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Thread: Bald Coot

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    Default Bald Coot

    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    Camera Canon EOS 7D
    Exposure 0.001 sec (1/2000)
    Aperture f/4.0
    Focal Length 500 mm
    ISO Speed 400
    Exposure Bias 0 EV





    Last edited by Peter Kes; 12-25-2012 at 07:02 AM.

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    Sanjeev:
    Excellent image.Very nicely exposed.Love the pose,details in blacks and nice water.Would crop quite a bit on the top,little on bottom and RHS.

    Regards,
    Satish.

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    Hi Sanjeev, rhe low perspective works well, with good eye contact. You have exposed the coot very well, and agree, take a lot off the top wont harm the image at all. A bit off the RHS too.

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    Thanks Satish & Stuart. Agree on the cropping suggestion.
    Regards

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    Attached Images Attached Images
     
    Hi Sanjeeev, As I suspected, the WHITE frontal shield was totally toasted at 255/255/255. I used the Clone Stamp to grab a few areas of texture and repair the burned out WHITEs. Then I actually lightened the shield as it was too grey. Then I selected the bill and the shield, flipped it, and covered the reflection that was also toasted. That needed to be shaped with a Layer Mask and some warping. Much better to get it right in the field .

    Any chance of reconverting and saving the WHITEs?

    Also cropped as suggested.
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    Thanks Artie. I wwill try to reconvert and save the whites and also crop as recommended. I have multiple frames of the coot. Any tips on how to expose in such a situation where the bird is dark and only a small part is pinkish-white? Your RP looks much better. Thanks.

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    YAW. As for the exposure, it is simple as are all digital exposures. Push the histogram to the right while having only a very few blinkies on the bill. Work in Manual mode and keep checking the histogram and the blinkies. With black birds with small bits of white having a very few blinkies on the WHITEs is actually better than having no blinkies as you will get more detail out of the darks.

    I fear that the WHITEs in your RAW may be too far gone and that you will not be able to recover them....

    Do you have ABP II?
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    Thanks for the advice Artie. I have the Digital Basics file. I dont have the ABP II. I will order it. Thanks. Any advice on a good solid tripod for my 500 II? I have the Manfrotto 190 CX Pro4 Carbon fiber, but I guess its not solid enough. (it has a weight rating of 10 Lbs) I plan to get a Gimbal (either Mongoose or the new Wimberley sidemount that is similar to the mongoose). I was looking at the Gitzo 3532, thats what most of you use I suppose.

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    We have very similar coots, and the same exposure problems. It generally requires very soft light, such as with overcast skies. This results in a scene's dynamic range to be less than the camera's sensor, and the full range of tonality can be captured; here from the white bill to the dark plummage. As pointed out, exposing to the right with a few blinkies works best, especially in soft(low contrast) light. regards~Bill

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    Quote Originally Posted by WIlliam Maroldo View Post
    We have very similar coots, and the same exposure problems. It generally requires very soft light, such as with overcast skies. This results in a scene's dynamic range to be less than the camera's sensor, and the full range of tonality can be captured; here from the white bill to the dark plummage. As pointed out, exposing to the right with a few blinkies works best, especially in soft(low contrast) light. regards~Bill
    It is possible, even easy, to create excellent perfectly exposed images of coots in full sun on clear days within three hours of sunrise by "exposing to the right with a few blinkies" and then running NIK Color Efex Pro Detail Extractor or doing a Linear Burn (or both). The great likelihood with the image in Pane 1 is that there were a lot more than a few blinkies. In other words, the image was likely well over-exposed.
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    ps: with relatively dark green water, sun, and a black bird with small areas of super bright whites I would start at -1 full stop and check the histogram carefully with my reading glasses in place .

    In fact, if the image was taken in full sun more than an hour after sunrise on a clear day (as might be the case) 1/2000 sec. at f/4 at ISO 400 is a massive overexposure. Most times something on the order of 1/2000 at f/8 in such conditions would be close or perfect....
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sanjeev Aurangabadkar View Post
    Thanks for the advice Artie. I have the Digital Basics file. I dont have the ABP II. I will order it. Thanks. Any advice on a good solid tripod for my 500 II? I have the Manfrotto 190 CX Pro4 Carbon fiber, but I guess its not solid enough. (it has a weight rating of 10 Lbs) I plan to get a Gimbal (either Mongoose or the new Wimberley sidemount that is similar to the mongoose). I was looking at the Gitzo 3532, thats what most of you use I suppose.
    Thanks for purchasing Digital Basics. Get yourself a copy of ABP II and study the "Exposure Simplified" section. Also see my advice in Pane #11. I can only wish that the info in ABP and in ABP II had been available in 1983 when I started. That would have saved me about 15 years of struggling to learn....

    As for the tripod, Billy Wingfield was on his way to the Barnegat Jetty IPT with a Manfrotto tripod that fortunately broke as he was packing. There is a reason that 99.99% of professionals use Gitzo tripods and stay away especially from the cheaper knock-offs. I had a brand new Gitzo 3532 LS in the back of my SUV. He purchased it on the spot and thought that he had died and went to heaven. Folks can see my review of this tripod here.

    And while I love the folks at Wimberley the Sidekick is not a wise choice at all. I have tried it and seen many others use it. It is inefficient; the Sidekick is always slipping in the ballhead and folks wind up cursing. The ideal solution is a Mongoose M3.6 with or without the Horizontal Low Mount Arm. I love it without, Denise Ippolito loves it with. Then simply keep a Giotto's tiny ballhead in your vest or backpack (I searched for the perfect small ballhead for years) along with a Wimberley P-5 plate and you are good to go if you need a tripod-mounted short lens for slow shutter speeds scenics or for HDR images....

    The Mongoose M3.6 is far lighter and far more efficient than the Sidekick/ballhead combo. Speaking of ballheads I had a chance to try a RRS ballhead in White Sands and wanted to scream. It has so many big knobs and levers that I found it un-usable. If you insist on a Sidekick--many folks choose to ignore my advice even though it is based on nearly 3 decades of in the field experience, we would be glad to sell you one here.
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Artie, you are absolutely correct. I was shooting around 8.30 am, well over 2 hours after sunrise and my mistake was Inwas in Tv mode, not Av! And I was doing BIFs and then immediately took this image without changing the mode dial. I checked the histogram and it was over exposed and the whites blown. Thanks for the tips.
    sanjeev

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    YAW. Av, Tv, Manual mode, it makes no difference. In either automatic mode simply dial in -1 stop and check the histogram as noted above :).
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Thanks again Artie. I will buy the 3532LS. Just to clarify, Wimberley have introduced a new Gimbal called the "Sidemount" head not the sidekick. It would be nice if you could check on the website tripodhead.com
    it is similar to Mongoose. But I will go with your experience and buy the Mongoose and the 3532LS purely on your recommendation. I have ordered the lens coat for my 500 II from BAA, awaiting its arrival in India :-)
    merry Christmas
    sanjeev

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    YAW. I will check out the new Sidemount. It will be interesting to compare the weight of the two..... I have been using the Mongoose stuff for years and loving it.
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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