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I really enjoy shooting birds one of my favorite are egrets. The problem I have is that they are often against a dark background and I have to balance between setting the exposure down and center weight metering or a combination of both
Is there somthing else I can try that does not either blow out all the white or get the background to dark Or is the combination of a bright sun, bright white bird and a dark or muddy background a difficult combo
Help and critique wanted

Anyway here are a few of the white devils

Simple trick. Take 2 shots at different EV's (either yourself or using bracketing) then use PS to merge them. There's a link here that discusses the technique

Edit: Or you could use the dodge brush in photoshop to bring up the dark areas

Also forgot to comment on the images. Really like the reflection in #1, also like #3

I would go with Stubbsy on this - set up a bracket procedure for 3 shots and fire them one after the other. You have to be quick because the bird may move - would even suggest continuous shooting mode with the bracket

sirhc55 wrote:I would go with Stubbsy on this - set up a bracket procedure for 3 shots and fire them one after the other. You have to be quick because the bird may move - would even suggest continuous shooting mode with the bracket

Can't you just shoot one raw shot and do this is PP exposure stuff?

With some corrections it looks not too bad I assume. Pity, you cut off it's leg

pippin88 wrote:

sirhc55 wrote:I would go with Stubbsy on this - set up a bracket procedure for 3 shots and fire them one after the other. You have to be quick because the bird may move - would even suggest continuous shooting mode with the bracket

Can't you just shoot one raw shot and do this is PP exposure stuff?

The simple answer is no - if you have two extremes of light and dark you would have to sacrifice one or the other to a certain extent in PP. The combination of two files allows for progressive removal or blending between the two

pippin88 wrote:
Can't you just shoot one raw shot and do this is PP exposure stuff?

There are situations when you can't. When you trying to pull details from dark areas they are getting too noisy when underexposed too much

And I'm with Chris here - when you've got two extremes it's more compicated then just simple under- or overexpose

Thanks
I have not tried bracketing a new toy yippy
Can you merge in Elements CS is not in my tool box now only on the to get list. I do most in Capture

Hlop:
I hate it when I cut of the feet I did not think it was that bad in this one it was only a few toes
I get too focused on the main point and cut stuff off that I need.

Pippin88:
They were all shoot in RAW the problem is you can't recover blown Highlights in PP and if you use DDE they seem to add noise and using USM removes shapness. All things have there trade offs.
The first shot which I really love, you so rarely see them in trees. The greens are good but all details of his feathers are lost to blowout.
It was taken with in box settings at Matrix Metering no exposure comp. You can't recover what was over exposed with PP

Goodrich,

One tip I have heard of overcoming this problem is to take pics early am or late pm when angle of sun is at its lowest. Also this allows a better chance of obtaining a better definition for the eye of the subject bird.

My 2 cents.........

Andyt

i agree with others.... personally i'd use spot metering and bracket the shots.

cheers

general rule of thumb in digital is to underexpose and then bring it up in levels or curves in PP. I don't worry if I have a little bit blown, but if most of the subject is blown, then I usually will recompose and shoot, either dialed down .5 or so or spot meter the brightest part of the subject. Learning levels and curves changed everything for me. There are some really good workshop links on this website.