Fruits of today

[SARtech]

Another Sunday with all my little friends. Was a fairly nice day but still lacking in a deep blue sky. The adult pair of bald eagles never came close enough for good shots as you can see. I was bummed about that, but got some cool Tundra Swan shots.

Can someone tell me how to get better sharpness and exposure on my juvenile eagles? My sea gulls look great, but the juveniles are all grainy and dark by the time I adjust the shadows and highlights in Adobe Photo Deluxe. It's frustrating... I capture the shot but it is not crisp enough to print (I'm sure).

[SARtech]

Here's the rest. The last one is a shot down the river from where I take these.

Kristine

[Singletracklovr]

Luv the Barge shot, that's the Mississippi right?. Reminds me of home. I grewup on the Tennesse River.

I'm new to all this as well, so I probably shouldn't offer any advice.
I do have many picture that look just like yours.
I think my problem is I shoot off hand no tripod for the stationary subjects and my shutter speed is too slow for the flying captures so I am getting camera motion from pressing the shutter button.

[Loupey]

Can someone tell me how to get better sharpness and exposure on my juvenile eagles? My sea gulls look great, but the juveniles are all grainy and dark by the time I adjust the shadows and highlights in Adobe Photo Deluxe. It's frustrating... I capture the shot but it is not crisp enough to print (I'm sure).

You have to be careful when using the highlight/shadows tool. Too much and the telltale signs are obvious. The "grainy" problem is caused when the shadow tool is used to pull out detail from an underexposed area. Two ways to counter this:

1) after the shot: apply a noise reduction step to eliminate or at least smooth out the noise

2) during the shot: expose more for the shadows. Since I use manual exposure, I know before-hand what my maximum exposue can be before I start blowing out the sky, white feathers, and the like. So I when come across a contrasty scene like these, I can revert to those settings and know that my shadows were exposed optimally given the situation.

Of course if you shot it from different angle (up-light), the shadow areas would be minimized as well. Or you can let the shadows go black intentionally. All normal and part of the learning process

[SARtech]

Hey, Loupey my man... just the type of advice I was looking for. Thanks!

Bob... it's not the Mississippi, it's the Illinois River close to where it joins the Kanakee River.

Since I posted this, I tried some shots around the house in RAW, but my Photo Deluxe won't open them! I can't afford any new sofware programs. Is there anyway around this because RAW is probably better.

Kristine

[Singletracklovr]

Check the website for your camera .
For Nikon I was able to download Picture Projects and View NX [freeware] which allows me to download nikon raw [nef] files from my camera, file them and edit/convert to tiff or jpeg

hth

[Canon_Bob]

SARtech - I'm with Loupey here. Manual is the only way to go with dark birds on a bight sky. Here's an easy way to establish your manual settings fairly quick and easy:

First - Consider the size of the species you are working in flight, and how close they will come to you. In this case, you have a Juvenile Bald Eagle (and I'll assume at fairly close distance when they fly by). That said, you want to have a enough depth-of-field to have all or most of this fairly large bird in focus. I'd probably choose something around f/8 if light permitted it. Very seldom do I shoot BIF images with the aperture wide open.

Second - Once you've determined how much DOF you'll need, then you can set the rest of the exposure up. In the case of your image above, I'd meter off the sky in AV Mode, and then add 2/3 stop to start. Then just pay attention to those settings, and change the camera to manual mode, and set them in. Now it won't matter that you have a dark bird on a light background.....you'll be exposing to the bird. You may need to adjust just a bit once you fire the first few shots, but this'll get you in the general neighborhood without a lot of random guessing. I could easily see the above image being actually +1 or +1 1/3. You just don't want to blow the sky out too badly by going overboard on the EC.

Only other thing is to ALWAYS be cognizant of light direction. A good bird photographer always wants the light directly behind them (and the wind too!). Try to work yourself into "uplight" positions on your subjects. Look at most of my images posted here in the forum. Very rarely do you ever see me shoot at bad light angles. It takes practice, but the payback is huge if you learn to maneuver uplight from your subjects.

Hope that makes sense, and helps.

[SARtech]

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. Ya know, its been so long since I used to work in a camera shop etc, I'm a little dizzy getting back into it. I appreciate the help.
First problem I am faced with is the lighting. When I get my closer shots, I am pretty much stuck with catching this juvenile when he comes straight at me from either my right or my left (east or west) with the sun for the most part behind me in the low to high sky. (I work from 6 am to 2 pm). I am shooting continuously the whole time and when he comes directly over my head he's really close and any light there is becomes almost back-light. If I move farther from the river bank, that would solve the direction of the light, but then they would just be side shots and not very dramatic. Guess I'll just have to play around with that. A little difficult as this "fly over" only happens once or twice while I am there.

Then there is the "size" problem with him flying practically straight at me. The size keeps changing. Only way to change this I guess is to zoom out while shooting as he gets close, yes?

The only confusing part to me is metering on the sky thing. I would think that would make him even darker even with the +1. I keep thinking (wrong thinking it appears) that maybe I should meter off my hand or something else simular to his midtone coloring.

Guess I'll just play around with all of your guys suggestions. I should practice with birds around my home first so I don't screw up the rare moments with my juve.:mad2:

Thanks again so much you guys!

Kristine

[Canon_Bob]

You can also try using a fill flash in manual mode at high speed.

Regarding the focusing issue, try using a technique called "bumping". Basically, you just lightly tap the shutter button rapidly with your finger (but not hard enough to take the picture) as the bird is approaching. This causes the AF to work much faster than it's normal programmed mode (even when in AI Servo mode). Oh yeah....also make sure you're using AI Servo mode!

P.S. - Just trust me on the "sky +1" thing ;-) It'll get you close, and you can adjust the shutter speed manually up or down to dial it in perfectly.

Also - go you to your manufacturers site, and you'll be able to download RAW processing software there.

[SARtech]

GREAT tip! I am using Al Servo. I'll try the bumping thing!
It all happens so fast with him coming towards me... lets hope I don't totally screw it up. lol
Checking into the raw downloads as we speak. Just can't do anything until I get home from work here.

Kristine (sky+1...sky+1...sky+1)

[AgingEyes]

P.S. - Just trust me on the "sky +1" thing ;-)

Doesn't matter what kind of sky we have, i.e, sunny with clouds, no clouds, blue of different shades, gray cloudy days, rain storm, snow, morning, afternoon, evening, sunset....?

[Sushigaijin]

Hi kristine.

I think your light angles are good. Having a bit of an off-perpendicular angle adds drama. And shadows, but those aren't necessarily bad.

for your metering question, shoot manual and overexpose the sky as far as you can without clipping it. Spot metering is the easiest way to do that. Then drop the exposure in post processing until the shadows are right.

[scott-devon]

Nice shots Kristine and some super helpful explanations from the guys here. Got to love this forum, I learn more here reading posts than I ever expected.

[SARtech]

Thanks Scott and Erik and to everyone for all the kind words and helpful advice. I downloaded the Adobe plug-in for RAW and am going to go outside and fool around before I leave for work this afternoon. I'm super excited and just hope my eagles don't leave to go back up north until I get just 1 nice shot. (Just 1... I'm not greedy) Next year when they return I WILL BE SO READY!
:thumbsup:

Kristine

[mn shutterbug]

Just note, not all skies are created equal. The northern sky will generally be darker and closer to the 18% average midtone you are looking for. On the next sunny day, observe the sky in all the directions and you'll see what I mean. In time, you'll be able to look at the sky in any direction, and have a decent idea of how to meter for that direction. And, if you meter off your hand, use your palm and open up one stop.

Also, every plus you do on the E.C. dial will make the picture brighter. So, the brighter the background, the more you are going to need to brighten up the picture, to avoid underexposure. The camera will think the background is suppose to be the 18% midtone and without compensating, you'll get a gray sky and dark subject if the sky is bright. This is even more of a factor, when snow is in the background. Of course, Bob wouldn't have any experience with the snowy backgrounds.

[SARtech]

Gotta love this site.


Kristine

[Pink Dragonfly]

Huh, yes, that was really useful tips for me too.... Thanks, guys! Kristine, these guys are the best, I can promise you

Also a hearty welcome from me! You seem to be well on the way with the BIF shots :thumbsup:

Mette

[SARtech]

Thanks Mette! It took me about 8 whole seconds to figure out what "BIF" meant. :idea:

FYI... I LOVE Dragonflies.

[Pink Dragonfly]

LOL...been there too

As for dragonflies, you are my kinda girl Can't wait until spring...by the time I got my camera back in September, they were all gone...and I was "forced" into bird photography, a rather slow and at times extremely frustrating learning process!!!

Mette

[mn shutterbug]

Eight seconds? Wow, you're slow.

LOL...been there too

and I was "forced" into bird photography, a rather slow and at times extremely frustrating learning process!!!

Mette

Sure is fun though, isn't it.