Another First flight attempt

[Lance Peters]

Hi - constructive comments more than welcome.

Late Afternoon
500mm on monopod
F4.5 1/1000th

Work done in photoshop - Added about 1 stop of light (Should have had some EV compensation at time of shooting)

Also removed specular highlights in background that were distracting to overall image.

Thanks always for the comments.

Lance

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Lance Love the wing position Full up is always good I like the bird placement in frame lots of room for the bird to fly into A slightly different bg would have been better. The light areas detract from image

Might suggest cropping out the blue on the bottom Its not adding much and will make bird larger in frame !!!! btw do give the full tech info Not sure how you compensated The dark green bg normally opens up the meter and leads to over exposure !!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Alfred - Background originally had a number of very bright highlight area's which I fixed in PS.

Exposure on this was manual mode with spot metering on the bird.
Unfortunatley in my area I dont have a great deal of choices in the way of area's were birds hang out. I will try a crop in PS and maybe even removing a few more of the highlights.

thanks

[Alfred Forns]

Lance this is what I'm talking about regarding spot metering How in the world could you do it?

Whatever compensation you have is based on keeping the meter on the white area ..... tough. Go to multimatrix (or similar) for a dark bg and small white bird in frame you would close down probably on full stop. The meter would be opening since the bg is dark. Could also meter on anything mid-tone and close down for the whites etc

[Lance Peters]

Hi Alfred - I am confused LOL - with the zone system you spot meter a neutral tone - zero out the camera - AND then add for whites. (+)

So with matrix metering you are saying meter a mid tone and SUBTRACT for the whites - is this correct??? So you are metering a mid tone and UNDER exposing for whites? (-)
I assume this is because the meter with matrix sees the dark background and sets the exposure for the backgound which would then blow out the whites - hence the subtraction of light to keep your whites.

Am I on the right track??


Thanks
lance

[Alfred Forns]

Lance with the zone system you target a specific tone Ex white and open up The meter will try to make the white middle gray Meter on a dark subject and close down since it will try to make it middle gray

With the camera meter you do the same but meter the overall scene If the bg is dark the meter will be reading mostly dark so it will open up on its own so you need to underexpose. You are not targeting a specific tone usually. At times we can use green foliage which is close to a mid tone Then you compensate from there. A white bird in full sun needs less exposure.

Something you can use as reference is the sunny sixteen rule. will be perfect for middle tone subjects. John also came up with another rule which is not so much popular but is important. The sunny twenty two rule for white birds. Basically tells you to stop down one for white subjects in the sun.

You are on the right track but look at the overall scene and the size of the bird in frame. White bird very large in frame will affect the exposure more !!!!
Many times we use the sky to meter and adjust from there. When photographing on constant light you can figure one exposure go to manual and lock it in. All you would need is compensate for white or dark birds.