Snowey in action with reflection

[Sid Garige]

D300 200-400mm VR
F4 1/1200

[John Cooper]

Wonderful action capture Sid with the reflection an added bonus..!!

The whites on the neck and upper left wing appear a tad hot on my monitor.

[Arthur Morris]

Exposure COMP? (The whites are toasted...) Cool pose though.

[Marina Scarr]

Hi Sid: It was a pleasure to finally meet you last weekend @ Gatorland. Love the action you captured here. Even though the whites are a bit hot, I still see details here, and I love the story behind it. I think the picture needs a bit of CW rotation since the bird's eye iin alignment with the eye of the reflection. Hope we run into each other again in the near future.

[Arthur Morris]

Yes to the suggested rotation. There are whites without detail. I opened the image in CS3 and there are lot of clipped whites. You cannot see detail in clipped whites.

[Sid Garige]

Exposure COMP? (The whites are toasted...) Cool pose though.

Artie,

Shot this image in manual mode. I metered a white bird on blue water and added 1/2 stop for whites due to reflecting light.

with little rework on head.

[Sid Garige]

Hi Sid: It was a pleasure to finally meet you last weekend @ Gatorland. Love the action you captured here. Even though the whites are a bit hot, I still see details here, and I love the story behind it. I think the picture needs a bit of CW rotation since the bird's eye iin alignment with the eye of the reflection. Hope we run into each other again in the near future.

Marina,

Very nice meeting you too.

A very valid point regarding CW rotation.

Corrected in repost.

thanks
Sid

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Sid,

Re-post looks good. I would clean up the water a little. Nice hanging out again.

[Arthur Morris]

Artie, Shot this image in manual mode. I metered a white bird on blue water and added 1/2 stop for whites due to reflecting light.

What do you mean by "I metered a white bird in blue water."?

And what did you mean by "added 1/2 stop due to reflecting light"?

The repost does look better. Did you start by reconverting?

[Sid Garige]

What do you mean by "I metered a white bird in blue water."?

And what did you mean by "added 1/2 stop due to reflecting light"?

The repost does look better. Did you start by reconverting?

Artie,

My target was to photograph white bird in action on blue water. People were throwing hotdogs into water and egrets were picking them up. Most of the time they throw near the board walk where nice sky reflection provided a blue backdrop. Almost all the birds were white.

My plan was to pre-meter subject in same environment and use those settings as long as light remains the same. Here is my theory. I used multipoint focusing system with varying subject size. Also there is very little separation in between subject and background. If i use Aperture mode there is a possibility camera might meter from one of the focus points not on the subject and I will end up with wrong exposure. If I pre-meter the subject and use manual mode, irrespective of subject size I maintain right exposure for whites.

I found a great egret standing in blue water and using spot meter metered full frame whites. I used Aperture mode at F4 for this. Sun was high and white egret was reflecting light. To keep the whites and compensate from reflected light, I added only 1/2 stop light. My histogram looked good for full frame whites at F4 and 1/1200. I used this setting in manual mode and continued rest of my shooting. Based on light change I add or take off light by adjusting shutter speed. There were no clouds and that kind of kept me at same settings for a while.

I should have give more details in my previous post. My apologies.

=Sid

[Arthur Morris]

First off, there are still some overexposed whites in the repost. Not extensive, but present:

re:

My target was to photograph white bird in action on blue water. People were throwing hotdogs into water and egrets were picking them up.

With or without mustard?

Most of the time they throw near the board walk where nice sky reflection provided a blue backdrop. Almost all the birds were white.

My plan was to pre-meter subject in same environment and use those settings as long as light remains the same. Here is my theory. I used multipoint focusing system with varying subject size. Also there is very little separation in between subject and background. If i use Aperture mode there is a possibility camera might meter from one of the focus points not on the subject and I will end up with wrong exposure. If I pre-meter the subject and use manual mode, irrespective of subject size I maintain right exposure for whites.

Metering manually would seem to be the only way to go in that situation.

I found a great egret standing in blue water and using spot meter metered full frame whites. I used Aperture mode at F4 for this. Sun was high and white egret was reflecting light.

What ISO?

To keep the whites and compensate from reflected light, I added only 1/2 stop light.

I have never understood what folks mean when they talk about compensating from reflected light.... Assuming that you meant "to keep the whites white I added only 1/2 stop of light" this is incorrect reasoning in theory and in practice: if you spot meter the white, you will normally add from 1 to 1 1/3 stops of light to keep the whites white. Adding only 1/2 stop would make themm grayer. That obviously did not happen here.

My histogram looked good for full frame whites at F4 and 1/1200.

Did you check for flashing highlights? How did you convert the image?

I used this setting in manual mode and continued rest of my shooting. Based on light change I add or take off light by adjusting shutter speed. There were no clouds and that kind of kept me at same settings for a while.

It seems that those settings were wrong based on the fact that the image is over-exposed....

I should have give more details in my previous post. My apologies.

No problema. Still need more info.

[Sid Garige]

First off, there are still some overexposed whites in the repost. Not extensive, but present:

Agree with you 100%. Especially on egrets Head.

With or without mustard?

I like with mustard. I saw some seagulls eating hotdogs with mustard:D


Metering manually would seem to be the only way to go in that situation.

Ok. I was on right path then.

What ISO?

ISO 200

To keep the whites and compensate from reflected light, I added only 1/2 stop light.

I have never understood what folks mean when they talk about compensating from reflected light.... Assuming that you meant "to keep the whites white I added only 1/2 stop of light" this is incorrect reasoning in theory and in practice: if you spot meter the white, you will normally add from 1 to 1 1/3 stops of light to keep the whites white. Adding only 1/2 stop would make themm grayer. That obviously did not happen here.

I would like to do a little bit of home work before I get back to you on this.

Did you check for flashing highlights? How did you convert the image?

I did not check for flashing highlights. Pls refer to attached original image with histogram. Raw images looks fine. During first attempt I added around +1/3 of light. This caused over exposed whites. During second attempt I did not add any light. I used adobe camera raw to convert image.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Again Sid,

re:

Did you check for flashing highlights? How did you convert the image?

I did not check for flashing highlights.

You need to get in the habit of checking for flashing highlights with each new exposure situation. There are many instances where the histgram seems fine, with no data anywhere near the right edge, but you can stilll have flashing highlights.

Pls refer to attached original image with histogram. Raw images looks fine. During first attempt I added around +1/3 of light. This caused over exposed whites. During second attempt I did not add any light. I used adobe camera raw to convert image.

You need to turn on the highlight (and shadow) warnings in ACR to prevent what happened originally from happening. Also, if you increase the color temperature or even increase the Saturation before doing levels that can cause overexposures. Lots of times decreasing the SAT before you do your Levels adjustment can save an "overexposed" image. Lastly, you need to learn to use Linear Burn to bring out the details in bright whites. I am 99% sure that there is a tutorial in Educational Resources.