Chickadee in First Snow

[Nicks Pics]

I took last Friday. It was much prettier than the previous day with the first snow of the season decorating everything. In some cases snow may be a difficulty for photography, but I do like snow for shooting birds in trees. Apart from the prettiness of it, the reflected light from all directions helps a lot.

I can't exactly say this was a totally natural shot, but it was not at a feeder and I was not feeding these chickadees at the moment, but they come by when they see a person in case we might have some peanuts at hand.

I know there are some blown highlights, but oh well, it might have been under-exposed if I dropped the exposure enough to avoid it.

Fujifilm SL1000 bridge
ISO 800
1/100
f6.5

Slight crop for comp.
Lightroom 4 and Gimp



Thanks for looking!

Critiques welcome.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured, has a holiday vibe to it.

[Loose Canon]

Hi Nick!

I like this shot. And the snow. I didn’t really notice a lot of blown highs when I took it into an editor.

You have shot this bird on a pretty light field. I wonder if he/she might be getting a bit lost on the field?

Would you be up for considering a few further adjustments that might bring the subject out a bit more or are you pretty sure you have it where you want it?

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks John. The first snow always does have a holiday feel no matter what month it is!


Hi Terry.

The chickadee was on the edge of a stand of trees, with more across the lane. This chickadees was in its home range, and it's buddies were all about, so I don't think it was lost, but yes, the snow made for very nice lighting for photography. I guess it doesn't have many blown highlights that would set off the red patchy things, in Lightroom, I just meant it has loss of detail in certain areas. I would be interested to hear your ideas, and may give them a try, whether as editing critique or creative/ artistic experiments. My editing policies, so to speak, depend on the purpose of what I'm working on. Thanks for commenting.

[Loose Canon]

What I meant was the bird getting visually lost in the kind of light background Nick. I just thought that there were maybe a couple of quick things that might be done to make it pop off that background a little more.

Sorry about that!

The eye looks a little flat to me. So I would run a sharpening tool over it, which would increase the contrast a bit in the catchlights/dark spots.

I might add a little bit of local contrast to some of the feathers. Probably not the wings but the gray shoulder and body feathers and beak.

And I would definitely add some vignetting.

Some really simple and quick adjustments that may be more than what you are interested in. But here is how they ended up:



Just a theory!

[IzzieK]

Nick ..very cute birdie...Marie (Hass) was asking me just yesterday if we have snow here...and here you are with yours. The snow makes the backdrop for your birdie really good...though to me, it will brrrrr....cold. I also like the edit of Terry -- it made your birdie pop out some more...

[Nicks Pics]

What I meant was the bird getting visually lost in the kind of light background Nick. I just thought that there were maybe a couple of quick things that might be done to make it pop off that background a little more.

Sorry about that!

The eye looks a little flat to me. So I would run a sharpening tool over it, which would increase the contrast a bit in the catchlights/dark spots.

I might add a little bit of local contrast to some of the feathers. Probably not the wings but the gray shoulder and body feathers and beak.

And I would definitely add some vignetting.

Some really simple and quick adjustments that may be more than what you are interested in. But here is how they ended up:

Hi Terry,
Pardon my being so silly, what you say about the bird being lost in the light BKG does make sense! Thanks for taking the time to think about my image. I thought I had it where I liked it till you commented, now I see there was some room for improvement. I tried again using some of your suggested editing ideas. They were not at all too much for me to want to try . I added contrast to parts of the chickadee. Gimp doesn't have a "clarity" slider like Lightroom, but I used methods including darkening with levels, adding contrast, and unmask sharp to give the desired affect. I also toned down the BKG a little and sharpened the eye.

Thanks Izzie,
Snow melted again, now, but it sure made a pretty morning for shooting. I'm sure it will come again another day in not too long. Black-Capped Chickadees are very cute! They are friendly too. Terry's edit made some great suggestions. Thanks for commenting!

Here is my re-edit, please feel free to comment

[wtlwdwgn]

Very nice shot Nick. You might consider adding +1 or more exposure compensation when shooting with snow in the image. Just my $0.02.

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks Steve. I did think it was slightly over-exposed, just very slightly in the original take, but then I toned down the BKG in my second edit to seperate the bird from the BKG, which version were you commenting on more?

[wtlwdwgn]

Actually, all three. The bird's exposure is spot on but the snow on the branch seems a bit blown out. Might just be my monitor.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Nick Very nice shot of a cute bird. I think the bird stands out a bit more in Terry's edit but with a very slight difference indeed.

[Nicks Pics]

Actually, all three. The bird's exposure is spot on but the snow on the branch seems a bit blown out. Might just be my monitor.

Thanks Steve. No it's not your monitor, the snow is a bit blown out, but perhaps my bridge camera was just a bit short of dynamic range to avoid that and still properly expose. I guess I'm just confused why they say to up the exposure when shooting snow. It doesn't seem like that would help avoid white clipping?

Thanks Binnur
Glad you like it. Now that there's three renditions here it's a little hard to know which of my edits you are speaking of, but thanks for the comment. The last version is my re-edit trying to use Terry's good suggestions. I definitely don't like the first version best anymore

[bnnrcn]

Sorry for confusing you Nick I compared the images in posts #5 and #7 because I considered the first image as your original.

Thanks Steve. No it's not your monitor, the snow is a bit blown out, but perhaps my bridge camera was just a bit short of dynamic range to avoid that and still properly expose. I guess I'm just confused why they say to up the exposure when shooting snow. It doesn't seem like that would help avoid white clipping?

Thanks Binnur
Glad you like it. Now that there's three renditions here it's a little hard to know which of my edits you are speaking of, but thanks for the comment. The last version is my re-edit trying to use Terry's good suggestions. I definitely don't like the first version best anymore

[Brownbear]

Hi Nick,

Beautiful image! Sharp with gorgeous detail, and such a lovely pose set off by a pretty background. I love the snow because it makes everything especially beautiful and backgrounds extra special.

I prefer Terry's edit to your original post but I like your final edit best because the colours in the background are softer - just my personal preference for more muted colours - on most days.

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks Cristina,
I used a layer mask or two to enhance the detail in the bird and keep/enhance the smooth tones in the BkG

[Suzan J]

Yikes! You have snow in Michigan already... I very much like the pose and composition of the diagonal branch. The edit definitely enhances the image.

[Loose Canon]

A nice job on your re-edit, Nick.

I guess I'm just confused why they say to up the exposure when shooting snow.

Of course I can’t speak for Steve but I can briefly overview the theory he is referring to.

Your camera metering system will typically meter to middle gray. So if you meter off snow, your camera wants to recognize it as middle gray. Take the shot with this exposure setting and the snow will come out looking like, well, gray because it is actually underexposed! So you add a stop or so exposure compensation to bring the snow back up to white.

Same thing only different with metering off black. The camera will bring it up to middle gray. So you add a stop or so of negative compensation to get that black back down to black.

Seems a little counterintuitive at first but makes sense once you get your head around the theory!

But you also have to take into account the actual main subject as well. In your scene the bird has both ends of the spectrum (white and black) as well as the surrounding snow. Not the easiest scene to get right, but you did a nice job with a difficult scene. Plus if you are shooting RAW you will have some latitude (maybe as much as a couple of stops) in post. Less so if shooting .jpg.

I really didn’t see that happening with your shot. The snow as well as the bird looked good to me exposure wise. Not as many blown highlights as one might expect with the scene and your exposure was such that the snow appeared white (or at least assuming you didn’t adjust this particular aspect in post)!

Nice job with your shot Nick. I think it’s a great scene and a great subject.

Except now I’m cold!

[Nicks Pics]

Yikes! You have snow in Michigan already... I very much like the pose and composition of the diagonal branch. The edit definitely enhances the image.

Thanks Suzan, Pose and composition is not exactly something you can thoughtfully arrange with these twitchy birds, I just blaze away in burst mode and one out of a couple dozen might work! If you had a faster AF that would probably get you better results though. Perch time limit is usually about .7 seconds for these birds Snow is gone again now... but it will be back again probably

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks again for your great suggestions Terry. Glad you liked my re-edit. I guess I should try to re-think my exposure philosophies