January 2021
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This was part of a sequence of photos where the eagles are demonstrating a mating behavior called locked talons. Unfortunately, while tacking the pair I forgot to zoom in and needed additional cropping in post. It was a very overcast day with lower than usual light, thus the high ISO. The sky ended up completely white and still had trouble bringing up the shadows of the eagles. Not sure if there is anything I else I could have done to expose this scene?
SA903661
Mark Galer
on February 5, 2021I would manage the exposure using my Zebras 109+ for Raw Shooters. This would allow me to increase the brightness to a point where it avoids clipping the sky. The shadows would still need to be lifted in post. Cropping aggressively and raising under exposed shadows will of course raise the noise levels, which is why so many Bird Photographers end up getting the wide aperture primes so they are not photographing with an effective aperture of f/9.
When the background tone behind birds in flight is likely to change rapidly (bright sky one second and dark trees the next) I switch to manual exposure.
Starting point is 1/2000 second at f/5.6 or f/6.3 with an ISO level of 320 or 400. I then raise ISO if required until white clouds or white feathers begin to show the zebras.