Lately having trouble with blowed our white heads of eagles. I am shooting a Canon 7 D Mark II. My setting are usually f/8 1/1000 sec auto iso - .7 or -1 ev. My flying shots in the sky are fine. Sitting in the trees is the problem. Comments please. Mostly on bright sunny days
ronjay wrote:
Lately having trouble with blowed our white heads of eagles. I am shooting a Canon 7 D Mark II. My setting are usually f/8 1/1000 sec auto iso - .7 or -1 ev. My flying shots in the sky are fine. Sitting in the trees is the problem. Comments please. Mostly on bright sunny days
What are you metering on and are you using spot. If the eagle is sitting still try metering on the white head with spot metering. If after that you are still getting blown out heads try an EC of -1/3 at a time until you arrive at a good exposure.
You adjust your exposure to the available light. You don't have one setting and expect the world to adjust.
What you didn't say is your shooting mode. In manual, an exposure that doesn't blow the highlights against a sky is the same exposure for when the bird dips down to a darker background, the same light. But, a camera-controlled exposure will detect the different light and will meter for the details of the darker background blowing the small percentage of the whites against the trees, etc.
Shooting Manual mode Evaluative exposure
RRS wrote:
What are you metering on and are you using spot. If the eagle is sitting still try metering on the white head with spot metering. If after that you are still getting blown out heads try an EC of -1/3 at a time until you arrive at a good exposure.
Shooting Evaluative exp in Manual mode
Gene51
Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)
ronjay wrote:
Lately having trouble with blowed our white heads of eagles. I am shooting a Canon 7 D Mark II. My setting are usually f/8 1/1000 sec auto iso - .7 or -1 ev. My flying shots in the sky are fine. Sitting in the trees is the problem. Comments please. Mostly on bright sunny days
Shoot raw (for better dynamic range and highlight headroom), use manual exposure, measure the white head (or ice or snow) with the camera's spot meter, add one stop to the reading, forget about exposure comp - end your blown out heads forever. If you use an automatic exposure mode, then use the above but set either aperture or shutter priority, and have AE Lock activated on a half-press of the shutter, with exposure comp dialed in to -1 stop - a little trickier than manual exposure, but more suitable suitable for shooting in changing light. AE-L is what makes the second approach actually work.
Islandgal
Loc: Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Canada
Wow! These images are great!
Shoot on overcast days to avoid blow-out. Lighting is everything.
ronjay wrote:
Lately having trouble with blowed our white heads of eagles. I am shooting a Canon 7 D Mark II. My setting are usually f/8 1/1000 sec auto iso - .7 or -1 ev. My flying shots in the sky are fine. Sitting in the trees is the problem. Comments please. Mostly on bright sunny days
Its probably because you have the camera decide on the exposure and in your case it will expose for the trees (surroundings)!
Gene51
Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)
rook2c4 wrote:
Shoot on overcast days to avoid blow-out. Lighting is everything.
You can shoot in any light, as long as you understand how to expose correctly. The images I posted were in all kinds of light.
47greyfox
Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range
Gene51 wrote:
You can shoot in any light, as long as you understand how to expose correctly. The images I posted were in all kinds of light.
True, true, true. Seems, at first glance, a simple concept. It’s all in the execution at the moment. 👍
Gene51
Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)
47greyfox wrote:
True, true, true. Seems, at first glance, a simple concept. It’s all in the execution at the moment. 👍
Absolutely! You need to do it often enough, and make enough mistakes, until it becomes automatic second-nature. Then it is easy.
Gene51 wrote:
Shoot raw (for better dynamic range and highlight headroom), use manual exposure, measure the white head (or ice or snow) with the camera's spot meter, add one stop to the reading, forget about exposure comp - end your blown out heads forever. If you use an automatic exposure mode, then use the above but set either aperture or shutter priority, and have AE Lock activated on a half-press of the shutter, with exposure comp dialed in to -1 stop - a little trickier than manual exposure, but more suitable suitable for shooting in changing light. AE-L is what makes the second approach actually work.
Shoot raw (for better dynamic range and highlight ... (
show quote)
Good morning Gene, correct me if I'm wrong and I've been wrong many times before. I shoot in manual so I can control the shutter speed and DOF with the aperture and have started shooting auto ISO, some would say God forbid. I do meter , spot, off the eagles head or snow and use EC to set the exposure from + 2/3 to a stop and 1/3 over and it seems to work well. For me a tougher bird to always get a good exposure on is an Osprey as they are almost Black and White where the eagles are more Brown and White. They are both B&W but with a little twist. BTW, nice shots for a kid from New York!
If you want to reply, then
register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.