River chat

Taken under poor light but still manage to blow the white cap. Can sifus offer tips how not to blow the white cap? TQ.

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The second shot is very nice, first shot exposure seems over, and image a little soft.
Assuming that you have a piece of smooth white plastic, no matter how you set your exposure, it seems to be burnt with just a little light. In reality, it may not be, but because the plastic piece is smooth with no texture, therefore your sensor will indicate the surface as burnt. In the case of some birds, the feather texture can be so fine that it appears to be smooth like the plastic I mention. If the crown feathers of above bird are not 'folded' back but erect, you will find that there are no burn, or a lot less burn. So, sometimes I just accept the images as they are, knowing the real reason behind.
I hope I am right with the explanation.

TQ! wmw998, thanks for your detailed feedback and your analogy does make sense and I can also take comfort that I didn't screw up.
The first image was really dark and I deliberately bumped up exposure/brightness/fill light etc during PP to try and rescue it.

The bird is very nice.
In your post-processing in #2 you have overdone the shadow/highlights in photoshop, or equivalent, such that there is a very obvious halo around the bird.
You are best shooting on manual mode and you shoot for the whites and let the blacks look after themselves. Best to spot meter the head and adjust your exposure to that. If you leave any choice to the camera it will try to make everything neutral grey as it is programmed to do.
In the first place avoid contrasty light. In my book beyond 10.30am is too contrasty......hazy sunlight is best.
Cheers
Graeme

This is hard for me too.... now I try under EV-1 or more..... and bring out the underpart at PS.... not easy.. not very good too.... but some time it work

mcbgg wrote:The bird is very nice.
In your post-processing in #2 you have overdone the shadow/highlights in photoshop, or equivalent, such that there is a very obvious halo around the bird.
You are best shooting on manual mode and you shoot for the whites and let the blacks look after themselves. Best to spot meter the head and adjust your exposure to that. If you leave any choice to the camera it will try to make everything neutral grey as it is programmed to do.
In the first place avoid contrasty light. In my book beyond 10.30am is too contrasty......hazy sunlight is best.
Cheers
Graeme

Thanks Graeme, yes, I think I am a little heavy handed with the sliders. I am still struggling with PP and have yet to develop a proper work flow, every time it's trial and error and occasionally I hit the jackpot. Here's another shot which I PP'ed only with Lightroom. The white cap is irretrievably blown and even with exposure slider at minimum it remains blown. This was shot with centre weighted metering aimed at the head/eye at ISO1000 (in dense forest shade); 1/13sec, Manual mode with a 7D and 500/f4 at F4.5, tripod mounted. The subject is perched in heavy shade next to a mini waterfall. Image softness is probably due to too low shutter speed and/or subject movement.

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nelson khor wrote:This is hard for me too.... now I try under EV-1 or more..... and bring out the underpart at PS.... not easy.. not very good too.... but some time it work

Thanks Nelson, I tend to shoot Manual mode these days and correct me if I am wrong, in M-mode, there is no dialling in exposure comp right? I only look at the pointer at the bottom of the viewfinder and try and get the pointer centred. If I want to underexpose the shot I should make the pointer move towards left of fixed centre mark yeah?

This is very challenging bird, I never get the right exposure on white..

shot under in Raw mode..then u can get back the white part in ps..my 2 cent..

jack2964 wrote:

nelson khor wrote:This is hard for me too.... now I try under EV-1 or more..... and bring out the underpart at PS.... not easy.. not very good too.... but some time it work

Thanks Nelson, I tend to shoot Manual mode these days and correct me if I am wrong, in M-mode, there is no dialling in exposure comp right? I only look at the pointer at the bottom of the viewfinder and try and get the pointer centred. If I want to underexpose the shot I should make the pointer move towards left of fixed centre mark yeah?

Above sounds too complicated to me, but I am sure some photographers are used to your shooting mode! I think most people shoot using aperture priority, and adjust exposure as necessary while shooting. I normally use evaluative metering, and I never make the red dot move in any direction other than focusing on the eye. I believe if the exposure is wrong, it is difficult to restore the actual colour of the bird when processing the shot. Getting low shutter speed is one thing, getting low shutter speed and under exposure means wrong setting, even if the image is sharp !
This is a shot that I took in KK National park, the light condition was bad, too low, and the shutter speed was only 1/15s, I think, but I had managed to get the exposure close to being correct. So, I believe manually controlling the exposure is important. By the way, I do not use Photoshop to process, it is mainly used to write my name.
This is just to share my way of shooting, everyone has their own preference, nothing to do with being right or wrong here.

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so nice Jack.
For white part, I think every of us is facing the same problem to get it good. And those who is very expert in PP, they knew what to set b4 shooting and have it done in PP. To me, I don use PP as I don have it and Nikon capture is enough for me.

Mr No Good wrote:This is very challenging bird, I never get the right exposure on white..

Thanks Mr.NG I didn't know that even sifus like you have trouble with correct white exposure.

zo_cozy wrote:shot under in Raw mode..then u can get back the white part in ps..my 2 cent..

Thanks for tip Cozy, although I am not quite sure how to do that.

wmw998 wrote:

jack2964 wrote:

nelson khor wrote:This is hard for me too.... now I try under EV-1 or more..... and bring out the underpart at PS.... not easy.. not very good too.... but some time it work

Thanks Nelson, I tend to shoot Manual mode these days and correct me if I am wrong, in M-mode, there is no dialling in exposure comp right? I only look at the pointer at the bottom of the viewfinder and try and get the pointer centred. If I want to underexpose the shot I should make the pointer move towards left of fixed centre mark yeah?

Above sounds too complicated to me, but I am sure some photographers are used to your shooting mode! I think most people shoot using aperture priority, and adjust exposure as necessary while shooting. I normally use evaluative metering, and I never make the red dot move in any direction other than focusing on the eye. I believe if the exposure is wrong, it is difficult to restore the actual colour of the bird when processing the shot. Getting low shutter speed is one thing, getting low shutter speed and under exposure means wrong setting, even if the image is sharp !
This is a shot that I took in KK National park, the light condition was bad, too low, and the shutter speed was only 1/15s, I think, but I had managed to get the exposure close to being correct. So, I believe manually controlling the exposure is important. By the way, I do not use Photoshop to process, it is mainly used to write my name.
This is just to share my way of shooting, everyone has their own preference, nothing to do with being right or wrong here.

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Thanks wmw998, yours is a fab shot for 1/15s and 840FL and ISO 1000! What bird is that?
I used to choose Av mode previously and it was ok until shooting under heavy shade when speeds drop to less than 1/20 and over 90% of my shots are useless due to camera shake/subject movement. So I have been experimenting with Man mode recently and I seem to do a bit better. Would you be kind enough to share the reasons your preference for evaluative over centre-weighted or spot metering?
BTW, I notice your photos have their EXIF intact, how do you retain this vital info when you post here?
Thanks for your input.

BENCYF wrote:so nice Jack.
For white part, I think every of us is facing the same problem to get it good. And those who is very expert in PP, they knew what to set b4 shooting and have it done in PP. To me, I don use PP as I don have it and Nikon capture is enough for me.

Ah sifu Ben, thank you, you don't need PP because you get it right when you shoot and the images are superb straight off the camera! tabik u!

jack2964 wrote:

BENCYF wrote:so nice Jack.
For white part, I think every of us is facing the same problem to get it good. And those who is very expert in PP, they knew what to set b4 shooting and have it done in PP. To me, I don use PP as I don have it and Nikon capture is enough for me.

Ah sifu Ben, thank you, you don't need PP because you get it right when you shoot and the images are superb straight off the camera! tabik u!

Jack, it is the other way round la! Even PP can not be help. Certified dead.

guru has spoken. anyway good effort too.

jack2964 wrote:

nelson khor wrote:This is hard for me too.... now I try under EV-1 or more..... and bring out the underpart at PS.... not easy.. not very good too.... but some time it work

Thanks Nelson, I tend to shoot Manual mode these days and correct me if I am wrong, in M-mode, there is no dialling in exposure comp right? I only look at the pointer at the bottom of the viewfinder and try and get the pointer centred. If I want to underexpose the shot I should make the pointer move towards left of fixed centre mark yeah?

Yes, you are right, this is my understanding too, but me most time using AV and play with EV