Exposure challenges (1 Viewer)

Took myself Red Kite spotting over the weekend. Saw lots and managed a few hundred photos, many of which were close to full frame using my Big-T and D70s.

I knew exposure would be a challenge - bright sky (intermittent sunshine) and trying to follow the birds at 500mm was a challenge in itself.

Most pics taken with centre weighted metering and used exposure compensation by a few stops to negate the bright background when the bird wasn't in the centre of the frame.

Most of the results were disappointing, being quite badly underexposed. About 10 were OK but could have been better (best attached).

Please could anyone give any tips on which settings would give me best results in these conditions to try and avoid silhouettes?

Thanks in anticipation.
Kev

Kev, I would use spot metering not centre weighted as with CW your gonna get a lot of sky in. When I take photos looking upwards I tend to use between one or two stops over exposure depending on the conditions, a quick look at the histogram will tell you how close you are, the down side is it'll slow the shutter speed down but on a bright day not an issue. shoot in RAW as this may offer a little better picture recovery.
The only other option is to bracket especially one or two stops over exposure.
Steve

Hi Kev,

For shots like your Kite I tend to set the camera to manual and take a meter reading off a neutral grey patch of ground. Take a few shots and check the histogram and then tweak the aperture or shutter speed to suit. This has worked well for me at Gigrin Farm in the past.
I've been caught out though when the sun's gone in and I haven't altered the setting so watch out for that!

Paul

Kev,

Basically do as Steve suggests, but even though you have under-exposed the images are still correctable. So, before you bin them try to correct the balance. It may take some time but you can do this.

I've also metered off the ground and then used that exposure. As Pauls says it works as long as the lighting conditions don't change.

paul goode said:

Hi Kev,

For shots like your Kite I tend to set the camera to manual and take a meter reading off a neutral grey patch of ground.
Paul

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Good idea Paul - hadn't thought of that. Looking at your stunning Gigrin images, please could I ask what lens you used for these and give me some clues as to how you process them? I use PS7 for jpg's and mainly use levels and U-mask, but I'm not getting close to your shots. Also, just starting to experiment with RAW. Care to let us into your secrets??

Thanks to all for replies so far.
Kev

Hi Kev,
I completely agree with Duke .
I shoot a lot of flight shots against bright skies.
Most birds are darker than the sky - and i use spot metering . In- flight shots should use fast shutter speeds - so in order to get good exposure and still get fast shutter speeds - i tend to raise Iso ( even on a bright day ) - , open aperture and ADD positive exposure compensation. ( I shoot almost exclusively in Aperture mode ) . Remember - adding positive exp comp.- will lower your shutter speed - so crank up the Iso ...
AND - i shoot in RAW - alowing me to correct compensation if needed .
Many times i get very sharp pictures but underexposed ( mostly when i did not add +exp ) - and using Raw - i correct it . ( It adds "noise" but that can be cleaned up ...) .
Here are 3 examples:

Astrokev said:

Good idea Paul - hadn't thought of that. Looking at your stunning Gigrin images, please could I ask what lens you used for these and give me some clues as to how you process them? I use PS7 for jpg's and mainly use levels and U-mask, but I'm not getting close to your shots. Also, just starting to experiment with RAW. Care to let us into your secrets??

Thanks to all for replies so far.
Kev

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Hi Kev, thanks very much for the comment on the images. The 2007 shots are with a Sigma 500mm prime (RAW) and the earlier ones with a Sigma 50-500 (JPEG).

Processing is pretty straightforward.

Convert the Raw file with Capture One, then in PSE4 adjust Levels, Shadow and Highlights, contrast and saturation (the kites looked really washed out in the original RAW files). Apply NR using Neat Image and finally sharpen with USM.

The reason I use manual metering in this situation is because, as I think you've found, The Kites don't stay nicely in the middle of the frame and I found that using AV on a 20d (admittedly without spot metering) the metering still leapt all over the place whereas if you get the midtones correctly exposed erring on slight underexposure so the highlights aren't blown everything else shouldn't be far out.

Hope that helps

All the best

Paul

That's great, thanks Paul. Looks like I'll be spending some more time in the digi-darkroom!
On the Sigma's, did you find significant improvement moving from the zoom to prime?

Astrokev said:

That's great, thanks Paul. Looks like I'll be spending some more time in the digi-darkroom!
On the Sigma's, did you find significant improvement moving from the zoom to prime?

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Hi Kev,

A good processing work flow makes or breaks digital images, and if you've read other threads you may gather I'm not convinced I've got it right. I use Capture One as a Raw converter but am experimenting with Rawshooter essentials and reckon it could be the way to go. Far quicker than Capture One, I reckon, and highlight recovery which Capture One hasn't got. With Raw the image out of the camera is the start of the journey!!

As for the difference between the zoom and prime, the prime is better but 100k compressed web files hide a lot of the improvements. Looking at the different shots on the web I think the zoom shots look harsher, more processed, which they are, whereas the prime shots look a bit more natural. The difference is far more obvious with A4 prints.

The other significant difference is the number of infocus shots I got. The Bigma shots on the web were a fair chunk of the 'keepers' from the day. This years gallery is mainly of what I thought were different poses etc. I've got more 'routine' Kite shots still to be processed which I put down mainly to the primes faster AF. The focus range limiter helps a lot when the bird flies out of frame and the AF goes hunting!

Saying all that though when I got back from Gigrin with the Bigma I was, and still am, really pleased with the shots!

Paul

I don't know how close you go to the birds, but since you mentioned full frame shots at times, I think you could have used a flash with a flash extender/better beamer device attached to it. Then you could get both the sky well exposed and the bird illuminated by the flash without being too apparent since there's nothing behind to cast a shadow to.