![\"northern](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/northern-harrier-1420-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSnow on the ground can do weird things to light.<\/p>\n
It’s often an advantage on cloudy days or when the sun’s high in the sky because\u00a0snow reflects light to the ventral\u00a0surface of the bird and reduces heavy shadows there. But I find it\u00a0difficult to predict which exposure\u00a0value (ev) is best when there’s snow on the ground. Sometimes I have to significantly increase exposure and other times I have to decrease it in what seems to be\u00a0almost identical situations. Go figure…<\/p>\n
For these two shots, taken yesterday morning at Farmington Bay WMA, I had my ev set at +1.67 to get proper exposure on the\u00a0dark hawk in the white setting. When I fine-tuned exposure during processing the bird was slightly overexposed\u00a0so I reduced exposure in Photoshop\u00a0ACR (Adobe Camera RAW). Doing\u00a0so caused no problems – after all, many photographers “expose to the right” deliberately and then make adjustments during processing.<\/p>\n
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1\/1250, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n I think harriers have some of the most athletic takeoffs of all raptors, partly because they perch on the ground more often than\u00a0many other birds of prey so it takes more effort to become airborne. This bird took off in just the right direction to give me a good look at its face and provide a side view of that dramatic takeoff posture. I even got some light in the eye in these cloudy conditions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n This is the only shot I got of the bird in flight where I liked the wing position and the bird was sufficiently sharp.<\/p>\n Normally I\u00a0don’t increase saturation or contrast during processing because I like my subjects to look natural in the light that exists. I’ve said before that in my opinion over-saturation is the most common processing “error” made by novice (and even some pro) nature photographers. To my eye over-saturated birds look more\u00a0like cartoon characters than natural products of evolution. It makes me wince when I see comments about an over-saturated image like – “wow, that bird really pops”.<\/p>\n That said, when I have an image taken in low light I sometimes do increase saturation and\/or contrast selectively on the bird because natural colors are often muted in those conditions. For these two images I increased both saturation and contrast moderately\u00a0on the bird only. (To be perfectly honest, the more I look at these two images the more I think that I might have increased contrast just a tad too much – live and learn).<\/p>\n I’m not saying my way is the only way or even the best way, just that this is what I do.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Snow on the ground can do weird things to light.<\/p>\n![\"northern](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/northern-harrier-1424-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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