Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/06/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Doug, Thanks for the suggestions. I really appreciate your ideas to make what is good into excellent. I was veering in the direction of greater exposure by dialing in spot metering. Fill flash won't work with the X E 1 as it defaults the shutter speed to 1/30 (very blurred wings) and I don't have a flash here for the Nikon. On both cameras I can dial in + exposure compensation to see how that helps. Finally I can move the hanging flower baskets into a sunnier location and see how the sun plays out. Unfortunately I can't rotate the cabin which serves as my blind. :-) Still, there are enough variables there to keep me busy for the summer. Thanks again for the input. Cheers Howard Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 20:30:52 -0700 (GMT-07:00) From: Doug Herr <wildlightphoto at earthlink.net> Subject: Re: [Leica] Tuesday's Hummers To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> Howard Cummer wrote: > > http://tinyurl.com/lrvoepz > http://tinyurl.com/l6tmmyr > http://tinyurl.com/m7qklam > Howard I think it's time to pay more attention to the lighting. These are wonderful photos but I think you can do better in this (rare!) bright daylight either by using fill flash or positioning yourself to get a view of the birds' sunny side. The combination of bright backlight and the auto-ISO (I'm assuming this means a form of auto-exposure) means the details in the birds are lost in deep shadow. An alternative would be to switch to manual exposure and set the exposure more for the shadow side than for the bright background the camera's limited brain is exposing for. Just as an example, a Rufous Hummingbird from the sunny side 1/3000 sec @ f/8 ISO 400 with a manual focus 400mm f/5.6 (280mm f/4 + 1.4x extender): http://wildlightphoto.com/birds/trochilidae/ruhu01.html Doug Herr Birdman of Sacramento http://www.wildlightphoto.com