Swimmin' in the Sun

There was a time, not so very long ago, where capturing an image like this would have been nigh on impossible. Not that it's a great image, but the lighting conditions under which I shot it were nothing short of abysmal. The sun was extremely hot and strong and almost immediately above this bear's head (it was slightly behind the bear as well - so the bear was primarily toplit, with a small amount of backlighting). And, to make matters worse, the ripples in the background were producing blindingly strong reflections. So how did I go from squinting at the bear to this image? Well, it's a good case study in mixing traditional photographic techniques with modern "digital thinking."

My first challenge (after getting around the minor issue of finding an wild adult grizzly swimming on a sunny day!) was finding a way to significantly reduce the reflections and glare in the scene. The answer: simple - just use a polarizing filter! While "old timers" from the film era all know about the wonders of polarizing filters for outdoor shooting, I find many of those who entered photography in the digital era rarely carry or use them. While there are many, many things you can do to an image during post-processing on a computer, easily mimicking all aspects of what a polarizing filter does isn't one of them! In this case the polarizer cut enough of the reflections to effectively reduce the brightness range of the scene (i.e., the dynamic range) to something my camera's sensor could capture. And, did you know that polarizing filters are effective on ALL reflected light (i.e., not just that coming from a 90 degree angle)? Sometimes it pays to take physicists on your photo tours (thanks for the tip, Mike!). Anyway - simple take home lesson: if you're a nature photographer (digital or film), I'd recommend getting a polarizer (and learning how to use it)!!

Now comes the digital discussion. I feel strongly that there's a feedback loop that many nature photographers don't pay enough attention to. Almost all know to check their exposure, sharpness, and other parameters using their camera's LCD right after exposure (and to compensate accordingly on subsequent shots). We see this all the time and it's a process formally called "Chimping". You've seen it: something happens, the shutters go click, click, click, and then everyone's heads drop and they go "oh, ah, ooo, ooo" as they review their images on their LCD.

BUT, not enough photographers remember to use the "big feedback loop" where they apply what they have learned during image processing to influence their image shooting. In this case, and even though I was using a circular polarizer, I knew I had a huge dynamic range to deal with. The temptation would be to over-expose this backlit image to bring out shadow detail on the bear (many folks using spot metering to sort out the exposure on a scene like this). But, if you did that, the out-of-focus specular highlights in the background (those white circles in the background) would have been totally blown out (all highlights lost). Instead, I chose to UNDER expose the image, even though I knew that my RAW image would initially appear as little more than a silhouette of a bear. But, I've processed enough digital files from my D3 and D3s to know that there was actually TONS of colour and tonal information in the shadows that I could easily extract during processing without introducing noticeable noise. And, I'd STILL have my highlights! It's all about 'thinking digitally" and applying what you learn behind the computer to how you capture images.

One final note: When one employs the "shoot for processing" approach (as described above), it can be challenging to later decide how much shadow detail to extract (either for aesthetics or if you're trying to "reproduce" the original scene). Ultimately it's a subjective decision and up to the photographer. I'm sure some will feel that I've brightened the shadows on this one too much (Marsel are you out there?? ), and I did push this one a little to help make a point, but it does come down to an "eye of the beholder" thing...

Subject: Male Grizzly Bear (Ursus arctos) swimming on sunny day
Location: Khutzeymateen Inlet, BC, Canada
Camera: Nikon D3s
Lens: 400mm f4 VR - paired with 2x TC-20EIII teleconverter (800mm EFL) - hand-held from Zodiac
Exposure: 1/1250s @ f8; ISO 1250; -0.33 stop compensation from matrix-metered exposure setting of camera.
Crop: Negligible - this is about 95% of full-framed image

All the contextual information surrounding this shot (including processing details) can be found here:

http://www.naturalart.ca/galleries/latest/detail_2.html.

All comments and critiques welcome, but probably better to view larger image first.

Cheers...

Brad