I think I have done at least a hundred swan shots just this spring, some of them I am pleased with, here are a few...

[gawan]

Very nice shots, I like the third one...well done.

Thanks pcarfan!

Great shots again Georg. You managed well to keep detail in the white feathers!

Thanks, the veniong light was both difficult and a blessing in handling the white here!

Swans are hard to expose well done georg . #2 is my favorite the neck almost looks golden.

Thanks Dave! Glad to hear the comment, as I was a little worried not having a nice white neck...

Excellent stuff! The first one looks most artistic (light, composition and the direction the swan is swimming/looking into) and the other two would go well in some book about birds describing how a swan looks like.

Thanks a lot, I was afraid the latter two shots would be boring, but I was pleased with exposure

[gawan]

I like swan pics as well. I like #1 and #2. Well done!!!

Thanks a lot Raider!

Wow, Georg - these are really special. I enjoyed them a great deal.

Jer

Jer, thanks, I appreciate it!

I like the top one best, it has nice light.
Its a different angle too, which is great.

Pauly, thanks for the comment, about the angle especially!

Nice shots! I agree about the first one....it has a very dramatic feel to it.

Thank you very much, Alan!

[Marc Langille]

Georg, those are probably the toughest lighting conditions to shoot a pure white bird in, no question. I especially like the angles in #1.

What lens are you using? I have some suggestions to help out, but I'd need the details of your shot (handheld, EXIF, etc.) since the EXIF is not available to be read on the computer I am using.

Regards,
Marc

[gawan]

Marc, thanks! I appreciate very much your comments and eagerly hear more, if you please! The hardest part for me was the evening light with strong yellow cast!

All shot with Sigma 100-300mm f/4

EXIF

#1 240mm, f/4.0, 1/350s, ISO 100, EV 0
#2 100mm, f/8.0, 1/350s, ISO 100, EV 0
#3 210mm, f/8.0, 1/240s, ISO 100, EV -1

---

Last edited by gawan; 05-04-2009 at 08:53 AM.

[deadwolfbones]

Nice work, Georg.

[Marc Langille]

Marc, thanks! I appreciate very much your comments and eagerly hear more, if you please! The hardest part for me was the evening light with strong yellow cast!

All shot with Sigma 100-300mm f/4

EXIF

#1 240mm, f/4.0, 1/350s, ISO 100, EV 0
#2 100mm, f/8.0, 1/350s, ISO 100, EV 0
#3 210mm, f/8.0, 1/240s, ISO 100, EV -1

Here it goes - remember these are guidelines, not rules...

1. I would recommend you use EV -0.7 to -1.3 for pure white subjects. You already did this in the 3rd images. The subject detail will not be too dark, although some problems may arise in the shadowed areas being quite dark. Other options are below.
2. Consider spot metering a white subject for the best exposure.
3. If shooting RAW, you have more of a chance to recover the brightest areas.

Regarding the yellow cast - this is typical of early morning and late evening light. Your best time to photograph white birds: on overcast days. The clouds act as a diffuser and you avoid the higher contrast shadows. Normally of sunny days the biggest challenge is avoiding blowout of the white highlights on the sunny side. I am not sure if the Sigma 100-300 only have front filters as an option? You may wish to consider using a CPL to cut out any bright reflections on the water and the possibility of getting more highlights in the white. Again, this is an option, not a requirement. The nice part is even though there is less light, the underexposure increases the shutter speed, so that helps in either situation.

You'll have better success with EV comp. and proper metering, assuming you shoot RAW. That all being said, white birds can be tremendously difficult to photography correctly. The irony is that you overexpose for snow (to ensure it isn't gray/grey), but underexpose for white birds to preserve details in the feathers!

Please let me know if I didn't explain myself correctly in any of the above comments.

Regards,
Marc

[gawan]

Marc, thanks a lot!

Some notes..

Yes, I only shoot RAW, and you may have noticed from the photos, that I have palyed quiote a bit with adjusting the shadows and highlights

I have to remember more often to adjust the EV, I learned the by the hard way, trough trial and error and still have to gether experience on how much and when. Spot metering, yes I have to remember that more often!

Yellow cast I tried to overcome in PP by selective colour adjusting. Sigma has only fron filter capability (82mm), unfortunately I only have 77mm CPL.

One thing I did not quite understand was how underexposure increases the shutter speed? I'd love to learn more of that! Are you referring to the EV compensation?

[Marc Langille]

Marc, thanks a lot!

Some notes..

Yes, I only shoot RAW, and you may have noticed from the photos, that I have palyed quiote a bit with adjusting the shadows and highlights

I have to remember more often to adjust the EV, I learned the by the hard way, trough trial and error and still have to gether experience on how much and when. Spot metering, yes I have to remember that more often!

Yellow cast I tried to overcome in PP by selective colour adjusting. Sigma has only fron filter capability (82mm), unfortunately I only have 77mm CPL.

One thing I did not quite understand was how underexposure increases the shutter speed? I'd love to learn more of that! Are you referring to the EV compensation?

My honor Georg! Correct - I am referring to EV compensation. I had to do it a lot when using the Sigma 500/4.5 on the Canon - no image stabilization. Put it in AV mode and then push the EV comp button - watch what happens when you go into the negative with EV comp!

Again, this is a very difficult subject to photograph so give yourself a pat on the back for working with tough lighting conditions and coming through! White birds are a completely different photographic challenge.

Have you ever tried doing Levels adjustments first, then Shadow/Highlight afterwards? Let me know if you want some help with it? I am willing to give it a try for you with a TIFF file or some similar lossless file format, but just one. I may have some free time tonight and that is always a challenge I like to do. There is no guarantee of course. If not, no worries...

Regards,
Marc

[gawan]

Nice work, Georg.

Thanks Deadwolfbones!

[gawan]

My honor Georg! Correct - I am referring to EV compensation. I had to do it a lot when using the Sigma 500/4.5 on the Canon - no image stabilization. Put it in AV mode and then push the EV comp button - watch what happens when you go into the negative with EV comp!

Again, this is a very difficult subject to photograph so give yourself a pat on the back for working with tough lighting conditions and coming through! White birds are a completely different photographic challenge.

Have you ever tried doing Levels adjustments first, then Shadow/Highlight afterwards? Let me know if you want some help with it? I am willing to give it a try for you with a TIFF file or some similar lossless file format, but just one. I may have some free time tonight and that is always a challenge I like to do. There is no guarantee of course. If not, no worries...

Regards,
Marc

Thanks again, Marc! I really appreciate your willingness to help!

I have still a lot to learn in PP, thanks for the tip, and btw I sent you a PM, concerning your offer..

[Marc Langille]

With Georg's permission, I am posting a "quick and dirty" method of removing the warm tones on the white plumage of the swan. What I did took about 5-10 minutes to complete. I will cover that in some detail below the image I posted.

Here is the original image from the DNG file I downloaded from Georg, simply converted to JPEG. Let there be no question: this is a good exposure for a bright white subject in order to preserve feather detail:


First, I opened the DNG file in ACR and did the following:

1. Moved the Recovery slider to mid 60's to recover blown highlights.
2. Bumped up the exposure by 1/2 stop.
3. Increased Fill Light to 45.

At this point the image still has very warm tones:


Steps to reproduce the next image...

In Photoshop CS3 I did the following:
Images--> Adjustments--> Levels --> Options --> Auto Color Correct Options dialog window loads.

Select "Find Dark & Light Colors" then click on OK:



Back in Levels, you can sample with the dropper tool to ensure the white is correct. While in RGB (default) I brightened the whites and IIRC, moved the midpoint slightly higher (1.18??) in value to keep the whites "white" and remove the remainder of the noticeable warm tones on the white plumage:

You can also run a Shadow/Highlight with the following values as another option...

Shadows
Amount: 11%
Tonal Width: 53%

Highlights
Amount: 15%
Tonal Width 30%

Here is the final product... It is roughly cropped the same, but a little bigger to allow you to see the subtle differences on the plumage and it's detail:


Here is Georg's original corrected image for reference:

I think I have done at least a hundred swan shots just this spring, some of them I am pleased with, here are a few...

The funny part is that it took me much longer to document my PP process and save all of the images at each stage and upload them, as opposed to doing the actual image corrections...

The above steps took perhaps several minutes to complete, but I am doing some of this intuitively. I am not a Photoshop guru, but I hope this will help someone out in the future. Thanks again to Georg to allow me to use this image for the tutorial!!!

Regards,
Marc

[Jimbo]

Great watching you work through the process Marc. I too am still in the learning process with Photo Shop so this is very helpful. Thanks Georg for letting Marc show us the steps he would take on a shot like this, JIM

Georg

These are really good... We have swans, ducks and Canadian Geese at our local pond... and honestly I have never got a shot of the swans that do them justice... I gave up early on...

But these really are nice. Great lighting and you nail focus and exposure...

The first is my fave as it seems like a 'candid' my favorite of the series!

[gawan]

[..] I am not a Photoshop guru, but I hope this will help someone out in the future. Thanks again to Georg to allow me to use this image for the tutorial!!!

Regards,
Marc

Thanks Marc for using my photo for this excellent lesson, I enjoyed already in other threads your advices and now you brought me right there in the complete process.

Great watching you work through the process Marc. I too am still in the learning process with Photo Shop so this is very helpful. Thanks Georg for letting Marc show us the steps he would take on a shot like this, JIM

Thanks! You were the other happy shooter where I spotted Marc's friendly advice the first time, so I could not agree more!

Georg

These are really good... We have swans, ducks and Canadian Geese at our local pond... and honestly I have never got a shot of the swans that do them justice... I gave up early on...

But these really are nice. Great lighting and you nail focus and exposure...

The first is my fave as it seems like a 'candid' my favorite of the series!

Gus, I appreciate your kind words, thanks a lot!

[Marc Langille]

My honor Georg - your image(s) are now in the tutorial here:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/post-processing-articles/59711-removing-w...e-subject.html

Let me know if a better subject/title should be used?

Regards,
Marc