Grey skies and birds.

[SteveCzwortek]

Could someone take a look at the kite pic I just posted. Taking pics of raptors in this country is often against greyed out skies.
I had the same problem in India last year with a leopard up a tree against a greyed out sky.
I think I remember correctly that with a Pentax you can lock the exposure to the focus point which improves things, but cant for the life of me see how to do it with the D300.
I'm using the 200/400 F4 monster....
Ta Steve Cz

[OldBoy]

Can't do much about the dull conditions unless you attach a couple of acr lights to your camera.

Nothing wrong with the shot just need a bit of sun to make it zing. I use spot focus in these situations and curves in Photoshop to increase the brightness a little.

[SteveCzwortek]

Thats what I've done. I just wondered if there was a setting which I'd missed..............

[GeoffWessex]

Taking pictures of birds against the sky (or any dark object against a much lighter object) needs a trick....
Meters are not intelligent - they try to give an exposure that will turn any tone, light or dark, into a mid-grey. When the majority of tones in the image are light, it will give an exposure to make the sky a mid-tone. Person against a lot of snow - snow will be mid-tone (usually blue) and the person will underexpose; white cat in a coal mine - it will make the coal mid-tone grey, overexposing the cat.

If you want a proper exposure of the bird you'll have to accept the sky will be washed out - you can't have both exposed correctly (well, there are ways, at times, but it wouldn't suit this picture). Find some in the vicinity that's a mid-tone (or even darker, like the bird) and find the exposure for that (some people even carry a mid-tone grey card around and take a reading off that). Then put that same exposure on your camera, by using either the Exposure Compensation control or by going to Manual exposure. Take the picture again and you'll get the bird right - but you'll have a white sky. Can't be helped.

Sure, Curves and Levels in Photoshop can help later - but if you haven't recorded the detail in the first place, you won't be able to recover them on the computer.

[MadasaFruitbat]

I think that you are obviously using a rubbish lens, so I think you should GIVE it to me

[Cutter]

Just increase your exposure by 1 or 2 this will lighten the bird but as geoff has said it will blow your sky out, I was told not to bother taking bird shots unless the sky was blue

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by SteveCzwortek

Thats what I've done. I just wondered if there was a setting which I'd missed..............

As Cutter suggests add in a + compensation of 1 and take a shot, then check your histogram. In this situation with a bird in the air, you don't have time to mess about, as you will miss the shot, so take the shot and adjust in Photoshop. If you have the Raw file then you can make a big difference by using the settings before saving as a jpeg. Remember a underexposed shot is better than a overexposed one for getting the detail back in software.

[SteveCzwortek]

Thanks alot guys, You've sort of confirmed what I was thinking. Really I need to check my histogram more often and then adjust accordingly maybe then I would have got a better shot, but when a Red Kite is coming straight at you at no more than 35 feet off the ground and you can hear the wind in his wings, you just have to point and press.....
@ Mr Fuitbat........... yeah sure, get in the queue!

Steve Cz

[GeoffWessex]

Originally Posted by OldBoy

Remember a underexposed shot is better than a overexposed one for getting the detail back in software.

Without wishing to be contentious concerning the pros and cons of under and over exposing, in fact the best exposure - if using a histogram - is to "Expose to the Right"..... this means that it's better to get the bulk of your exposure to the right side of middle (the highlights), but hopefully without cramming up to the right edge (which would definitely be over-exposing).

There's an explanation for that here, which I distilled from various sources and put on my photo club website (unless it's all bunkum!)

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by GeoffWessex

Without wishing to be contentious concerning the pros and cons of under and over exposing, in fact the best exposure - if using a histogram - is to "Expose to the Right"..... this means that it's better to get the bulk of your exposure to the right side of middle (the highlights), but hopefully without cramming up to the right edge (which would definitely be over-exposing).

There's an explanation for that here, which I distilled from various sources and put on my photo club website (unless it's all bunkum!)

A histogram is only a guide so the best solution is to keep it in the middle. That doesn't mean shots taken. with it towards the left or right, will be bad as it's only a guide. A shot taken of a Swan against a white background will show as been to far right, and in that situation I wouldn't too bothered, as when the shot is viewed on the screen lots of detail is still in the feathers.