You have a lot of excellent information in your third paragraph BUT, when photographing an action wildlife shot you usually do not have the luxury of shooting a pic, looking at the histogram, looking at the pic, adjusting settings and taking the shot etc.

This is especially true when trying to shoot two fighting elk who are moving constantly and could cease fighting and move away at any moment. Naturally, if time permits do these things and make adjustments, but that is contingent upon what the subjects are doing. Grazing deer, bugling elk etc are easy compared to fighting or running animals, so be flexible and realize the backgrounds will be constantly changing and possibly requiring setting adjustments.

The advice you give is solid but the shooter should try to do these things before arriving at the actual shoot site. Take pix of anything in conditions similar to what will be encountered and know in advance what the settings will probably need to be---and set them accordingly and adjust as needed, using the light meter, when making the first shot. Knowing your camera is essential for this step---and that is a whole other discussion. In the posted pix this would have helped compensate for the snow etc.

Also, a shutter speed of 1250 would be the minimum I would have used. I would have followed the guide lines recommended by Steve Perry in his Backcountry Gallery.com and then used an auto ISO. Go to the camera's menu and set a maximum ISO however, at the uppermost level of noise that you can tolerate.

Also take multiple exposures. Elk move very, very quickly when fighting. I have seen two elk change positions where the one on the right is now on the left in far less time than it takes to advance one frame of film. Shooting multiple exposures at one time with an autofocused DSLR can frequently capture those actions now.

There are reasons why shooting wildlife is so much fun and very challenging, but the bottom line is try to be lucky------ and don't forget that in many cases you make your own luck.

Thanks for all the input and I think you did a better job than I did on the first photo! I was a bid dismayed when I found I was on Pro Photo, that has happened before I that is not what I use!!! I had called Adobe for help as my LR is running very slow and she did some adjustments and what ever she did didn’t really help and it changed me to the Pro Photo.... I have had the lens professionally calibrated to the body, so it should be ok. I have gotten good photos from this combination so it is my technique and the under exposure was a big part. Not thinking about the snow another part....
I can take a decent photo!

Well, let me be a contrarian here and add a different opinion. You don't always need a tack sharp image to have a good image. The technical difficulty with this shot was the flat lighting and lack of color contrast between the subject and background. I don't think sharpening or exposure corrections has much effect on this image in its current form.

What I did find interesting and important in this image was the determined look in the eyes and the locked horns. I don't feel the foreground snow bank or the other elks grazing in the background add anything to this composition. Robert Capa, one of the old masters, said "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough.” I suggest you get closer. Since you can't physically get closer, you might consider a tighter crop, presenting just the important part of the image.

Gene51 showed his cat image. He explained how shooting technique could still preserve image quality. What I saw in his crop was a much better composition than the original even if he would have lost some detail. He cropped down to the most important element of that image. I cropped into your image and I found what I feel is a much better image. From there you can sharpen, increase exposure and contrast, etc., but your starting with a better composition. I also found that the crop was easier to edit than the original.

Just another POV, hope this helps.
Mike

You have a lot of excellent information in your third paragraph BUT, when photographing an action wildlife shot you usually do not have the luxury of shooting a pic, looking at the histogram, looking at the pic, adjusting settings and taking the shot etc.

This is especially true when trying to shoot two fighting elk who are moving constantly and could cease fighting and move away at any moment. Naturally, if time permits do these things and make adjustments, but that is contingent upon what the subjects are doing. Grazing deer, bugling elk etc are easy compared to fighting or running animals, so be flexible and realize the backgrounds will be constantly changing and possibly requiring setting adjustments.

The advice you give is solid but the shooter should try to do these things before arriving at the actual shoot site. Take pix of anything in conditions similar to what will be encountered and know in advance what the settings will probably need to be---and set them accordingly and adjust as needed, using the light meter, when making the first shot. Knowing your camera is essential for this step---and that is a whole other discussion. In the posted pix this would have helped compensate for the snow etc.

Also, a shutter speed of 1250 would be the minimum I would have used. I would have followed the guide lines recommended by Steve Perry in his Backcountry Gallery.com and then used an auto ISO. Go to the camera's menu and set a maximum ISO however, at the uppermost level of noise that you can tolerate.

Also take multiple exposures. Elk move very, very quickly when fighting. I have seen two elk change positions where the one on the right is now on the left in far less time than it takes to advance one frame of film. Shooting multiple exposures at one time with an autofocused DSLR can frequently capture those actions now.

There are reasons why shooting wildlife is so much fun and very challenging, but the bottom line is try to be lucky------ and don't forget that in many cases you make your own luck.

I don't know about that. I usually sit around and wait for the wildlife to appear. In the meantime, I have done all of the prep work - (test shots, adjustments etc) so I am ready for it when it happens. It does get a little dicey when you have radically changing light - like lots of passing clouds - but over time one gets comfortable with making adjustments on the fly.

The problem I have with AutoISO is that you are forced into using exposure compensation for adjustments for bright or dark subjects. I use full manual, no auto anything - just like I used to when shooting film - old habits die hard. Steve is a great photographer and what he does obviously works very well for him and others that use his approach.

An elk is a formidable subject in many ways, but as far as movement is concerned, it is no match for a tiny nervous bird at short range, like 20-30 ft, especially when tightly zoomed. Very unpredictable. Or a dragonfly in flight. Way harder to shoot than an elk or other large animal. My standard shutter speed and aperture setting is 1/1000 sec and F7.1 to F8, and whatever ISO I need to support that exposure setting. When the light starts to disappear, I drop down to whatever, relying on OS if hand holding, or lower if on a tripod. But while a longer shutter speed will give you a better exposure, any movement from the subject will result in some level of blur.

Take a look at some of my "stuff" at https://www.flickr.com/photos/gene_lugo/ to see what I am talking about.