Shooting white birds

[JDArt]

What do you have to do to keep from blowing out the white in bird photography? Dial down, yes, but then the background is boring.

[paulhodson]

I don't think there is much option except to shoot in Raw, do two conversions and then combine them to extend the dynamic range

[Dennis]

This is a tough one, but the only solution really is to do an exposure compostion for the whites of the bird, and the you will need to adjust the levels in the shadow areas to bring them out more.

For me, I use two actions that help bring out the dynamic ranges with good results without blowing away the highlight areas of the image.

I would always under expose a white subject and deal with the rest of the image later.

Always one thing to remember is that you can recover most of the subject matter if it is under exposed, but you cannot recover blown highlights at all. All the details will be lost for ever.

Dennis

[paulhodson]

Originally Posted by Foto

You don't often have enough time to take two exposures when shooting something as "flighty" as a bird.

No - but if you take one shot in RAW and process it twice, once for the highlights and once for the shadows and then combine the images with a mask you can get close to the effect.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by paulhodson

No - but if you take one shot in RAW and process it twice, once for the highlights and once for the shadows and then combine the images with a mask you can get close to the effect.

Sorry about not getting this right.* I see what you mean and it makes sense to do it this way.

I should point out that I just ran a test with your process, and I must say this works very well with the hightlight areas. I have more details in the mid tones and in the highlights...

This is one good way of getting the whites nice. Now off to try a Great Egret Image.