Black-billed Magpie Iridescence
Black-billed Magpies are loud, flashy and conspicuous black and white birds. And they’re a challenge to photograph well because of the exposure difficulty – getting detail in the blacks without “blowing out” the whites. I probably discard a higher proportion of shots of this species than I do any other. But if you work hard at it (with a little luck thrown into the mix) you can get some pretty spectacular shots that have detail in the blacks and whites and their showy iridescence. The actual plumage of these birds is truly black and white, with no other colors. But in the right light the feather structure (and other factors) on the tail and wings of these birds bends the light much like a prism and produces a variety of colors, predominantly blues and greens. When I’m photographing magpies, one of my goals is usually to capture some of that iridescence. 1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 100-400 @ 400mm, natural light Three days ago I found this magpie perched on a snow-covered boulder on Antelope Island. As you can see the whites are well-exposed but there’s not a lot of detail in the blacks. This is the type of magpie image that I normally wouldn’t do much with except for purposes such as this post (my high shutter speeds were due to the snow and the fact that I was attempting take-off shots). 1/4000, f/6.3, ISO 500, 100-400 @ 400mm, natural light This is the same bird on the same perch but the image was taken…