Gray day, overhead brown pelican

Steve Cavigliano · June 3, 2005

Hello all,
Had some business, this morning, over by the beach and thought I'd bring a camera to maybe catch some surf action. Nope :dunno The overcast hadn't burned off yet and the ocean was flat and smooth :rolleyes

When I was parking, I had seen some brown pelicans flying by and I figured what the heck, these are better than nothing. Maybe, I'd get a pelican BIF. So I shot some commorants, waiting for some more pelicans to come by. Knowing that if I was going to capture any pelicans against that ugly white sky, I had better dial in some positive EV comp (+2/3). I waited about 15 minutes and no pelicans :huh I was getting ready to call it a day, when I saw a group of 6 pelicans flying towards me

And I mean, right towards me. As in they flew over my head....lol

Anyhow, here's one of the shots. I kind of wish the sky was a little darker, but you can't always get what you want, right?....lol

I was pretty happy that the time spent shooting wasn't a total loss

Thanks for looking,
Steve

ginger_55 · June 3, 2005

Gosh, that plus 2/3 was right on. I love the detail on that bird. I am very hesitant to compensate on the plus side with these digitals, but for those who I have seen do it, it has paid off well.

You got it! Fantastic shot.

ginger

Andy · June 3, 2005

ginger_55 wrote:

Gosh, that plus 2/3 was right on. I love the detail on that bird. I am very hesitant to compensate on the plus side with these digitals, but for those who I have seen do it, it has paid off well.

You got it! Fantastic shot.

ginger

nice work steve

g, don't worry 'bout +ec - when you are faced with a bright sky such as this, you'll need it, to get any sort of detail on the underbelly of that pelican

Steve Cavigliano · June 3, 2005

ginger_55 wrote:

Gosh, that plus 2/3 was right on. I love the detail on that bird. I am very hesitant to compensate on the plus side with these digitals, but for those who I have seen do it, it has paid off well.

You got it! Fantastic shot.

ginger

Ginger,
As Andy points out EV comp is your friend

A good rule of thumb that Shay drilled into my hard head is "When shooting a light subject, against a darker background (like Egrets on the ground, or in the water) dial in -1EV of compensation. When shooting a darker subject against a lighter background (like this pelican against that white sky), dial in +1EV of compensation."

This is only a rule of thumb, that will get you close. You'll still need to review the shot and the histogram to see if you need to raise/lower the EV comp and reshoot. You've seen posts about how camera meters get fooled by snow. Same thing with a bright sky. A zero meter reading usually means that most of the scene will be neutral. A neutral sky will result in a dark and under-exposed bird. Especially, the less lit underwing areas. When I shoot white birds (or birds with white areas on them, like gulls or mallards) on the ground or in the water, I almost always use at least -2/3 EV comp, to reduce the likelyhood of over-exposure. Again, the dark BG will fool your meter into properly exposing the BG, at the expense of your brighter subject. Conversely, with a darker bird (hawks, osprey, ducks, herons, etc) flying against a bright sky (white or blue) I usually use +2/3 EV comp to capture the underwing detail. Shooting in sweet light (early morn, or late afternoon) can lessen this problem. Shooting during mid-day worsens it

Sweet light isn't called sweet for nothing. Some wildlife/landscape photographers do little or no shooting outside of the sweet light hours.

Shooting under harsh mid-day lighting can leave you with a well exposed subject (like an Egret) and a very dark background. The limited dynamic range of digital cameras don't leave you much choice

You won't be able to capture the scene as you see it, if there's too much dynamic range. You can properly expose the BG, or your subject. Not both

If you're shooting landscapes, you can bracket and blend exposures. You can't do this with action shots though.

This is probably way more info than you wanted to read....lol But, maybe it will help some other folks who think a 0 (null) meter reading garantees a good exposure.

Thanks for your comments and for having a look

Steve

bfjr · June 3, 2005

Hi Ya Steve
Excellent shot love your BIF's they always stand on their own

Oh and thanks for the refresher course, I can't speak for others but I can always use it. Hoping to shoot some sweet light this afternoon.

Thanks again

Harryb · June 3, 2005

Hey Steve,

Good shot and you dealt well with the sucky shooting conditions. I've been shooting with a group of folks for the past week and the weather has been horrible. Rains, overcast skies, dull light, etc,etc. I've been using positive EV adjustments the whole week. :cry

Nikolai · June 3, 2005

Nice work, SC!
And very smart move on that EC:-)

Great detail on your BIF!

Cheers!

jwear · June 3, 2005

great job steve

i tried to ev the heck out of a blue the lighting was about the same as yours ---bad but did not get the good results you did --may be I did not pray enough