bird on my window - exposure - flash

[Yisehaq]

Hi All,
I am trying to learn exposure these days and when this bird came to my window I took the opportunity.
what do you think?
The exif was
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv 1/200
Av 8.0
Metering Mode Partial Metering
ISO Speed 400

Used fillin falsh to get the catchlight.

I am not sure about the cropping though.
What do you think?

[Marko]

I like this shot and think the exposure looks good.
It might have been nice to see a bit more bird but I'm okay with this profile shot.I might burn in the top and bottom edges.

Was this the camera's first exposure reading and the final result or did you tweak the exposure after seeing the results?

Although the fill flash works here. I recommend NOT using any flash at all while learning basic exposure. Only once you fully understand basic exposure should you add flash. This shot would have looked very different without flash...and would have likely provided a lot more learning. Did you take any shots without flash?
Hope that helps
Marko

[Sean]

I like the shot, although I think that the background, while nicely unfocused is a little bright. Perhaps less of it, or darken it a little.

It might also be an interesting excercise to see if you can expose the shot so that the bird is much brighter than the background.

Sean

[Yisehaq]

Thanks Marko & Sean.
Marko,
i chose this as an exercise because the bird was sitting in the window with a bright background which I thought was good experiment. Unfortunately I don't have pictures without the flash. because of the bird was moving and couldn't get a good cropping. But I did Start without the flash.


"Was this the camera's first exposure reading and the final result or did you tweak the exposure after seeing the results?"
Yes, Let me tell you how I came about this image.
I used partial metering. I closed in on the body of the bird to cover the center part of view finder. Then took the measurment. thinking that it would be too bright (since the camera reading will be 18%) I closed down one stop
-1ev and thought it was okay. And wanted to get some catchlight and forced the flash and thought it was too bright and used flask compensation -2 seemed okay to me.
But indeed I should have kept the picture for comparison the bird comes often to my window so I think I will have another chance next time and I will upload the detail.

Sean
"It might also be an interesting excercise to see if you can expose the shot so that the bird is much brighter than the background."

Could I have done that? I was thinking the only way to do that was to burn the background BTW, I did that but obviously that was not enough. If I brighten the bird will it not be overexposed. I will experiement on that. I really love the excercise. though my friend often ask me when am I going to start taking pictures .

[Marko]

I'm not exactly sure I fully understand the partial metering mode in your camera - but your technique seems to work for this image. The minus 2 on your flash was a very good call.

If you wanted to make the bird really bright it's fairly easy if the bird is a good model. You would have taken a meter reading from the background and then set your flash higher than that. To really make the bird bright you could have UNDEREXPOSED the background reading.

Hope that helps - Marko

[Yisehaq]

I'm not exactly sure I fully understand the partial metering mode in your camera Marko

My camera is 350D andthe partial metering is the option I have for spot on other cameras but it has wider coverage at the center. Guess 9% of the View finder.

To really make the bird bright you could have UNDEREXPOSED the background reading.

I have to be honest that I don't get that. How much do I underexpose? To themeasurement I got on the bird? Can I have more explanation Pleaseeeeee.


Thanks alot for your help

[Marko]

To really make the bird bright you could have UNDEREXPOSED the background reading.

Woops that was unclear. I meant to say it in reference to having the bird look or appear brighter than the background.

The flash normally ONLY affects the foreground (because it's not powerful enough to light both the foreground and the background. So if you correctly meter the back ground.... Lets just say it's 1/60 at F5.6.

To make that background darker - 1/125 at 5.6

If you set the flash to output MORE light on the main subject than the original background reading (1/60 at F5.6.), it naturally makes the foreground subject brighter because the flash works to light the foreground.

This is easiest to understand when the camera and flash are both in manual mode as they work INDEPENDENTLY.

Depending on your camera, If you are using something like aperture priority, deliberately underexposing from the background reading (1/60 at F5.6.) underexposes the entire scene (foreground and background).

In this case underexpose the background 1/125 F5.6 (USE exposure compensation to do this - check your manual for this feature)

Then on your flash use the plus button +1 +2 +3 etc to get your subject brighter than the bkgd.

Please let me know if this is still unclear.

Once this is figured out I'd like to blog this if that's okay and if you wanted to test this, I'd likely feature the resulting images.

thx
Marko

[Yisehaq]

Thanks so much Marko. It is cristal clear now.
Your help is just priceless.