This is my first post to this amazing site...but DON'T go easy...I desperately want to improve, tell it like it is (apart from the missing feet issue, I was rushing to take the shot with the wings open!!). This was taken just under a year ago in Florida. I will be posting more recent (hopefully self-improved) shots but this is a start.
welcome to BPN rob!! love the reddish egrets!! please post your exposure compensation. will help in the critiquing....you already mentioned the cutoff feet. if i had to guess you were at 0EV. the camera was exposing for the background and not the bird. you needed around +1.0EV here. you will always want to compensate for you subject. darker needing more EV and lighter subjects less.
hope this helps. you did catch a cool pose and it looks sharp too!!
.... btw the feet ....... no issue ... just a matter of twenty lashes :) Do try to get them is its a big deal !!!
Good advice from Harold !!! For these birds do try to work into sun angle. You will not make a good image with the bird backlit unless flash is used and even won't be its best !! They will move and dart all over the place and at some time the sun will be at your back with the bird in front !!!
Darker birds can stand more light, would make one exposure and check histogram. Once you get it you are all set. Once you become more comfortable you could even lock in a manual setting.
Remember to give the exp comp to see what you were trying to do !! Your settings are good for ss/f stop !!!
Exposure Compensation was indeed 0ev. I will make sure the detail is added next time.
Thank you so much for the initial feedback. If I am completely honest I had no idea the exposure compensation could be so useful. Embarrassingly I have basically ignored that button until now. Should this be used every shot...or is it dependent on conditions/subject etc...I am sure there are no hard and fast rules but any advice on exposure compensation would be very gratefully received. I recently used it whilst taking shots of a barred owl in a very back lit situation. It was more trial and error than knowing what to do!!
Remember how the meter works it will try making everything middle grey. If you point to something bright it will try to make it darker and if pointing to something dark then will try to lighten.
I would try looking at Artie's CD it is excellent and will explain all in detail. While you get a grasp on exposure do use your histogram. Make sure you have data on the last box to the right without pixels going up the side, will give you a good exposure.
btw most compensation will be around one stop, there are instances you will use more but not often !!
Welcome, Rob! I noticed how dark your bird was so I put the image into Photoshop and did a shadow/highlight adjustment. This brought out a lot more detail in the bird. I then tweaked that with a levels adjustment and a bit of sharpening. And...since the feet are missing anyway...turned it into a pano crop. Hey, if you can't beat 'em...
Not sure how this will look because I'm at work on my lunch break on an uncalibrated monitor but hopefully this will give you an idea of how to pull out more detail.
Hi Julie
Thank you very much for playing around with the image. I can see that a lot more detail can be brought out (I need to play with PhotoShop more, I use it everyday for web design but when it comes to using it for what it was designed for I am terrible). I have been playing around with some more of my images using some of the techniques discussed in the above posts and hope to get all of your amazing feedback on them over the next couple of weeks.
Rob
Reddish Egret
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