A many splendoured thing

Gallery: AvianPosted February 22, 2010119 views7 comments

Photograph taken on October 31, 2008 at The Celery Farm, Allendale, New Jersey.
Nikon D3, Nikon 200-400mm with 2X teleconverter, f/13.0 (exp.comp. -0.33), 1/2000, ISO 2000

For white birds like swans and egrets (in sunlight), getting the correct exposure can be difficult. I am gradually learning how to do this. I think I should have underexposed this some more to get more details in the white. Would like to know your experience and comments.
Kumar

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Michael Lotito on February 22, 2010 at 7:28 AM

I agree that you are a tad underexposed. The composition is great! I to am just learning and get my share of exposure issues.

Mike

Registered on June 26, 2009, 181 Posts, 1558 Comments

Comment posted by Angela McCain on February 22, 2010 at 7:45 AM

I really like your composition here. Bird pose is great. Reds reflected in the water are loverly. I think that the f13 was probably more than you needed for this shot. This would allow for a lower ISO and thus less noise in the background (although I have a D3 and continuously amazed at what the high ISOs look like). Again for this camera, I find I need to compensate -.3 or even -.7 for white birds in sunlight. You can correct, if needed, in RAW during post-processing. Overall good image.

Registered on April 19, 2009, 367 Posts, 3589 Comments

Comment posted by Kirk Greene on February 22, 2010 at 8:46 AM

You have captured a very nice moment here. My experience with capturing whites and preventing overexposure is simple..I utilize the histogram and shoot in manual mode. For this scene I would have been checking the right side of the histogram. My thought would be get the highlights as far right as possible without clipping. It looks like you did OK with the whites here. The midtones and shadows appear too dark to me. A quick curves adjustment in PS would take care of that.

Registered on May 12, 2004, 191 Posts, 1578 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Saunders on February 22, 2010 at 11:11 AM

A beautiful moment Kumar. I would lighten this one up and if you can, try to add some more canvas to the top.

Registered on February 6, 2008, 321 Posts, 3035 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on February 23, 2010 at 4:12 AM

Really like the compostion Kumar. i usually go with -2/3 with a white like this and then if I need to play with it you can in raw before converting the file.

cheers
Rob

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Kumar Patel on February 23, 2010 at 6:38 AM

Thank you very much for all your help. I will try your recommendations.
Kumar

Registered on February 16, 2010, 27 Posts, 36 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on February 24, 2010 at 10:51 AM

Kumar,

I love how the swan's are posed though I do wish there had been better light on the faces & bills. This dos seem dark as posted, and I would try to lighten this by bringing up the midtones if possible. A little more room above the swan's head would look good.

I like the dark tones to the water and the lovely reflection.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments