Hooded Merganser

[Doug Schurman]

Hello all,

This was taken with Canon 7D 400mm f5.6 at 1/800, f5.6 and iso 1600.

I'm new to photography and birding this year. Earlier in the year I had little success with getting any decent images above iso 800. Recently I've been reading about some camera adjustments to get the histogram on the camera LCD to reflect as accurate as possible what the raw file will look like. The idea then is I can have a more accurate view when trying to push exposure to the right (which is my understanding one factor for getting less noisy images on higher iso shots).

I do all my PP in Lightroom 3 right now. It seems to limit me somewhat in that my sharpening and noise reduction since they are mostly global. The eye on this male looked a little odd so I did some local adjustments there. I plan to add Photoshop in the future to my workflow to allow greater options. I also did so cloning to remove little floating bits in the water. I know there are more but I did remove a lot of the more noticeable ones.

I think this image is certainly better than any of my previous ISO 1600 shots. I suspect it might be a little easier with a subject that did not have both black and white coloring.

All comments and feedback would be greatly appreciated as I know I have so much to learn.

Thanks

http://www.bodyresults.com/host/hooded-2.jpg

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Nice looking bird Doug. You certainly have a tough exposure regarding the bright white areas as they are somewhat lacking in detail in this image. Perhaps it's the small web jpeg that is the reason behind that. The light coming from your right also (possibly) contributed to the difficult exposure situation since you have dark plumage in shaded areas and bright whites in the light areas. The head angle (HA) is not ideal for this type of image as you would want the bird to be looking slightly towards you. the angle it's got away from you, if you make that the angle towards you it would be perfect. He is missing a lot of detail overall perhaps from either heavy noise reduction or a significant crop. How much of a crop is it? I like that water and the overall colors in your bird. :)

[Daniel Cadieux]

Akos has it covered pretty much. Light and head angles are the two major detractors here. Tough exposure situation, with resulting blown whites on the crown and breast feathers. Exposing for the whites and adding some flash would have been good...but even better, if it was possible, would have been to place yourself with the sun at your back. Lightroom is not as intricate as PS for sharpening purposes...but you could be a little more agressive with it as posted. Beautiful subject though, and I love the water colour and texture. Nice looking reflection too.

[Randy Stout]

Doug:

Excellent advice above. I was out shooting hooded mergansers this morning in Michigan, and they rank right up there with common loons in regards to challenging birds to expose well because of their black and white coloration.

They leave very little room for error in exposure. Yes, fill flash can help even out the lighting, and I use it a lot for them, but it adds another variable on the exposure, so not a panacea. Soft light, and light at the right angle are critical. I would add that you would be better served to shoot them at a lower ISO whenever possible. Were you shooting off a tripod, or hand held? If using a tripod, which would be advisable when possible, you could probably get by with a bit less shutter speed, and lower the ISO a bit.

They are great characters, and rewarding, but frustrating to shoot at times, because of the exposure issues.

Have fun, keep tweaking, and we look forward to your next posts.

Cheers

Randy

[Doug Schurman]

Thanks for the responses guys.

One thing that is interesting is in Lightroom, it doesn't show the exposure is blow in the indicators. I have the red turned on for blow highlight areas and when I used the recovery and lowered brightness the indicators of blown highlights went away. However, as I lower exposure by several stops it is obvious there are blown areas because they do not decrease. I'm not sure why Lightroom doesn't seem to indicate this correctly.

I didn't realize this head angle was at a negative angle to me from the perpendicular. I had thought it was positive but as I look at it further especially after all of you mention it I can kind of see that. I definitely try for the positive angle as I completely understand how it appears like a more intimate connection this way.

This photo is a very large crop. This is 1426 pixels wide from the full size 5184 pixels wide. Two things that can improve that are better field craft on bigger glass. I'm working on both but find I do large cropping most of the time.

Regarding the detail, at first I was thinking that with some masked noise reduction and sharpening it could look quite a bit better. My normal sharpening process was leaving the eye looking very abnormal. Now as I dig deeper it looks like part of the eye was over exposed. Apparently the general over exposure created this issue too. I need to do a lot more practicing with how far I can push the exposure to the right without losing any detail. I’m particular keen on learning how to get decent pictures at ISO 1600 as in the Seattle area we have many low light days.

Again, thank you very much for the responses. You have done exactly what I hoped. You have nudged me to examine my assumptions and practices. Given my current level, I'm still happy to have this image since the subject, overall color and reflection are pleasing to me.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Mate, I feel your pain in longing for bigger glass. :( It helps a lot. Practice some fieldwork in the meantime. :) The upside is that you will always get a better image sooner or later. :)

[Gary Esman]

Fantastic bird. Nice low angle and good background Agree with the above comments. I have lightroom and really do not use it a whole lot. Is your highlight warning turned on on your camera? If so you would be able to tell in a heart beat if you need adjustments and can make them on the fly. I am thinking that lightroom may be more valuable with processing a large number of photos like weddings and such. Good luck on getting longer glass it makes a world of difference. TFS

Gary.