Male Wigeon

[Simon Wantling]

Took this photo today in what was typical dull UK weather. Been after a shot of these timid birds for sometime and have over recent weeks been playing with exposure settings. Today I went with a better understanding of how to deal with the difficult conditions, with this as the result. I think the little white patch of feathers on the birds sides is slightly blown but I wasn't sure whether that needed recovering back. I would be grateful of any comments and input. Thanks.

Canon 7D, 100-400mm @ 400mm, f5.6, 1/320 sec, Evaluative Metering, +2 EV, ISO 400, AWB

[EzhilSuresh]

Simon, nice one. But I feel that the beak (blue beak) and crown may have been overexposed.

[Simon Wantling]

I think you may be right with the beak. I thought that after I posted it up. I'll wait for other feedback then make some adjustments. Thanks again

[Sid Garige]

Simon,

I am trying to figure out the light angle from your image and considering the light on the crown looks like it is perpendicular to your shooting angle. Crown needs some rework for sure. Good luck with light next time.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Good looking individual, and good colours in the dull conditions (BTW, I love overcast days for photography). The details seem to be very good too. A tough one to expose and you've got some clipping on both ends of the histogram. You should be able to recover those during raw conversion. At time of capture some fill flash would have helped and would have been nice for the back of the head hich seems a bit dark.

Once in a while a Eurasion Wigeon like yours shows up here and gets many birders in a frenzie

[Simon Wantling]

Simon,

I am trying to figure out the light angle from your image and considering the light on the crown looks like it is perpendicular to your shooting angle. Crown needs some rework for sure. Good luck with light next time.

Thanks, should I selectively drop the exposure on that point? Do you consider the crown over exposed? Its quite hard to get the bird correct throughout when photographing these as to get the crown correct the cheeks then come out dark and lack detail.

[Simon Wantling]

Good looking individual, and good colours in the dull conditions (BTW, I love overcast days for photography). The details seem to be very good too. A tough one to expose and you've got some clipping on both ends of the histogram. You should be able to recover those during raw conversion. At time of capture some fill flash would have helped and would have been nice for the back of the head hich seems a bit dark.

Once in a while a Eurasion Wigeon like yours shows up here and gets many birders in a frenzie

Thanks Daniel. I have found this one hard to expose for. There are loads of these around my local patch. I knew about the clipping but wondered whether to it affected the image. I'll try and correct it in PS tomorrow with a layer and repost. I hadn't thought of using a fill flash. That's something I've never ventured into. Saying that, it is part of my plan as I had a Nissin DI622 flash gun for Christmas so I'll give it a try, but that's a whole new area for me. Thanks as always for the advice Daniel.

[Sid Garige]

Simon,

General rule is to expose for the highlights and work on the shadows during post processing. It is always easy to bring details in the shadow region but once details are lot in highlight area they are gone for good. Checking the histogram is the key to success.
After looking at few Eurasian Wigeon images on the web and reading Dan comments I guess it is not the light angle. Now I feel crown is not blow out may just need a little bit of tone down. May be you can go back to your raw file and see if there is any clipping in the histogram just to make sure.

[Simon Wantling]

Hi Sid, thanks. Just checked the RAW file and there was no clipping on the original histogram. I've tweaked the exposure and clarity a tad and added a bit of vibrancy. Looking at this image, the only clipping after post processing is on the while feather patch on the side of the bird and a bit on the blacks of the tail. To be honest, that's why I left it. There's certainly no clipping on the crown. I'll have another play with the image to see if it can bee improved at all. Thanks

[Simon Wantling]

Thanks for all the advice on this photo. I've had a bit of a tweak with it this morning. I've basically, tonnes down the crown a tiny bit, brightened the shadow area on the back of the head and lifted the dark areas of the tail. Not a great deal but I think there's a slight improvement.