Struggling with the exposure

[Rosl Roessner]

Monday is my day off. Since weeks, we have rainy mondays.... overcast weather, rain and wind....
Well, I try to fight against it, making images in rain and snow and storm....

But there are situations, where I am struggling with the correct exposure.
I show you one image here. I don't think, that there is any reason to keep the image, but I can demonstrate my difficulties here.
It is an overcast day, not much light at all.
There is a mostly dark bird with a white spot.
There is a dark water with a lot of light reflections.

What is the correct exposure for images like that?
Please, don't mind the head angle, that is against the light in the image, just help me, to get the right idea for the exposure correction.
The image is without any correction (no USM, no white balance...because I don't want to keep it at all)
This image is made with the following details:
Mark III / 500mm + 1.7 TC
1/320 sec / f 10 / ISO 800
- 1/3 Exp. corr.

Any comments to my problem welcome....
Thanx alot!

[Doug West]

Rosl,

How are you on using flash? I would think something like this would
be screaming to bring the flash out of the bag. If you have the Better
Beamer, might as well pull that out also :)

I don't have a 500, but I would imagine thats a F4? If no flash, I would've
opened it up as wide as possible to get more light in and go the other way
with the exposure comp, like a +1 to start.

Doug

[Howard Burkert]

Hi Rosl,
I know how you feel and believe me I have been there. I agree with Doug, you surely have an exposure that requires a + exposure compensation. Also the use of fill flash at - 1.3 or - 1.7 ( on the flash ) unit will help very much. I hope these 2 tips help. Rosl, this forum will be a great learning tool for you.. Hope you use it often.
Best,
Howard.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Rosl Fully agree with suggestions

On overcast days you will be dialing plus !!! Photographing down into the water with a dark subject will require some plus Not as much as most would think Remember the meter wants to make everything middle gray ..... so it will open some on its own but does need lots of help

For bird up in the air with a solid overcast (no sun at all) It is not unusual do dial plus 2 2/3 Here the flash would have helped Your shutter speed is just above the sync speed so you would be getting lots of light out there and the bird was not all that far !!!

[Gus Cobos]

Flash would be the best way to go Rosl,
I like the composition...:)

[Brian Wong]

Hi Rosl!

Yes, agree on trying to open up. With overcast/rain, you will have nice non-directional light, no harsh shadows!!! ... but as you know, you may need to give up some things due to the lower light intensity. Suggest to try bumping up the ISO (which you did ... MKIII can even try 1600), longer exposure (which you did), and opening up the aperture (open way up from f/10 ... maybe f/5 with your setup?), and then try concentrating setting the exposure just on the subject.

The trade off is some lost of DOF, the need to be super steady / good tripod technique, maybe some noise if you try high ISO, and that your background, and sparkling water may not be "properly exposed" (too bright, high key) ... BUT your subject exposure is the key. You can also try checking the blinking highlights just on your subject (I would check the bird's white head, and ignore the blinking background), and keep opening up just until it starts to blink ... and then make your adjustments from there.

See how that goes ... Hope that help!

[Arthur Morris]

The best exposure for this image is the best exposure for almost all digital images: one that has a histogram with data in the fifth (or highlight) box, data that is close to the highlight (right) axis (but with no flashing highlights...) For this image with most camera bodies, yoy would need to add varying degrees of light to achieve the above. Have you read my Epxoure article in the first issue of the e-Zine?