Took this shot this morning about 9am or so, overcast skies, the bg is fine, but this white bird seems to be totally blown... Yeah it was a really white bird, a snowy egret to be exact. Is there a way to shoot this without totally blowing it? Or is it just me?

I think we have all had similar experiences Brenda.

It is not an easy shot to capture a white bird against a dark background.

The problem is with metering the shot - the cameras built in meter is very good at averaging out exposures so when you have a mix of dark and light it averages and you end up with lost shadows and blown highlights if the dynamic range is too large for the camera, which it invariably will be with white birds.

If possible and this probably won't be with wildlife set to spot meter and meter of the brightest part and reduce the exposure by 2 stops.

Otherwise I think it is experience with this particular type of shot and recognising the scene. Bracketing your exposures will help because then you are likely to get one that is exposed correctly, from studying these you can determine how much you need to stop up from what the camera says.

Message edited on: 01/29/2006 17:22

OK Richard here is another white bird but very different bg. This one does not appear to be blown or does it? This also was an overcast sky this morning taken about an hour after the first one...

Nope definitely not blown a perfect shot :) That second one is really very beautiful Brenda, I like that one a lot. I would perhaps work it a bit in PS, but only because that is my way. It illustrates the point I was trying to make perfectly too. Different background = different exposure chosen by the camera. Here it has averaged perfectly because there were no extremes of tone.

A camera's meter tries to make the average to equal 18% middle grey - which is why if you take a "perfectly exposed shot of snow it ends up being s dull grey. On the flip side (your first photo) anything it reads as "dark" will be exposed as to lighten it up to equal 18% middle grey - which is why your greenery (which is fairly dark in real life) looks nice and lush but the small amount of lighter color (the bird) is overexposed. Digital goes REALLY quickly to blowing out whites and crushing details into blacks. A bit more than slide film does IMO. It can only handle a VERY small amount of real contrast before one end goes beyond it's ability to see. What you might have been able to do in the first shot is underexpose it to get the light details in the bird's feathers, and in Photoshop bring UP the details in the shadows - it doesn't look like it would have entirely crushed to black just yet. To be honest, I like both shots a lot - even though you seem to be dismayed that the 1st one has blown out highlights, it still looks nice and lush. -Lew ;-)

I don't see anything wrong with either. After a frame job, they would look quite nice. That and a bit bigger file size. Hard when it has to be under 200kb.

I think they both look great and i would be mighty pleased with both if i had taken them. And those birds are soooo cool by the way. Ive only seen one in my entire life and they sure are huge arent they. Cool shots Brenda. #:O)

Since you asked what would I do, I had a little play with the 2nd one hope you don't mind it is a great image as it stands, all I have done is a few adjustments to bring forward the bird a little bit :)

Sigh...brilliant work Richard...of course...just brilliant.

Richard I am glad you took it and did your thing, because to be honest after you made that first post I wondered what you would do LOL! I think mine had a tad bit more blue to it and yours more grey maybe, but you made the bird stand out perfectly! I have about ten of these shots, will pick the best! Thanks for explaining why this happened! :) Doug, You don't see blown highlights in the white??? I was not happy when I got em uploaded, thought I had some brilliant shots but they were blown me thinks! :( Lew Thank you for taking the time to explain to me why this happened, when cruising in a boat you only have so long to get everything right so I went with the stupid auto setting when I saw this bird fast approaching on the shore, I even had em idle so I had more time to catch it. We were doing idle speed anyway as we were in a manatee zone. Yes Zacko those birds are huge, or at least the second one was and I am still not sure if it (second one) is a Great White Heron or a Great White Egret, guess I need to do a little research eh? Brenda :)

Brenda - hope you don't mind - I couldn't help myself wondering "what I'd do?" It doesn't have the somber mood of Richard's - I like his better - great job Richard! Don't worry at ALL - any of the automatic settings aren't stupid. Just letting you "technically" know why it came out that way. With animals you often don't have the time to fiddle with settings, also hampered by always changing light conditions (even overcast skies become more or less harsh minute to minute). -Lew ;-)

Thx Brenda and Lew.
I wouldn't get the opportunity to practise on such shots if it were not for RR forum so I enjoy it and a learning experience for me too.

For reference what I did: duplicate layer changed blending mode to soft light, adjustment layers for levels and curves to do minor tweaks to suit taste, adjustment layer for HSL and desaturated Cyans and Blues a lot and increased saturation on Reds and yellows a lot (I liked the beak), finally new layer filled with mid grey 50% opacity, added a mask to it show all, used elliptical marque tool with lots of feather to make vignette and filled it with black to paint it out.

Message edited on: 01/30/2006 21:31