Purple rumped sunbird

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Photographed this fellow from my terrace on an overcast day when he was desperately trying to impress a female :) He came unusually close to me, maybe he was too busy to notice me :D

Camera Model Name Canon PowerShot SX10 IS
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv (Shutter Speed) 1/50
Av (Aperture Value) 5.7
Exposure Compensation -1
ISO Speed 80
White Balance Cloudy
Cropped.
Forgot to increase the ISO, I could have got a higher shutter speed... :-(
Never seem to get the exposure of the face right while photographing, it gets underexposed... or else the whites get blown... any tips on that?

Thanks for looking, C&C welcome.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Abhishek,
It is always difficult to get it right especially of birds with lots of dark tones around the eyes. Also, since the bird is far off there are more bright areas as well as the dark bird. Typically while composing we ought to ensure that the tonal range in the image doesn't vary much. Else, the sensor will find it difficult to catch it. The dynamic range is much limited unlike our eyes.

While clicking watch the histogram as well. See that the histogram doesn't touch the right side of the frame. That means the details in the whites are lost. Similarly if the histogram touches the left frame then the details in the blacks are lost.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Mrudul Godbole]

Lovely bird. Nice perch and eye contact. Agree with Sabyasachi's comments, watching the histogram gives a good idea whether any part is getting under or over exposed. Later in PP the details can be recoved.

[Bibhav Behera]

The composition looks nice. You can sharpen it more. The highlights on the bird seem to be in control. Blacks need to be opened a bit more. The white patch in the BG is distracting

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Thanks everyone,
I do keep an eye on the histogram, making sure it doesn't touch either side. What I mean is before clicking, my attempts to open the blacks sufficiently were blowing the whites, as a result, the original image has severely underexposed blacks. In PP I opened the blacks as far as possible without overexposing the bright areas.

Bibhav, further sharpening was making the noise very evident