I like this shot, but I took it a few years ago. I am more careful now about avoiding the white blow-out.
Does anyone have any tips for shooting birds that have white feathers, that is, how you get the exposure right? Also, what do you do in post-processing? Or, where I can learn to do PP better? Thanks.
Is this a composite: No
When I migrated to a new computer, I lost the shooting info on some of my older photos, including this one.
Jim: Getting the kingfisher with the food is really great. Nice pose and the angle of the bird to you is also a nice bonus. Not wild about where it is sitting, but not much you could do about that.
The saturation on the bird and the green grass is very distracting. Belted kingfishers aren’t blue like that, they are blue/gray. I took this image into photoshop and selected the most saturated colors using TK masking and decreased the saturation a lot and came up with this version.
Absolutely! Much better. Thank you, Keith.
A real nice photo Jim. I like it. It is a good look at the Kingfisher and the just caught food. Keith did a really good job on the colors and everything looks much better. i don’t mind the old weathered pier. IT is a part of the Kingfishers habitat and has some character. Perhaps a bit of noise in the bg?
I am no expert but what i do is try not to over expose whites in first place. Most cameras, Canon, I have used will let you go over a bit on the histogram say 2/3 of a stop. But with a small amount of whites like this photo it might be hard to tell at looking at the small histogram on a camera back so I look at blinkies and try not to over expose.
Thanks David. Yes, I like the pier, too. It is part of the story. Good advice on the exposure. When I’m shooting BIF, before the bird arrives, what I have do is set my expose settings on, say, a tree trunk. That way, I think I’ve got it right. But the whites are so much brighter than the tree trunk. It seems it’s just a guess at getting the whites right - no time to look at the histogram.
I know. I do the same thing with my settings. Sometimes i find a sign or water or something else white. And if not you just guess and under expose by a stop or two. Blown whites just look so crappy. And if everything else is underexposed except whites then so is bg and it can give a different evening type feel to a photo.
Lovely shot of the Kingfisher and I really like the prey, Jim. It makes me wonder how on earth it’s going to eat it.
Several years ago the presenter at a local nature photography group made a great case for shooting in manual exposure and I decided to give it a try. Unless the light is changing rapidly, I find it’s much easier to do and even when the light’s changing, it’s just as easy as dialing in exposure compensation. The way this relates to whites is that my method of setting the exposure is to find something white in the open and set the exposure so it’s just activating a few of the “blinkies”. Then anything I shoot will be pretty much properly exposed and the whites won’t be blown. It takes a bit of practice, but you get used to checking fairly regularly and there always seems to be something white around that I can use.
Hi Dennis, Thanks for your help. The Kingfisher kept slamming the crayfish against the pier, until it was broken to bits. Fascinating to watch. Regarding the whites, I do shoot manual so that is no problem for me. But you are confirming that I have to find something white! Sometimes, that can be difficult. I wonder if it makes sense to have an index card in my back pocket?
It can’t hurt to carry something to use. They make little cards that are gray on one side and white on the other just for that purpose.
