motes

This is my first posting....my main gear is a 900 Nikon.


When I attempt to take a photo of dark faced wildlife many times I can't get a good photo of their expression on the face. What can I do to capture the expression without losing their natural beauty and color?

Thanks for any suggestions. I'm just a beginner with much to learn.
Motes

Skiextreme2 Loc: Northwest MA

What kind of light conditions are you talking about, how big is the animal, how far away from the animal are you and what settings are you using to photograph the animals? Are you photographing with a tripod or hand held?

ppage Loc: Pittsburg, (San Francisco area)

I am going to assume you meant to say the Nikon Coopix P900, that I also use. It has extraordinary zoom; full frame equivalent of 2000 MM. This camera is a point and shoot with no hot shoe. Professional wildlife photographers will use flash for these situations. Otherwise, you have to be hard core about light and direction. The light should be plentiful and should be coming from behind you and in your subjects face. You probably use that nice zoom and that will put your aperture at f/6.5 which the camera compensates for by increasing iso. If the light isn't right, it is a shot you should pass up. Either wait, go earlier, move around or whatever you have to do to get light on the face of the critter. Using off camera flash with this camera can be done but it is very tricky.

ppage Loc: Pittsburg, (San Francisco area)

This is with the P900. The sunset was behind me and shining right on him. The head is still a bit dark but the front of it is lit up nicely.

(Download)

williejoha

In Lightroom you could improve the highlights and shadows quite a bit. Without post processing it will be what it is. Good luck.
WJH

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

Nice image, I still can see details even in the darker areas.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Welcome to UHH. My suggestion would be to look at your histogram and adjust your exposure with exposure compensation.

rdubreuil Loc: Dummer, NH USA

Not all that much, P900 shoots jpeg only, PP is limited.

Steve Perry Loc: Sylvania, Ohio

For a camera like that, good light is the key - preferably light right on the subject's face. Otherwise, it's going to be difficult. While the P900 has a fantastic zoom, it is severely limited by both the inability to take a flash, the small sensor, and the lack of RAW files (although I'm surprised it doesn't do RAW).

In the first two images below, I was fighting heavy backlight with the dark faced howler monkeys. Although I normally don't do a lot of fill flash, it proved invaluable for retaining detail on the faces.

In the next image, I have howler monkey with a little light on his face. Thanks to the larger dynamic range of a full frame camera, I was able to pull up the shadows from the RAW file and retain detail, no flash required.

The same goes for the black bears. When I photograph black bears, I'm always thinking about the direction of the light. Hard shadows or dim conditions make getting good photo difficult. However, with a little illumination on their faces, it makes the job much easier. Couple that with a DSLR's larger sensor, and you have enough latitude to pull the shadows up if needed. The smaller sensor of the P900 works against you here, but under the right conditions should still be able to manage a decent shot.

The truth is, I think your camera is limiting you in this situation. A larger format DSLR or mirrorless would likely serve you better, but of course there's a LOT more expense, accessories, lenses, and weight involved.

(Download)


(Download)


(Download)


(Download)


(Download)

motes

Thank you for your info

motes

Thank for taking time to explain the info to me

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Listen to Steve Perry.

Bill_de Loc: US

Steve has lots of videos. He also has a book on Wildlife Photography.

https://backcountrygallery.com/books/

---

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Dark colors reflect less light, so you have to expose more but THAT will overexposed the backgrounds.
It's just the way it is, you have to blow out the background.
If the light is at its face, may may get away with a more normal exposure.
Best to spotmeter the face or + the EC, if that's what's important to you and correct everything else in the photo in post to recover other colors if they are washed out. Good luck
SS

BTW, no offense, but to get good shots of wildlife...., you may have to get REAL camera!!! LoL, sorry!

Murray Loc: New Westminster

Good post processing software can help a lot (ON1, photoshop, GIMP Lightroom and many others). I would suggest starting with free software, GIMP, for example. Personally I find processing fun, but not all here feel that way.

Above all, enjoy!