Lover's Quarrel

[Bob Miller]

I spent the afternoon photographing flocks of these black stilts at Bombay Hook in De, when I saw these two off to the side.


Nikon D3s
500 mm on beanbag
1/1000 sec at f7
ISO 800
Eager to learn so....All comments welcome

[gail bisson]

Bob, The main problem with this shot are the whites that are too hot so no feather detail. The light looks quite harsh. What time did you take this picture? I am not crazy about the mudflats behind the bird and if you had gotten lower you would have eliminated the mudflats. I like the comp and the position of the birds.
Gail

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Bob,

I actually like the composition but have a few questions. I reviewed the image and some whites are over 255,..clipped. As Gail mentioned what was the time of day and maybe a faster shutter could have saved some bright detail. The image seems to have a blue tint as well. Did you adjust color temp., or apply any filters. Could be my monitor (reminds me to calibrate later tonight). Regarding the whites there are helpful threads in the educational forum on how to best recover or clone over and create detail.

[wendell westfall]

Bob, I like the story the title tells, and I like the colors. I wish there were a bit more canvas on the right.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Hi Bob. It looks like high contrast light (direct sunlight) and it is not possible to properly expose a black/white bird with this type of light. The dynamic range of the scene is greater than the dynamic range of the sensor. In this image the whites are blown, and recovery is very unlikely. Some of the blacks are also blocked. You really need to keep on top of this stuff with your camera's histogram, the blinkies show where clipping is taking place.
In high contrast light you often need to choose to sacrifice the brightest or darkest parts of the image; if you don't you can loose both, as you did here. I personally would wait for cloudy or overcast skies (lower contrast), or if not in the cards, sometimes light just after sunrise or before sunset has a low enough contrast. regards~Bill

[Kerry Perkins]

Bob, pretty much all has been said above. My first thoughts were about the quality of the light, which has blown the whites and blocked the blacks, and the shooting angle that makes the bg look like a wall behind the birds. These are not easy birds to capture, as is true of all black and white birds, and the only way to get the proper tonal range is to shoot in very soft light - dawn or dusk or very overcast skies. I don't see any evidence of a blue cast when looking at the color meter and I think Jeff is reacting to the reflection of the sky in the water and wet sand. BTW, you simply cannot recover blown whites. When all three channels are clipped at 255, this is the definition of "blown highlights" and there is no detail to be gained from these pixels. The same is true for blocked blacks, where all three color channels are at zero.

[Gerald Kelberg]

Almost everything has been said on this one already, but I wanted to chime in with the thought that I actually really like the oily texture of the water and the black marble texture of the mud flats. And the stilts are delightful creatures.

I believe that many of us are frequently shooting in light that is far from ideal, but it is still better to get out there and enjoy getting the shot, albeit in less than perfect conditions.

Gerald