Great Egrets at Jacobson Park
Sep 20, 2016 23:52:20 #
Working hard at correcting the exposure for these impressive creatures. Their white-white feathers, flight, and harsh sunlight has really complicated the equation.
Comments and criticism are welcomed. Advise and compliments are received warmly!
Comments and criticism are welcomed. Advise and compliments are received warmly!
Sep 21, 2016 09:12:50 #
Sep 21, 2016 20:40:00 #
Shooting white birds in the midday sun can be an exercise in futility. Because of the high reflectivity of the feathers, these photos can easily exceed the dynamic range of your camera. If you shoot so as not to clip the highlights then the sky can become an unnaturally dark blue and vegetation gets very dark. Forget about shadowed areas as they can get so dark as to loose detail.
If you've managed not to clip the highlights then post processing might help. Unfortunately, increasing the exposure of the shadow areas often leaves you with too much noise.
The fundamental rules of photography apply to birds as well as people. We don't expect to get great shots of people in the noon day sun, why should we expect anything different with birds? Shoot on bright overcast days, shoot in open shade, shoot early or late in the day! When I am out for a days shoot in a wildlife refuge you can often find me taking a siesta in the middle of the day but then you will find me shooting right up until sunset.
Your shots all seem to have focus issues but I can not tell if it is motion blur or a missed focus. You have uploaded very small files that do not even have the exif data available so we can tell which it might be.
Please don't be discouraged. You are finding birds to photograph and you have a good eye. It takes lots of trial and error and practice to get these birds right. Keep shooting and posting and we'll help you on the way!
If you've managed not to clip the highlights then post processing might help. Unfortunately, increasing the exposure of the shadow areas often leaves you with too much noise.
The fundamental rules of photography apply to birds as well as people. We don't expect to get great shots of people in the noon day sun, why should we expect anything different with birds? Shoot on bright overcast days, shoot in open shade, shoot early or late in the day! When I am out for a days shoot in a wildlife refuge you can often find me taking a siesta in the middle of the day but then you will find me shooting right up until sunset.
Your shots all seem to have focus issues but I can not tell if it is motion blur or a missed focus. You have uploaded very small files that do not even have the exif data available so we can tell which it might be.
Please don't be discouraged. You are finding birds to photograph and you have a good eye. It takes lots of trial and error and practice to get these birds right. Keep shooting and posting and we'll help you on the way!
Sep 23, 2016 10:54:10 #
Food for thought: Issues with dynamic range are easily address with industry standard HDR software solutions....
Photomatix Pro version 5.x can quickly combine three (or more) exposure renderings of the same capture in a RAW converter to expand dynamic range far beyond current sensor technologies... be advised to be certain to work in the highest bit configuration for RAW captures i.e. 14bit... and save the Photomatix Pro output version as a 16bit tiff... then the world is your oyster...
As for soft images? working at ƒ/11.0 with 562mm focal length and1/1000 shutter speed may not be germane for your kit...
Might try a minimum of 1/2000 at f/8 or raise you ISO from 200 to 400 in as your Canon EOS REBEL SL1 can effectively deal with this...
Still having sharpness issues then possibly 1/4000 albeit the real issue here is most likely shooting against the sun... Back-lighting imagery is seriously prone to flare when using long glass... even Nikon's pricey Nano Coating stumbles here... Lens hoods help but your likely far better off shooting with the sun at your back (or better yet quartering). Flare extracts a very heavy toll on image acuity.... likely even more than diffraction when stopped down...
That said the last image with it's surreal reflections is priceless... such a beautiful painterly effect... this is the rare exception to shooting back lighting... sometimes it can be breathtaking... Trust that you shot RAW here in as the exposure can be "fixed" in Photomatix Pro However the soft focus can only be kludged by over sharping... which is ill advised... Please consider testing your long glass carefully to understands it's merits and limitations... some lens are amazing until they approach max focal length... simply by throttling back a tad your results could be remarkably improved (but every lens is different so learn your glass's sweet spot, k?)
Thank you for sharing your aquatic artistry...
Photomatix Pro version 5.x can quickly combine three (or more) exposure renderings of the same capture in a RAW converter to expand dynamic range far beyond current sensor technologies... be advised to be certain to work in the highest bit configuration for RAW captures i.e. 14bit... and save the Photomatix Pro output version as a 16bit tiff... then the world is your oyster...
As for soft images? working at ƒ/11.0 with 562mm focal length and1/1000 shutter speed may not be germane for your kit...
Might try a minimum of 1/2000 at f/8 or raise you ISO from 200 to 400 in as your Canon EOS REBEL SL1 can effectively deal with this...
Still having sharpness issues then possibly 1/4000 albeit the real issue here is most likely shooting against the sun... Back-lighting imagery is seriously prone to flare when using long glass... even Nikon's pricey Nano Coating stumbles here... Lens hoods help but your likely far better off shooting with the sun at your back (or better yet quartering). Flare extracts a very heavy toll on image acuity.... likely even more than diffraction when stopped down...
That said the last image with it's surreal reflections is priceless... such a beautiful painterly effect... this is the rare exception to shooting back lighting... sometimes it can be breathtaking... Trust that you shot RAW here in as the exposure can be "fixed" in Photomatix Pro However the soft focus can only be kludged by over sharping... which is ill advised... Please consider testing your long glass carefully to understands it's merits and limitations... some lens are amazing until they approach max focal length... simply by throttling back a tad your results could be remarkably improved (but every lens is different so learn your glass's sweet spot, k?)
Thank you for sharing your aquatic artistry...
Sep 23, 2016 13:20:38 #
Thomas902 wrote:
Food for thought: Issues with dynamic range are ea... (show quote)
Thank you, you are too kind. I will kick the ISO up, and kick myself out of the sun, both good suggestions.
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