Photos - Production to Publishing
The goal is to publish a collection of high-quality photos for each species of frog, snake, turtle, bird, or mammal that spends one or more seasons in Southern Quebec.
Camera & Lens
Almost all photos are taken with my NIKON Z8 with NIKKOR Z 100-400mm lens for photos of animals, with NIKKOR Z 24-70mm for landscape, and with NIKKOR Z MC 105mm for macro shots. In rare occasion, I take a landscape photo with iPhone 11.
In more details, see:
Production
For the best results in wildlife photography, a strong understanding of the subject, its behaviors, and the camera's settings is crucial. The animal's movement speed and the light conditions must be translated into appropriate ISO, aperture, and shutter speed settings.
I always try to get as close as possible to the subject without disturbing the animal's natural behavior or putting myself in danger. The closer I am to the subject, the more flexibility I have with camera settings and framing options for an artistic photo.
In more details, see:
Post-Production
First, all files are transferred from the memory card to the NAS using Photo Mechanic 6. Once imported, Photo Mechanic 6 provides an efficient interface for eliminating unwanted shots and selecting interesting ones for publishing. Photos chosen for publishing are then edited in Affinity Photo 2.
- Exposure adjustment in RAW persona
- Reframe with crop if necessary
- Removing spots and other distracting elements
- Adjust highlights and shadows
- Remove haze (optional)
- Adjust saturation
- Adjust contrast with curves
- Sharpen with high pass live filter
- Add median blur 1px
- Add vignette (optional)
- Export as jpg
In more details, see:
Publishing Photos
When exporting the final edit of a photo, I am aiming for a minimum resolution of 5000x3333px. This allows me to publish high quality images as top banner on large screens and gives me some flexibility in future to increase quality of published photos.
I upload the exported JPG file to a Google Cloud bucket, which serves as the source for the CDN for my websites. I also create a note within my Obsidian vault to store metadata published with the photo and to link the photo to its species and location.
Occasionally, a photo is selected for publication on my Unsplash account. However, this applies to only a small number of my shots. Unsplash.
Even more rarely, a photo is chosen for print.: Printing Photos - Details
Disclaimer
I am not sponsored by, affiliated with, or receiving any incentives from any brands or products featured in this article. All equipment and software mentioned was purchased at market price, and any mention of specific brands or products is for informational purposes only and should not be considered a recommendation.