Exposure bracketing in harsh light (Sooty Oystercatcher)

[Glenn Ehmke]

Canon EOS 30D, EF400mm f/4 DO IS USM @ 400mm - 1/250Sec. F8.0, EC 0, ISO 100 and 1/500Sec. F8.0, EC -1, ISO 100

I was in relatively harsh light when I got to this bird (about 11am in full sun) and often I wouldn’t bother shooting at all in those conditions. However I jusy can't resist Oystercatchers, so I and bracketed the exposure 1 stop up and down. I found that the uncompensated exp gave the best detail in the bird and the -1 stop exposure gave good detail in the sand and background. I then blended the bird (EC 0) onto the background layer (EC -1).

The only thing was that the bright oranges of the eye ring and beak were heavily overexposed - so I layer masked those areas out of the bird image revealing the underexposed oranges on the bottom layer which were much better.

Thoughts on the result? or technique i.e. is this the best way to deal with such a situation?

Cheers,

Glenn

[Fabs Forns]

Well, you did and HDR Oystercatcher :) Something difficult to do with live subjects. When that is not possible, you can always bracket your conversion.

It looks good as presented, only wish the dark patch on top was not above his head. It may need a bot of CCW rotation.

Beautiful bird, hope to see one in San Diego this week-end, only seen the Americans.

[Glenn Heinecke]

I don't know if it's the best way to deal with the situation, but I can't argue with the results! Nice capture. I agree about the CCW rotation.

Glenn

[Rich Ikerd]

Very nice job on the post processing with the three separate images Glenn. I've also found that, while a little unconventional, processing a single image with different exposures in NX and then combining them into an HDR image can result in a nice image that might not otherwise have been so nice. I think you could make this even stronger by cropping some of the OOF sand off the bottom - its just a tad distracting IMO (but then it shows you were about as low as you could get for making the image).