Help with whites

[Dave McCormick]

What is the best way of taking a photo of a white butterfly, like a GV White or a Orange Tip, so they don't appear too bright? Found that problem today when taking photos of a GV white, you not see the dark markings on upperside well, just too bright white. Want to get my skills right this time, had a few good photos in past of whites, but most of these have been with my compact camera or darker marked individuals, more yellowish like second generations etc...

[Pete Eeles]

Underexpose by between 1/3 and 2/3 of a stop. The resulting image will look dark, but will retain the detail. Then use software to bring the levels back up.

Works for me every time - I haven't ever had a burned out white since I started doing this.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Jack Harrison]

I agree with Pete.

This subject was really tricky.

In this instance, I biased by a full -1. But inevitably when making such a big correction, the background is liable to be underexposed so when brightened afterwards with software, it might show a lot of noise.

I also adjust the shooting setting to give minimum contrast, ie, to give greatest “dynamic range” from shadows to highlights. More sophisticated cameras, eg some DSLRs can apparently do a superb job of preserving highlights and shadows.

Jack

[Dave McCormick]

Thanks for the info. I was thinking along the same lines myself, but have only started seeing whites and wanted to get at least a good shot of one, going looking tomorrow as weather is supposed to stay good and warm.

[eccles]

If your camera can do it, shooting raw instead of jpegs will give you at least an f-stop extra dynamic range which could make or break a shot.

[Jack Harrison]

Sounds good. I can add a hack (well, computer-literate son can) to use my A650 in raw.

"Miles, can you come here please! Job for you" Mind you, he hates doing anything connected with computers even though he is very, very good.

Jack

[Oy]

Spot metering off the white can work too!

But I tend to just stick with my regular centre weightd and dail in -0.7 to -1ev

[Jack Harrison]

I can add a hack

Woudln't work with a card >4 Gb. Mine are 8.

Jack