Something i am doing wrong or camera limitation?

[shane shacaluga]

I was hoping you guys could help me. I am currently using a Nikon D7000 for my BIF photography and following all your guidelines regarding exposure settings and pushing the histograms to the right

My problem comes when trying to raise shadow areas under the wings for example, I always get grain which i do not see on the photographs on this forum

A couple of examples of what I mean shown below (pics taken from my facebook) . Both pics were taken at ISO 800 and slightly cropped. First one was a bigger crop than the second

My question is, would upgrading to something like the D800 allow me to brighten the dark areas without this grain showing, is there something I am doing wrong when taking the picture or is it something else?

Noise reduction make the picture smoother but this big grain is not removed

Hope you can help ;)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/913853_10151643936017037_398899837_o.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/901810_10151597576302037_871206704_o.jpg

[Daniel Cadieux]

Those look like images that were quite underexposed and brought back up in post. With those bright BGs you really need to blow out the sky to get the subject properly exposed. At time of capture you think you expose correctly to the right according to the histogram...but that is all sky... the subject itself will still be much too dark, so in these situations you really need to crank up the exposure alot more than you are used to...to the point of really overexposing the sky (even to the point of it being a "blinkie"). Either that or hoping the subject comes close enough for flash...

[arash_hazeghi]

As Dan suggested you should not underxpose at first place. You have to learn how to use manual exposure and expose correctly in the camera. That is a key factor.

there is no question your camera's sensor is not as good as the one in a D800 for raising shadows so you cannot expect results like a D800, but then again you should expose properley even with a D800. Cropping too much is a killer too, espeically with cameras that have poor image sensors. It seems to me that you have cropped these images a lot, there is no detail in the plumage. If you use a short lens and hope to crop too much you will most likely never get a high quality image like the ones you see in the avain forum

hope this helps.

[Loi Nguyen]

Shane, I'm no expert, but have recently learned how to use Manual Exposure for BIF. First I took a guess, let's say around 1 to 2 hr before sunset, which may be like 1/2000, f5.6, ISO-800. Then I point the lens at the blue sky in the direction that I hope to shoot and check the analog scale in the viewfinder. For a darker bird like a Red Tailed Hawk, I'd adjust the ISO or SS to have something like + 1 1/3EV. That would be my first guess. If it is a white bird like a White Tailed Kite, I'd go with + 2/3 EV. For the bird you showed, I may go with + 1 EV as a starting point. Underwing exposure often requires more and unless the sun is not so intense, you would likely over exposed some part of the birds, have a few blinkies like Daniel said, to get the underwing properly exposed. It's still far superior than under-expose, which is very noisy. Like Arash said, try to minimize cropping. When I first started out 1 year ago, I cropped almost everything to get to the subject. Now, I try to minimize cropping. for an image of 1024X800 to be posted in BPN forum, I now rarely post anything less than 4 or 5 Mpixels. The less crop, the better of course. Also, Arash has an excellent guide for noise reduction when you are ready to move up to the next stage. It would be useful if you can post an un-cropped image of the birds you have here right out of camera without much PP. I'm sure Arash and Dan can give you good advice. Good luck.

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks for the pointers. Will post one if these pics as it came from he camera so you get a better idea. Need to fetch it from my external drive so probably be tomorrow.

Thanks again