Boat Tailed Grackle

[Michael Pancier]

How about a common bird....this one perched next to me at Gatorland so I decided to take a pic of him.

EOS 7d + 500 4.0L
1/320
f/5.6
ISO 400
580ex + bb at - 2
manual metering (+2 off of incident meter reading)

[Alfred Forns]

Nice looking bird Mike and great light !!! Difficult to get the colors Sure like grackles !!

... btw nailed the exposure but not sure about the calculations? ambient plus 2?

[Dave Mills]

Hi Michael, good pose with nicely muted backround. Good detail and I also question the calculations...

[Lance Peters]

Hi Michael - like the composition and the colours - agree about the calc's.
TFS

[Michael Pancier]

About the calculations, in the direct light where I was shooting the egrets I was getting a setting of 1/1600 at f/5.6 at ISO 400 from incident reading. I was shooting the egrets in direct light at 1/3200. this guy perched next to me at 45 degrees from direct sun and his face was in shadow. I was shooting manual and my existing dialed in settings rendered the image too dark, so I changed speed to 1/320 which is what I mean by the calculations...:D which got me the detail I wanted. I hope I make sense.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Mike If you need to do that might as well throw the incident meter out the window and let the camera meter work !!!! Just my two cents !!

.. glad you clarified since I could not understand what was going on !!! :)

[Michael Pancier]

I've been trying to use the incident meter when shooting white birds especially in a setting like Gatorland and getting a base manual setting and adjusting depending on subject. I ended up nailing most of the exposure situations over there with the egrets.

[Dave Mills]

Thanks for the explanation Michael

[Tom Graham]

Michael - re metering, I think Ansel Adams would be proud of you :)
Tom

[Mark Young]

It's not a common bird for us Aussies! ;) Love the blue and purple sheen.