Momma in waiting
Apr 23, 2018 15:37:51 #
dparsh
Loc: Massachusetts
Momma swan keeping a good eye on me as I took photo. Not as close as it seems, Used my zoom as I did not want to disturb. She relaxed after a minute realizing I was just another nosy photographer. I keep checking back to watch for the new babies.
Apr 23, 2018 16:09:07 #
You posted in Analysis, so I'm going to assume you're looking for feedback 
This photo op is a great example of the need to understand exposure compensation. It appears your camera exposed for the overall scene, which leaves little to no detail in the very white swan. Additionally, your shutter speed is 1/8000 second (I didn't even know they go that high, lol), which made your ISO unnecessarily high, as well.
Can you talk about your choices of settings and your experience in these kinds of high contrast scenes? Thanks!
This photo op is a great example of the need to understand exposure compensation. It appears your camera exposed for the overall scene, which leaves little to no detail in the very white swan. Additionally, your shutter speed is 1/8000 second (I didn't even know they go that high, lol), which made your ISO unnecessarily high, as well.
Can you talk about your choices of settings and your experience in these kinds of high contrast scenes? Thanks!
Apr 23, 2018 16:37:56 #
dparsh
Loc: Massachusetts
thank you for your feedback. I am not an accomplished photographer, I get lucky sometimes. :) I now know that I need to lower my ISO, which I did not know was that high. I probably used my beach mode. I am just starting to get back to manual with a new camera. thank you for your input. I will try this again and see how it works. :)
Apr 23, 2018 16:44:05 #
dparsh wrote:
thank you for your feedback. I am not an accomplished photographer, I get lucky sometimes. :) I now know that I need to lower my ISO, which I did not know was that high. I probably used my beach mode. I am just starting to get back to manual with a new camera. thank you for your input. I will try this again and see how it works. :)
When I photograph white pelicans against dark water, I often need to set my exposure two stops darker than the camera wants to expose automatically. For a sitting bird such as this, you could try a couple of shots, then look at the result, and adjust as needed. Enjoy your new camera!
Apr 23, 2018 16:59:08 #
dparsh
Loc: Massachusetts
Linda From Maine wrote:
When I photograph white pelicans against dark water, I often need to set my exposure two stops darker than the camera wants to expose automatically. For a sitting bird such as this, you could try a couple of shots, then look at the result, and adjust as needed. Enjoy your new camera!
good advice. I appreciate it and will go back tomorrow and see what I can do. thanks!! I looking forward to her giving birth, last time was in 2010 that there was a birth here. Very exciting. I really want to get this right so that I have a very clear, distinct picture when momma has baby or babies. What do you think would be the best settings?? thank you for your help
Apr 23, 2018 17:21:43 #
Linda From Maine wrote:
Say Linda, When you say 2 stops lower are you talking about setting the exposure compensation or something else? Thanks vz.When I photograph white pelicans against dark water, I often need to set my exposure two stops darker than the camera wants to expose automatically. For a sitting bird such as this, you could try a couple of shots, then look at the result, and adjust as needed. Enjoy your new camera!
Apr 23, 2018 18:23:08 #
dparsh wrote:
... What do you think would be the best settings??...
vonzip wrote:
Say Linda, When you say 2 stops lower are you talking about setting the exposure compensation or something else? Thanks vz.
I'm going to explain in a way that is probably going to make the "high-tech" and "you're a failure if you don't use manual exposure" folks cringe
The numbers on the exposure compensation dial represent a "stop" of exposure and often have markers to show in 1/3 increments, as well. A couple of examples of a stop: there is one stop difference between 1/100 second and 1/200 second shutter speed. There is one stop difference between ISO 100 and ISO 200 (apertures are not so straightfward as far as "numbers" go).
https://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/what-is-a-stop-of-exposure-in-photography
For the bird in this thread, I would probably use aperture priority. If it was moving, I'd use shutter priority if I wanted to ensure a fast enough shutter speed to avoid motion blur.
Say I wanted to have a relatively shallow depth of field - one that blurs the background. My choice of setting is going to depend on how far away the bird is, the focal length of the lens I'm using, and the type of camera (for example, bridge cameras with smaller sensors offer more depth of field than full frame pro dslr's for a given f/stop).
Depth of field calculator:
http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html
I'll select f/5.6 for aperture value. If the day is cloudy I might try ISO 400. Now, in aperture priority, that leaves the camera to decide what shutter speed to assign. I want to take a quick look at what the camera is going to choose for shutter speed because I know I can't hold the camera as steady as I used to and I don't like tripods
These factors may require my raising the ISO. I'd prefer to deal with noise than motion blur from a too-slow shutter speed.Once I'm happy with ISO and shutter speed, I have one more step. If I let the camera choose the final exposure via overall scene metering, the bird is going to be too white, as we saw in the OP. So I turn the exposure compensation dial to -1. If that is still too light, maybe try -1.3 or -1.7 or -2. This action darkens the entire image.
Because I'm using aperture priority, when I go to minus on the compensation dial, the camera will increase the shutter speed, a win/win in my case
There are other options, including spot metering, fully manual exposure, shooting in raw to give yourself a better chance to make additional exposure adjustments and capture fine detail in pp. One thought that comes to mind about spot metering (which I don't have much experience with) is you still might need to adjust exposure as the camera will try to make bright white more gray. If you've shot snow scenes, you know how that goes.
Hopefully I haven't confused the issue here too much. I'd be happy to attempt to clarify any of my statements. But please know there are many bird photographers on UHH who are far more experienced than I, with much better equipment too!
Apr 23, 2018 18:54:37 #
Linda From Maine wrote:
I'm going to explain in a way that is probably goi... (show quote)
Since the bird is not moving....
I would use spot metering to "scan the scene" by pointing the center area at different locations on and around the bird to see what the meter says for the highlights and shadows. Then pick an exposure that gives me a good exposure on the feathers and pull up the shadows in post processing.
Apr 23, 2018 19:04:44 #
crazydaddio wrote:
Ah, more than one spot, who knew? Since the bird is not moving....
I would use spot metering to "scan the scene" by pointing the center area at different locations on and around the bird to see what the meter says for the highlights and shadows. Then pick an exposure that gives me a good exposure on the feathers and pull up the shadows in post processing.
I would use spot metering to "scan the scene" by pointing the center area at different locations on and around the bird to see what the meter says for the highlights and shadows. Then pick an exposure that gives me a good exposure on the feathers and pull up the shadows in post processing.
Many thanks!Apr 23, 2018 19:33:35 #
Apr 23, 2018 19:43:22 #
Apr 23, 2018 19:46:29 #
Linda From Maine wrote:
Ah, more than one spot, who knew? Many thanks!
Many thanks!Just to be clear for some folks reading this ...the "spot" in spot metering occupies the center (4% I think) of the viewing area. You cant "move" the spot like you can the AF point. So I was referring to "pointing" the center area by moving the camera around the scene and watching the meter in the viewfinder...
Apr 23, 2018 19:55:22 #
crazydaddio wrote:
I was visualizing moving the camera, but glad for your clarification. I know how easy it is to misunderstand as well as be misunderstood Just to be clear for some folks reading this ...the "spot" in spot metering occupies the center (4% I think) of the viewing area. You cant "move" the spot like you can the AF point. So I was referring to "pointing" the center area by moving the camera around the scene and watching the meter in the viewfinder...
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