Wildlife Photography_ From Snapshots to Great Shots - Laurie Excell [42]
Figure 8.4 The pink of the spoonbill contrasts nicely with the blue sky background.
Figure 8.5 Manual exposure allowed me to continue photographing the spoonbill as the background exposure value changed without overexposing or underexposing my subject.
Figure 8.6 The spoonbill would have been totally blown out if my meter had been in control as the spoonbill dropped in front of the deep shadows of the mangroves.
Figure 8.7 Manual exposure allowed me to capture peak of action, confident in my exposure.
How did I know? Well, rather than fight my meter at the same time I was trying to keep the bird in the frame and the focus point on its eye, I spot-metered off the Spoonbill, set my camera to manual, and made better use of my panning skills without worrying about how the background was affecting the brightness of the bird.
How did I know to make these adjustments in this particular situation? From the school of hard knocks, where I made the mistake of overexposing and underexposing one spoonbill image after another as I focused on keeping the bird in the frame and expecting my camera to get the metering right. If I can help you prevent such a mistake, the cost of the book will be worth it.
One way to learn when to use manual exposure is to evaluate the situation when you first arrive and before the action begins. I scan the scene with my camera to my eye, and if the meter jumps all over the place as I move from sky to earth, I know that I will have an exposure problem if my subject moves from one background to the other. I then spot-meter off my subject and make an exposure. If it looks good, I set my camera to manual with the settings I got from my camera, and as my subject moves, I move with it, confident that my exposure is on the money.
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Note
I do feel that making mistakes is all part of the growing and learning process. By making mistakes and learning from them, you gain the skills to make exposure decisions when the need arises.
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Note
When faced with a difficult lighting situation, I simply ask myself, “What is the subject?” and expose for it.
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Understanding the Histogram
The use of histograms is a controversial subject between those who use them and those who don’t. It’s as bad as the debate between Nikon vs. Canon, Mac vs. PC, or even RAW vs. JPEG that drives people into a rabid frenzy. I think there is value in histograms. They give you information about your exposure that aids you in making aesthetic decisions. A histogram is simply a graph of all the tonal values within an image. There is no perfect histogram, just different ones that give you a visual representation of how broad the exposure is and how much of any given tonality makes up the image. The farther to the right the graph is, the brighter the image. If the graph touches the right side, that range of tonalities is bright white without detail (Figure 8.8). (The blinkies actually do a quicker and better job of warning against blown-out highlights. See Chapter 2 for more information on blinkies.) If the graph touches the left side, that range of tonalities will be dark or black without detail (Figure 8.9). A graph that goes from edge to edge without actually touching either edge is a good exposure with no blown-out bright spots or any blocked-up blacks. And, if the graph goes from edge to edge and touches both sides, the exposure range is greater than can be captured in one click (Figure 8.10). Understanding the histogram enables me to make creative exposure decisions for maximum impact.
Figure 8.8 With the graph bunched up against the right edge, I know that there will