Existing light with Pelican

[Binh Nguyen]

This image was created on 10/20/09

7D
ISO 640
Exposure 1/3200 @ f5.6
Lens: 400 f5.6

[Morkel Erasmus]

lovely timing, light and pose here Binh. love the splashes, detail and the golden hue of the light. low angle serves it well.

[Dave Blinder]

Very dramatic Binh, agree with Morkel on all points. Love it as presented.

[Geraldo Hofmann]

Wonderful capture, fantastic light!!! I would probably go for another ratio (panorama) to eliminate a bit of the foreground. For me the brighter foreground is to strong and takes away the attention ..
But either way its a great shot.
Geraldo

[Ian Mason]

Superb! Lighting is wonderful. I agree about possibly taking a little off the bottom, but it's actually great as it is.

[Arthur Morris]

Dramatic lighting and pose. And yes, more of the black above the bird would have been great (with less below....) I would reduce the yellow SAT.

How did you calculate the EXP? (You did pretty well.)

[Binh Nguyen]

Morkel, Dave, Geraldo, and Ian: Thank you very much for your constructive inputs. With your ideas, I am sure they will help me to improve my skills in the future.

[Binh Nguyen]

Dramatic lighting and pose. And yes, more of the black above the bird would have been great (with less below....) I would reduce the yellow SAT.

How did you calculate the EXP? (You did pretty well.)

Thanks Arthur!

There was actually a juvenile pelican in the pond. I was using the new feature in liveview of the new 7D. I was using the pelican to determine my exposure. Using ISO to light up the subject, and high speed darken the BG. I was able to accomplish the BG about 90%. I've used photoshop to darken the rest. Liveview was really cool as I can noticed the change in the exposure everytime I changed the ISO, Aperture, or Shutter Speed. Then all of the sudden, this pelican came in landing. With my exposure setup ready to go, all I had to do was point and hit the shutter button. I was lucky too that he has chosen the spot with a ray of sunlight for his touchdown.

Thanks again for your comments.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW and thanks for the story. If you were correctly set up for the right exposure for a young pelican, it makes sense that the highlights here are too bright as the young pelicans are all brown and lack the lighter toned areas of the adults.... (I have assumed of course that you were working in manual mode....)

[Binh Nguyen]

Yes, I was using Manual Mode. You're correct about the highlights. I could spend more time on post processing...!