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Any tips for photographing birds with black eyes and a black head (examples: chickadees, crows) so that you can actually see their eyes in a photo?  It's always hit and miss for me.

A good catchlight in the eye is a big help.  Sometimes, if they're sitting fairly still, you can wait until they turn their head just right so their eye catches the sun and reflects it toward you, and you get the nice "glint" (the catchlight) in the eye.  Usually, that same angle will bring out some details in the head plumage as well.  If you can snap the photo at that time, you're probably most of the way there. If the subject is a bit impatient, you might just have to shoot a bunch of frames and hope for the best, or you can employ flash, which typically gives you a pretty good catchlight (although it can look a bit artificial sometimes).

The other aspect is getting the exposure right, and that technique depends on your camera.  For me, I have a DSLR, and I typically shoot in aperture priority mode with matrix metering.  When shooting a dark subject on a sunny day, the camera's meter will tend to underexpose the subject.  To compensate, I might add up to +1.0 stop of exposure bias to bring out the details in subject's plumage.

Thanks for the advice.  Crows, for example, are a little easier (for me) because they either walk to where they are going or actually fly a distance. They also tend to stay in the same spot and move their head which fits your advice perfectly.  I actually like photographing crows in a tree.  I know, no one likes crows.  I like sparrows, too.

Chickadees flit around so much, on the same branch or above and below it, plus they are so tiny, that with them, I just keep clicking away and hope one will be a keeper. But I toss a lot because of the eyes.

I usually shoot in Aperture Priority mode. I do have a problem with exposure.  I tend to under-expose my photos and then lighten them up on the computer.  I don't have as much luck going the other way with that method.  I have to work on exposure.  Thanks again. 

I like Crows.  I think they're sort of cool - but I'm a bit strange, anyway!

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LauraC:

Any tips for photographing birds with black eyes and a black head (examples: chickadees, crows) so that you can actually see their eyes in a photo?  It's always hit and miss for me.

Hi Laura this is a good question, here is the problem that you and everyone else has. It happens with both colors black and white.

All digital cameras see only grey scale not colors, color only appears as an output, in devices such as printers, computer screens,TV's, etc.

As a result the black is the darkest part of the grey scale and the white is the lowest. With that in mind if you can keep the exposure values for the blacks and the whites to within 5% of there true value (the blacks at 242), (whites  at 9 to 12) then the detail will show through.

Ok I agree that sounds very technical but that is the way it works. So in order to get around this problem with a digital camera try doing this. If the main color you want to bring out is black then slightly overexpose the image and of course if it is the whites then under expose

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In loving memory of Nancy my darling wife of 10 years who passed away on Monday November the 16th 2009 after an illness

My photo gallery http://thekiwi.org/photography/index.php

Well said Peter. No one has mentioned the Better Beamer. In the right hands, it is fabulous.

CMF

I still need to get one of those.  I'd have one right now if they'd been in stock the day I bought my flash 

That's a really nice shot, by the way.  At what range was it taken?  Was the flash in the shoe or off-camera?

CMF:

Well said Peter. No one has mentioned the Better Beamer. In the right hands, it is fabulous.

CMF

I never the mentioned the use of a Better Beamer for the following reasons.

Most folks here don't have flash units other than the on camera flash. So they would have to purchase a flash unit learn how to use it properly (cost for a flash unit is approx $250 to $500 then add an extra $40 to  $60 on a beamer which is an extender placed on the flash unit of which from my understanding are best used on 300mm plus lenes.

Some times I tend to get a bit technical when I try to explain things but some times that is the only way you can understand how it works and if you know how then you can usually come up with a solution a very good example of that is the greyscale it can be difficult to understand that a digital camera only sees 256 shades of grey  0 for black and 255 for white  0 to 255 = 256 in total what we see is the output which shows us a colored image and that is made up of 16.7 million colors wow we say how is that possible there are 3 channels each with 256 shades of grey at a bit depth of 8 so that means 256 shades of red x 256 shades of green x 256 shades of blue and that all equals the 16.7 million colors.

so understanding that if you alter the amount of greys that the camera catches will alter the image for blacks over expose a little for whites under expose a little

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In loving memory of Nancy my darling wife of 10 years who passed away on Monday November the 16th 2009 after an illness

My photo gallery http://thekiwi.org/photography/index.php

This also explains one of the advantages with shooting RAW.  When you shoot in RAW mode, you get 12 or 14 bits (4096 or 16384 shades) per color channel instead of just 8 (256 shades).  This doesn't change the dynamic range (the difference between the darkest and the lightest shade is still the same), but it gives you a better margin of error when you're adjusting the exposure, and you get a lot more control when you process the image.

I thought this example might be instructive.  This is a Boat-tailed Grackle I shot at Emeralda Marsh in Lake County, FL.

The sun was behind the bird (to the left in the frame), which you can see by the iridescent rim on the head plumage and the catchlight in the eye.  The sky was also partly overcast, which always helps keep the contrast manageable.  Also take a look at how the head plumage is actually darker than the wings and tail, and how you can distinguish the black pupil from the brown iris.  I'm not sure I can take total credit on how this came out.  My camera's meter is pretty smart, and there isn't much in the scene to confuse it.  I did apply a -0.3 stop bias, but I don't think this did as much as the overcast sky in this case.

Full details:

Nikon D300, 70-300mm AF-S VR (at 280mm), ISO 400, matrix metering, f/8, 1/1600" (Aperture priority at -0.3 EV)

 

lyceel:

This also explains one of the advantages with shooting RAW.  When you shoot in RAW mode, you get 12 or 14 bits (4096 or 16384 shades) per color channel instead of just 8 (256 shades).  This doesn't change the dynamic range (the difference between the darkest and the lightest shade is still the same), but it gives you a better margin of error when you're adjusting the exposure, and you get a lot more control when you process the image.

It is for this reason that High dynamic range (HDR) images are becoming so popular as when working with HDR you work in 32bits however since no printer or other output device can use the full HDR color range it has to be converted to a 16 or 8 bit image in its final stage however when in the 32 bit range there is so many colors to work with and the tonal range is greatly enhanced but the down side is you need at least 3 images of the same shot but different exposures.

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In loving memory of Nancy my darling wife of 10 years who passed away on Monday November the 16th 2009 after an illness

My photo gallery http://thekiwi.org/photography/index.php

thekiwi:

It is for this reason that High dynamic range (HDR) images are becoming so popular as when working with HDR you work in 32bits however since no printer or other output device can use the full HDR color range it has to be converted to a 16 or 8 bit image in its final stage however when in the 32 bit range there is so many colors to work with and the tonal range is greatly enhanced but the down side is you need at least 3 images of the same shot but different exposures.

Indeed.  I've actually been itching to try out some HDR shots myself.  I work in computer graphics, so I've watched HDR rendering as it's become a hot topic for movies and games in the past few years (pretty much every new 3D computer game uses some form of HDR rendering to create its visuals).  As the various tone mapping techniques have matured, it's now spilling over into still photography just because of the unique images it can create.

Thanks again, for the replies.  I'll give the exposure advice a try.