Low Key Image in Fog and Snow

[Tom Stermitz]

Please tell me how I could have gotten a better shot given the fog and snow. This is a 1/3 crop from a larger image taken at 200mm with a DX sized camera, so there was quite a bit of weather between me and the Whitetailed Eagle. Those are pine trees in the background at about 100yds. Equipment was a Nikon D90 with 18-200mm, 1/1250, f5.6, +0.3EV. I used photoshop curves to increase the contrast a bit, but going much further doesn't really help.

My buddy with a full-frame Canon and the 100-400mm lens was pulling out shots with a whole lot more contrast and clarity. I don't know if it was equipment or technique.

Here is a screen shot of the histogram from the original (uncropped without contrast work) image:

http://photokinesis.us/Whitetailhistogram.png

http://photokinesis.us/Whitetail2.jpg

[John Chardine]

Tom- These are very difficult conditions and there is no magic answer. When I shoot in snow or fog I like the weather to show in the image.

First images of the bird flying towards you with good eye contact would a big improvement straight off, and regardless of the snow/fog. Once you have that then you can work with the contrast to reduce the effects of the weather. Attached is a simple solution- just run Photoshop Levels and try the Auto setting. Auto Levels is pretty crude and a better approach might be to nip up the left and right sliders (with the Alt/Option key depressed will show you clipping), then adjust the middle slider to taste.

[Tony Whitehead]

Not much you can do in these conditions - looks like heaps of fog and snow intervening. Histogram suggests more than +0.3 EC would have been better (ideally want histogram nudging the right side), then pull up the black point in levels. I assume the assessment of your buddy's images was done on the LCD of his camera. The only explanation I can think of is that his settings were for higher contrast in rendering the jpegs used for preview. Different equipment couldn't eliminate any of the intervening atmospheric issues.

[arash_hazeghi]

Problem here is thick fog and snow, not much you could have done about that. On top of that 18-200mm zoom lens has neither the reach nor the IQ needed for quality shots, you might get away with a 300mm but serious work starts with a 400mm.

[Arthur Morris]

John's repost is an improvement but with that much snow in the air you are in big trouble. Had it been all fog you could have made the image look pretty good.... Perhaps you were looking at your friend's images that were made when the snow let up a bit.

Go here: http://birdsasart.com/bn298.htm and scroll down to the foggy bear images....

[Ilija Dukovski]

Nice educational post, I'm thinking some out-of-the-box PP could
bring different quality to this one.
Artie's bears are really cool too.

[Tom Stermitz]

Yeah, I played around with white and black points in Photoshop, and only got about as good as John's example.

Arthur, My friend might have snagged a shot between snow squalls, but it seemed to me at the time that he was just doing better in the same conditions. From the back of his camera, his images looked a heck of a lot better than mine.

Sorry Ilija, I don't know what PP is. Sort of like elbow grease?

Arash suggests a better lens. While that may always be true, in this situation would a 300 or 400mm really solve the snow/fog problem. My friend may have been at 400mm, but his lens was a zoom, not one of those great fast primes. Actually, it was more of a snow situation. I relied on Nikon's automatic dynamic contrast to JPG.

Attached is a crop at higher resolution (I'm still guessing on what size works best on this forum). I really like the pose and the sly look the eagle is glancing back with. This was at one of the famous crane feeding areas in Hokkaido this past Feb. They lay down fish for the cranes, but you also get foxes and eagles swooping in for free snacks. I have a couple other photos from the trip I may send up for consideration.

http://photokinesis.us/Whitetail3.jpg

[arash_hazeghi]

If you can post the NEF file I will give it a try, Nikon Capture NX2 can sometimes save the day, but there is nothing you can do with the the snow.