Yesterday I had a trip across the Yorkshire Moors, to survey the upland and moorland birds.
As we have had a proper winter for a number of years, I was concerned what effect this has had on many nesting moorland birds.
I was really surprised to see good numbers of both Lapwing and Curlew.
When I say good numbers this was roughly twenty pairs of Lapwing and half a dozen pair of Curlew, in a twenty mile radius.
Not huge numbers, but nether the less a pleasing sight.
Most of the birds were to far away to photograph and were quite well camouflaged in the heather!
A number of shots that I managed! Very much like hide and seek, just couldn't get close enough to get full body shots.
Hope you enjoy them!
Regards Buzzard
Nature Is Amazing - Let Us Keep It That Way
Super picture Kezmo and lovely to see one up close like that.
There is something new to learn everyday...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/skylark58/
TJ,
I was doing exactly the same thing with Kezmo's photo using Adobe Photoshop. The programme crashed and kicked me out with a critical error.
I lost the changes I had made to the photo and was going to do it in the morning, as you have taken the liberty and it is similar to the changes I had made you have saved me a job.
Apart from I had removed that stick LOL
Also thanks for answering the question regarding the exposure!
Kezmo, we don't know what camera, lens and settings you used to take the photo.
Also the direction of the sun?
If you forward the details I'm sure between us all we can give some kind of advice!
Kezmo - lovely photo. Well captured. I have only ever seen them up in the air.
Buzzard - when you download a photo, right click on the picture to get properties, then chose Summary/advanced. This will tell you the camera and all the photographic details. Panasonic DMC G1, focal length 200mm, F/5.6, exposure 1/800, ISO 200. etc. etc.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Hi Buzzard
I also never realised how irridescent the colours were in a Lapwing. Thank you for sharing these images with us.
Best wishes Chris
Click Here to see my photos
Hi Kezmo and TJ
I really like this picture of a Lapwing too.
TJ when you say you 'lightened the shadows' is that a one button fix in Photoshop? I don't suppose you know which one it is in PaintShop Pro do you? There are so many 'effects' and 'adjustments' but I don't think there is one that specifically says 'lighten shadows'
Hi TJ
Thanks so much for the advice. I didn't realise that backdrops could really change how your photo comes out. My problem is that I get too caught up in the moment of taking the photo and forget the rule about ISO settings. Is it increased on bright days and lowered on cloudy days or is it the other way around!! - this all goes through my head when taking the shot and then I rush in case the subject flies off. I was really pleased with my Lapwing photo up until this thread. Then seeing how colourful Lapwings actually were I realised I had missed so much of the details.
As for the interfering I don't mind at all feel free to do all my photos!, especially as you have improved it!
and thanks Buzzard for trying, I'm sorry it caused your system to crash. Unfortunately I can't remember which direction the sun was at the time only that it was a very bright day and I see Sparrow has answered your question about my camera info and settings.
Thanks Sparrow for that tip.
Regards
Kerry
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kezmo6310/
Woodpecker said: TJ when you say you 'lightened the shadows' is that a one button fix in Photoshop? I don't suppose you know which one it is in PaintShop Pro do you? There are so many 'effects' and 'adjustments' but I don't think there is one that specifically says 'lighten shadows' Best wishes Chris
Hi Chris
I've got version 10 of Paintshop Pro which I don't use all that much so I'm not very familiar with all the ins and outs. However, I've had a quick look and if you go to Adjust : Brightness & Contrast : Highlight/Midtone/Shadow on the main menu, there are controls which allow you to play around with the image. I notice also there's a Backlighting item under the same Adjust menu. That may give some sort of quick fix. Hope this helps.
Good luck
Tony
____________________________________________________________________
My Flickr Photostream
Hi Sparrow,
I have tried what you have suggested and I'm afraid non of that information appears!
Kezmo, the ISO needs to be increased on days with poor light and decreased when it is bright.
I always have the camera set to aperture priority, F/7.1 white background on auto and then adjust the other settings according to the weather, background etc.
The settings I use for the ISO are between 400 - 800 on cloudy days or when taking photos with dark backgrounds, sometimes reducing it to 200. On bright days I use 100 or slighty increased.
The other thing to remember is tweaking the exposure by + 1/3 at a time if the subject is dark or - 1/3 at a time if the subject is white.
The problems occur when you have a bird that is dark, with white or other bright colours. You get burn out if it is over exposed.
I also appreciate the difficulties when the bird moves before you have the settings set, very frustrating when you miss the bird.
Unknown said: Hi TJ Thanks so much for the advice. I didn't realise that backdrops could really change how your photo comes out. My problem is that I get too caught up in the moment of taking the photo and forget the rule about ISO settings. Is it increased on bright days and lowered on cloudy days or is it the other way around!! - this all goes through my head when taking the shot and then I rush in case the subject flies off. I was really pleased with my Lapwing photo up until this thread. Then seeing how colourful Lapwings actually were I realised I had missed so much of the details.
Hi Kezmo
It's not so much to do with the ISO value as with the way the camera tries to calculate what exposure to give the shot. When you've got a relatively small object surrounded by an area of brightness the camera calculates an exposure for the whole scene. This can lead to under exposure of the smaller object and hence it appearing dark.Depending on your camera there are ways to overcome this "backlighting" effect.
On some cameras including all DSLR's and probably some high end point and shoot you can manually increase the exposure setting by a stop or two. Others will have a setting which places more emphasis on the centre of the photo when evaluating the exposure. This is sometimes called centre weighted average metering. Yet other cameras have whats called exposure bracketing. This essentially means that it takes three pictures, one at the normally calculated exposure, one at a lower exposure and one with a higher exposure. You can then choose which one looks best and discard the others. What I would say, however, is that it's generally better to slightly underexpose because you can always adjust the lightness of the image in your editor, whereas if you overexpose you can blow the highlights and there's nothing you can do to get them back.
Sparrow gave some good advice about the appropriate use of ISO values in another thread.
Hope this is of some help and that I haven't totally confused you.
That's really helpful Buzzard thanks, I'm home today and the weather here is really sunny and bright so will do some experimenting this afternoon to try to get the hang of it.
TJ, thanks to you too, I do have that exposure bracketing setting, never used it, but will give that a try too and see what happens - can you save all three pictures or do you have to select at the time which one you want to keep. I ask this as I said before, it could be my longsightedness but all the photos look good on the playback mode it's only when I load it up on the computer that I see the true quality.
Thanks guys, this has all been a great help.