Swan

[Jonny]

Does this one look any good or is the birds body overexposed?

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/j.speed/Forums%20Pictures/Swan2.jpg

This looks better to me but obviously no body to go with the nice head!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/j.speed/Forums%20Pictures/Swan1.jpg

[Molydood]

it's a tough call, I would say it's slightly overexposed yes, but then if you adjusted it you may loose something from the neck/head which looks great against the background. It's a very nice swan picture IMO

[roanjohn]

...............a great image.

The body is overexposed..............a tad distracting..........but not enough to throw this photo in the recycle bin.

.............practice and practice.........white subject against a dark background takes multiple attempts to nail a correct exposure.

..............Now the 2nd shot..............it doesn't impact me like the first one.

Ro1

[Jonny]

I was just browsing a few online galleries and stumbled across this pic:

http://www.toronto-dd.com/pictures/Nature/images/33swan-1.jpg

Kinda spooked me a little

Jon

[jimtfoto]

A bit over, yes, but speaking from experience of shooting swans under bright sky, it's a good capture .... nice contrast with the water ...

cheers,
jim

[DC]

All things considered they're both nice shots.

I regularly shoot swans at luchtime as I work by a river with a couple on it. On bright days I always shoot at least 1-1.5 stops under and use fill flash to help reduce the contrast

[jonnyhorizon]

there is a line in the neck above which the exposure is ok
extract the lower part in photoshop and adjust the levels and brighness on the extraction
paste the extraction behind the original and blend the two
or just select the overexposed are using the magic wand and adjust the selected area levels
...

[cityboy_ca]

I think it's a beautiful image. Couldn't you dodge/burn (or PhotoShop equivalent) on the body?