Kestrel Having Breakfast - Manual Exposure Advice Needed

[Loi Nguyen]

This image was taken at ~ 8AM, about 1 hour after sunrise. I used Manual exposure, but later in DPP I noticed a few small places of highlights alert, so I should have cut the exposure by 1/3 stop. However, I did check the histogram and didn't see any clippings in the histogram. Please advise how you ensure the whites are not blown by checking histogram.

1DX
500f4 II
1/2000
f5.6
ISO-400
Tripod.

Cropped and PP in LR4.

Thank you

Loi

[arash_hazeghi]

good pose,sharp and the small food item is a nice addition. BG is distracting

histogram is not the best way to look at clipped highlights, if the number of clipped pixels is small in the image it will not show in the histogram. you need to turn on the highlight warning (aka blinkies)

[gail bisson]

Hi Loi,
What a terrific shot. I love the raised foot and the prey in the mouth. Great light as well. Excellent IQ.
Do you have the blinkies turned on? I don't get too upset if I have a very tiny amount of blinkies and I do mean very tiny. That way you are getting most of your data to the right as you know.
I use the histogram but in bright light it is so hard to actually really see if there is a tiny line against the RHS- wish Canon would change the box color but I digress...
Gail

[christopher galeski]

nice capture,sharp,and the food is a bonus,thanks.

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you everyone. Yes, I have the blinkies turned on. Will double check. In this image, only the leading edge white that was blown, or dangerously close to it. Agreed with Arah tat the BG is distracting. Wish it were more even.

[Frank Schauf]

Nice pose and colors.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Loi,

Very nice image detail and IQ. I agree that the bg is a bit distracting. I'd still take this shot though :)

With Nikon cameras (not sure if it's the same with Canon), the histogram and blinkies on the LCD are based on a jpeg which is chosen by the user. I learned from Randy to keep that jpeg Standard, which resembles the RAW image the most. Just a thought.

Miguel

[mohammad reza shahab]

Very nice pose,detail and BG.

[MohsenVahedipour]

Excellent pose & light. I like the raised foot & wing position. TFS