Great Egret in-flight

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L
1/2000 sec f/8 ISO 800 HH

Crop for composition, sharpening in CS5
NR on BG in Noiseware Pro

I came darn close to burn-out on the whites, but they peak at 254 ...

[Joel Eade]

Nice pose and absolutely gorgeous color in the water. Great use of shutter speed yielding a very sharp image.

I agree there are areas on the upper back and far wing that are very hot!

You could try selecting those areas, place them on a separate layer and use the linear burn blend mode for that layer. Adjust opacity to taste.

Sometimes you can restore a little detail in this way.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Ian, nice flight capture! I like the position of the bird in the frame and the size of it in the image. I feel that larger birds should look larger in the frame in most cases. While values of 254 for the whites are not technically blown, you begin to lose detail in whites if you let them get beyond about 245 and it is best to control this at the time of capture. As Joel notes, it is sometimes possible to recover a bit of detail but it will never be like keeping the exposure about 1/3 stop lower in the capture. It is a fine line and a delicate dance, but when you are presented with a white bird you need to think about underexposing by that much. At least that's my experience. You were walking a fine line with this one as far as exposure because the primary light is from the left and you ended up with mixed lighting.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, folks. There's no question that whites can be really tough!

[Kerry Perkins]

Ian, blown whites is probably the number one issue I have seen on this forum over the years. It seems that people are afraid to underexpose a little, and I believe that it is required when you have this much white in the scene. It may be a Canon thing, I don't know, but I know that this has been the case with all four models of Canon bodies that I've owned. Protect the whites at all costs! If it blows the rest of your image, then you just didn't get the shot and that is usually due to mixed lighting, which is the number two biggest issue...

[Bob Miller]

ian...nice shot with the egret nicely framed with the bg. Yes, The whites could be better but I feel like it is still a fine image.