Would you shoot a white subject in bright light at +5 EV?

coastalconn · Feb 12, 2013

Someplace on flickr someone is complaining their Tamron 200-500 isn't sharp. They shot a white egret at +5 and blew the crap out of the highlights. The blown highlights are making them think the lens isn't sharp. They shoot a Nikon D300s and shot in manual mode at F8, ISO 800!, 1/4000th and +5.... I'm sure a forum argument will ensue. At ISO 800 DR is already reduced quite a bit on the D300. Am I missing something? I normally don't go over 1 or 1.33 in the same setting and keep my iso under 400... Just curious what the pros here will think.

christop · Feb 12, 2013

I'm not a pro in any sense of the word, but HECK NO! I would not shoot a white subject at +5. If you spot meter on a white object, setting the EC to about +2 or +2.5 will generally make it look exposed properly as "white". +5 is at least 2.5 stops overexposed.

The first thing I would do is drop the ISO to 100 or 200 and then close down the aperture a bit if necessary. That would give the shutter speed some room to slow down (1/4000 is probably the top shutter speed on that camera).

Patriot · Feb 13, 2013

Nope!! Why was he shooting at 1/4000th? Was the bird diving bombing or something? I don't know much about shooting birds, but 1/4000th seems a bit too fast. If he slow down the shutter then he wouldn't need to use +5ev. Then the ISO was too high to begin with also. I sure the D300 doesn't handle ISO800 as well all the new cameras out now.

Maybe the poor guy forgot to change the settings after another days shooting?

usayit · Feb 13, 2013

coastalconn said:
Am I missing something?

Yes.. the time spent entertaining the person's complaint.

BrianV · Feb 13, 2013

The only time I've used +4ev is shooting Infrared with a deep Red filter as the response of the sensor is much different from the camera's meter.

Helen B · Feb 13, 2013

I'm missing something here. ISO 800, f/8 and 1/4000 is about right for full sun. It isn't +5, unless there are a few spare suns available nearby. Did they use lots of flash and high speed sync?

christop · Feb 13, 2013

Yeah, Helen's right (unless all stars out to infinity were visible on Earth...

). Sunny 16 would put the shutter speed at 1/3200 with f/8, so it's really not too far off.

I still wouldn't use ISO800 in full sunlight unless I had a good reason, or if I forgot to change it after shooting indoors (which may be the case here).

coastalconn · Feb 13, 2013

I'm not quite sure why they shot what they shot. Their counter point was look how good this car looks that I shot at 52mm and f11... meh, anyways, they had no idea what front focusing was either. I think I pointed them in the right direction. I wish we had a few extra suns available some days, that would be nice to melt all this snow... On sunny days I keep my D300 under 400 whenever possible.. geeze...