After trusting my memory and getting burned to some degree on my previous post, the first thing that I checked this time around was the EXIF data. This image was indeed taken with a Nikon DSLR and tripod-mounted 600mm lens. The ISO was 200 and the exposure was f8 @ 1/800.
Wow, incredible detail, Charles. I'm wondering about how far above water level the rookeries are for these birds. Since you were shooting from a boat, I'm assuming they must be near water level?
Some of the nests are quite low Bill. I've seen American Alligators work their way up leaning trees short distances to grab and gulp down nestlings in single bites.
I felt a bit lucky with the whites Daniel. The metering was done manually. I subtracted 2/3 stop from the camera's reccomended matrix metering setting. I also use either a UniWB or NearUniWB preset. I'm not sure that I'm explaining it absolutely correctly here but, as I understand it, these presets yield histograms which more accurately match actual scene brightness. They take a bit of getting used to though. When viewed initially, images shot with these presets have a distinctly green cast which is later removed in post-processing.
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5 repliesI haven't seen any Ibis in these parts, but know they must be here. Most of the ones I have photographed were in South Louisiana.
I felt a bit lucky with the whites Daniel. The metering was done manually. I subtracted 2/3 stop from the camera's reccomended matrix metering setting. I also use either a UniWB or NearUniWB preset. I'm not sure that I'm explaining it absolutely correctly here but, as I understand it, these presets yield histograms which more accurately match actual scene brightness. They take a bit of getting used to though. When viewed initially, images shot with these presets have a distinctly green cast which is later removed in post-processing.