“Hello Ron, Say, I was wondering if you’d ever consider posting the uncropped photo to illustrate distance to target? I never get the detail you get when I crop in like you. It’d be helpful to me if I better understood how far away the target was. Might help me manage my expectations better and guide me in how close I have to be to replicate the sharpness you continually obtain. It wouldn’t be a glamour shot I understand, but it’d be a teaching tool I think. Just my two cents…thank you in advance for considering this request.”<\/em> <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nOn the same day I received the request I took the following\u00a0shot of a Northern Harrier near the Fremont River in Wayne County, Utah. Because I liked the\u00a0eye contact and the\u00a0light on the underside of the\u00a0bird but the hawk was relatively small in the uncropped\u00a0frame I decided to use the photo to respond to\u00a0Zaphir’s request. Zaphir uses the same gear I do (including the 500 f\/4 with attached 1.4 tc) but this discussion\u00a0should also be\u00a0useful to other\u00a0photographers using different high quality\u00a0lenses.<\/p>\n
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![\"northern](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/northern-harrier-1000-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThis\u00a0version of the photo\u00a0was cropped to 42.5 % of the original image (8.5 MP of the original 20 MP). For me that’s an extreme crop. Typically I don’t go much below 50% (unless it’s a documentary shot illustrating behavior or some interesting physical feature) because\u00a0extreme cropping causes loss of detail and image quality\u00a0and significantly increases noise. And if your subject is not sharp it also makes the softness more obvious.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
![\"northern](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/northern-harrier-1000-uncropped-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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Here’s the full frame (uncropped) version of the image. Both versions were processed identically – the bird was selectively sharpened and some minor\u00a0exposure adjustments were made to the RAW file before I converted to JPEG.<\/p>\n
One of the major temptations of bird photographers is to crop too much because our subjects tend to be difficult to get close to and high quality super telephoto lenses are so ridiculously expensive. But doing so often defeats our primary purpose\u00a0of obtaining\u00a0high quality images with significant detail.\u00a0Cropping is a process of diminishing returns so it’s a conundrum.<\/p>\n
But who ever said that\u00a0bird photography\u00a0is easy? Or cheap?<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
PS – I’ve arrived home from my camping trip to Wayne County. It was a frustrating experience because my primary goal was Sage Grouse on a lek in the back country but I STILL couldn’t get to\u00a0the lek\u00a0because of snow and muddy roads at those high elevations. The only thing I wanted less than being “skunked” was becoming stuck on those dirt roads and “two tracks” and having to walk many miles back to my camping trailer in the wind and freezing temperatures. I do have my priorities…<\/em><\/p>\nI’m leaving to go shooting in a few minutes but I’ll respond to any comments\/questions when I return.<\/em><\/p>\n15 minutes later: I’m such a dummy sometimes! I’ve been rushing around trying to get ready to leave in time\u00a0so I can be at my destination at dawn. But this is one of the first times I’ve been shooting at home since the daylight savings change and when I opened the garage door it was still PITCH black outside and I realized that I’m an hour early. Sheesh…<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two days ago I received the following request from blog follower Zaphir Shamma:<\/p>\n
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