Have you ever tried....

[finnbay]

...to catch a single leaf as it falls? OMG, I thought chickadees were tough! Took about forty minutes before I came close with this one. Canon 50D, 100-400L, ISO 800, f/5.6 @ 1/6400 sec.

This one included just because I'm still amazed at the 50D high ISO clarity. Shot this at ISO 1600, f/5.6 @ 1/500 sec:

[Steve Foss]

Yeah, I tried the falling leaf shot and got so disgusted I brought my wife outside to hold the leaf so I could get everything set up in advance before she dropped it.

I know, I know, cheaters never prosper.

Nice work, Ken!

[MN Shutterbug]

Funny, I've actually been thinking about that lately. Now, I have motivation. I love the nut. He looks almost streamlined.

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Ken,just curious,how much noise do you see when you crop in 100%?

I'm asking because I see more noise in the sky on the iso 800 shot of the leaf than the 1600 shot of the boyd. For me,I always seem to see the most noise in the blue of the sky than in the dark places-where most folks say it is most visible.

Nice shots.

[Steve Foss]

In each of these cases, a close lasso of the subject, then selecting "inverse" to highlight everything but the subject and running Noise Ninja and a light guassian blur on the backgrounds would turn them totally buttery and smooth.

And I'm not saying these look very grainy, because they definitely don't.

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Quote:

a light guassian blur

I had that this morning!

Note to self: Never eat a $1.25 Totino's pizza right before going to bed!

I blurred for 30 minutes!

[finnbay]

MM,

I used the method Steve mentioned about lassoing, inverse and gaussen with the nuthatch. The leaf in the sky has had no Noise Ninja or blur applied. Hope this helps explain.

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Ken,I would LOVE to see you do some 40D/50D comparisons with the 70-2002.8. Say from iso 400 on up.

Please!

Gee, as if Ken don't have enough to do! But I'm really curious.

[finnbay]

Steve and I are going out for a drive tomorrow. Maybe I should hand the 50D to him to use with his 70-200, and I'll shoot the 40D with my 70-200. What say ol' buddy?

[yakfisher]

Now that looks like a challenge, I'm still trying to get an un-fuzzy duck heading the right way. Nice work Ken.

[Steve Foss]

Deal. Sucks to be me!

[MN Shutterbug]

I use a different method for selecting all but the sky, in shots similar to the leaf shot. What works much faster for me is to use the magic wand with the tolerance set at around 30, click inside the blue sky, which will select the whole sky, and then select inverse. With the shot of the boyd, I'd have also used the magic wand and then keep selecting "grow", until eventually the whole bg was selected, and then inverse. There is always more than one way to skin a cat. I just find this faster and less chance for errors.

[Steve Foss]

The magic wand is a darn good method too, X-T.

[yakfisher]

You guys keep talking about your magic wand and the girls are gonna think you're weird. Thanks for the tip though.

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Wands? Lassos? I need to get schooled on Photoshop! All I can do is crop,resize,and a little NN.

I'm pathetic.

[Steve Foss]

MM, if you do everything perfectly at capture you don't need to be a wizard at post processing. As for me, well, you know. The fact that I give pp tips tells you I've needed to "save" images in pp.

[Dbl]

Nice shot Ken, haven't tried that one myself.