photographing herons against water

[Kerry]

Advice please.

Today I took some photos of a heron that very obligingly landed directly infront of my camera and caught a fish, but the exposure was terrible. It was an obliging heron and I had time to use AEB and get shots with differing exposures but they all came out terrible. This web page leads to an example of two:

New Page 1

so how do you manage to photograph a grey heron against grey water?

Kerry

[Little Firewall]

I'd be chuffed out of my tiny little mind if I managed to get such good photographs.

[nightshade]

The exposure looks ok ,is it more that it is not sharp in focus?

[cherrybee]

Originally Posted by Little Firewall

I'd be chuffed out of my tiny little mind if I managed to get such good photographs.

Me too

[Garden Carpet]

Originally Posted by Little Firewall

I'd be chuffed out of my tiny little mind if I managed to get such good photographs.

I would be too!

[glsammy]

I don't think there's much wrong with the shots, but have you balanced them correctly? I've had a look at the histogram for the shot and if you move the range to the data, you'll find the image improves markedly.

[Kerry]

Originally Posted by glsammy

I don't think there's much wrong with the shots, but have you balanced them correctly? I've had a look at the histogram for the shot and if you move the range to the data, you'll find the image improves markedly.

At the moment I only have the software that came with the camera and Microsoft Digital Image Pro so I don't have the advanced editing. I am looking to get an image editor and would be grateful for your recommendations. At the moment I don't fully understand the use of the histogram so would be grateful if you could point me towards any info on its use.

Kerry

[Kerry]

Originally Posted by nightshade

The exposure looks ok ,is it more that it is not sharp in focus?

For some reason the beak was out of focus on nearly all the shots. Some were definitely down to my enthusiasm as I had only been taking photos for a few minutes when the heron just appeared from nowhere and started catching fish; I think that I was a bit heavy handed on the button. I was using a tripod but still had tremors on the photos.

The following were the settings for the camera:

Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/500
Av( Aperture Value ) 13.0
Metering Mode Partial Metering
ISO Speed 400
Lens 70.0 - 300.0 mm
Focal Length 300.0 mm
Image Size 3888x2592
Image Quality Fine
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Cloudy
AF Mode AI Focus AF
Picture Style Standard
Sharpness 3

I thought that I had set the AV to 16.0 but for some reason it ended up as 13. I had the camera on AV setting. It was a bright sunny day but very breezy. Could I have altered anything here to have improved things?

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Kerry

At the moment I only have the software that came with the camera and Microsoft Digital Image Pro so I don't have the advanced editing. I am looking to get an image editor and would be grateful for your recommendations. At the moment I don't fully understand the use of the histogram so would be grateful if you could point me towards any info on its use.

Kerry

Most editing software will allow you to adjust these settings, you certainly don't need to spend a fortune on photoshop for instance.
Most software use the term levels..have a look and see if yours offers this. It usually shows the levels in the form of a graph, with three pointers, one on the left, one on the right, and one in the middle. In your image for example, the graph of the data finishes before the right hand marker, if you move this marker to the left, up to the end of the graph data, you'll see the image brighten up. You can then try moving the centre one to set the mid-tones, the advantage of all this is that the image will change as you move them, so you can see what effect it has.
As for software, there's plenty around, one of the best is Photoshop Elements, which offers almost all of the essential tools you'd need in a friendly interface. It doesn't cost a fortune either.

[Kerry]

Originally Posted by Little Firewall

I'd be chuffed out of my tiny little mind if I managed to get such good photographs.

With them not turning out as well as I had hoped, I feel as though the Gods held a carrot in front of me and let me have a nibble but not the full bite! I was so keen to get the photos that I let enthusiasm get the better of me and I wasn't as careful as I should have been and consequently have the tremors on a lot of them. Oh well hopefully another heron will perform similar antics for me next time!