Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)

[Martin Dunn]

A few weeks ago I invested in a new Nikon D7100.
I wanted to get in some practice before I went off on safari so I decided to try and get some photos of a pair of swans on a nearby farm, mainly to see if I could get to grips with shooting whites.

The background is not the best but I'd appreciate comments on how to improve on the exposure of the swan.

132657

Nikon D7100
Nikkor 300mm f4
1/500s
f11
ISO200

handheld

[Randy Stout]

Martin:

Good idea about pre testing before the big trip.

I shoot a lot of trumpeter swans in the winter, so have spent a lot of time learning how to handle their whites.

I almost always shoot manual, so that the meter isn't fooled by varying backgrounds. I shoot a quick frame or two freq to check the white exposure, review the histogram and watch for blinkies.

Because swans fly slowly, I often can take a frame when they are too small for the final image, but get in a quick histogram check, and still have time to be ready for the the actual shot.

The whites here look quite good (I am on my work monitor which reads whites a bit hotter than actual) so expect it will look great on a better monitor.

I like the action and angle in frame. Perhaps a bit tight on the left side.

Have a great safari.

Cheers

Randy

[Karl Egressy]

Exposure and detail look fine, so is the pose.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Martin, congrats on your new toy, and looks like you have put it to good use already. The whites certainly look spot on from here- great feather detail on the near underwing, as well as the head and neck. I feel the BG has helped, it makes the swan pop nicely. I agree, a little more space on the left wont harm.

Where are you going on safari?

[Martin Dunn]

Back to Timbavati for a week at the beginning of October, then to Klein Karoo. Really looking forward to catching up with old friends.

[Stu Bowie]

Thanks for your response. Enjoy.

[gail bisson]

I think the whites are perfect.
Love the detail in the underwing feathers.
Another thing that is often recommended is to set your contrast to -1 or -2 in your picture style because you are reviewing blinkies on a JPEG and not a RAW image.
I say this, because I screwed up a lot of my shots on a recent trip to Alaska because I had set my picture style (standard) contrast to +4. This meant that the blinkies I was seeing on the JPEG really were not too hot at all. Because I was exposing for the whites I ended up underexposing a lot of my shots. If camera is straight from the factory the contrast should be at 0 anyway.
Gail

[Arthur Morris]

HI Martin, The WHITEs are perfect. How did you meter the image?

[Martin Dunn]

Thanks Gail, Arthur.
I use mostly Aperture priority, with matrix metering.
For this session I was bracketing, 1 shot at metered and 1 shot at -0.7 (to save the whites)
Of course with a moving subject the 2 images are not identical and although on other poses I went mostly with the -0.7 shots, this one was actually the exposure suggested by the camera meter.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Gail, Arthur.
I use mostly Aperture priority, with matrix metering.
For this session I was bracketing, 1 shot at metered and 1 shot at -0.7 (to save the whites)
Of course with a moving subject the 2 images are not identical and although on other poses I went mostly with the -0.7 shots, this one was actually the exposure suggested by the camera meter.

Martin, No compensation worked well here with Nikon because there was so much WHITE in the frame. Here is the trick: once you get a perfect exposure, simply set that in Manual exposure mode and leave it unless the light changes. That way the amount of light or dark in the frame will not influence the meter. See my comments on exposure here (http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2013/09/18/just-so-you-know/). And see "Working in Manual Mode" here (http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2011/04/27/working-in-manual-mode/).

[Jonathan Ashton]

I reckon the whites are ideal (I am viewing using a calibrated screen), regards a composition maybe the bird is a little large in the frame but had it been smaller the background would be more eye catching and while it isn't bad it is not the best.

[Martin Dunn]

I agree that a bit more space would have been good but that's the problem with a fixed focal length lens. The only way to create more space is to move further from the subject. Not an option on this occasion.