Wading Killdeer

[Bryan Hix]

I haven't had much of a chance to get out this summer, so with a nice high pressure morning, I set out to search my favorite spots. One of the places I go to is really odd. It is a shallow drainage pond behind a bunch of industrial buildings. I always find something there. This morning we had kildeer and spotted sandpipers and well as BW teal. I liked this shot because it's sometimes difficult to actually see a kildeer wading and the reflection and ripple I thought added a nice touch. The colors look more saturated when I converted it to JPEG for the web, so not sure what that's all about. I did rotate it, but please let me know if it needs more and if it is too tight of a crop. Also, the whites might be too bright as well. Thanks.

Canon 1DMk3
500mm f/4 with 1.4TC
ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/1600th
Manual, spot meter
From molar bag from car

PSE7-crop, rotate, sharpening, levels

[carole wiley]

Bryan,
I like your kildeer very much. It looks nice and sharp and the colors are pleasing. I especially like that you managed not only the reflection but the entire ring of ripples.

[Stu Bowie]

Bryan, your comp works well, and you have exposed the kildeer nicely. The rotation looks good, as the tips of the beaks line up, and I like the inclusion of the reflection. I would maybe run another round of USM on the kildeer.

[colincarter]

looks great, good composition, lovely reflection, punchy colours, well caught

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the setting, ripples, angle and eye contact. Another vote for more sharpening of the bird and I might remove the horizontal branch (?) left of the reflection.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Bryan, What did you spot meter on and how did you compensate?

[Bryan Hix]

Artie I thought I spot metered on the brown on the body thinking it was pretty neutral and dialed up 1/3, but once I started looking at it, I guess I am not so sure if that was enough.

[Bryan Hix]

Here it is again with whites toned down a notch and more USM. For some reason the whites look good until I convert it to a jpeg to post.

[Bryan Hix]

Not sure why that didn't post. Here it is.

[Arthur Morris]

Artie I thought I spot metered on the brown on the body thinking it was pretty neutral and dialed up 1/3, but once I started looking at it, I guess I am not so sure if that was enough.

Not sure what you mean by "dialed up." Let's say that the spot meter showed 1/1600 at f/5.6 off of the neutral brown body, how would you set your EXP?

[Bryan Hix]

-1/3 stop to make up for the whites against the dark BG.

[Arthur Morris]

-1/3 stop to make up for the whites against the dark BG.

Thanks Bryan, Assuming that the brown are a true middle tone, the proper way to get the whites right would have been -1. That is why your whites are either quite birght or blown. See the various threads on saving the whties in the ER for solutions to both.

Please do not take this personally as I have said it hundreds of times before, but 90 of the folks using spot metering and 99.9% of the folks using handheld incident meters have no clue as to how to get the correct EXP. (Man, I could go on and write a book here but I have already written two!)

If you are interested in learning EXP theory, I would advise getting a copy of ABP I and studying the chapter on EXP theory. If you wish to skip that (not recommended) you can learn how to get the right EXP quickly by learning to evaluate your histograms and adjust your exposures as needed by reading "Exposure Simplified" in ABP II. Learn more about both here: https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=32

[Arthur Morris]

Now on to the image itself in Pane 9; Nice COMP but would like to see more room on the right. Like the rings of water and the BKGR REFLs. The stick (???) in the water near the REFL of the tail is distracting.

[Bryan Hix]

Thanks Artie. I have your Photography II CDs. Obviously I need to go back and read some more. I was using eval metering until just a few weeks ago and then thought I would try spot. I need to probably pick one for the majority of the time or figure out what situation calls for which one. As far as the "stick" goes, that's actually part of the mud flat that the bird walked out to the water from. When I was taking the shot I debated keeping it in the frame, but my attention turned to the ripple and I thought that capturing the whole things would be worth keeping the mud/stick in the frame.

BTW, if I took critical advice personally, I would never post photos. If one wants to improve with anything, hopefully you find people that will be honest with you as well as get to the point quickly. Thanks for doing that. I am off with my coffee to find some more birds and try again. :)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Bryan, With digital, it really does not matter how you meter if you have time to make a test image.... As for the books, you gotta read em <smile>
Good luck!

[Bryan Hix]

Hi Artie,

Thanks again for your comments and advice on exposure. I just went out this morning and used what you said on a bunch of sandpipers and kildeer (good practice subjects), but I switched to evalutive meter instead of spot. It was consistently exposing well with no "blinkies" and I kept checking the histogram to push to the right. Here's my question, is there a rule of thumb that you use for what meter mode to use? It appears you tend to use eval more often than spot. What are the advantages/disadvantages of either? Thanks again for your help.
-Bryan

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Bryan,

re:

Thanks again for your comments and advice on exposure.

YAW.

I just went out this morning and used what you said on a bunch of sandpipers and killdeer (good practice subjects), but I switched to evalutive meter instead of spot. It was consistently exposing well with no "blinkies" and I kept checking the histogram to push to the right.

The metering mode that you choose rarely "exposes well" in varying situations. Even when in Evaluative Metering, it is the photographer who ensures a good exposure by adding or subtracting the correct amount of light as needed to yield a good histogram. It sounds as if you might have been doing that this morning....

Here's my question, is there a rule of thumb that you use for what meter mode to use?

That's an easy one for me. I use Evaluative metering 100% of the time. On my MIII bodies, I actually turn off all other metering modes.

It appears you tend to use eval more often than spot. What are the advantages/disadvantages of either?

With digital there are no advantages to spot metering for me. There is a long list of what I consider the disadvantges of spot metering in the original ABP. If you forced me to use spot or partial or whatever with digital, I could easily come up with perfect exposures with any of them because I understand exposure theory (ABP) and know how to evaluate and adjust the histograms (ABP II).

Folks spend too much time looking for the magic answer when they should be spending some serious time studying exposure theory (in this case). Please do not take it personally as I have clearly stated this premise both on BPN and in BAA Bulletins. <smile>

When I started 26 years (less three days) ago, there was very little if any good info on EXP around.... That is not the case today.