Posted by Paul Hillion on February 24, 2007 at 6:54 PM
Again taken from public hide on a local nature reserve. 1DMkIIn and 500 f4L with 1.4x.
Posted by Rene de Heer on February 25, 2007 at 6:51 AM
Nice pose of this coot. I love the colour of the water. The whites are a bit blown though.
Rene de Heer
Posted by John MacTavish on February 25, 2007 at 11:11 AM
A good behaviour shot.
I see that it was taken from a public hide; probably means that you couldn't get out to get a lower angle.
Nits have been covered by Rene.
Posted by Richard Tynan on February 25, 2007 at 1:24 PM
I like the detail shown in the coots plumage and the colour in the water, is again, very nice.
Nice to see one actually doing something as well.
Posted by Paul Hillion on February 25, 2007 at 3:22 PM
Thanks for your comments. It's mentioned above that the whites appear a bit blown, I'd really apprciate it if someone could offer some advice on how I'd go about avoiding this?
Many thanks.
Posted by John MacTavish on February 25, 2007 at 3:48 PM
Hi Paul,
Chances are you've left the camera on one of the program modes here e.g AV, TV etc and let the camera's meter do all the exposure work?
I would suggest that if you're shooting in sunlight you would be better taking a spot reading of a neutral grey or green in the same light as your intended subject and use this as the base for a manual exposure. I would then underexpose this by 1/3 - 2/3 and carry on shooting until the light changed dramatically.
I find with digital it is all too easy to blow whites so I tend to expose for them and bring the shadows out later, if they need it. You could think about using flash as a fill for your shadows instead of post processing.
The vast majority of my karting shots are taken by spot metering off a mid tone in the light where I'm shooting and then shifting the reading by -1/3 and then shooting manually to keep this exposure reading. I find that I am constantly surprised how much detail is recorded in the shadows using this method and how rarely the highlights are totally blown, even given the huge range in colours and textures at these events.
Hope this doesn't come across as teaching granny to suck eggs, but you did ask
Posted by David Taylor on February 25, 2007 at 4:28 PM
Now I believe in reincarnation! It is a pity about the whites, but a really funny image nevertheless.
Discussion
6 repliesRene de Heer
I see that it was taken from a public hide; probably means that you couldn't get out to get a lower angle.
Nits have been covered by Rene.
Nice to see one actually doing something as well.
Many thanks.
Chances are you've left the camera on one of the program modes here e.g AV, TV etc and let the camera's meter do all the exposure work?
I would suggest that if you're shooting in sunlight you would be better taking a spot reading of a neutral grey or green in the same light as your intended subject and use this as the base for a manual exposure. I would then underexpose this by 1/3 - 2/3 and carry on shooting until the light changed dramatically.
I find with digital it is all too easy to blow whites so I tend to expose for them and bring the shadows out later, if they need it. You could think about using flash as a fill for your shadows instead of post processing.
The vast majority of my karting shots are taken by spot metering off a mid tone in the light where I'm shooting and then shifting the reading by -1/3 and then shooting manually to keep this exposure reading. I find that I am constantly surprised how much detail is recorded in the shadows using this method and how rarely the highlights are totally blown, even given the huge range in colours and textures at these events.
Hope this doesn't come across as teaching granny to suck eggs, but you did ask