Pelican in flight.

[Gordon]

Still on holiday so I had a day out and managed to find a couple of Pelicans hovering over some wet lands.
5DMK11 300f2.8 +2x 1/500@f11 ISO 160 cropped to about 40%

[loose cannon]

Both images appear underexposed to me Gordon.

At that range you can comfortably shoot at f/8 and that will give you a higher shutter speed and I'd be tempted to increase iso to 400, the 5dmk11 should handle that no problems at all.

To stop the whites blowing out dial in some positive exposure compensation and I think you'll see an improvement in the image quality.

[Gordon]

Thanks Mike, Yes I will try going from -2/3 to +2/3 and see what happens.

Again I am going to use my colour blindness as an excuse, but I will listen to your advise.

Before I posted these 2 images I tried increasing the exposure in Lightroom, but I wasn't too happy with the results, so I left them how they came off the camera, which is what I would rather do.

[wigz]

To stop the whites blowing out dial in some positive exposure compensation and I think you'll see an improvement in the image quality.

Unless I've got it back to front, you will need negative exposure compensation (less exposure) to stop whites blowing out. You need positive exposure compensation to adjust for the camera trying to turn whites into grey.

The difficulty with these images is that there are areas of blacks, white in shadow and white in bright sunlight. I would try lifting just the shadows. Be careful of increasing overall exposure as you could easily blow the whites. These look pretty good to me but the shadow areas make them a bit dark. I would also crop the second image to remove a lot of the space behind the bird.

Alan

[Alan]

I have to agree, (sorry Mick). I don't see how overexposing even more is going to compensate for already blown highlights? These images look well exposed to me too.

If you have 'highlight flashing' set for the viewfinder playback you will see straight away which bright areas are blowing, and then just keep adjusting exposure down accordingly. Having said that, it's better to expose to the right of the histogram. You can actually recover some detail in the highlights if you shoot RAW. You have PS, so you can get a bit more shadow detail back using that as well.

[loose cannon]

Fair call gentlemen.

But I would note that these images were captured in harsh light and correct exposure would have been almost impossible to nail. Something had to give.

My personal preference would be to get correct exposure on the underwing in this instance and then see what I could rescue in pp. I can live with a few blown highlights here and there but again it's a personal preference.

I'm probably biased because I use a 7d and underexposure with this camera is a recipe for disaster, I still see these as slightly underexposed on my monitor, the neck looks dark grey to me.

Black and white bird against a bright sky is always going to be problematic.

[avkomp]

harsh light is almost impossible to get 2 different areas of whites right on.

in flight, I find plus exposure compenstions is what gets it right.
btw, the exif is intact in all my images for those interested in the compenstion used etc.
where ever possible though, I try to shoot in good light.
if you have the sun well above where the bird is flying, you will not get good light under the wings.
photography is all about the light.

[Gordon]

Thanks for all your comments.
I can appreciate where Mick and Steve are coming from, and we must all agree that Steve's images are some of the best in the forum.
On a trip down to the Antartic we were all advised to shoot +1 or even +1.5 stops when shooting on snow, which is really the opposite of what we would normally do. One of the leaders on the trip was Ole Liodden from Naturfokus http://www.naturfokus.com.( Have a look at his web site he has some amazing images.) I must admit I hadn't thought about using the same the criteria for shooting a bird in flight against a bright sky.
Whilst I try to shoot in good light, I think we all do, it is not always possible, and if there is only a short amount of time available to capture an image its not always possible to capture the image then have a look at the histogram.
I usually adjust the White Balance for each series of shots, if I have time, and then endeavour to shoot to right of the histogram so I some thing to work on if need be. I really appreciate the feed back from you all, and it seems there is a wide variety of opinions.
We can all learn a great deal from each others experience and opinions which is one reason why I really value being a member of Photoholics.
Thanks once again.