Canal swan

[Karenp]

I'd so love to catch the swans courting. Just have to keep hoping.....

[ChrisLumix]

Unfortunately  you have two choices : a nice white swan like that with blown highlights, or a dirty grey swan with feather details.

 

Or I suppose there's a third : bracket the exposures and stack them in Photoshop or similar. Nice study though

[Karenp]

Unfortunately  you have two choices : a nice white swan like that with blown highlights, or a dirty grey swan with feather details.

 

Or I suppose there's a third : bracket the exposures and stack them in Photoshop or similar. Nice study though

Show me please? 

[FUJI]

Swans look deceptively easy to shoot, they are attractive subjects too, but like shooting snow, very careful consideration should be given to settings.......I used to do the same, until I fathomed out how to use the exposure compensation dial on my GX7.

I totally agree with Chris on this one........

FUJI

[ChrisLumix]

Show me please? 

 

If your camera has auto bracketing, then it's easy - just choose three exposures at a gap of your choosing. In this case I would suggest 0 (correct), +1 and -1. The camera will produce three identical shots at the three different exposures. Photoshop then has a little trick where the three shots can be blended to give the best balance of both highlight and shadow details.

 

The alternative is to meter directly off the swan (e.g. spot metering), which will produce a grey swan, but with plenty of feather details. If you decide it's too 'grey and dirty' you could then adjust using Levels to lift the highlights which will brighten the whites - but you decide where to stop so there's still some details in the feathers.

 

Summary:

• bracket exposures using camera's bracketing function, then merge in Photoshop 

or

• meter for the swan, then lift if necessary using Levels

[Karenp]

Thanks Chris. I'll have to have a go!