October Project - Backlit: American Kestrel fledgling

[Kerry Perkins]

Captured this summer and just waiting for this theme...

This is one of this fledgling's first flights. I was fortunate to find the family nesting inside a hollow tree. There were four little ones and I watched them for several weeks as they grew and then fledged. I had metered off of some vegetation that was similarly colored.

50D, 400mm f/5.6
Manual mode, f/8@1/1000, ISO 400 WB 5100K
AI Servo autofocus, HH, no flash

[Arthur Morris]

Was the vegetation in the sun or was it shaded?

[Kerry Perkins]

Artie, I was shooting the birds on perches in the sun, so it was probably in sun. I would have opened up a stop for this shot. It would be cool if cameras recorded the meter reading while in manual mode because I can't remember. Generally, I will open up 1 to 1 2/3 stops for a backlit subject in the sky depending on how dark the plumage is. Does this sound reasonable?

[Joe Senzatimore]

I think you did a fine job on exposure for this. Love the light coming through the wings. Nice comp. as well.

[Alan Murphy]

Tough exposure which you handled well. Good detail too.

[Arthur Morris]

Artie, I was shooting the birds on perches in the sun, so it was probably in sun. I would have opened up a stop for this shot. It would be cool if cameras recorded the meter reading while in manual mode because I can't remember. Generally, I will open up 1 to 1 2/3 stops for a backlit subject in the sky depending on how dark the plumage is. Does this sound reasonable?


Hi Kerry, The are two things that most folks miss in situations such as this:

1-you meter off the vegetation that is in the sun but the bird's underparts are shaded.... For me, the bird here is still well under-exposed and I would bet that you lightened it in post :)

2- if you open up enough to properly expose the bird's underparts then you will toast whatever small part of the head is sunlit....

So, you did pretty well here. With a 50D the values you suggest should do well but remember to push as far to the right as you can while getting only a very few blinkies on whatever portion of the bird is lit by the sun.

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks Artie, I understand and I have not been so lucky in all of these situations. This one is in that state of "not properly exposed but not a silhouette". You are so correct, "fill light" in LR2 was my friend. :cool:

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> HI Kerry

I will often shoot at +2 or even +3 stops if I have a dark bird against a bright sky and fully cook the sky as it shows in RED when I open via ACR. Artie is right about lightening in post process I think. There is a bit of visible noise especially in the darker areas.

Nevertheless it is a wonderful capture with nice wing position and sharp as.
Also a huge congrats for the accolades in the photo comp recently.

Cheers