.. Pelicans - saw these yesterday afternoon while coming back from office. Had a difficult time controlling the highlights. I think still a few places have blown out highlights. Shot with 7D, 300mm + 1.4X.
Appreciate your comments and critique.
Great set, Soubhik!! Acouple minor crops and this will be a killer bunch--id crop a little off the top of #3 (my fav of the set) and a little off the top of #5 too--so the lark's head is at 1/3 from top. You caught some great moments here
Posted by Bill Pelzmann on April 21, 2012 at 4:51 PM
Pelicans are fun !
Yeah, the highlights are tough with bright white feathers in full sunlight.
In those conditions, you could try underexposing even more for the highlights and then recovering the shadows.
LR 4 does a MUCH better job now with the shadow slider (as does the new Photoshop Beta), so you might want to experiment with that.
A really nice set, Soubhik! I think Bill's advice is probably dead on. Maybe Dan and Kurt will chime in with how they handle light like this as well. That first one is my fav.
Posted by Kurt Bowman on April 22, 2012 at 12:37 AM
Nice series Soubhik. I like #2 best personally. As far as controlling the highlights...I assume you are asking about controlling them out in the field vs. in processing? Hope so, because if you clip them in the field, not much you can do in processing. If they are just a bit hot, they can usually be corrected though.
So in the field, when I am shooting birds with heavy whites and some blacks, I always expose for the whites. BUT.....in a way so my darks are as far to the right on my histogram as possible. So in other words, just short of hot. Depending on the time of day and light you have, it can be anything from exposing from a +1/3 or 2/3's to -2/3 or even -1 sometimes if the light is harsher. Really you should just play with it when you first get to the fired and adjust accordingly. Not sure if any of this helps, but U hope it does!
All are excellent, and the Meadowlark is my favorite. The only one where the blown highlights are problematic for me is #3, just above the lower pelican's wings. Otherwise, I think they have minimal negative impact.
Not sure if they're at the same lake still, but years ago my wife and I used to go watch them at a small lake between Fort Collins and Loveland. I was working at Hach at the time (just saw your Linked-In profile). Quite the surprising find at the time; wasn't expecting to find pelicans in Colorado!
Rick - Great to hear that you worked for Hach
These were captured near Deer Creek natural area in Fort Collins, but I am not seeing these beautiful birds for last 2 days again, wondering where they have gone ..
Discussion
13 repliesAppreciate your comments and critique.
Thanks for looking.
#1 Provided a larger version.
Yeah, the highlights are tough with bright white feathers in full sunlight.
In those conditions, you could try underexposing even more for the highlights and then recovering the shadows.
LR 4 does a MUCH better job now with the shadow slider (as does the new Photoshop Beta), so you might want to experiment with that.
So in the field, when I am shooting birds with heavy whites and some blacks, I always expose for the whites. BUT.....in a way so my darks are as far to the right on my histogram as possible. So in other words, just short of hot. Depending on the time of day and light you have, it can be anything from exposing from a +1/3 or 2/3's to -2/3 or even -1 sometimes if the light is harsher. Really you should just play with it when you first get to the fired and adjust accordingly. Not sure if any of this helps, but U hope it does!
Not sure if they're at the same lake still, but years ago my wife and I used to go watch them at a small lake between Fort Collins and Loveland. I was working at Hach at the time (just saw your Linked-In profile). Quite the surprising find at the time; wasn't expecting to find pelicans in Colorado!
The small blown highlights in those shots don't bother me a bit. Great catches here, Soubhik!
Kurt - that was really helpful.
Rick - Great to hear that you worked for Hach
These were captured near Deer Creek natural area in Fort Collins, but I am not seeing these beautiful birds for last 2 days again, wondering where they have gone ..