Some Egret pics. Please C&C

[badrano]

I have this pond down the road from my house and noticed that an egret was hanging out there. This is my first real try of wildlife photography and after almost a hundred pics at this pond (I had others of a blue heron and some cormorants) I have learned the lesson of camera hand shake especially when shooting at 200mm+.

These were shot with a D7100 and Tamron 70-300mm f4-5.6 ... mostly 200-300mm range.

Below are some of the egret pics.


This was one of my sharpest pics. I rest my camera/hands on a bench.


Another one of the more sharper pics


Not really sharp, but when I zoom in on the pic, I see a bluish aura around the wings and I can't figure out why/what caused it. I was at 1/1000sec with a f4.2 so I don't think it's an over exposure


Flaps extended...check, Landing gear down...check


Thanks all.

 

[SCraig]

The purple fringing in the third shot is Chromatic Aberration, and it's a function of your lens. Most software can remove it pretty decently.

Your shots aren't bad. They do have some overexposed areas, especially the top and shoulders of the bird, and are a bit soft. When shooting pure white subjects like that it is very easy to overexposed them so meter for the highlights to prevent it.

Keep at it. It gets easier over time.

 

[WesternGuy]

Not bad, except I would like to see more detail in the feathers. It would appear that the feathers, particularly in the first three are a bit blown out. This is the situation that arises when trying to shoot a white bird against a slightly darker background. Your camera's meter tries to make everything 18% grey, so in a situation like this, the bird is slightly overexposed and the slightly darker background can be underexposed. You may want to experiment with exposure compensation to see if that can help you. I might try -1/3 or even -1/2 a stop of compensation to see if this will give you more detail in the feathers. HTH.

WesternGuy

 

[badrano]

The purple fringing in the third shot is Chromatic Aberration, and it's a function of your lens. Most software can remove it pretty decently.

Your shots aren't bad. They do have some overexposed areas, especially the top and shoulders of the bird, and are a bit soft. When shooting pure white subjects like that it is very easy to overexposed them so meter for the highlights to prevent it.

Keep at it. It gets easier over time.

Thanks for the info. Should I have used Spot metering instead and aimed for the shoulders? Now that I think of it, I never thought to adjust the metering mode.

 

[badrano]

Not bad, except I would like to see more detail in the feathers. It would appear that the feathers, particularly in the first three are a bit blown out. This is the situation that arises when trying to shoot a white bird against a slightly darker background. Your camera's meter tries to make everything 18% grey, so if a situation like this, the bird is slightly overexposed and the slightly darker background can be underexposed. You may want to experiment with exposure compensation to see if that can help you. I might try -1/3 or even -1/2 a stop of compensation to see if this will give you more detail in the feathers. HTH.

WesternGuy

I have to agree with more detail on the feathers. The day before when I was shooting the blue heron, I did use exposure bracketing from 0EV to -1/3 and I did see more detail in the -1/3 pics but because of camera shake, the pics weren't crisp.

As long as these birds hang out at the pond, I'll go back and try again and bring the tripod.

 

[SCraig]

Thanks for the info. Should I have used Spot metering instead and aimed for the shoulders? Now that I think of it, I never thought to adjust the metering mode.

Normally when I'm shooting birds in flight under conditions that probably won't change (i.e clear skies or solid overcast where the sun stays consistent) I use manual mode. I take a meter reading from something in the same light that will meter middle gray (crushed stone, grass, something like that), take a test shot of something to make sure it's good by looking at the histogram display, and then leave it alone. That's the method I uses for this one:

Metering the top of the bird with spot metering is going to underexpose everything. It's going to try and make that white middle gray so everything will be underexposed. You can certainly spot-meter the top of the bird but then you need to add at least one stop of +EV to bump the exposure back up. For me it's just easier to meter something in manual and leave it.

 

[DarkShadow]

I read a article that said if you meter 1 1/3 above the middle grey using spot metering that the exposure will be accurate in most lighting conditions on white Birds. Scott that's is a really nice Egret shot,I would be extremely happy with that.

 

[SCraig]

I read a article that said if you meter 1 1/3 above the middle grey using spot metering that the exposure will be accurate in most lighting conditions on white Birds. Scott that's is a really nice Egret shot,I would be extremely happy with that.

Thanks, I was happy with it to. We don't get many Egrets around here, especially this time of year, so it was a unique sighting to start with.

 

[badrano]

Scott,

Very nice pic. You have set the bar for me...my goal is to achieve that kind of exposure and clarity!

Hopefully the egret and blue heron and the several cormorants will stick around for a while. I never would have guessed such birds would hang around in such a populated area.

 

[JTPhotography]

Not bad. I suspect that you may have been shooting a little too late in the day, in harsh sun. Try very early or very late when the sun angle is low and you will have softer light and it will be easier to bring out those feather details.

 

[SCraig]

Scott,

Very nice pic. You have set the bar for me...my goal is to achieve that kind of exposure and clarity!

Hopefully the egret and blue heron and the several cormorants will stick around for a while. I never would have guessed such birds would hang around in such a populated area.

Thanks, I appreciate the comments. It was a bright, sunlit morning when I shot those and I was real concerned about blowing out the detail on top so I actually underexposed it just slightly. His legs almost blend in with the background, but I think I could bring that back by editing it. Might have to look at that this evening

You never know what birds are going to do. The place where I took this was absolutely infested with Great Blue Herons. One morning I counted 14 standing around on the bank, and that was just the ones I could see. The following week these Egrets were there (4 of them) and the Herons were all over the place again, this time with a sprinkling of Black Crowned Night Herons. The following week, absolutely nothing. Not an Egret in sight, not a Heron in sight, nothing but a few Mallards. I don't know what makes them hang around a spot for a while and then suddenly decide to move somewhere else.

Hope you find them though! Post some more shots when you do.

 

[DarkShadow]

Scott,

Very nice pic. You have set the bar for me...my goal is to achieve that kind of exposure and clarity!

Hopefully the egret and blue heron and the several cormorants will stick around for a while. I never would have guessed such birds would hang around in such a populated area.

You will see them again. The first time I seen a Egret I was so excited and thought I would never see one again I snapped some crappy shots. Then folks here told me once you see one you will see more and everyone was right. Now I see a bunch of them where I go fishing and there will be least a few of them every time and that get close enough for some good shots.

Here is one that I could have jumped over a sea wall and landed just about on top of it. I killed it with sharpening in post and in jpeg kinda no way back, my mistake. If I shot it raw, it would haven been a easy fix. Live and learn from it.


DSC_0024 by DarkShadow191145, on Flickr