I am relatively new to bird photography but this particular pond attracts ibises at this time of year. They feed on crayfish in the pond - I had no idea that there's crayfish in the pond until Bob Greenberg (Bob657) mentioned it. Anyway, the ibises will fly in at dawn with clockwork precision (6:45am) while it's still dark (so I have no choice but to pull out the flash) and leave shortly after sunrise. Eat and leave ... how very rude! A warm sunrise on a cloudless morning would turn a section of the pond into a golden pond. So with a bit of luck, an ibis or snowy egret or GBH or duck would stroll into that section of the pond which makes for a great environmental image. This was shot over the last couple of days.
10 has that pretty light and nicely balanced flash creating a lovely image. Try some -EV on your flash once the sun comes up to avoid a flat image as seen in 11.
Thanks Morris! No flash was used on #11. It's just very hard to shoot the snowy egret without blowing out some detail. I should have spot-metered the bird instead of using center-weighted metering or partial metering as Canon calls it.
morris wrote:
10 has that pretty light and nicely balanced flash creating a lovely image. Try some -EV on your flash once the sun comes up to avoid a flat image as seen in 11.
bobbytan wrote:
Thanks Morris! No flash was used on #11. It's just very hard to shoot the snowy egret without blowing out some detail. I should have spot-metered the bird instead of using center-weighted metering or partial metering as Canon calls it.
Even if you use spot metering, you will find the exposure is wrong as the camera will try and make white gray. Find a favorite metering mode and use exposure compensation. If you have time you can use the camera's blinking highlight warning to adjust the exposure to avoid clipping the highlights.
Thank you, Juan! For the ibis shots, yes, I did use the flash (except for #5 - the flash probably fired in the first couple of sequential shots before it stopped to recharge - so this frame didn't receive any light from the flash) as they were mostly shot in very low dawn light.
juankgigo wrote:
Nice set of images Bobby, one question: did you use flash for the ibises?
True ... but it means that the whites will be under-exposed by a couple a couple of stops. I would usually playback the shot to check - so if I see that it's under-exposed I can always use the EC to compensate. I should have checked the histogram - always forget to do that!
morris wrote:
Even if you use spot metering, you will find the exposure is wrong as the camera will try and make white gray. Find a favorite metering mode and use exposure compensation. If you have time you can use the camera's blinking highlight warning to adjust the exposure to avoid clipping the highlights.
Yes, the warm morning light is gorgeous on some sections of the pond ... but most of the ibises had l already left by then, although a handful may stick around for a bit longer.
Bobg657 wrote:
I'm glad you went Bobby, just beautiful light on these!
Bob
