{"id":3752,"date":"2011-01-24T19:00:44","date_gmt":"2011-01-24T23:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/?p=3752"},"modified":"2011-02-24T11:41:39","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T15:41:39","slug":"sunny-sunday-morning-duck-exposure-primer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/2011\/01\/24\/sunny-sunday-morning-duck-exposure-primer\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunny Sunday Morning Duck Exposure Primer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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This drake Wood Duck was photographed on the San Diego IPT with the Canon EF 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering -1\/3 stop: 1\/1600 sec. at f\/7.1 in early morning light. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Sunny Sunday Morning Duck Exposure Primer<\/h3>\n

With all due respect to the folks who teach that working in Manual exposure mode is always best and that “real pros” work only in Manual mode, they are dead wrong. While lying down flat in wet grass and mud while photographing ducks yesterday morning, I worked exclusively in Av mode and was able to quickly dial in exposure compensation with the thumb wheel. When a drake Wood Duck swam by, I simply dialed in -1\/3 stop of exposure compensation knowing that I would create an image with the highlights pushed well to the right of the histogram. With tiny areas of bright white I knew that there was a danger of blowing the whites if I worked at the metered exposure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This drake Gadwall was photographed on the San Diego IPT with the Canon EF 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1\/3 stop: 1\/800 sec. at f\/7.1 in early morning light. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

With no whites to guard against I added a bit of light to make sure that the detail in the dark patch at the rear of the bird was properly exposed. It’s always the same: expose to the right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This drake Ring-necked Duck was photographed on the San Diego IPT with the Canon EF 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering -2\/3 stop: 1\/1600 sec. at f\/7.1 in very early morning light. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

With the large dark head and breast influencing the meter towards over-exposure a quick check of the histogram revealed that -1\/3 stop exposure still yielded significant white blinkies. So I dialed in -2\/3 stops and was good to go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This hen Mallard was photographed on the San Diego IPT with the Canon EF 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1\/3 stop: 1\/1250 sec. at f\/7.1 in early morning light. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

With a subject that averages to a middle tone against a light blue background +1\/3 stop was the way to go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This drake American Wigeon was also \ud83d\ude42 photographed on the San Diego IPT with the Canon EF 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1\/3 stop: 1\/1250 sec. at f\/9 in early morning light. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Here I got lucky…. I was at +1\/3 stop when I saw this bird dipping its breast in the lake, a sure sign that a flap was to follow. I followed a few basic rules: 1-Even though I would have preferred to be at the metered exposure, i.e., 0 exposure compensation, I focused and made a series of images. 2- 1-Even though I realized that working at 800mm there was very little chance that I would be able to fit the bird in the frame, I focused and made a series of images.<\/p>\n

So I was lucky that with the big white belly in the preceding frame and the white wing patch influencing the meter towards under-exposure that there were no hot white pixels. And I was luck to fit the forward flap in the frame. (I did crop from the rear.) With digital it is best to make the image and let the chips fall where they might. I did just that here and was handsomely rewarded. <\/p>\n

Do let me know which of the five images is your favorite. And why. <\/p>\n

If my comments on exposure above leave you scratching your head the very least that you can do for yourself is get yourself a copy of The Art of Bird Photography II <\/a>(916 pages on CD only) and study the “Exposure Simplified” section. If you already have a copy and were confused, you need to pop the CD into your computer and start studying. And if you would like to master exposure theory so that you completely understand everything above, get yourself a copy of the original The Art of Bird Photography<\/a> (soft cover) and study the Exposure chapter. Best news: you can save $10 by purchasing the two-book bundle here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Lastly, to learn the ins and outs of the location that I visited to photograph these great ducks as well as everything that you wanted to know about photographing the California race of Brown Pelican in full breeding plumage in San Diego, get yourself a copy of our San Diego Site Guide by scrolling down here<\/a>. A BAA site guide is the next best thing to being on an IPT. <\/p>\n

Shopper’s Guide<\/h2>\n

Below is a list of the gear that I used to create the images above. Thanks a stack to all who have used the Shopper’s Guide links to purchase their gear as a thank you for all the free information that we bring you on the Blog and in the Bulletins.<\/p>\n

Canon 800mm f\/5.L IS lens<\/a> Right now this is my all time favorite super-telephoto lens.
\nCanon EOS-1D Mark IV professional digital camera body<\/a> And this is the very best professional digital camera body that I have ever used. <\/p>\n

And from the BAA On-line Store:<\/p>\n

Gitzo 3530 LS Tripod<\/a> This one will last you a lifetime.
\nMongoose M3.6 Tripod Head<\/a> Right now this is the best tripod head around for use with lenses that weigh less than 9 pounds. For heavier lenses, check out the Wimberley V2 head<\/a>.
\n Double Bubble Level<\/a> You will find one in my camera’s hot shoe whenever I am not using flash.
\nDelkin 32gb e-Film Pro Compact Flash Card<\/a> Fast and dependable.<\/p>\n

If you are considering the purchase of a major piece of photographic gear be it a new camera, a long lens, a tripod or a head, or some accessories be sure to check out our complete Shopper’s Guide.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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This drake Wood Duck was photographed on the San Diego IPT with the Canon EF 800mm f\/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering -1\/3 stop: 1\/1600 sec. at f\/7.1 in early morning light. <\/p>\n

Sunny Sunday Morning Duck Exposure Primer <\/p>\n

With all due respect to the folks who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[90,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-90","category-misc","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.birdsasart-blog.com\/baa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}