This post is based upon an extended entry from January 15, 2012, on my photography blog. I’ve adapted it somewhat and am sharing it here on NPN as a follow up to a recent discussion in the Avian Gallery (that might have now been moved to Photo Art). The basic assumption of this article is "aim for perfection to achieve excellence."
Although this is written primarily for avian photographers much of it can be applied to any subject. My intention is not to force anyone else to adopt my standards or procedures; it is merely to share what I have found through years of experience to work for me. If you are satisfied with your current image quality or don't want to achieve the highest quality your gear is capable of producing then don't waste your time reading this.
Avian photography can be a difficult specialty. Many of us struggle to achieve quality images on a consistent basis, and even when we develop the skills necessary to do so we sometimes still fall short of our own quality standards. People just beginning to photograph birds are often overwhelmed by the challenges; or worse don’t even recognize that it takes time and energy and self criticism to get good at it. So, I’ve put together a list of ten factors that are critical to creating a quality image. This list isn’t complete, nor will everyone agree that these factors have equal weight.
1. Good Optics
The most important piece of gear for any photographer is a quality lens. The lens forms the image, and any lack of quality in the lens will get embedded in the process and limit the quality of the final result. A quality lens costs a lot of money, especially one that is long enough and fast enough for avian subjects. A quality lens will outlast the camera that hangs off the back. A quality lens will stand up to years of wear and tear in the field. I purchased my 300/2.8 AF-S Nikkor in 1998 when we were all shooting film. I used it on my first digital camera (Nikon D70), when I upgraded to a Nikon D200, and now on my pair of Nikon D300 bodies.
Novice photographers almost always try to enter the world of bird photography with inadequate optics, trying to use a general purpose zoom that tops out at 200 or 300mm, or a lens from an independent manufacturer (Sigma, Tokina, Tamron) that is a comparative bargain to a Nikon or Canon lens of the same reach.
A quality teleconverter (1.4x, 1.7x, and even 2x) used with a quality prime lens can often deliver high quality results (although never as good as a prime lens alone). An inexpensive converter used on a general purpose telephoto zoom is unlikely to produce adequate image quality for any serious work.
2. Get Close
Birds are small subjects (often tiny) with fine detail in the colorful plumage. To show this in an image the photographer needs to get the bird fairly large in the frame. To get the subject large in the frame a photographer needs to use a combination of a long focal length lens as well as reducing the physical distance between camera and subject. It takes a lot of optical power to make small birds (warblers, sparrows, kinglets, chickadees, thrushes, etc.) large in the frame: most bird photographers typically work with at least 400mm and usually rely on 500, 600, or more.
I use a high quality matched 2x converter (the Nikon TC20E III) on almost every shot I take with my 300/2.8 Nikkor – it gives me an effective 600mm f/5.6 optic that still auto focuses and can be focused on a subject just a few feet away without the need for extension tubes. But by using the 2x converter instead of a 600/4 prime lens I’ve compromised on image quality.
Even with a lot of optical power it is still necessary to get much closer to small birds than most people who haven’t tried it can imagine. Birders whose primary experience is viewing birds through 8x binoculars are often astounded by how much closer a photographer needs to be even with 600mm of optics. So learning how to get close to birds without scaring them away is a vital skill to develop.
Novice photographers often try to compensate for lack of optical power or not getting close enough to the subject by excessive cropping of the image. Although I find some cropping necessary on almost every image that I make to adjust composition, cropping is never a good substitute for getting a large subject on the sensor in the first place. Yes, digital camera continue to push the number of pixels on the sensor and it is tempting to think a 10MP crop from a 20MP sensor is just as good as an un-cropped image from a 10MP camera, but it is not. A lens can only deliver a certain amount of resolution (measured in lines per millimeter or line pairs per image height) – cropping essentially reduces the resolution of the lens. Cropping also makes the noise inherent in any digital image more pronounced.
3. Tripod or other Support
Big lenses deserve solid support. With practice a lightweight 300 or 400mm lens can be used without the use of a heavy cumbersome tripod. And technology has done a lot, with Image Stabilization (Canon) and Vibration Reduction (Nikon), to increase the stability of handheld lenses by two or three stops. But I find no substitute for a solid tripod for my work at 600mm. A good tripod (like my carbon fiber Gitzo 1325) relieves me from the strain of trying to hold a heavy lens steady and lets me shoot at shutter speeds of 1/100th second and sometimes even lower.
Yes, tripods are a pain to carry, set up, and use. But for me they are an essential part of maintaining overall image quality. A high end carbon fiber tripod with a gimbal head set-up helps minimize the frustrations of using a tripod, but at a penalty of high price.
4. Light
Light is obviously a necessity for any photography, but other than the amount of light novice photographers generally don’t pay much attention to light’s other properties. But for quality images it is important to note the contrast and color of the light. Best results are almost always achieved in the early hours of the day, just after sunrise. Light in the first hour is softer and warmer than at later times (especially mid-day); some of this same quality occurs again near sunset. If you want to avoid blowing out the subject’s highlights or blocking up the shadows then get used to being out as close as possible to sunrise.
With the exception of the most overcast days light also has direction. This is another quality of light that has an impact on image quality. The direction of the light controls where the shadows appear in the image and thereby defines form in the subject. Directional light is necessary to best define feather texture on a bird.
Yes, you can move the white balance slider in post processing to warm up an image and pretend it was taken in the pleasing warm light near dawn, but you cannot reduce the harsh shadows of mid-day light nor the flatness of heavy overcast by moving the white balance slider.
5. Focus
It is imperative to get the subject sharp when taking the photo. Pay attention to the auto focus point in the camera viewfinder, and be sure to place the AF sensor on the subject’s eye (or at least the face). Focusing on the eye is especially important when working near maximum aperture with long telephotos as the depth of field delivered at these settings is very narrow and allows no margin for error.
Precise focus will maximize the amount of detail recorded. Missed focus cannot be "fixed" in post processing by applying stronger Unsharp Mask filtering. Learn to pay attention to focus, and reject any image in the editing stage that doesn’t show precise sharp focus.
6. Composition (Subject position, angle of view)
Small position changes of the subject can make a large difference in the image. In almost all cases the light needs to fall upon the subject’s eye to give it life and draw the viewer into the image. It is necessary to pay attention to the eye through the camera viewfinder so that the shutter is released only when there’s a good catchlight showing.
The angle of view is also an important consideration. shooting from the same level as the subject, rather than employing a steep up or down angle, can give the subject dignity and make it look more natural.
7. Setting
Showing the subject in appropriate habitat gives context to the image. The setting also gives more options for the composition and reduces the need to make the subject so large it fills the frame with little else showing in the image.
The challenge of habitat is keeping it from becoming merely clutter and a distraction to the subject. Carelessness with habitat should never be excused with a statement of "well, that’s where the bird lives."
8. Exposure
Proper exposure is important to showing the subject’s color and features naturally. Over exposure will cause loss of important highlight detail that cannot be recovered in raw conversion or post processing. Under exposure will block up shadows and lead to very pronounced noise if exposure correction is applied later in raw conversion.
Digital cameras have gotten remarkably good at higher ISO values (astonishingly so to those of us who started with film and considered ISO 200 to be high speed). This makes it easier to use big lenses in low light conditions and still keep shutter speeds high enough to stop subject motion. But never use a higher ISO setting than you need because as the ISO is pushed higher on any camera the noise in the image goes up as well and the overall resolution goes down. Yes, you can always apply noise reduction in post processing to clean up the image, but noise reduction also takes a toll on fine detail.
9. RAW conversion
Any photographer hoping to maximize image quality needs to be shooting in raw rather than jpeg. Raw conversion allows the most information to be extracted from the digital file created by the camera. In raw conversion the exposure and white balance should be fine tuned, but saturation, clarity, and vibrance should be left alone. The raw conversion plug-in that comes with Adobe Photoshop (known as ACR for Adobe Camera Raw) does an excellent job, but you may find that the software create by your camera manufacturer does better.
10. Post Processing
Every digital image needs some degree of post processing to bring out the best quality. Any small imperfections from dust on the digital sensor should be fixed. Tonal range should be adjusted with levels and curves. Using selections and masks allows small troublesome areas to be adjusted separately as needed.
Once all tonal issues have been taken care of the image can be resized for final use. Only at this point should any sharpening be considered.
Summary
All of these factors work together to determine overall image quality. Falling short on any factor will impact the final image. For maximum image quality it is necessary to pay attention to every step in the imaging process. The result of our photography is dependent upon every step in the process and every corner we cut along the way has a cumulative effect on the end result.
Is all this fuss over maximizing image quality worth it? I think so, but only you can answer that for your own goals. I find rewarding to do my best work and share only the images that I am happy with. It is also nice to have a publisher inquire about an image they've seen on your web site or blog and be able to deliver it to them at high resolution and quality for use in a book or magazine without having to explain to them that you only have a web-sized version to offer.
This very nicely written, and contains a wealth of very valuable information. You might consider doing an illustrated article for publication here at NPN.
As most of you know, I am a landscape person using 4x5., but I will say I have a very great respect for avian photographers!
Equipment of the highest quality one can afford is certainly requisite, but excellence with photography requires commitment, discipline and passion; qualities that you allude to in your artcle.
Thanks for posting, Richard. I am certain your suggestions will be helpful to all.
Well done and written Richard. I would add something that I think is very important as well and feel free to use this to expand your own article or blog. Maybe this isn't adding to, but I would emphasize even more #10 in your post processing.
If one has taken great care and paid attention to all those other elements that contribute to achieving quality images, the final steps are just as important. Why, after making all those careful considerations to achieve the best possible photograph, would you then not spend the time to clone out dust spots, straighten a horizon or clone out an errant weed, pebble or blade of grass? Don't be afraid to crop your image to help emphasize your subject, form, flow or composition. If you make sure you're choosing the right white balance or filters in the field, spend just as much effort in color correct, saturation and overall color in your workflow.
In the end - and this is my pet peeve, if you make the effort the make your image the best it possibly can be, then you're more likely to get comments about your images impact, emotional appeal, mood, etc. that getting comments about dust bunnies and tilted horizons.
Well written & straight forward, this will help the novice as well as experienced photographers Rich.
In my case, I have a question with regards to # 9 Raw Conversion.
"In raw conversion the exposure and white balance should be fine tuned, but saturation, clarity, and vibrance should be left alone."
In raw development I have always adjusted for exposure & WB of course..I also often adjust using the tonal adjustment feature in my Canon DPP software, which affects contrast to a degree.
MY QUESTION IS THIS: I've also made very "slight" adjustments to saturation & contrast if necessary. Why is this a bad thing? Excuse my ignorance, but I'm here to learn. I hate to admit I may have been doing something wrong for years, but not too proud to ask..
Occasionally I get inquiries from aspiring bird photographers asking how they can get higher quality images. Answering them always takes an inordinate amount of time. I've now bookmarked this post and in the future will simply send them this link.
MY QUESTION IS THIS: I've also made very "slight" adjustments to saturation & contrast if necessary. Why is this a bad thing? Excuse my ignorance, but I'm here to learn. I hate to admit I may have been doing something wrong for years, but not too proud to ask..
- Howard Cheek
I don't consider this to be a bad thing necessarily; especially if it is limited to slight adjustments. I just personally prefer to make these adjustments via Layers in Photoshop where I can do it with a lot more control and where I can also fine tune each adjustment if needed after I've made all the other adjustments.
When I wrote this for my blog in January I was focused on the front end steps where I thought it would be of more value to people just getting into avian photography and I didn't want to get into the technical issues of raw conversion and post processing any more than necessary. I've worked an example "Raw to Jpeg" on my web site that covers a typical work flow for an image that only needs fine tuning.
Coincidentally I'm reading Adobe Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques by Ben Willmore at the moment. This is from Adobe Press and I couldn't resist getting yet another book when I saw it at the Friends of the Library shop for $1 a couple weeks ago. Willmore makes the same observation in the chapter on using Camera Raw:
I consider the Contrast slider to be optional. Most of the time, I'd rather adjust the contrast of my images using curves becase they provide much more control than I'd get by moving a generic Contrast slider.
I think of the Saturation slider as optional. The truth is, you'll have much more control over your image if you adjust it in Photoshop with the Hue/Saturation dialog box.
As I wrote at the start of this article, these are things I've found that work for me. That doesn't mean they are the best way to do things, or the only way. I've seen no evidence in any of the images that you have posted in Avian to make me think that you are doing something "bad" in your work flow.
Adjustments in ACR or Lightroom Develop Module (exact same thing) vs. Photoshop is a purely personal choice here.
Like Richard, I do minimal adjustments during the RAW conversion phase, but ACR/LR have gotten so good recently that many folks seem to be able to achieve almost all of their optimizing workflow using them. ACR has come a long way from the CS2 days.
Great article, and very well done. One thing that I think might add to this happens before you even pick up the camera, and that is to have a clear idea beforehand of the habits of your subject and the conditions that you might find them in. That usually determines the equipment that you bring along. I think this probably goes for all types of photography, but to use birds as an example, will you be hand holding a big lens? Will you need a blind? Jungle or desert light? How do the birds act, especially during the different cycles of migration, breeding, nesting.. and so on? Is it really possible to "get close", or do you have to outsmart them somehow? How many times have we been out in the field and figured out that we had the wrong equipment? Plan ahead.
Patience is another important attribute that is a key component.
I also notice times when there are a few photographers together shooting at the same place, three or four will usually be talking about cameras and lenses, while the rest of us are paying attention to what the birds are doing and getting the shot. If you go out to take photos, then take photos. If you don't get the shot onto your CF card, no amount of Photoshop is going to create it for you. Be quiet and pay attention.
Great article. It seems with the ever increasing pixel count of modern sensors, many novices are convincing themselves that they can use shorter lenses and crop heavily to end up with the same end result. It is easy to rationalize when one is faced with the prospect of spending several thousand dollars on glass. It has also taken me a LONG time to fully appreciate the basics of good technique mentioned in the article. Plus I have to say I never would have made the progress that I have without participating in NPN and similar forums. This is a good place to learn.
Posted by Ed Williams on July 12, 2012 at 12:00 AM
This is really helpful Richard. Thank you for posting it. I think there is no substitute for putting in the hours and effort to learn and study the craft. and practice, practice, practice until you get it closer to right. . . thanks for your help. I agree that this would be a good article for the NPN publication.
Discussion
12 repliesThis post is based upon an extended entry from January 15, 2012, on my photography blog. I’ve adapted it somewhat and am sharing it here on NPN as a follow up to a recent discussion in the Avian Gallery (that might have now been moved to Photo Art). The basic assumption of this article is "aim for perfection to achieve excellence."
Although this is written primarily for avian photographers much of it can be applied to any subject. My intention is not to force anyone else to adopt my standards or procedures; it is merely to share what I have found through years of experience to work for me. If you are satisfied with your current image quality or don't want to achieve the highest quality your gear is capable of producing then don't waste your time reading this.
Avian photography can be a difficult specialty. Many of us struggle to achieve quality images on a consistent basis, and even when we develop the skills necessary to do so we sometimes still fall short of our own quality standards. People just beginning to photograph birds are often overwhelmed by the challenges; or worse don’t even recognize that it takes time and energy and self criticism to get good at it. So, I’ve put together a list of ten factors that are critical to creating a quality image. This list isn’t complete, nor will everyone agree that these factors have equal weight.
1. Good Optics
The most important piece of gear for any photographer is a quality lens. The lens forms the image, and any lack of quality in the lens will get embedded in the process and limit the quality of the final result. A quality lens costs a lot of money, especially one that is long enough and fast enough for avian subjects. A quality lens will outlast the camera that hangs off the back. A quality lens will stand up to years of wear and tear in the field. I purchased my 300/2.8 AF-S Nikkor in 1998 when we were all shooting film. I used it on my first digital camera (Nikon D70), when I upgraded to a Nikon D200, and now on my pair of Nikon D300 bodies.
Novice photographers almost always try to enter the world of bird photography with inadequate optics, trying to use a general purpose zoom that tops out at 200 or 300mm, or a lens from an independent manufacturer (Sigma, Tokina, Tamron) that is a comparative bargain to a Nikon or Canon lens of the same reach.
A quality teleconverter (1.4x, 1.7x, and even 2x) used with a quality prime lens can often deliver high quality results (although never as good as a prime lens alone). An inexpensive converter used on a general purpose telephoto zoom is unlikely to produce adequate image quality for any serious work.
2. Get Close
Birds are small subjects (often tiny) with fine detail in the colorful plumage. To show this in an image the photographer needs to get the bird fairly large in the frame. To get the subject large in the frame a photographer needs to use a combination of a long focal length lens as well as reducing the physical distance between camera and subject. It takes a lot of optical power to make small birds (warblers, sparrows, kinglets, chickadees, thrushes, etc.) large in the frame: most bird photographers typically work with at least 400mm and usually rely on 500, 600, or more.
I use a high quality matched 2x converter (the Nikon TC20E III) on almost every shot I take with my 300/2.8 Nikkor – it gives me an effective 600mm f/5.6 optic that still auto focuses and can be focused on a subject just a few feet away without the need for extension tubes. But by using the 2x converter instead of a 600/4 prime lens I’ve compromised on image quality.
Even with a lot of optical power it is still necessary to get much closer to small birds than most people who haven’t tried it can imagine. Birders whose primary experience is viewing birds through 8x binoculars are often astounded by how much closer a photographer needs to be even with 600mm of optics. So learning how to get close to birds without scaring them away is a vital skill to develop.
Novice photographers often try to compensate for lack of optical power or not getting close enough to the subject by excessive cropping of the image. Although I find some cropping necessary on almost every image that I make to adjust composition, cropping is never a good substitute for getting a large subject on the sensor in the first place. Yes, digital camera continue to push the number of pixels on the sensor and it is tempting to think a 10MP crop from a 20MP sensor is just as good as an un-cropped image from a 10MP camera, but it is not. A lens can only deliver a certain amount of resolution (measured in lines per millimeter or line pairs per image height) – cropping essentially reduces the resolution of the lens. Cropping also makes the noise inherent in any digital image more pronounced.
3. Tripod or other Support
Big lenses deserve solid support. With practice a lightweight 300 or 400mm lens can be used without the use of a heavy cumbersome tripod. And technology has done a lot, with Image Stabilization (Canon) and Vibration Reduction (Nikon), to increase the stability of handheld lenses by two or three stops. But I find no substitute for a solid tripod for my work at 600mm. A good tripod (like my carbon fiber Gitzo 1325) relieves me from the strain of trying to hold a heavy lens steady and lets me shoot at shutter speeds of 1/100th second and sometimes even lower.
Yes, tripods are a pain to carry, set up, and use. But for me they are an essential part of maintaining overall image quality. A high end carbon fiber tripod with a gimbal head set-up helps minimize the frustrations of using a tripod, but at a penalty of high price.
4. Light
Light is obviously a necessity for any photography, but other than the amount of light novice photographers generally don’t pay much attention to light’s other properties. But for quality images it is important to note the contrast and color of the light. Best results are almost always achieved in the early hours of the day, just after sunrise. Light in the first hour is softer and warmer than at later times (especially mid-day); some of this same quality occurs again near sunset. If you want to avoid blowing out the subject’s highlights or blocking up the shadows then get used to being out as close as possible to sunrise.
With the exception of the most overcast days light also has direction. This is another quality of light that has an impact on image quality. The direction of the light controls where the shadows appear in the image and thereby defines form in the subject. Directional light is necessary to best define feather texture on a bird.
Yes, you can move the white balance slider in post processing to warm up an image and pretend it was taken in the pleasing warm light near dawn, but you cannot reduce the harsh shadows of mid-day light nor the flatness of heavy overcast by moving the white balance slider.
5. Focus
It is imperative to get the subject sharp when taking the photo. Pay attention to the auto focus point in the camera viewfinder, and be sure to place the AF sensor on the subject’s eye (or at least the face). Focusing on the eye is especially important when working near maximum aperture with long telephotos as the depth of field delivered at these settings is very narrow and allows no margin for error.
Precise focus will maximize the amount of detail recorded. Missed focus cannot be "fixed" in post processing by applying stronger Unsharp Mask filtering. Learn to pay attention to focus, and reject any image in the editing stage that doesn’t show precise sharp focus.
6. Composition (Subject position, angle of view)
Small position changes of the subject can make a large difference in the image. In almost all cases the light needs to fall upon the subject’s eye to give it life and draw the viewer into the image. It is necessary to pay attention to the eye through the camera viewfinder so that the shutter is released only when there’s a good catchlight showing.
The angle of view is also an important consideration. shooting from the same level as the subject, rather than employing a steep up or down angle, can give the subject dignity and make it look more natural.
7. Setting
Showing the subject in appropriate habitat gives context to the image. The setting also gives more options for the composition and reduces the need to make the subject so large it fills the frame with little else showing in the image.
The challenge of habitat is keeping it from becoming merely clutter and a distraction to the subject. Carelessness with habitat should never be excused with a statement of "well, that’s where the bird lives."
8. Exposure
Proper exposure is important to showing the subject’s color and features naturally. Over exposure will cause loss of important highlight detail that cannot be recovered in raw conversion or post processing. Under exposure will block up shadows and lead to very pronounced noise if exposure correction is applied later in raw conversion.
Digital cameras have gotten remarkably good at higher ISO values (astonishingly so to those of us who started with film and considered ISO 200 to be high speed). This makes it easier to use big lenses in low light conditions and still keep shutter speeds high enough to stop subject motion. But never use a higher ISO setting than you need because as the ISO is pushed higher on any camera the noise in the image goes up as well and the overall resolution goes down. Yes, you can always apply noise reduction in post processing to clean up the image, but noise reduction also takes a toll on fine detail.
9. RAW conversion
Any photographer hoping to maximize image quality needs to be shooting in raw rather than jpeg. Raw conversion allows the most information to be extracted from the digital file created by the camera. In raw conversion the exposure and white balance should be fine tuned, but saturation, clarity, and vibrance should be left alone. The raw conversion plug-in that comes with Adobe Photoshop (known as ACR for Adobe Camera Raw) does an excellent job, but you may find that the software create by your camera manufacturer does better.
10. Post Processing
Every digital image needs some degree of post processing to bring out the best quality. Any small imperfections from dust on the digital sensor should be fixed. Tonal range should be adjusted with levels and curves. Using selections and masks allows small troublesome areas to be adjusted separately as needed.
Once all tonal issues have been taken care of the image can be resized for final use. Only at this point should any sharpening be considered.
Summary
All of these factors work together to determine overall image quality. Falling short on any factor will impact the final image. For maximum image quality it is necessary to pay attention to every step in the imaging process. The result of our photography is dependent upon every step in the process and every corner we cut along the way has a cumulative effect on the end result.
Is all this fuss over maximizing image quality worth it? I think so, but only you can answer that for your own goals. I find rewarding to do my best work and share only the images that I am happy with. It is also nice to have a publisher inquire about an image they've seen on your web site or blog and be able to deliver it to them at high resolution and quality for use in a book or magazine without having to explain to them that you only have a web-sized version to offer.
This very nicely written, and contains a wealth of very valuable information. You might consider doing an illustrated article for publication here at NPN.
As most of you know, I am a landscape person using 4x5., but I will say I have a very great respect for avian photographers!
Equipment of the highest quality one can afford is certainly requisite, but excellence with photography requires commitment, discipline and passion; qualities that you allude to in your artcle.
Thanks for posting, Richard. I am certain your suggestions will be helpful to all.
--P
If one has taken great care and paid attention to all those other elements that contribute to achieving quality images, the final steps are just as important. Why, after making all those careful considerations to achieve the best possible photograph, would you then not spend the time to clone out dust spots, straighten a horizon or clone out an errant weed, pebble or blade of grass? Don't be afraid to crop your image to help emphasize your subject, form, flow or composition. If you make sure you're choosing the right white balance or filters in the field, spend just as much effort in color correct, saturation and overall color in your workflow.
In the end - and this is my pet peeve, if you make the effort the make your image the best it possibly can be, then you're more likely to get comments about your images impact, emotional appeal, mood, etc. that getting comments about dust bunnies and tilted horizons.
Just my two cents. Thanks for posting Richard.
Lon
Sandy
In my case, I have a question with regards to # 9 Raw Conversion.
"In raw conversion the exposure and white balance should be fine tuned, but saturation, clarity, and vibrance should be left alone."
In raw development I have always adjusted for exposure & WB of course..I also often adjust using the tonal adjustment feature in my Canon DPP software, which affects contrast to a degree.
MY QUESTION IS THIS: I've also made very "slight" adjustments to saturation & contrast if necessary. Why is this a bad thing? Excuse my ignorance, but I'm here to learn. I hate to admit I may have been doing something wrong for years, but not too proud to ask..
This is excellent.
- Howard Cheek
I don't consider this to be a bad thing necessarily; especially if it is limited to slight adjustments. I just personally prefer to make these adjustments via Layers in Photoshop where I can do it with a lot more control and where I can also fine tune each adjustment if needed after I've made all the other adjustments.
When I wrote this for my blog in January I was focused on the front end steps where I thought it would be of more value to people just getting into avian photography and I didn't want to get into the technical issues of raw conversion and post processing any more than necessary. I've worked an example "Raw to Jpeg" on my web site that covers a typical work flow for an image that only needs fine tuning.
Coincidentally I'm reading Adobe Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques by Ben Willmore at the moment. This is from Adobe Press and I couldn't resist getting yet another book when I saw it at the Friends of the Library shop for $1 a couple weeks ago. Willmore makes the same observation in the chapter on using Camera Raw:
As I wrote at the start of this article, these are things I've found that work for me. That doesn't mean they are the best way to do things, or the only way. I've seen no evidence in any of the images that you have posted in Avian to make me think that you are doing something "bad" in your work flow.
Like Richard, I do minimal adjustments during the RAW conversion phase, but ACR/LR have gotten so good recently that many folks seem to be able to achieve almost all of their optimizing workflow using them. ACR has come a long way from the CS2 days.
Great article, and very well done. One thing that I think might add to this happens before you even pick up the camera, and that is to have a clear idea beforehand of the habits of your subject and the conditions that you might find them in. That usually determines the equipment that you bring along. I think this probably goes for all types of photography, but to use birds as an example, will you be hand holding a big lens? Will you need a blind? Jungle or desert light? How do the birds act, especially during the different cycles of migration, breeding, nesting.. and so on? Is it really possible to "get close", or do you have to outsmart them somehow? How many times have we been out in the field and figured out that we had the wrong equipment? Plan ahead.
Patience is another important attribute that is a key component.
I also notice times when there are a few photographers together shooting at the same place, three or four will usually be talking about cameras and lenses, while the rest of us are paying attention to what the birds are doing and getting the shot. If you go out to take photos, then take photos. If you don't get the shot onto your CF card, no amount of Photoshop is going to create it for you. Be quiet and pay attention.