Rattray Marsh Nov 12

[Ally]

Taking advantage of the last few warm days. Some Hooded Mergansers were relatively close and boy, are they good at catching fish!

[Ally]

I said to my friend, nobody fought. and she said, of course, everyone is good at catching

[Ally]

By the time there was slightly more favourable light, they all had enough to eat. so I took some group photo

[Ally]

Seagulls can be fun when there are nothing else interesting to take, and I finally discovered what I mistook as snow from Shortsighted's pic. And also a good advice, do not talk when you take photo of that stuff.

[Shortsighted]

 Have you been at Rattray before?
Where were you shooting from to catch shots of those merganser? I can’t quite make out your location considering you were shooting partially into the sun and did not compensate. I did that today, shooting to the south against the sun. Of course, I was only shooting into the backyard.
 

[Ally]

Have you been at Rattray before?
Where were you shooting from to catch shots of those merganser? I can’t quite make out your location considering you were shooting partially into the sun and did not compensate. I did that today, shooting to the south against the sun. Of course, I was only shooting into the backyard.

I went there before, and I was on one of the platforms, some swam relatively close, with the sun behind them. I was facing the lake generally.

[Ally]

Have you been at Rattray before?
Where were you shooting from to catch shots of those merganser? I can’t quite make out your location considering you were shooting partially into the sun and did not compensate. I did that today, shooting to the south against the sun. Of course, I was only shooting into the backyard.

When you say compensate, what does that mean? Or what do I do?

[Shortsighted]

 
In order to compensate you must stand at the very edge of the platform (there are platforms?) and curl your toes around the very lip of the last plank and then with absolute conviction shout that you repent for all your sins, and then pay $30 compensation, to me, and I will absolve you of those sins. Dinu may be the “king” but I am the Eminence Gris. You may now kiss my ring.
All fantasy aside, in order to compensate for a very bright background that dictates what your camera’s built-in light meter registers and then commands the camera’s settings in an attempt to provide a well-exposed water surface, you must deliberately re-set the f-stop to the right of what the meter proclaimed to be correct, thereby opening the iris to let in more light (despite the bright background) so that your precious subject (the merganser) gets enough exposure. This shift to the right can be done by pushing and holding down the back button that says “Av” while turning the front dial so that the exposure scale at the bottom of your viewfinder shows a shift to the right side of about a full f-stop, sometimes slightly less, sometimes slightly more. You can find tune the compensation shift by checking the image on your live-view screen by pressing the preview button. If the merganser is still under-exposed then press the Av again and dial in more light. The water, or sky will be over-exposed but there are mitigating technique in photoshop to offset some of that blow-out. Don’t forget to re-set the setting back to normal, or better yet, for most shooting conditions … 1/3 stop, or 2/3 stop to the left (other side of the middle). This helps mitigate highlight blow-out that often happens when the iris has not been compensated at all (center position on the sliding scale).

[Ally]

 
In order to compensate you must stand at the very edge of the platform (there are platforms?) and curl your toes around the very lip of the last plank and then with absolute conviction shout that you repent for all your sins, and then pay $30 compensation, to me, and I will absolve you of those sins. Dinu may be the “king” but I am the Eminence Gris. You may now kiss my ring.
All fantasy aside, in order to compensate for a very bright background that dictates what your camera’s built-in light meter registers and then commands the camera’s settings in an attempt to provide a well-exposed water surface, you must deliberately re-set the f-stop to the right of what the meter proclaimed to be correct, thereby opening the iris to let in more light (despite the bright background) so that your precious subject (the merganser) gets enough exposure. This shift to the right can be done by pushing and holding down the back button that says “Av” while turning the front dial so that the exposure scale at the bottom of your viewfinder shows a shift to the right side of about a full f-stop, sometimes slightly less, sometimes slightly more. You can find tune the compensation shift by checking the image on your live-view screen by pressing the preview button. If the merganser is still under-exposed then press the Av again and dial in more light. The water, or sky will be over-exposed but there are mitigating technique in photoshop to offset some of that blow-out. Don’t forget to re-set the setting back to normal, or better yet, for most shooting conditions … 1/3 stop, or 2/3 stop to the left (other side of the middle). This helps mitigate highlight blow-out that often happens when the iris has not been compensated at all (center position on the sliding scale).

Thanks. Not platform, the board walk. But I can repent on board walk too. Thanks again. So compensate means dial right.

[TransAtlanticGoose]

Different cameras sometimes call the compensation dial different things, and they can be located in different places too. So for most Canon dslr's, Shortsighted's decription is bang-on ("pushing and holding down the back button that says %u201CAv%u201D while turning the front dial"), whereas on my Fuji, I have a physical dial on top that has no name, but has markings ranging from -3 to +3, in 1/3rd-stop increments (a stop being the term for a doubling or halving of light the light getting through to the sensor). So you may have to explore you camera a bit if the compensation 'dial' isn't obvious.

[Shortsighted]

 Now that we have distinguished between dispensation and compensation, yes, you dial to the right for a subject that is being recorded as under-exposed. You dial to the left for a subject that has highlights and when those highlights are reflecting sunlight and blowing-out the sensor to pure white. The darker parts can be somewhat retrieved in post-processing, especially if you are shooting in RAW and even to a degree if you are shooting as a jpg file.

[Ally]

Now that we have distinguished between dispensation and compensation, yes, you dial to the right for a subject that is being recorded as under-exposed. You dial to the left for a subject that has highlights and when those highlights are reflecting sunlight and blowing-out the sensor to pure white. The darker parts can be somewhat retrieved in post-processing, especially if you are shooting in RAW and even to a degree if you are shooting as a jpg file.

I knew I needed to do that when it was dark, but I didn't realize I could do it when the sun is against me. What about the other number. It was not the bigger the better, right? I would look at the pic, it did't seem to be clearer. Is it fun to teach me? I mean, you have to translate all the tech term to kids' language. Hope you are enjoying it too

[Shortsighted]

 OK, it’s my turn not to understand the question. What number?
It is not exactly fun to teach but it is satisfying nonetheless. Fun is having a 500mm, or 600mm lens and is therefore something I wouldn’t know much about, even back in the days of film. You remember film? Perhaps not.
It is my duty to inform the eager and enthusiastic. After all, you hold all the power. I only have 4x and therefore need to go to great lengths to minimize the length between me and the bird. Your majesty has the effervescence and energy of a champagne supernova and are therefore deserving of any assistance that I can muster, even when that may occasionally be misguided or unpalatable.

[Ally]

OK, it’s my turn not to understand the question. What number?
It is not exactly fun to teach but it is satisfying nonetheless. Fun is having a 500mm, or 600mm lens and is therefore something I wouldn’t know much about, even back in the days of film. You remember film? Perhaps not.
It is my duty to inform the eager and enthusiastic. After all, you hold all the power. I only have 4x and therefore need to go to great lengths to minimize the length between me and the bird. Your majesty has the effervescence and energy of a champagne supernova and are therefore deserving of any assistance that I can muster, even when that may occasionally be misguided or unpalatable.

I'm not fun to teach?  Feeling hurt slightly, but I know you didn't mean it. So here is my camera screen. When you talk about compensate, you mean the 3 2 10 1 2 3, right? I dial up when it's dark.
The number I then asked was F18. Do I increase when there is enough light?

[Ally]

Different cameras sometimes call the compensation dial different things, and they can be located in different places too. So for most Canon dslr's, Shortsighted's decription is bang-on ("pushing and holding down the back button that says %u201CAv%u201D while turning the front dial"), whereas on my Fuji, I have a physical dial on top that has no name, but has markings ranging from -3 to +3, in 1/3rd-stop increments (a stop being the term for a doubling or halving of light the light getting through to the sensor). So you may have to explore you camera a bit if the compensation 'dial' isn't obvious.

He tried to ask me to read a small section of my manual every day two years back... I know, I'm a bad student.