Grey headed canary Flycatcher

[Amit Gupta]

Grey headed Canary Flycatcher, Kerela, Feb 2009.

EOS 40D+70-300IS,

1/50s; f5.6; ISO160

[AB Apana]

Hi Amit,

Not sure how you processed this. It seems soft. More details would help.

My very first lens was the 70-300IS. I don't use it anymore but brings back memories.

Apana

[Amit Gupta]

It is soft and I didn't like the effect of sharpening any further, but I wanted to share this anyways.

I had come across a mixed hunting party moving around in a thick wood. while the light seemed adequate, the image was quite dark and had to be brightened significantly during PP.

70-300Is is my first lens too, I've realised in the one year that i've been shooting, that it needs bright conditions. In anything less than 'good' light, results are distinctly soft, at least for me. I guess I will get low shutter speeds in low light and Ap. Pr. mode , and I have begun to dislike High(er) ISO noise. What am i missing?

soooner or later my skills should, i hope, improve to get better images in less than ideal conditions as well.

Thanks all for the great feedback. Keep it coming!

Regards.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Amit,
I have used the 70-300 without IS version of this lens. It is not as good as a L series lens, but does its job if the subject is within its range. If you resort to heavy cropping then this is not the lens.

In this case you were photographing against the light. Without a lens hood you will get substantial flare and the image will appear soft. Do an experiment. Click a shot with the lens against the light and one in the same conditions but just place your left arm or cap over the lens to provide some shade. You will instantly notice the difference. May be later I will post a couple of images of a tigress photographed with a 28-135 lens without a lens shade and an image where I have used my left hand to shade the lens.

Your metering was off in this case. Please check your original image. You will find that the histogram is towards your left indicating underexposure. During post processing you have increased the exposure and that increases noise. The best method is to keep the histogram towards your right in the fifth box. If there are a few minor blinking highlights then that can be recovered in post processing. Try this and you will find that noise is less.

You have used ISO 160. Try using ISO 200, ISO 400 etc. The intermediate ISOs are basically interpolated in the software and increases more noise. So ISO 400 appears better than ISO 320.

Also remember that your meter will read the bright areas and will try to bring down to middle tone. So you will get the image dark. You need to keep that in mind and give positive exposure compensation. In the film days, when there was no histogram to check, we used to give exposure compensation of +2/3rd to + 1 stop depending upon the severity of backlight.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Amit Gupta]

Thanks a lot, I must try a hood / 'shade' in the field ASAP. I have been putting it off for too long.

Same for the ISO settings. I have been ignoring that piece of information.

Since I photograph birds more than anything else, I have my camera set for spot metering (and Centre AF point) 99% of the time (only except when I want to shoot landscapes). I feel Spot metering will give a reading for best exposure for the Bird.

Do you think that Spot metering would still give an underexposure in this partially backlit case? I remember the entire metering area was covered by teh bird.

Regards.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Amit,

It is important to understand the exposure theory. Once you have ideas about exposure, the metering whether spot or evaluative would be secondary.

In this particular case spot metering has underexposed the scene as it will always try to bring it to midtone as the meter of our camera is calibrated to 18% gray.

Why 18% Gray?

The meter of the camera is calibrated to middle tone and it corresponds to 18% gray. Initially, I used to think why 18% reflectance card is called middle tone. The answer is that the photographic stops are not based on a liner progression. The percentage of reflectance is as follows:

Black :: -2 ½ Stops very very dark and no details visible in the black,
4.5% :: -2 Stops very dark but texture visible ,
9% :: -1 Stop dark,
18% :: Medium tone,
36% :: +1 stop light,
72% :: +2 stops, extremely light
White:: +2 ½ stops no details visible in this white, completely without texture.

So when you are photographing a bird perched on a branch with portions of the bright sky in the frame, take a spot meter reading and you know that the meter would try to convert and show it as midtone. It is important to know whether a part is bright or dark than midtone. For example, the sky is definitely lighter than midtone.

Try this. Take a meter reading from the sky and set the exposure given in the manual mode and shoot. The sky will now appear as midtone. In the next shot, open up by 1 stop. Means, give +1 stop compensation. The sky will now appear lighter. If you give +2 stop compensation then it would be extremely light and will appear like the bright sky.

Remember, to check your histogram. If you find blinking highlights, then you know that you need to give less compensation. Try this and you will be on your way to mastery over exposure.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi