Probably already been asked but........

[agrumpycow]

What do I need to do to stop the glow around birds in pics like these? Apologies as I know it's probably been asked but I didn't know where to start looking And I know it's blurry but it was a quick point and shoot before it flew away!

[GuyF]

I think that it is a problem related to exposure, basically it's been over-exposed so the white flares out a bit so to stop it you would turn the exposure down a bit. I think it's a fairly common problem, and I did it a lot myself when I started with my DSLR, and I still do it quite often now!
It's mainly a problem on pale things and things with sharp contrasts between dark and light.
Guy
P.S. I am pretty new to this photography stuff so I could be completely wrong!

[thunder]

Are you sure your lens is clean and not suffering from salt spray (if, as seems likely, you are photographing near the sea) or possibly a little condensation?

henrya

[matt_xyz]

By the 'glow' do you mean the bright white highlights? If so, then as Guy says you need to reduce your exposure slightly to reduce blown highlights. However there is also some 'purple fringing' here on the top edge of the bird's wing and on the back of its neck. The correct name is 'chromatic aberration' and there was a thread on this recently. With some cameras and lenses it can be difficult to avoid, particularly next to very bright parts of an image. It can be corrected in Photoshop but this isn't always effective.

Matt

[agrumpycow]

Thanks all of you.
The lens was clean - other shots taken after of wild flowers came out fine.
How would I turn down the exposure? (sorry about my ignorance on this )
Am I right in thinking it's about ISO? If so it was at 80 (if that makes any sense).

[matt_xyz]

you need to tell the camera to use a faster shutter speed and/or a higher f number (smaller aperture). If you're using auto then you should be able to do this using 'exposure compensation'. I'm not sure what camera you're using, but most cameras have this feature. Ideally I would recommend using Aperture Priority rather than auto, where you select the aperture (i.e. how open the lens is) and the camera selects the shutter speed (how long the lens is open for). If you were using Aperture Priority you could simply select a higher f number (which means a smaller aperture) in order to let less light in.

I hope that makes some sense

Matt

[agrumpycow]

Thanks Matt, I think I know what you're talking about but my Olympus's still packed (we only got back from hols a few hours ago)
I'll get it out tomorrow and have a fiddle!

[HowlinWolf]

It looks to me like Chromatic Aberration, as it has the classic purple and green fringing. CA plagues telephoto lenses, and lens designers go to great lengths to reduce this. Unfortunately, this costs money, and it's the cheaper lenses that suffer the most. However, Chromatic Aberration is not confined to telephotos. Extreme wide-angle optics can also suffer from the problem. Stopping the lens down may help reduce the effect.

HW

[Maccattack]

Just a thought but if the camera sharpening is on then this may exagerate the problem .Might be worth turning the sharpening off and doing the other things mentioned above . You can always use the usm in photoshop later.Try to avoid using "digital zoom" on the camera to keep the quality from deteriorating.

Malcolm

[Gill Catton]

my panasonic FZ30 has a 'cheat function' (not a techinal term - I think its officially called exposure bracketing) where it takes three immediately adjacent shots of three differing exposures every time you press the button. I find it really useful for summer days and bright colours