in Norway where it has been permanently in Manual Exposure with Auto ISO from the very first to the very last frame of the trip, and the Auto ISO function has performed perfectly on every frame.

Here is a situation where this method of shooting paid dividends, with one of the most rarely seen raptors on the planet – the Goshawk:

Goshawk in the rain – 1/60th sec, f5.6, Manual Exposure + Auto ISO 12800

We were in the darkest heart of a chunk of Boreal Forest, at dawn, and it was chucking it down with rain – gloomy is not a word that does the lack of light justice.

Like a ghost this male Goshawk materialises in front of us and we need to get the shots. With so little light, and the teleconverter switched in we need to pick the shots off each and every time the bird stops moving its head. So the fastest speed we can use is 1/60th sec, which on a gimbal mounted rig at 560mm is just do-able with good technique.

Slipping the IS into Mode 2 and using Spot AF continually on the Goshawks eye we got a large number of razor sharp images in the poorest light I think I have ever shot in.

Here is a 100% crop from that image:

Now considering that this image is from a sensor that I’m not overly keen on, let’s compare it to a shot on a sensor I’m usually far happier using – that of a D4S, that happened to be about 3 feet to my left and operated by a client, Mr. Paul Atkins, using the Nikon 200-400:

The same 12800 ISO, both these shots are pretty much straight from the sensor with minimal processing.

Well, I know which I prefer, and it isn’t the one done with a black lens!
A lot of folk think 400 ISO is high – well it isn’t; even though it used to be.

As I have said before in this article, the 1Dx sensor – as far as this Nikon user is concerned – is a little short in the performance stakes; but is it?

At more conventional speeds below 3200 ISO I firmly come down on the side of Nikon.

From 3200 ISO to 5000 ISO I don’t think there is much between them, but above 5000 ISO the Canon 1Dx excels by a country mile; and Nikonophilles can argue the toss with me ’til the cows come home – but I have the images to prove it – so “boo-hoo, sucks to you chaps”…

With all DSLRs, as we increase ISO we shorten Dynamic Range, but it would appear that, even though the 1Dx is shorter than a D4S in that department to begin with, it hangs on to it a lot longer – and that means more images you can make money from; or win competitions with, which ever floats your boat.

When the end of the Universe comes and it’s “lights out” for everyone, just make sure you’ve got a 1Dx in your hand – Shutterstock and Getty will rip your arm off for the shots ‘cos they’ll still be around somewhere, and God won’t get rid of them that easy!

Sadly, I’ve got to give the 1Dx back to Calumet so that they can hire it to some un-appreciative plebs and recoup the dough they’ve lost while yours truly has been jollying it up with the Vikings.

And as for the glorious 200-400, well, that’s got to go back to the lovely June Lown who loaned it to me in the first place.

So many thanks to June, and to Reece Piper from Calumet for agreeing to the long loan 1Dx, and to John Willis from Calumet Manchester for knowing everyone, and for “lubricating the gears” that make the world go around.

In closing I suppose I need to answer the question I’ve been asked a lot since word of my Canon-ising escaped into the general UK wildlife scene – am I ditching Nikon?

No is the short answer; not even if I could afford to.
BUT, if I could afford to I WOULD buy a 1Dx and 200-400 f4 L IS USM – today!

I would dump my Nikon 200-400, but keep the D4/D4S for use with a big prime. But given the choice my standard wildlife “go to” lens would be the Canon 200-400 in conjunction with a 1Dx. It would get more shots than it would lose me, and Canon can always get rid of my gripes about the sensor by upgrading it – as long as they don’t lose the superb high ISO performance.

Right, that’s it – I’m off to go curl up in a corner of my office and cry at the thought of giving this gear back to its rightful owners….

I WANT THIS RIG…do I really have to give it back?

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Autofocus Drill-down

Posted on January 31, 2015 by Andrew Astbury

Long Lens Autofocus Considerations.

If you read my previous post about the 1Dx sensor you will have seen that I mentioned my, as yet unfinished, tome about long lens autofocus for wildlife photography. It’s a frustrating project because I keep having to change various bits to make them simpler, re-order certain paragraphs etc.

But I thought I’d blog-post something here that I expand on in the project, and it’s something an awful lot of people NEVER take into consideration.

As a Nikon user I’m used to the vagaries of the Nikon AF system and I manage to work with it just fine – I have to!

But photographers who don’t shoot wildlife, and don’t use 400mm or 500mm lumps of glass as their “standard lens” might not find the vagaries I bitch about quite so apparent; indeed some might not come across them at all.

As a wildlife photographer I shoot in crappy light, I shoot with slow lenses (both in terms of f-number and focus speed), I shoot low contrast subjects on equally low contrast backgrounds, I’m constantly shooting brown-on-brown, grey on grey etc, I shoot stupidly small subjects….the list goes on!

For years, good wildlife photography has been done by pushing camera/lens capabilities beyond their performance design parameters; and this particularly applies to our “expectations” of our latest and greatest AF system – be it Canon or Nikon.

I find so many people who come to my workshops etc. are not even aware of this one simple fact – sharp focus requires more work AND increased speed of work by the lens AF motor the closer a subject is to the camera.

Just try looking at the delineations on the focusing ring of a lens:

Canon 200-400 focused at 20 meters. (Lens porn WARNING: This lens will cause movements in the front-of-trouser department).

Look at the scale and note the distance between 20m and 50m marks – that distance is indicative of the amount of work required of the autofocus controller and motor to move from 20m to 50m or vice versa.

Now look where the 10m mark is – it requires FAR MORE work from the focus controller and motor to move from 20m to 10m, than it did to move the 30 meters from 50m to 20m.

On top of that extra work, if we are tracking a subject moving at 10 meters per second the lens takes 3 seconds to move from 50m to 20m, but then has to move a lot FASTER as well to cover the extra workload moving from 20m to 10m in just 1 second.

Then you wonder why your Nikon D40 + Sigma 50-500mm is crap at doing “birds in flight”; you never realise that your autofocus system is bag of spanners and powered by a hamster on a wheel…….it’s just not fast enough kids

Autofocus accuracy is nothing without speed if you are wanting to do productive wildlife photography.

As I alluded to before, as a photographer of the old wildlife I, and YOU will always encounter problems that users in other photographic disciplines may not, or if they do then the problem has a lot less impact than it does for us.

Think of it this way – a sports photographer will use a 500mm f4 to photograph a 6 foot tall overpaid git who’s 25m to 70m away, on a sunny Saturday afternoon or under a squillion watts of flood lighting; and he’s looking for a 6×12 for the back page of the Sunday Sport. I’ll use the same lens to photograph a cute Red Squirrel at 5m to 7m in a gloomy wood in the middle of winter and I’m looking for a full size, full resolution image for stock.

Red Squirrel – this is basically the FURTHEST DISTANCE you could shoot at with a 500mm lens and still get a meaningful composition. Click for larger view.

Note the distance – 631/100 – that means 6.31 meters. Aperture is f8, so DoF is around 7 centimeters.

The image is UNCROPPED as are all the other images in this post

We don’t really want to be any further away because “his cuteness” will be too small in the frame:

The factors effecting subject distance choice are:

lens resolving power – small, fine details need to be as close as possible.*
sensor resolving power – we need as many pixels as possible covering the subject.*
auto focus point placement accuracy – if the subject is too small in the frame, point placement is inaccurate.
general “in camera” composition

*These two are inextricably intertwined

I’ve indicated the active focus point on the above image too because here’s a depth of field “point of note” – autofocus wastes DoF. Where is the plane of focus? Just between the eyes of the squirrel.

Assuming the accepted modern norm of DoF distribution – 50/50 – that’s 3.5 centimeters in front of the plane of focus, or indicted AF point, that will be sharp. Only problem there is that the squirrel’s nose is only around 1 centimeter closer to the camera than the AF point, so the remaining 2 .5 centimeters of DoF is wasted on a sharp rendition of the fresh air between its nose and the camera!!

Now let’s change camera orientation and go a bit closer to get the very TIGHTEST shot composition:

Red Squirrel – this is basically the CLOSEST DISTANCE you could shoot at with a 500mm lens and still get a meaningful composition. Click for larger view

The subject distance is 5.62 meters. Aperture is f6.3 so DoF is around 4.4 centimeters.

Now let’s change photographic hats and imagine we are a sports photographer and we are spending a Saturday afternoon photographing a bunch of over-paid 6 foot tall gits chasing a ball around a field, using the very same camera and lens:

He’s not over-paid or chasing a ball, but this is the CLOSEST distance we can shoot at with this orientation and still get a “not too tight” composition of a 6 foot git! “Shep’s” not a git really – well, not much! Click to enlarge

The distance for this shot is 29.9 meters. Aperture is f6.3 so DoF is around 1.34 meters.

And here we are at the CLOSEST distance for this horizontal camera orientation – still not too tight. Click to enlarge.

The distance here is 50.1 meters. Aperture is f6.3 so DoF is around 3.79 meters.

So with this new “sports shooter” hat on, have we got an easier job than the cold, wet squirrel photographer?

You bet your sweet life we have!

The “Shepster” can basically jump around and move about like an idiot on acid and stay in sharp focus because:

the depth of field at those distances is large.
more importantly, the autofocus has VERY little work to do along the lens axis, because 1 or 2 meters of subject movement closer to the camera requires very small movements of the lens focus mechanicals.

But the poor wildlife photographer with his cute squirrel has so much more of a hard time getting good sharp shots because:

he/she has got little or no depth of field
small subject movements along the lens axis require very large and very fast movement of the lens focus mechanicals.

So the next time you watch a video by Canon or Nikon demonstrating the effectiveness of their new AF system on some new camera body or other; or you go trawling the internet looking for what AF settings the pros use, just bear in mind that “one mans fruit may be another mans poison” just because he/she photographs bigger subjects at longer average distances”.

Equipment choice and its manner of deployment and use is just not a level playing field is it…but it’s something a lot of folk don’t realise or think about.

And how many folk would ever consider that a desired “in camera” image composition has such a massive set of implications for autofocus performance – not many – but if you put your brain in gear it’s blindingly obvious.

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Exposure Compensation

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Andrew Astbury

Exposure Compensation

Exposure Compensation – that’s something else that cropped up once or twice for the chaps on my recent Norwegian Eagle workshop!

We had something like 420 or more dives from eagles during the trip, and very few if any were shot with flat metering, or 0Ev compensation.

What is Exposure Compensation, and why do we need to use it?

It all begins with this little button:

D3 Exposure Compensation button – Nikon, Canon and most others use the same symbol.

Pushing this button and rotating your main command dial will select a certain exposure compensation value.

Why do we need to use Exposure Compensation though?

Cameras, for all their complexity and “intelligent whotsits” are basically STUPID! They don’t know WHAT you are trying to photograph, or HOW you are trying to photograph it.

They make a lot of very basic assumptions about what you are trying to do – 99.99% of which are WRONG!

The camera does NOT know if you are trying to photograph:

A white cat in a coal shed
A black cat in a snow storm
A white cat in a snow storm
A black cat in a coal shed

All it sees is a frame full of various amounts of light and shade, and depending on your metering mode (which should always be Matrix/Evaluative – see post here) it gives you an “average mean exposure value”.

Take a general scene of fairly low contrast under flat overcast light:

A scene as WE see it.

The same scene as the camera METER sees it.

Lighter tones within the scene.

Some darker area tones within the scene.

The exposure is governed by the PREDOMINANT tone.

As discussed in the previous metering article mentioned earlier, only MATRIX/EVALUATIVE takes the entire frame area into account.

Okay, so that scene was fairly bland on the old tonal front, so let’s have a look at something a little more relevant:

Straight off the camera with no processing. 1/2000th @ f4 1600ISO +1.3Ev

As the camera metered the scene WITHOUT compensation.

Why would the image be so dark and under exposed?

Well here’s an approximation of the cameras average tone “thought process”:

The approximate average value of the scene.

But if we look at some averages WITHIN the overall image:

Random tonal averages within the image.

We can see that the tonal values for the subject are generally darker than the average scene value, therefore the camera records those values as “under exposed”.

This is further compounded by the cameras brain making the decision that the commonest tonal value MUST represent “mid grey” – which it DOESN’T; it’s lighter than that – and so under exposing the image even further!

Now I’m not going to get into the argument about “what is mid grey” and do Nikon et al calibrate to 12%, 18%, 20% or whatever – to be honest it’s “neither here nor there” from our standpoint.

What is CRITICAL though is that we understand the old adage:

“Light Subject Dark Background = Under, or negative exposure compensation. And that Dark Subject Light Background = Over, or positive exposure compensation”.

Okay, but what are we actually doing?

In any exposure mode other than Manual mode, we are allowing the camera to meter the scene AND make the decision over which shutter speed or aperture to use depending on whether we have the camera in Av or Tv mode – that’s Canon-speak for A or S on Nikon.

If we are in shutter priority/S/Tv mode then the camera sets the aperture to give us its metered exposure – that thing that’s usually WRONG! – at the shutter speed we’ve selected.

If, as in the case above, we ADD +1.3Ev – one and one third stops of POSITIVE exposure compensation, the camera uses the shutter speed we’ve selected but then opens up the aperture WIDER than it’s “brain” wants it to.

How wide? 1.3 stops wider, thus allowing 1.3 stops more light into the the sensor during the exposure time.

If we were in Av/A or aperture priority mode then it’s the shutter speed that would take up the slack and become 1.3 stops SLOWER than the cameras “brain” wanted it to be.

Here’s an example of negative exposure compensation:

1/3200th @ f4.5 1000ISO -1.3Ev exposure compensation.

In this particular shot we’re pointing towards the sun – a “dark subject, light background” positive exposure compensation scenario, or so you’d think.

But I want to “protect” those orange highlights in the water and the brightest tones in the eagle, so if I “peg those highlights” just over a stop below the top end of the cameras’ tonal response curve then there is no way on earth they are going to “blow” in the final RAW file.

Manual Exposure mode can still furnish us with exposure compensation based on metering if we engage AUTO-ISO. If we decide we want to shoot continuously with a high shutter speed and a set aperture at a fixed ISO then our exposures are going to be all over the place. But if we engage AUTO-ISO and let the camera choose the ISO speed via the meter reading, we can use the exposure compensation adjustments just the same as we do in Av or Tv modes.

This get’s us away from the problem of fixed ISO Tv mode running out of aperture in low light or when very high shutter speeds are needed; or conversely, stopping the aperture down too far when the sun comes out! – I’ll do a breakdown on this method of shooting later in the year – it’s not without it’s problems.

Next time you get the chance to stand by a large lake or other body of water, just take a moment to notice that the water is dark in some places and light in others. ambient light falling on a moving subject can easily be very uniform and so the subject basically has the same exposure value all the time. But it’s the changing brightness of the background as the subject moves across it that causes us to need exposure compensation.

People seem to think there’s some sort of “magic” at play when they come out with me and I’m throwing exposure compensation values at them. But there’s no magic here folks, just an ability to see beyond “the subject, framing etc” and to actually “see the light” and understand it.

After all, when we click our shutters we are imaging light – the subject is, for the most part, purely incidental!

And there’s only one way you can learn to see light and grasp its implications for camera exposure, and that’s to practice.

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Auto Focus Work Out

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Andrew Astbury

Auto Focus Work Out

My recent summer trip to Flatanger in Norway, and to the famous “Eagle Man of Norway” Ole Martin Dahle, proved, as ever, a severe test of the auto focus capabilities of the gear!

We had 4 guys on the trip, 3 Nikon and 1 Canon, and White-tailed Eagles doing more than 40mph and turning on a dime is one of the hardest tests for auto focus tracking and lock on that you can imagine – especially when it’s all done hand held from a boat that’s rolling around in the sea swell.

wildlife photography,auto focus,Nikon,D4,Andy Astbury,eagle,Norway,workshop,camera settings

The Guys – yours truly, Malcolm Clayton and Paul Atkins; and Mohamed El Ashkar (all the way from Cairo!) and our Cambridge “Don” – all trips should have one – Jamie Gundry. Photo by Ole Martin Dahle.

We had a conglomeration of D4’s, D800E’s and 200-400 f4’s, with a smattering of 300mm and 400mm f2.8’s – and then there was Mohamed with his solitary 1Dx and 300 f2.8.

And our target:

Say “Hello” to “Brutus” – an eagle who lives up to his name for sure – a total brute, especially to a boat full of daft photographers! CLICK for larger view.

Just to set the scene with regard to the technical side of things; birds fly into the wind given the choice, and the sun is wherever it decides to be! So the boat driver – Ole – always needs to position the boat so that “wind and sunlight” are coming from pretty much the same direction, otherwise the birds are not front-lit and cast their own shadows across themselves. In other words the images look like crap!

Some birds come towards the boat, take the fish and then turn away; some will do their approach parallel to the boat; and gits like Brutus will fly low and fast straight at you, pick the fish and then turn straight for the boat and climb.

But no matter how they choose to approach the camera boat all the birds pick the fish and go back to where they’ve come from.

Ole has intimate knowledge of these birds as individuals, and so has a damn good idea of what they will do as they come to the boat. This enables him to manoeuvre the boat for the best shots, and this skill is what you pay for.

Perhaps by now you’ve got the general feel for the situation – a boat that’s subject to wave motion and which might suddenly go backwards 10 yards through its own wake – not the steadiest of camera platforms!

Couple that with trying to make the auto focus lock on and track the bird, and maintain a modicum of composition – it’s just damned hard work.

Photographing anything that’s moving is hard work; moving erratically is even harder; and hand holding on an oscillating camera platform makes the job beyond hard. This style of shooting will NEVER yield vast rafts of sharp sequential images – anyone who tells you different is an outright liar. Christ, even licensed FIA F1 ‘togs are on “easy street” by comparison.

Auto focus cannot be set up perfectly for this sort of situation, but understanding it is a MUST if you want to maximise the opportunity.

Auto Focus Choices

There are 3 main things that control the effectiveness of auto focus and AF tracking:

AF Area Mode

AF Tracking Lock-on interval

Frame Rate

(Bare in mind I’m talking Nikon here, but sorting Mohameds’ 1Dx out showed my that Canon AF is pretty much the same).

Now I dealt with the latter in a previous post HERE and so we need to concentrate here on AF area modes in the main.

Let’s look at what we have to work with on a Nikon body – in this case a D4:

Firstly, the AF sensor layout.

All 51 focus sensors, and there approximate layout in relation to the image frame:

All 51 of the Nikon Multi Cam 3500 FX focus sensors – both cross and linear sensors depicted.

Just the Cross-type Sensors:

wildlife photography,auto focus,Nikon,D4,Andy Astbury,eagle,Norway,workshop,camera settings,Nikon Multi-Cam 3500 FX unit

The 15 Cross type focus sensors on the Nikon Multi-Cam 3500 FX unit.

The Linear-type Sensors:

The 36 Linear type focus sensors on the Nikon Multi-Cam 3500 FX unit.

Single Area AF

Single Area, or single point AF.

9 Point Dynamic Area AF:

9 Point Dynamic Area AF

9 Point DA AF as displayed in the viewfinder (drop shadows added in Photoshop behind the dots to aid visibility in this article).

21 Point Dynamic Area AF:

21 Point Dynamic Area AF

21 Point DA AF as displayed in the viewfinder (drop shadows added in Photoshop behind the dots to aid visibility in this article).

51 Point Dynamic Area AF:

51 Point DA AF as displayed in the viewfinder (drop shadows added in Photoshop behind the dots to aid visibility in this article).

As a stills photographer you are using what’s called Phase Detection auto focus (that’ll be another blog post topic!) but it still relies on a mix of contrast,luminosity and colour to work out what it should be concentrating on in the frame.

Consider the following 2 images, A & B:

A. Dark Subject and Light Background.
Subject itself is low contrast, background water is higher contrast. Subject is at 15 meters, Focal Length is 240mm

B. Light Subject against a Dark Background.
Subject now has a slightly higher contrast, and background is lower contrast. Subject 29 meters, Focal length 360mm

Auto focus is dumb; just plain stupid, left to its own devices. It, like me (yep, me dumb too!) favours lighter things with a higher degree of contrast. The lighter something is then the brighter and more saturated it colour is, and this in turn gives it higher localised contrast.

Auto focus will be happier locking on to and tracking Eagle B than Eagle A.

In A, the AF will want to switch to the lighter, more contrasty water behind the bird – unless of course you “hobble it” and stop it from doing so…

And you stop it by BLINDING IT – in other words use LESS active auto focus points!

“If it ain’t got ’em it can’t switch to ’em!”

If all the AF points in use are on the important part of the subject (the EYE in this case) then there’s little or no chance of the auto focus switching to somewhere you don’t want it to go to.

In a perfect world we’d all be using Single Area AF on a tripod and panning away quite happily keeping that single sensor on the targets eye……………oh I wish!!!!!!

51 point AF is out for this sort of work – with what I’ve just written you should now easily understand why.

So we are down to either the 9 point or 21 point Dynamic Areas.

It all comes down to two things:

How steady you can keep the camera.
How big in the frame the birds are – in other words, subject distance.

But accuracy of auto focus will always be improved by using the least number of sensors you can get away with.

Image A. is at 240mm and a subject distance of 15 meters, and Image B. is at 360mm and a subject distance of 29 meters. Both images were shot using 21 point Dynamic Area AF, 1/2000th @ f7 and 1600ISO.

21 point AF, 15 meters and 240mm focal length.

21 point AF, 29 meters and 360mm focal length.

On the upper detail image there’s one, perhaps two of the 21 sensors that are NOT on the subject.

On the second image there are at least 9 sensors out of the 21 in the group that are NOT on the bird.

If the bird in image A. had been 29 meters away I’ll guarantee it would have been out of focus – why?

Lack of good directional light.
Poor subject contrast and illumination.
Brighter, higher contrast background.
More sensors “Off Target”.

And the auto focus hasn’t wanted to wander to the background on image B. because there’s nothing there for it to favour over the main subject.

How Dynamic Area AF Works

9 point DA auto focus uses the single AF point that you select, but activates the 8 points surrounding it. If you, or the subject, or both, move so that the single point you selected comes “off target” then one of those 8 surrounding points will “cover” the error and maintain focus lock and tracking until you get back on target.

In 9 point DA, auto focus ALL the sensors activated are “cross type” sensors, assuming you use a sensor on the vertical center line of the AF grid.

In 21 point DA, auto focus is still centered on the single sensor you select, but now the surrounding 20 are activated. But at least 6 of these sensors will be linear, not cross type sensors.

Auto Focus Senor Types – Cross and Linear (line).

This is going to be immensely paraphrased!

AF sensors need to see edge detail in order to work. A linear sensor can work more effectively when the edge it’s looking at is perpendicular to it.

The more an edge is parallel to said line sensor then the harder time it has in discerning when said edge is sharp or not.

But if we add 2 line sensors together at right angles to each other, then an edge that is parallel to one line is perpendicular to the other – so edge detection is greatly enhanced.

In an ideal scenario 9 point Dynamic Area AF, centered in the middle of the view finder and kept on the eagles head would be the ideal way to go, but with the other circumstances of:

Moving camera platform
Potential closeness of subject (sub 15 meters possible)

then 9 point DA might be a wee bit tight on both counts, and 21 point makes more sense from a tracking and shooting perspective.

But it leads to an initial problem with the auto focus acquiring the target in the first place. You have to pick these eagles up quite a way out, and if one is coming low to the water then there is possibly too much in the frame to act as a distraction to the auto focus unit itself; though this isn’t quite such an issue if the bird is high in the sky.

So my recommendation for any form of bird-in-flight photography is to start out at 9 point DA and see how you get on!

There is always the AF Tracking Lock On feature that you can deploy in order to “hobble” the AF unit from switching to subjects closer to or further away, but if I’m honest I find this the most sticky and difficult aspect of the Nikon system to get a precise handle on. It does exactly “what it says on the tin” but it’s the “when” and “how much by” bits that have me slightly guessing.

Sometimes I put it on long and it basically waits for perhaps 4 or 5 seconds before it tries to switch focus, while at other times it does so in less than half the time. Sometimes I feel it actually diminishes the effectiveness of the “predictive” side of the auto focus tracking unit.

But if I turn it off when hand holding the camera for flight shots then everything turns to crap – so I turn it back on again!

Again, my base recommendations for this are SHORT to NORMAL and see how things go.

One thing that can have a considerable impact on the way you perceive your auto focus effectiveness is how you have your AF release priority set up (CS a1).

There are 4 options:

Release
Focus+Release
Release+Focus
Focus

By default this is set to FOCUS. With the default setting, it’s theoretically impossible to take a soft shot. But in practice that’s not so simple, and I’ve taken many a soft shot when the D4 “thinks” things are sharp; though in the main, that seems to have been cured the minute we got trap focus back with the latest firmware upgrade.

Release means the camera will take shots irrespective of focus being acquired or not. I NEVER use this option.

Focus+Release means that the first frame will only be taken once focus is acquired, and subsequent frames will be taken irrespective of focus. This is one of my preferred options when everything is unstable – that first frame hopefully sets up the auto focus and AF tracking and so everything SHOULD keep the subsequent frames sharp – please note the use of the word “should”!

Both the above release priority modes do NOT slow the frame rate.

Release+Focus – works the opposite way to Focus+Release – it does slow the frame rate down giving the mirror more down-time and so the auto focus system has more time to work. This is my other preferred option, the one I use when the “action” may not be as repeatable.

Focus – This is the option I deploy when shooting from a tripod or when the action is not quite so fast-paced. Again, this option slows the frame rate.

The Back Button Auto Focus Option

I always use the back button for auto focus activation. There are plenty of arguments for doing this, but I just feel it’s darn right more efficient than having AF activation on the shutter button. Just don’t forget to turn AF/Shutter ON to OFF in the menu, otherwise you are just wasting time and effort!

Conclusion

A lot of folk feel that their auto focus is flawed; but more often it is they and their setup choices which are flawed.

There is no blanket panacea or magic bullet setting for your AF system – as with everything else you have to constantly evaluate the light around you, anticipate the shot and make the necessary changes to setup – otherwise it’s going to be a sad day.

But knowing how your gear works and how it reacts under different scenarios is the “meat and two veg” of good photography. Couple that with shot anticipation and the proper corrective measures and it’s off home for tea and medals!

But above all, remember to have a laugh – you’re a long time dead……..

“GIMME SOME, YOU MEAN BARSTARD!”

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Flash Duration – How Fast Can We Go

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Andrew Astbury

Flash duration – how long the burst of photons from flash actually lasts, does seem to get a lot of people confused.

Earlier this year I posted an article on using flash HERE where the prime function of the flash was as a fill light. As a fill, flash should not be obvious in the images, as the main lighting is still the ambient light from the sun, and we’re just using the flash to “tickle” the foreground with a little extra light.

flash duration,fill flash,flash,shutter speed,photography,Andy Astbury,digital photography,wildlife photography,Red Squirrel

Flash as “fill” where the main lighting is still ambient daylight, and a moderate shutter speed is all that’s required. 1/800th sec @ f8 is plenty good enough for this shot.

Taking pictures is NEVER a case of just “rocking up”, seeing a shot and pressing the shutter; for me it’s a far more complex process whereby there’s a possible bucket-load of decisions to be made in between the “seeing the shot” bit and the “pressing the shutter” bit.

My biggest influencers are always the same – shutter speed and aperture, and the driving force behind these two things is light, and a possible lack thereof.

Once I make the decision to “add light” I then have to decide what role that additional light is going to take – fill, or primary source.

Obviously, in the shot above the decision was fill, and everything was pretty straight forward from there on, and aperture/shutter speed selection is still dictated by the ambient lighting – I use the flash as a “light modifier”.

The duration of the flash is controlled by the TTL metering system and it’s duration is fairly irrelevant.

Let’s take a look at a different scenario.

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The lovely Jo doing her 1930’s screen icon “pouty thing”. Flash is the ONLY light source in this image. 1/250th @ f9 ISO 100.

In this shot the lighting source is pure flash. There’s very little in the way of ambient light present in this dark set, and what bit there is was completely over-powered by the flash output – so the lighting from the Elinchrom BX 500 monoblocks being used here is THE SOLE light source.

Considerations over the lighting itself are not the purpose of this post – what we are concerned with here are the implications for shutter speed due to flash synchronization.

The flash units were the standard type of studio flash unit offering no TTL interface with the camera being used, so it’s manual everything!

But the exposure in terms of shutter speed is capped at 1/250th of a second due to the CAMERA – that is it’s highest synch speed.

The focal length of the lens is 50mm so I need to shoot at around f8 or f9 to obtain workable depth of field, so basic exposure settings are dictated. This particular shot was achieved by balancing the light-to-subject distance along the lines of the inverse square law for each light.

But from the point of view of this post the big consideration is this – can I afford to have movement in the subject?

At 1/250th sec you’d think not. Then you’d think “hang on, flash durations are a lot faster than that” – so perhaps I can…..or can I ?

Flash Duration & Subject Movement

Flash duration, in terms of action-stopping power, is not as simple or straight forward as you might think.

Consider the diagram below:

Flash Power Output curve plotted against Output duration (time).

The grey shaded area in the diagram is the “power output curve’ of the flash.

Most folk think that a flash is an “instant on, instant off” kind of thing – how VERY wrong they are!

When we set the power output on either the back panel of our SB800/580EX etc, or on the power pack of a studio flash unit, or indeed any other flash unit, we are setting a peak output limit.

We might set a Nikon SB800 to 1/4 power, or we might set channel B output on a Quadra Ranger to 132Watt/sec, but either way, we are dictating the maximum flash output power – the peak output limit. The “t 5 time” – or to be more correct the “t 0.5 time” is the total time duration where the flash output is at 50% or above of the selected peak output limit we set.

Just to clarify: we set say, 1/4th power output on the back of a Canon 580EX – this is the selected peak output limit. The t5 time for this is the total time duration where the light output is at or above 50% of that selected 1/4th power – NOT 50% of the flash units full power output – do not get confused over this!

So when it comes to total “light emission duration” we’ve got 3 different ways of looking at things:

Total – and I mean TOTAL – duration; the full span of the output curve.
T 0.5 – the duration of the flash where its output is at 50% or above that level set by the user – the peak output limit.
T 0.1 – the duration of the flash where its output is at 10% or above that level set by the user.

Anyone looking at the diagram above can see that the total output emission time/flash duration is A LOT LONGER than the t5 time. Usually you find that t5 times are somewhere around 1/3rd of the total emission time, or flash duration.

Getting back to our shot of Jo above, if my memory serves me correctly the BX heads I used for the shot had a t5 time of around 1/1500th sec. So the TOTAL duration of the flash output would be around 1/500th sec.

So I can’t afford to have any movement in the subject that isn’t going to be arrested by 1/500th sec flash duration, let alone the 1/250th shutter speed.

Why? Well that 1/250th sec the shutter is open will comprise of 1/500th sec of flash photons entering the lens, and 1/500th sec of NOTHING entering the lens but AMBIENT LIGHT photons.

Let us break flash output down a bit more:

In the previous article I mentioned, I quoted a table of Nikon SB800 duration times. At the top of the table was the SB800 1/1 or full output power flash duration. All times quoted in that table were t5 times.

The one I want to concentrate on is that 1/1 full power t5 time of 1/1050th sec.

Even though Nikon try to tempt you into believing that the flash only emits light for 1/1050th sec it does in fact light the scene for a full 1/350th sec – most flash manufacturers units are quoted as t5 times.

Now in most cases when you might employ flash – which let’s face it, is as some sort of fill light in a general ambient/flash mixed exposure, this isn’t in reality, a big problem. Reduced power multiple pulse AutoFP/HSS also makes it not a problem.

But if you are trying to stop high speed action – in other words “freeze time”, then it can become a major headache; especially when you need all the flash power you can get hold of.

Why? Let’s break the diagram above down to basics.

The darker shaded area represents the “tail” of the flash output – the area that can cause many problems when trying to stop high speed action.

The first 50% of the total light output is over and finished in the first 1/1050th of the total flash duration.
The other 50% of the total light output takes place over a further 1/525th sec, and is represented by the dark grey area – let’s call this area the flash “output tail”. Some publications & websites refer to this tail as after-glow. I always thought that ‘after glow” was something ladies did after a certain type of energetic activity!
The light will continue to decay for a full 1/525th sec after t5, until the output of light has died down to 0% and the full “burn time” of 1/350th sec has been reached.

That’s right – 1/1050th + 1/525th = 1/350th.

So, if our shutter speed is 1/350th sec or longer we are going to see some ghosting in our image caused by the movement of the subject during that extra 1/525th sec post t5 time.

I need to point out that most speedlight type flash units are “isolated-gate bipolar transistor” devices – that’s IGBT to you and me. Einstein studio flash units are also IGBT units – I’ll cover the implications of this in a later post, but for now you just need to know that the IGBT circuitry works to eliminate sub t5 output BUT doesn’t work if your speedlight is set to output at maximum power. And if you need access to full 1/1 power with your speedlights for any reason then IGBT won’t help you.

Let’s see the problem in action as it were:

A bouncing golf ball shot at 1/250th sec using full power output on an SB800.
The ball is moving UPWARDS.
The blur between points A & B are caused by the “tail” or “after-glow” of the flash.

And the problem will be further exacerbated if there is ANY ambient light in scene from a window for instance, as this will boost the general scene illumination during that “tail end” 1/525th sec.

We might be well advised, if using any form of non-TTL flash mode, to use a shutter speed equal to, or shorter in duration to the t5 time, as in the shot below:

A bouncing golf ball shot at 1/2000th sec using full power output on an SB800.

All I’ve done in this second shot is go -3Ev on the shutter speed, +1Ev on the aperture and +2Ev on ISO speed.

Don’t forget, the flash is in MANUAL mode with a full power output.

With the D4 in front-curtain synch the full power, 1/350th sec flash pulse begins as the front shutter curtain starts to move, and it “burns” continuously while the 1/2000th sec “letter-box” shutter-slot travels across the sensor.

In both shots you may be wondering how I triggered the exposure. Sitting on the desk you can see a small black box with a jack plug sticking out the back – this is the audio sensor of a TriggerSmart audio/light/Infra Red combined trigger system. As the golf ball strikes the desk the audio sensor picks up the noise and the control box triggers the camera shutter and hence the flash.

Hardy, down at the distributors,Flaghead, has been kind enough to send me one of these systems for incorporation into some long-term photography projects, and in a series of high speed flash workshops and training tutorials. And I have to say that I’m mighty impressed with the system, and at the retail pricing point ownership of this product is a no-brainer. The unit is going to feature in quite a few blog post in the near-future, but click HERE to email Hardy for more details.

Even though I constantly extol the virtues of the Nikon CLS system, there comes a time when its automatic calculations fight AGAINST you – and easy high speed photography becomes something of a chore.

Any form of flash exposure automation makes assumptions about what you are trying to do. In certain circumstances these assumptions are pretty much correct. But in others they can be so far wide of the mark that if you don’t turn the automation OFF you’ll never get the shot you want.

Wresting full control over speed lights from the likes of Nikons CLS gives you access to super-highspeed flash durations AND high shutter speeds without a lot of the synching problems incurred with studio monoblocks.

Liquid in Motion,flash duration,fill flash,flash,shutter speed,photography,Andy Astbury,digital photography,wildlife photography

Liquid in Motion – arrested at 1/8000th sec shutter speed using SB800’s at full 1/1 power.

Liquid in Motion – arrested at 1/8000th sec shutter speed using SB800’s at full 1/1 power. A 100% crop from the shot above.

“Scotch & Rocks All Over The Place”
Simple capture with manual speed lights at full power and 1/8000th shutter speed.

The shots above are all taken with 2x SB800s lighting the white background and 1 heavily defused SB800 acting as a top light.

One background light is set at 1/1 manual FP, the other to manual 1/1 SU-4 remote. The top light is set to 1/8 power SU-4 remote.

The majority light in the shot is in fact that white background – it’s punching light back through the glass and liquid splash – the subject is backlit.

So, that background is being lit for a full 1/350th of a second.

But shooting in front curtain synch I’m using 1/8000th sec as a shutter speed, an exposure duration 3 stops shorter than the flash unit t5 time for full power. So in effect I’m using the combined background flash units as a very short-term continuous light source which lasts for 1/350th of a second, but the camera is only recording the very first 1/8000th sec – in other words, photons are still leaving the flash AFTER the rear shutter curtain has closed and the exposure is finished.

Finally, the shutter and flash are triggered by dropping the faux crushed ice through the IR sensor beam of the TriggerSmart unit.

This is very much along the lines of what’s termed HYPERSYNCH – a technique you can use with conventional slow burn studio flash units and certain types of 3rd party trigger units such as Pocket Wizards – but that’s yet another story, and is fraught with synch problems that you have program out of the system using the Pocket Wizard utility.

So, there’s more to come from me about flash in future posts, but for now just remember – there’s not a lot you can’t do with speed lights – as long as you’ve got enough of the little darlings!

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Trap Focus

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Andrew Astbury

Trap Focus on the Nikon D4

Trap focus comes to my D4 – Yay!!!!!!!!

What was it Nikon said – “we left it off the D4 because no one wanted it”….or words to that effect.

Well, with today’s (March 18th 2014) update version 1.10 trap focus is back – in a fashion.

What is trap focus some may ask. Well it’s basically pre-focusing on a particular distance or spot where you expect the subject to be or to pass through.

As the subject enters the frame and gets closer to the camera it’s also getting closer to the pre-focused distance, and when it reaches the set focus distance the camera actually detects the subject/image is sharp and so takes the shot.

Basically you sit there with the shutter button fully depressed, but no shots get taken until the camera AF system deems the subject is now in focus.

It’s a technique that a lot of sports photographers find very useful, but I find it has very limited use for my wildlife & natural history work. Having said that, it’s got me out of a bind more than once over the years, but ever since the D4 came out you’ve not been able to use it.

The failing lay in the flawed D4 focus priority – even if you told it to only trip the shutter when the image was deemed ‘in focus’ by setting CS a1 & a2 to FOCUS, it would still fire as if a1 and a2 were set to release priority.

But the new firmware update v1.10 has given trap focus back to the D4, but before you start jumping up and down and getting all excited you need to know how to set it up, and bare in mind that “as a technique” trap focus might not suit what you had in mind.

Setup for D4 Trap Focus

Update firmware to v1.10 – read the instructions FULLY before you attempt this, otherwise you may need another camera!
Go to Custom Settings a2 AF-S priority selection and set to FOCUS.
Go to Custom Settings a4 AF activation and set to AF-ON only – this takes to AF activation away from the shutter release button.
Put a wide angle lens on the camera.
Set the lens focus switch to M/A
Set the D4 focus mode selector (the lever on left side of the body front) to AF
Press the AF mode button and rotate the Command Dial (back one) to select AFS and NOT AFC.
Rotate the Sub Command Dial (front one) to select S (single) and NOT Auto.
Focus on your computers monitor screen using either the manual focus ring of the lens or the rear AF-ON button next to the Command Dial.
If you’ve pressed the latter TAKE your thumb OFF!
Move the camera directly away from the computer monitor screen so the image in the viewfinder goes soft.
Jam your finger down on the shutter release. Nothing happens (if it does then start again!).
Keeping that shutter button depressed and NOT touching the lens or AF button, move back towards the computers monitor screen – the shutter will fire when the monitor screen is sharp.

Got that? Good! Oh, and by the way, the award-winning shot you just missed – it would have been epic!

Now you’ve got a D4 that does trap focus.

Now for the trap focus caveats:

Trap Focus only works in AFS – not in AFC.

Trap Focus only works with a single AF sensor, AFS-S – so correct prediction of that one AF sensor/subject alignment to get the required ‘bits” in sharp focus and DoF is going to be difficult.

wildlife photography, common Kestrel, photography technique,manual focus trap,trap focus

Do NOT think you can pull this wildlife shot off using TRAP FOCUS.

By the time the camera has detected the sharp focus and got over the system lock time and triggered the shutter, the bird will be way closer to the camera – and sharp focus in the resulting image will be behind the tail!

This shot is done with a manual focus trap – a completely different technique, as described HERE

The subject is too small and so to close to the camera and 500mm lens for trap focus to work effectively.

However, if you are doing sports photography for instance, you are imaging subjects that are much bigger and a lot further away.

A 500mm f4 on an FX body has over 2 meters depth of field at f5.6 when focused at 40 meters. Take a baseball match for instance – not that I’ve ever covered one mind!

Set the single AF sensor focus distance at home plate.

Then tilt the camera up slightly, or move the sensor with the Dpad so it can’t see/is not overlaying what you just focused on. Hold the shutter button down and wait for a player to make a dive for home plate. As he enters the area of the AF sensor the camera will fire continually if you’re in continuous shooting mode, and will only stop when the camera detects focus has been lost.

Works like a charm!

The key thing is that the depth of field generated by the focus distance makes trap focus work for you – at much shorter distances where depth of field is down to an inch or so if you’re lucky, then couple that with a fast subject approach speed, and trap focus will fall down as a reliable method.

If I’m doing studio flash work like this:

which is never often enough any more! – I sometimes find it useful to use trap focus because it can help doing hand held work under the lowish flash unit modelling lights when you want to make sure eyes are sharp.

Using Trap Focus in a sort of ‘bastardised’ manner can help you maintain sharp focus on models eyes whilst giving you freedom to move around, change composition, zoom etc. by controlling the sharpness of the image with the lens focus ring.

Like I said earlier, it’s a technique that can get you out of trouble every now and again, but up until today you hadn’t got recourse to it on the D4.

But you seriously need to understand the limitations of trap focus deployment before you rush out and use it – you could be very disappointed with the results, and it’ll be all your own fault for trying to bang a square peg through a round hole.

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Andy Astburys' Photography Blog

A general photography blog

Tag Archives: wildlife photography

ETTR Processing in Lightroom

Lumenzia – Enhanced Twilight Colours

Lumenzia – Enhanced Twilight Sunset Sky and Lighting

Image Sharpness

Image Sharpness

Shameless Plug Number 1.

Understanding Canon & Nikon Autofocus

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Bird in Flight Photography

Lumenzia – Not Just for Landscapes

Canon 1Dx & 200-400 f4 L IS USM

Testing & Evaluation

Autofocus:

Autofocus Conclusion:

A Nikon Users Final Judgement on the 1Dx + 200-400mm f4 L IS USM

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Autofocus Drill-down

Long Lens Autofocus Considerations.

Exposure Compensation

Exposure Compensation

Auto Focus Work Out

Auto Focus Work Out

Auto Focus Choices

How Dynamic Area AF Works

Auto Focus Senor Types – Cross and Linear (line).

The Back Button Auto Focus Option

Conclusion

Flash Duration – How Fast Can We Go

Flash Duration & Subject Movement

Trap Focus

Trap Focus on the Nikon D4

Setup for D4 Trap Focus

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Lumenzia – Enhanced Twilight Sunset Sky and Lighting

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Image Sharpness

Shameless Plug Number 1.

Understanding Canon & Nikon Autofocus

for

Bird in Flight Photography

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Testing & Evaluation

Autofocus:

Autofocus Conclusion:

A Nikon Users Final Judgement on the 1Dx + 200-400mm f4 L IS USM

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Long Lens Autofocus Considerations.

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Exposure Compensation

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Auto Focus Work Out

Auto Focus Choices

How Dynamic Area AF Works

Auto Focus Senor Types – Cross and Linear (line).

The Back Button Auto Focus Option

Conclusion

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Flash Duration & Subject Movement

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Trap Focus on the Nikon D4

Setup for D4 Trap Focus

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