How to recover tough exposures in bird photography

[Nicks Pics]

Hi
I'm new here, as you may see, ( see open talk "meet the members"), but anyway, I got a few shots of the rare Kirtlands Warbler, but with the overcast sky the exposure for the bird was of course too dark, Obviousley you wouldn't want to lighten the exposure so much that the sky gets blown out either. The question is, would you try to recover a picture like this with shadow/highlight adjustments etc. or use HDR?

This wasn't my best, but here's one for example.

If anyone has comments on how to set the camera for such situations next time That would be much appreciated too!

[zkogut]

Hi
I'm new here, as you may see, ( see open talk "meet the members"), but anyway, I got a few shots of the rare Kirtlands Warbler, but with the overcast sky the exposure for the bird was of course too dark, Obviousley you wouldn't want to lighten the exposure so much that the sky gets blown out either. The question is, would you try to recover a picture like this with shadow/highlight adjustments etc. or use HDR?

This wasn't my best, but here's one for example.

If anyone has comments on how to set the camera for such situations next time That would be much appreciated too!

I would go into photoshop and add a levels adjustment layer and curves adjustment layer. Start by bringing the midtones up until you see details in the bird. Click on the mask for the levels adjustment you just made and make sure its set to black. Now use your paintbrush and paint white over the bird. so that the adjustment is only affecting the bird. Do this with the curves as well and play with the adjustments until you get the lighting you want. If you have any follow up questions feel free to ask me as I'm always checking out this site.

-Zak

[JR1]

Welcome

I wouldn't bother as you can't put back what is not there in the first place

Image far too small

Helps to know what the camera is, lens etc

Set it to spot metering

[davidedric]

Hi,

Since this is a rare bird, you'll want to give it your best shot.

Exactly what to do depends on the software you use. However, I would start by cropping out most of the image, so you can see what you have to work with - blown highlights don't matter at all. I expect you will be bringing up shadows, and pushing whatever local contrast enhancement (eg Clarity) you have pretty high. You could also post the biggest and best image you have and ask the folks here what they can do (Joe from Lakeland are you there?)

Dave

[Shadowman]

Hi
I'm new here, as you may see, ( see open talk "meet the members"), but anyway, I got a few shots of the rare Kirtlands Warbler, but with the overcast sky the exposure for the bird was of course too dark, Obviousley you wouldn't want to lighten the exposure so much that the sky gets blown out either. The question is, would you try to recover a picture like this with shadow/highlight adjustments etc. or use HDR?

This wasn't my best, but here's one for example.

If anyone has comments on how to set the camera for such situations next time That would be much appreciated too!

I would test your camera's capability to adequately expose for such an image. It looks like a blue sky day, what were your settings?

[Nicks Pics]

Hi Thanks everybody for your comments. Maybe it really would be good to have photoshop for this kind of situation, but I'm using Lightroom, which doesn't have layers. Nobody mentioned that they would use an HDR function to improve it though. Maybe it wouldn't be the best course of action.

Jeremy mentioned using spot metering. Could be the same thing as what my camera calls photometry? This is not one of the areas I have learned most about in photography.

Probably would have been better if it was a blue sky, but both days I've been out looking for these warblers it was cloudy.

I think my settings were on auto.

One of the main reasons I posted this is because photographing birds against the sky is pretty common, and hard to get just right.

Speaking of heavy applications of processing, have you ever spent too long editing an image, and then looked back at it the next day or compared it back to the original and thought it did not look very good? The ones that take the shortest time to enhance are the ones that were best in the first place, for me.

Do you only edit pictures as you want to use them? Or do you pick out your best and edit those and add them to your keepers collection anyway? You could just edit them when you know what you'll use them for, unless you wanted to display your best ones on your website ,if you had one, then you would have to edit them without knowing first what other purposes they would be used for.

[Shadowman]

Hi Thanks everybody for your comments. Maybe it really would be good to have photoshop for this kind of situation, but I'm using Lightroom, which doesn't have layers. Nobody mentioned that they would use an HDR function to improve it though. Maybe it wouldn't be the best course of action.
.

HDR would be the hardest to achieve, you'd need your subject to remain still for so many successive shots, hopefully settings altered in camera, if you shorts don't line up you'll get a blurred image. Birds rarely stay still long enough for one shot.

[chauncey]

You can go a long way in fixing that in LR simply by pushing the Shadow slider to the right,
maybe boosting exposure as well as you are underexposed. Be aware that you will introduce noise.
FYI...If ya use Canon, I have a fix for that exposure problem.

[davidedric]

Hi Thanks everybody for your comments. Maybe it really would be good to have photoshop for this kind of situation, but I'm using Lightroom, which doesn't have layers. Nobody mentioned that they would use an HDR function to improve it though. Maybe it wouldn't be the best course of action.

There is no need for layers, Lightroom will do the job just fine. HDR won't help either, you are trying to get the best out of the bird part of the photo - the sky isn't important.

The problem is that there just aren't enough pixels in the image to work with. I've had a go, but I think this is about the best you'll be able to do - unless you have an image with more pixels:



Dave

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Nick,

Dave has about nailed this example with his advice above.

I will re-emphasis that you need to get the subject larger in the frame - ideally by getting closer to it - I appreciate this often isn't possible with birds, but it will give the best results.

I will add that in future; the other thing you need to tackle is to not rely on Auto alone, especially when shooting against the sky like this. You will discover (with practice) that a shot like this would have benefited from a "positive exposure compensation" of say 2 stops (often shown as "+2 EC").

I shoot birds too (casually) and I would not, apart from for personal ID purposes, even bother to take a shot like this, with the subject so small and against the sky - however, I wasn't always like that and when I started, I took lots just like this

However, as you say this is rare, you had no choice.

PS I have extracted the basic EXIF data (aka settings) you used:
Fuji FinePix SL1000 at 1/180s, f/6.5, iso 100 in P (Program Auto) mode at a focal length 215mm, which is equivalent to 1200mm on a DSLR. This fact effectively means that using a longer focal length lens is just not viable for getting the image bigger. It also severely limits your choice of settings possible at that focal length.

Your camera is capable of shooting RAW (this was shot jpg I believe), I would recommend you use RAW, it will give you more latitude to improve things in LR.

By the way, I started serious digital photography with a Fuji camera just like your SL1000, so do not feel it was a bad choice - they are very cost effective.

Hope that helps, Dave

[rtbaum]

I agree with others about getting closer to the warbler. I am presuming that this near Mio, Mi. Michigan has regular tours for those that wish to see this warbler, this bird nests low in the Jack pines. You may be able to find it coming and going from the nest, thus in a more neutral background and easier to expose. I grew up exposed to these guys, the family cabin is basically smack dab in the middle of their territory

[Nicks Pics]

Hi everybody

Thanks again for all your comments,

Dave did a fine job on that warbler, given 4 or 5 pixels to work with (why can't I make my smilies work?)
I should have provided the not downsized version.

As I think I mentioned, that wasn't my best, warbler, we took the tour from Hartwick Pines actually, (though they may also be doing them from Mio), and then, learning that you were allowed to walk on the roads in any habitat tract, we went out again soon afterwards on our own.

I do shoot in RAW sometimes, usually RAW Plus Jpeg, and I used the Jpeg for posting on the forum.

My sl1000 is okay, it can get pretty clear shots at mid range zoom, but has some problems.


Here is a park robin that let me get close. It is an un- edited jpeg.

[Nicks Pics]

The colors seem to have been represented as too olive on that picture I just posted. Oh well

[Dave Humphries]

The colors seem to have been represented as too olive on that picture I just posted. Oh well

This might be because you posted image #2 with an embedded colour profile of AdobeRGB and your browser doesn't honour that profile and assumes sRGB (as in #1).

You might want to check your default in LR (or SilkyPix) isn't applying that profile to all your RAW shots, as when displayed on the internet, sRGB is the preferred option (because it gives predictable results to all viewers).

Cheers,

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks, Dave
That's probably what happened. Try SRGB next time!