backlight

[John Chardine]

Our air is pretty clear here and the sun stays harsh right up until it sets. I tried to combat this by making a backlit image of a Common Grackle (a North American member of the Icteridae family). The BG was backlit too so the whole tonal range was in relative balance

I made a significant crop and evened out the BG tonal variation with a soft clone tool. Also ran NR on the BG.

Canon EOS 50D, 500mm f4, 1.4 tcII = 700mm
capture date: Wednesday, 29 April, 2009 7:27 PM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 400
shutter speed: 1/200
aperture: f7.1
exposure bias: +0.0
metering: Pattern
flash: OFF

[Dave Phillips]

first backlight grack I have actually seen in an image. The rim light is on the "correct"
part of the bird IMO and the good bright eye is the real complement.

nice one John....a tough way to go

[Arthur Morris]

I love the tones of the bird and the backlight trhough the tail, but the rim lighting on the back is too bright for my eyes.

[Stu Bowie]

Excellent exposure to show up the colours with backlighting. Like the pose, and complimentary colours in the BG.

[John Chardine]

Thanks for all the comments. Yes the rim lighting is bright Artie, although not blown. The luminance difference of these areas is about 95/100 for the rim light compared to about 10/100 for the bird. By my reckoning, this is 3+ stops (10 to 20 to 40 to 80 to 95) tonal range, which the camera was able to handle (does this calculation make sense?). I'll try toning it down a little with some dodging.

[Nate Chappell]

Great pose and nice details, there is excellent detail for this being a backlit shot, the bit of rim lighting doesn't bother me.