White Tailed Kite in Golden Light - Manual Exposure Assignment

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you to many of the good suggestions on this forum, I think I have handled the exposure of the white tailed kite better. I basically backed off by 1/3 EV hen I started seeing blinkies on the whites and that corresponded to about 2/3 EV more light than metered of the blue sky. I did that about 3PM and then added light as the light started fading, but keeping my exposure 2/3 EV more than the metered sky off the horizon.

The pose isn't ideal as I missed the landing with talons out, but the light seemed good and I thought it is a good image to ask for feedback on exposure. It was heavily cropped, so IQ is nt as good as I wish, but this is as close as I can get to the nest tree.

1DX
500f4 II + 2X III
1/1600
f10
IS-1000
+2/3 EV off the blue sky, evaluative metering
Manual exposure

Thanks a ton

Loi

[Grace Scalzo]

the exposure looks good to me, Loi. I like the pose, suggest more sharpening on the eye and a bit more noise reduction on the background.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Loi,

Nice adjustments to get a great exposure here.

I think your self-assessment is spot on. The IQ just isn't there with this heavy of a crop. Could you make it a little looser and make it a bit more of an environmental shot?

Miguel

[Bill Dix]

Exposure looks very good on my screen. And I love the raised wing position. I realize that the heavy crop robbed you of a little IQ, but you still might tweak a bit more sharpness out of the head.

[Robert Holguin]

Great shot.
I really like the pose, exposed very well, and great light.
IQ already mentioned, but still a great shot.
Well done.

[David Salem]

The exposure looks perfect and I like the pose. As you have mentioned, the IQ isnt quite there. Are you hand holding? If you are, you may want to bump up the shutter speed. Looks like the soft head might be due to a little motion blur as apposed to the large crop.
Open up the aperture a bit more and crank up the shutter speed. should help clear things up. Nice job.

[arash_hazeghi]

exposure is good, and I like the wing position. does look a bit soft, good suggestion by David re bumping up the shutter speed. looks like he was blinking a bit. Very cool BG, typical for this specie's habitat.

TFS

[Daniel Cadieux]

You did as well as you could for the situation and distance you were at. I still think that as posted the image will be able to take some more sharpening.

[Loi Nguyen]

Thank you ll for your feedback. I ill try to keep shutter speed above 1/2000 next time and not to crop so much. I do have another pic just taken yesterday that I would like to show the habitat better and get your feedback on a new post. For this image, I jut nted to concentrate on the exposure and was pleased that I got it right. As for selective sharpening, I still need to learn ho to do :)