Egret

Returning to one of my challenges is it just me or perhaps my lack of technique, how do you hold the whites and obtain feather detail?
Cuckmere Haven E Sussex.

Canon 350D sigma 50mm-500mm hand held 120mm 1/500 f/6.3 ISO100

Advice and Critique most welcome.

Thanks for looking.

Barry

Eastbourne

Hi Barry,

The exposure is going to depend on the light , but a situation like this would need probably a -2/3 exposure, but this where bracketing comes into play, the beauty of digital is that you can play and see instant results, I'm pretty sure the 350D would have the facility that when you look at your image in camera the over exposed areas flash at you (cannot remember the proper title of this feature )

But let's be honest here Barry white and blacks subjects are the hardest things to get right, so practice and you will soon get the hang of it

The image as posted looks like a big crop as it is very soft and has artefacts around the bill and grass. Whites are a little hot in places but could have been alot worse!!

HTH

Regards

Rob

Very difficult scene to expose with that harsh light on a pure white bird and a dark background.
But agree with Rob, the image is very soft which spoils it for me. It's a shame because the point of view and composition is excellent.
Robert

how do you hold the whites and obtain feather detail?

Ideally it's best to avoid very harsh lighting but if that can't be avoided you need to expose for the brightest whites. Check your histogram and ensure it's as far to the right as possible without clipping any highlights. The midtone and darker areas will appear quite dull and under-exposed, these can be rescued to a certain extent, either by the use of fill in flash or by using a shahow/highlight, fill light, levels, or curves adjustment,etc. etc. at the image processing stage.

From your image, it appears you've tried to retain highlight detail which has allowed the other parts of the image go un-naturally dark, these areas need to be lifted/brightened using one of the methods mentioned above.

The ultra low viewpoint looking up towards the bird is great.

You still don't want to use a tripod do you Barry It won't matter what exposure you're using if the lens is moving about. The detail will suffer. What about a monopod? Anyway, you could look at the sunny f16 rule. Loads of stuff on the net about it. Oh and you could have gone to ISO 200 and got your shutter speed up to 1/1000 which would help handholding. In addition, under exposing would have upped the shutter speed or enabled smaller aperture.
Tough birds to shoot in not ideal sunlight though

I take your point Graeme but when your prone on the ground where do you put the tripod?

I'll keep on trying and thanks for the imput.

Barry

Eastbourne

I have loads of nearly shots of these birds and I guess that they will always be a difficult subject to expose correctly. I find white subjects easier on dull days. Good viewpoint as already mentioned, but the processing hasn't really worked too well. If this is a big crop, processing will be an uphill struggle anyway. I think that you will always be pushing your luck hand-holding a 500mm lens at a 500th, particularly on a static subject.
Eric