Dark Birds in Flight

I hope someone out there can help me...

I had an amazing morning yesterday (08/08/08) at LOXAHATCHEE NWR in South Florida. The place was thick with Raptors, including and especially Snail Kites. I saw at least four different adults and enjoyed lots of interaction and dozens of fly-overs - most with apple snails in-beak. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to be satisfied with the images preserved in my brain as opposed to the images preserved in my camera...

All of the flight shot images came out with the birds VERY dark. I got a few faces and maybe enough details to bring back using PhotoShop (and a lot more skill than I possess...). But, overall, the results were profoundly disappointing.

I was shooting with a CANON 40D, CANON 100-400mm USM IS, AV priority at f/8.0, Exposure Compensation at +1 or +1 2/3, ISO 800 or 400. It was a cloudless morning sky and and the blazing sun was at my back - and in front of the birds - at all times.

Please help!

Thank you,

Dean

What metering setting did you use? If evaluative, you might try partial and see if that makes a difference. If +1 is not enough you need to dial in even more positive exposure compensation and frequently check the histogram in the field. You might post an image to illustrate your problem.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for responding, Axel.

Here I have to admit my ignorance...I don't know what metering setting I used. I'm still traveling the learning curve. It was not too long ago that I just walked around on Program and didn't touch (know about) Exposure Compensation! The settings I used were culled from advice I'd gotten from more experienced photographers in the field and the settings that I see here on BPN. Clearly, I have to learn more about metering.

I'm also trying to more accurately interpret the histogram; I was getting a spike to the middle/left when I was using just +2/3 and bumped it up to +1 or +1 2/3 but the difference was negligible.

Where would I post an example?

Dean

I don't know if you have a website or webspace where you could upload an image. On BPN only forum members have this benefit.

If you get a chance to go through the metering settings for your camera in the manual you will see that partial metering puts an emphasis on about 9% in the middle of the frame if memory serves right. In your situation this would most likely have caused the shutter speed to drop and +1 sounds like a good starting point. Try to get as much information as possible on the right side of the histogram but make sure you get no 'blinkies'.

Dean,

I am guessing that you were shooting when the sun was fairly high in the sky and the birds were above you with most of their bodies in shadow. Your exposure was probably fine for the birds in sunlight, but the shadows were under exposed. I suggest going early in the morning (before 8:30am) and try to concentrate on making images when the kites are in positions were they are facing the sun and most of the bird is lit up from your point of view.

For calculating the correct exposure for Snail Kites do the following: 1. Set your camera to manual exposure mode. 2. Set your camera to evaluative metering mode. 3. Point your camera at some middle green vegetation that is in the same light that you think the kites will be in. While looking thru the view finder, fill the frame with the green vegetation and then adjust shutter speed until the scale says 0. If it is very early and the light is very soft, you can also use +1/3.

Set your aperture to F5.6 (wide open) and your ISO to between 400-800. Try to keep your shutter speed at 1/1250 or faster. Increase ISO as needed to get the shutter speed you need. Use ISO 400 if you have plenty of SS.

If you would like to view some example Snail Kite images, there are many on my website. You will find many of them by poking around in the various galleries.

I hope this helps. Good Luck!

Jim,

That definitely does help! Step-by-step is just what I need. Thank you!

I got out there at 6:20...but it was between 8:30 and 9:30 when I saw most of the fly-overs. I thought I was trying to get the birds when they were wheeling in such a way as to light up their underside but, clearly, I was wrong.

I will work on the advice you provided and Axel provided...it just seems like such a crime to have come away with little or nothing on such a target-rich day in the field. I've seen so many gorgeous Snail Kite shots on BPN recently, I thought for sure I was going to get something with so many opportunities. But I'm committed to improving, so I'll just got out their again and apply these lessons.

Thank you both so much!

Dean

I don't know if you guys are still checking this thread, but I thought you might like to know that your advice really helped. I went out to LOXAHATCHEE again this morning (08/10/08), and hung out at the "sweet spot" from 7:00 to 8:30.

While I didn't see the variety of raptors I had previously seen, I did see plenty of Snail Kites. The images I got this time were much, MUCH better. I don't think any of them are ready to win any awards, but using manual and adjusting shutter speed to 0 or +2/3 made a huge difference. I still have a way to go to get the images I see from the talented contributors to BPN, but at least now I have an idea of how to get there.

Thank you, again!

Dean

Hey, Dean, I'm glad to hear your second attempt gave you much better results! I still manage to underexpose sometimes and know what a disappointment it is to come home and find out that series of shots you thought would be pretty neat, really cannot even be salvaged....bummer! One thing about it, once we lose a few to operator error, we tend to start remembering what we need to do to get it right!

Thank you for the words of encouragement, Anita. I was just working on some of the photos from that second day and, while they are better, they clearly (pun intended!) need more help from me out in the field. They're not as tack sharp as I would have hoped, many are still too dark and there's a surprising amount of noise, which surprises me because I thought the 40D was supposed to be able to deliver superior results up to ISO 800...On the plus side, I do think I got a few really good shots of the immature Snail Kite (surprise, surprise, he's not as dark as the adults). I just hope I can do a better job with the adult male next time - gotta love that ORANGE beak and those RED eyes!