Exposure - Still Learning

[Lance Peters]

Hi - Well still getting to grips with exposure - hope everyone doesnt mind the post every few days - I am really trying to get to grips with the metering and exposure on the D3.

Taken on the way to work this morning (Composition is nothing great - but really just concentrating on EXPOSURE at this stage)

D3
Sigma 500mm @ 500mm
F4.5
1/320th
- 1.0 EV
ISO 200

Very Early morning.

Thanks

Lance

[Rod Wiley]

Lance I really like the water in this photo, If I had the time I would have shot two shots, one at 1.0 EV for the water and another at around 0 EV to maybe plus 1/3 EV and layered the two and I think the exposure would have been really nice. If you shot that in RAW you could open the image and brighten it by raising the EV by say 1 stop, save it,then layer it with the original one. Put the light one on the bottom and erase around the bird to show the bighter one below it. Be carefull around that white head you don't want to blow it out so don't erase that. Also I'll bet 4.5 is not the sweet spot of the Sigma 500. Rod

[Lance Peters]

Hi Rod - have taken your advice and made some changes - did it through masks to make the adjustments.

Lance

[Rod Wiley]

Very nice, I wasn't sure if you knew about maskes yet so I didn't go there. Rod

[Gus Cobos]

Very nice Lance,
I like the final third repost...:D

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Lance here is another variation on the image Good suggestions !!!

The basic image is under exposed Dark bg adn dark bird is not going to work at -1 The white face is a problem If the light is hard there is not much you can do about it. Would frame with less dead space under the bird and also moving back into the frame A slight head turn would have been in order

Setting wise I would recommend using a much higher ISO I do not hesitate using 1600 at all The D3 produces very clean images At 800 usually do not have to use Noise Ninja !!!! My rule of thumb is noise is better than blur any day !!!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Guys -
Alfred - yes I knew I was under - was trying to make sure I didn't blow the white face out.

thanks again for the tips - just learning so much from you all - many thanks.


Lance