Metering Nightmares

Between these and tufted ducks are possibly the worse to get right.

D2X and Sigma 500mm f4.5

Hi Paul,

It looks a -1/3 underexposed to me, a slight lift will help the blacks more and the BG. Also a touch more USM might help. As for the white they shouldn’t change much. (Had a little play in Photoshop just).

Think you have done well here-look at the detail in the cheek and you have managed to get some colour in the head-I have been shooting these here and know the difficulties, I only shoot for the first hour on bright days and longer if its overcast-i like this-wonder why they are called goldeneyes

Dave

Hi Paul, the issue is that in the original image the whites are almost blown. Also it was shot at ISO 400 so the noise is very visible if i play with the shadow/highlights. Though the image is full frame except crop to rotate as i was on a bean bag.

Thanks Dave, glad you like it.

Hi Paul,

Do you find most images have too much noise after 200 ISO on the D2X? I am frustrated with my D2Xs after ISO 200. It causes me to bin so many images (after finding out about layers mind I am trying to save some but it's too time consumning).

Hmm in a word, no, but i've got used to the issue over a number of "generations". My first nikon was the D70, which was a bit worse than the D50/40 then i got the D200 as soon as it came out which was about 2/3 stop worse than the D70. So i got used to gentle NR and using layers to blurr the BG and then carefully sharpen the subject etc The D2X is about 1/3-2/3 worse then the D200 depending on ISO, so i think the max useable ISO is about 640 for 100% images, if you reduce the size to say 6mp you can get usable shots from the D2X to about ISO 1000, but as i have a D40 i use that is i have to raise the ISO much above ISO 400.

I think many people overlook the D40 and 50 thinking their purely amature cameras. But the beauty is that you stick it in M then use AUTO iso 200-1600 and you can just be creative with your controls. The Ruff image (the OTHER image) was shot with the D40 ISO1600, and after looking at images shot with the D2X and the D40 if both are at 6mp, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. The only real differences is due to the quality of the D2X's AA filter, which is no sharper than the D40 but is better quality.

As i think Andy Astbury found at the conference, i could go on for hours about different cameras and sensors, after some long chats with imaging sensor developers, i have some interesting tid bits which have been proved over a number of years.

Oh and keep your eye on that 14mp samsung sensor...

Cheers Paul!

Very nice image Paul

Co-incidentally I was photographing Goldeneye and Tufties on Saturday at my LNR. I think Tufties are harder to nail the exposure on.



Paul

Hi Paul,

I understand your problems with the whites in this one and i have decided to only go out when there is hardly any sun tot shoot Goldeneyes, Great White Herons etc etc.
This works well for me and i hardly ever have blown out whites anymore..
Also in early moring or late afternoon it is more easy to get the exposure right on these species.

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

This looks great to me in every way.

A lovely picture and Jeroens advice is now tattoed on my forehead as somebody who is too stupid to see the obvious and has always struggled with white birds. just a slight halo starting around its back and bill on my screen though. Better than all my goldeneye shots by a mile.
Eric