New Holland Honeyeater, Albany, Western Australia: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO lens with MC14 Teleconverter, F5.6, 1/4000, ISO1000 |
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Happy 2021 everyone! Thank you all for your ongoing support in 2020 during such unprecedented times. News: - My biggest news in the last 6 months was winning the Bird Photographer of the Year 2020 Portfolio Prize. My prize was an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm F/4 IS PRO Lens and a MC14 Teleconverter. You will find my new blog article about the kit and my favourite images taken to-date.
- I am a judge of an exciting new international photographic competition called WildArt Photographer of the Year (see below). I hope you will all support this new competition (part proceeds go to conservation) and look forward to seeing your entries!
- Back in August 2020 I was a guest on a Lightminded podcast hosted by Christian Fletcher and Carwyn (you can listen here).
Updates: I have updated the Subscribers Only 'How-to' section of the website with new images, as well as added discount codes (For Topaz Denoise AI and Fine Art Prints) to the top of the page. Just a reminder that the password for the subscriber section is: Albatross (N.B. case sensitive). I hope you enjoy this newsletter. My Adobe Photoshop suddenly refuses to work on both my desktop AND laptop - I am sure it's a Microsoft conspiracy to make me upgrade to Windows 10! Anyhow, you may notice I have had to resort to generic stock photos and text instead of my usual graphics! |
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CURRENT PHOTO COMPETITIONS |
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Black-faced Woodswallows: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO lens with MC14 Teleconverter, F5.6, 1/2500sec, ISO800 (at 420mm/840mm FFE). Taken using Pro Capture Mode. |
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Mute Swan (Northam, Western Australia): Canon 1Dx, Canon f/4 600mm lens, F4, 1/1250, ISO640 at 600mm. If you are stuck for ideas for the theme 'WET' then how about trying to take photos of animals in and around a water fountain? With light coming through the water from behind, you can get wonderful effects and it adds soooo much atmosphere! |
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The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition celebrates the natural heritage of the Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea bioregions each year. The categories are: Animal Portrait Animal Behaviour Botanical Monochrome Threatened Species Urban Birds Conservation Award Portfolio Award Youth (under 18 years) Entries close: 5 February 2021 |
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Western Grey Kangaroos: Olympus Om-D E-M1 MarkIII, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO lens, MC14 (1.4x) Teleconverter, F5.6, 1/3200, ISO400. |
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Bird Photographer of the Year 2021 The world's "leading bird photography competition" is back. Just to recap. The awards are open to ALL NATIONALITIES and the overall winner of the competition will take home a £5,000 cash prize, alongside the coveted title of Bird Photographer of the Year. The categories are: Best Portrait Birds in the Environment Attention to Detail Bird Behaviour Birds in Flight Black and White Creative Imagery Our Impact Animal Habitat Junior (under 18 years) Entries close: 15 February 2021 |
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OLYMPUS OM-D E M1 MKIII Lots of you have asked and here it is. What I think of my new Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III. I have also included some comparisons to my Canon 1Dx Mark III... | | |
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BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY: Camera Essentials I am constantly being asked to recommend a camera to people who want to get into bird photography, or upgrade their gear, so I think it's time to set out what I believe to be the most important camera features for bird photography.... | | |
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Striated Heron (Broome, Western Australia): Olympus Om-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO lens, MC14 (1.4x) Teleconverter, F5.6, 1/3200sec, ISO320 at 420 (840FFE). This image was taken using the articulated screen so that I did not have to lie down in the mud to get at ground level! |
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THE IMPACT OF SHOOTING AT HIGH ISO |
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I am forever telling people to shoot at higher ISOs in order to be able to take sharp images in low light. You should all know, by now, the golden rule: NEVER UNDEREXPOSE AT HIGH ISO! Even if you follow that advice, low light will still have an impact on the quality of the image being taken. The extent of this impact will vary depending on how low the light is, how high the ISO is and what camera make and model you are using (older cameras and crop sensors generally don't perform as well as full frame cameras). As such, I thought it would be a good idea to let you know what the impact will be and what, if anything, you can do to counteract it. |
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"Dynamic range describes the ratio between the brightest and darkest parts of an image, from pure black to brightest white": per Adobe. It is measured in 'stops' of light. The human eye, for example, is able to see around 10-14 stops which is a high DNR. A Sony A7R III, for instance, has a high DNR at 50 ISO (around 14 stops). However, this drops to 10 stops at ISO 3200. In a Canon 7D Mark II the DNR drops to 8 stops at ISO 3200. The result is that at high ISOs, images will have a smaller tonal range (giving 'contrasty look' if underexposed or a 'washed out' look if over-exposed). To get the most out of your images at high ISO, make sure you shoot in RAW (if you shoot in jpeg you'll get even less DNR) and in post-processing, lighten shadows and darken highlights for 'contrasty' images and increase midtone contrast (and darken blacks) in 'washed out' images. |
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At high ISOs the CS of the sensor drops. In a Canon 7D Mark II the CS drops from 22bits at 94 ISO to 12.4 bits at 8693 ISO (DXOMARK). A combination of high ISO and 'exposing to the right' (making brighter) will result in a washed out looking image. As a consequence, you will need to darken highlights and blacks a touch in post-processing, as well as increase saturation, to get the image back to what it actually looked like in the field. |
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The higher the ISO the greater the amount of digital noise you will get. The best way to deal with this is to ensure you don't underexpose at ISO 800 or above and then to apply noise reduction to the resultant image (preferably with a specialist noise reduction software like Topaz DeNoise AI). |
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Great Egret: Olympus OM-D E M1 MKIII, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO lens, MC14 (1.4x) Teleconverter, f4, 1/60sec, at ISO6400. Sometimes noise can 'add' to an image. For this shot, it was VERY low light and I actually deliverately underexposed a bit at high ISO (6400) which resulted in the image having all of the issues identified above. I did lighten highlights and increase clarity in Adobe Lightroom, but I have not applied noise reduction or done anything else. I like the effect that 'doing everything wrong' has produced ('vintage'). In other words, there are always exceptions. Don't be scared to experiment. |
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So you have a great image and you want to get it printed as a 'fine art' print. What do you do now? Good question! It's actually not as simple as it sounds. Fortunately, there is a LOT of information on the internet and I've set out some helpful articles below. In the meantime, here is what I do... MY FINE ART PRINT PROCEDURE I edit my images in Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop (Nb. To see how an image will look at actual print size, view it at around 33% on the screen). I then save them at 300-350 dpi (minimum resolution for fine art, or 'giclee', prints) in Adobe RGB (colour space my printer uses) in TIFF file format. I then label and upload the image to a dropbox folder shared with my printer: Fitzgerald Photo Imaging (Fitzgeralds). The first time I get a print done, I always pay extra for the printer to prepare the file for print (check colours, sharpness, do upsizing etc). I highly recommend you pay the extra money to get this done for any fine art print as printing is a notoriously complex business and you can easily end up with the wrong colour hue, an image that is too dark or lacking contrast or that looks unsharp. Once this is done, I can add an image to my online store. When an order is received, I send the details to Fitzgeralds who then print (using museum grade, archival quality Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 308) and mail the order for me (that is, 'dropshipping'). |
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Here are some good articles for those wanting to try printing at home: |
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TOP TIP: You can get beautiful 'bokeh' effects like this in early morning or late afternoon light by shooting the bird against a distant spot of light such as a gap in tree foliage. Black Swan (F5.6, 1/1250, ISO 1000). |
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So, in my spare time I've come across some free stuff that I thought I should let you know about. |
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Are you running out of space to store images from your camera cards because you are Spraying and Praying? Try FastStone Image Viewer software. It lets you flick through RAW files as if they were small jpegs. I use Faststone to do an initial cull of my RAW images off the camera card. I 'copy' the images I want to keep to my desktop (shortcut "c"), delete the rest and then 'import' the 'keepers' into a catalogue using Adobe Lightroom (date order). Easy & quick. And FREE (Note: they do ask for a donation if you are happy with the software). | | |
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TIN MAN LEE is an amazing, award-winning wildlife photographer and a good hugger (I met him at WPOTY awards in 2018). I highly recommend checking out his tutorials. I set out below some free ones you might find helpful: |
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STEVE PERRY is a Nikon guru and, goodness me, he has some excellent videos you simply HAVE to watch (key concepts applicable to all cameras). Top videos I suggest you watch (at least): |
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"Art is an effort to create, beside the real world, a more humane world."
Andre Maurois, French Author
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www.evergreendesign.com.au Meet Robert Mancini, a professional designer (working in the conservation and environmental communications sector) and part-time artist, with a lifetime passion for birds, especially migratory waders, and their conservation. Whilst his early artistic work was in traditional mediums such as oils, watercolour and pastels (which saw him win a number of awards with the Wildlife Artists Society of Australasia, including Best Watercolour), today he finds himself in a very different 'visual space', with his work borrowing from diverse influences, including Pop and Street art and more recently delving into contemporary digital ‘Graphics’ of birds. |
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‘Here_Hooded Plover’Acrylic polymer paint on salvaged drawer |
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‘Helmeted Honeyeater and Australian Hobby’ Digital images |
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‘Bar-tailed Godwits’ Watercolour |
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‘Yellow-tailed Cockatoo panel’ Watercolour |
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'Journey_Black-tailed Godwits' Mixed Media on salvaged timber panel |
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As you can see from the above, Robert is never satisfied with staying in the same place visually, resulting in a diverse range of work. He feels his "best is yet to come..." Can't wait to see it! For enquiries contact Robert direct by email to: evergreen1@optusnet.com.au and don't forget to FOLLOW him on Instagram at @robmanciniart. |
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Australian Pelican with mohawk: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO lens, F8, 1/2500sec, ISO400. |
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Happy clicking everyone! Until next time! Take care, stay safe and keep well! |
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