Difficult subjects

[PeterD]

I have found that photographing birds that are all white are probably the most difficult of all subjects. Take Swans or, to a greater extent, Little Egret. I have found myself compromising on image brightness to achieve detail in the subject. An example of this is below:-



The camera settings I have used to-date has been spot metering which as I understand is the accepted norm for wildlife shooting. After much experimentation, I have now opted for centre weighted average metering and I have found that a much better lightness balance can be achieved.







These images re-produce the lightness levels at the time of shooting without losing the detail in the subject. I am not very good in post processing and therefore want to find solutions in-camera. Does anyone have any suggestions that could help me improve further?

Thank you

Peter

[MagpieMick]

Hello Peter,

Are you using exposure compensation ...........?

What are you metering off ..........................?

Mick..

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by MagpieMick

Hello Peter,

Are you using exposure compensation ...........?

What are you metering off ..........................?

Mick..

Mick,

Thanks for your reply. I use the exposure compensation to reduce the brightness in highlight areas (in this case with bright birds. I use spot focussing and try for the subject's eye. The camara's average metering therefore takes in the background too.
My guess is that the averaging is creating the better light balance (or range). I have tried ESP but that is not as effective. My previous metering method was spot and this only took in the brightness of the subject and seemed to ignore the background leading to nice bright subjects against a dark background.

Cheers

Peter

[tameblackbirds]

All sounds very technical to me as my camera is a basic point and shoot camera really.... But can i just say that they are stunning photos especially the one in flight

[Gaza]

Hi Peter

I recently showed an example of this problem, to a photographic forum.
( A Magpie in flight, The camera showed detail in the white, not in the black, or visa-verse )
Unfortunately, no one was able to give me a satisfactory solution.
It also appears that the problem is more exaggerated on digital cameras as appose to film camera

I shall follow this thread with interest, to see if anyone can suggest a solution

Great shot's by the way

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by Gaza

Hi Peter

I recently showed an example of this problem, to a photographic forum.
( A Magpie in flight, The camera showed detail in the white, not in the black, or visa-verse )
Unfortunately, no one was able to give me a satisfactory solution.
It also appears that the problem is more exaggerated on digital cameras as appose to film camera

I shall follow this thread with interest, to see if anyone can suggest a solution

Great shot's by the way

Thanks for your comments above Gaza.

The conclusion I have come to is that the averaging process in the centre weighted average metering mode is able to determine the range of lightness in an exposure which the spot metering mode cannot or does not do. This allows a better setting of the dynamic range and hence smoother adjustment when the RAW image is processed. Well thats my thoughts and I would be interested to hear from others. This experience has taught me to change the way I approach this type of photography.

Peter

[PeterD]

Originally Posted by tameblackbirds

All sounds very technical to me as my camera is a basic point and shoot camera really.... But can i just say that they are stunning photos especially the one in flight

Thanks for your comments. This thread looks as though it can stimulate a lot of thoughts and opinions.

Peter

[matt_xyz]

there is a limit to the dynamic range that the camera's sensor can deal with. Sensors can't handle bright white feathers in brilliant sunshine and jet black feathers and provide detail in each in the same image.

The detail has been retained in the white feathers in the second image, for example, because the range in this image is much lower i.e. the whites aren't in bright sunshine and so are not such brilliant whites.

These are nice images by the way.

Matt

[tameblackbirds]

glad your thread re-appeared

[MagpieMick]

Peter,

What camera are you using...?

This is not a question with a short answer so i'll skim it and give you a link..

Spot metering will give you the more accurate result but you need to understand how the metering works... The camera is working to 18% greyscale so you need to meter off of something that converts to that grass works well , so meter off that in manual mode then adjust your EV-..

Evaluative metering should give good results for a semi auto with EV-..

Have a look here :

Rusticolus Images: How to expose yourself...

This is worth a read :

Understanding-Exposure

And so is this :

Expose Yourself

That should help clear things up abit...........

Mick..