metering whales

[bob stewart jacksonville]

I'm going to the San Juan Islands next week and should have several

opportunities to take whale pictures. Having not done this before, it

would appear to me that with the coloring of whales (lots of black

and white) and the reflective nature of the water, that correct

metering would be difficult. Spot metering the whale also would not

appear practical given the quick action. To the extent it affects any

answers, I'll be shooting with an EOS 3 mostly with a 300 f/4IS and

1.4 and 2x tc's and shooting provia 400.

The previous thread on whales didn't really address metering

issues, and I'm hoping some of you can share your experience on this.

[art_haykin]

Personally, I'd rate the Provia at around 320, and take an incident reading.

[david_goldfarb]

Incident reading is one option. "Sunny 16" is another. Grey card or metering something on the boat or your hand and placing the value appropriately is another.

[thomas_t]

Bob,

I used to live on Bainbridge outside of Seattle and photographed orcas from my commuter ferry. I would spot meter a low part of the horizon or the sky that was medium-toned and set it manually on my camera. If the light changes (cloud cover, or sun openings), I'd re-meter and reset the manual setting on my camera. In the northwest, the sky is fairly uniform, so if it is sunny, it will likely remain sunny, few 'sudden' weather changes occur. You are more likely to encounter gray overcast skies (surprisingly even in summers). If you are a real stickler, spot meter a gray card on your ferry/boat as you will probably be close enough to be in the same reflective range as your subject. I really think manual is the way to go on your metering, otherwise the action of the whales and their background will make your readings jump all over the place.

Have fun. And try the Wild Ginger or Siams if you're in seattle, great thai food!

Tom

[ShunCheung]

I don't have much experience photographying whales, but for zebras, the blacks and whites pretty much cancel each other out. However, the blacks and whites on a whale are not evenly distributed as nicely as it is on a zebra; it also depends on which part of the whale is above water, which typically is the black top area.

 

I think as long as you meter the scene beforehand and lock the exposure, you should be OK. Otherwise, if you are close and a large black area may fool your meter, which will open up to make the black area grey and your images will be over-exposed.

[clivecc]

Set camera to manual mode. Set aperture to what you want (probably F8-F11). With sun behind you, point lens in the direction of the whales and hold your hand out in front of the lens (palm to lens so you meter off your palm) . Adjust shutter speed so that pointer of your light meter inside the viewfinder reads 1,3 stops overexposed....shoot. If lighting changes redo.

[jason_elsworth3]

Metering is addressed briefly in this excellent article http://www.photosafari.com/PhotographingWhales.asp

 

Jason

www.jasonelsworth.co.nz

[cowan stark]

I've used an EOS 3 with the lens/tc's you have for (humpback) whale photography. Honestly, I'd just stick it on Evaluative metering and fire away. You're right, there's just no way to spot meter a breaching whale and dial down -1.5 exposure compensation or whatever for a dark subject. This is where the skill of your tour operator comes in and they hopefully won't have you shooting into the sun. You'll definitely get underexposed shots that way. A lot of the more serious tour boats are also photographing the whales from the bridge to collect data to help with research so they avoid this. I've found bracketing to be not all that helpful either. If you're lucky, even with the speed of the EOS 3, you might get the right exposure to coincide with the action. Some of my best exposed shots are of the last remnant of the tail fluke disappearing under the surface! Obviously the size of the subject in the frame is going to affect it,as well as weather conditions (white skies are a killer!) but again I've found the metering system to be fairly reliable. I don't know how close to the whales you can get where you are, but I'd bring along a short zoom (a 28-135IS) works well. A 300 with tc isn't going to be much good if one spyhops next to the boat as they sometimes do here in New England. It took me several trips to get it right, so if you have several opportunities, see if you get some slides developed between trips so you can have another crack at it.

[alex_p._schorsch]

Bob, I did a whale trip in Peninsula Valdez in Argentina (Fantastic Place) and had no problems. You couldn't ask for a more uniform light than the open sea. I think that what I did was just meter on a neutral gray on the boat. An incident light meter would also be excellent. I had very good weather so I didn't have to change the settings very often. But when I'm working I normally keep checking the readings all the time. You just keep metering and waiting, then all of a sudden "Thar she blows" and you're shooting for a few minutes, then they dive again. I used a 400mm, and I think that's perfect. I used automatic focusing. The problem is , sometimes the whales aren't too cooperative. Nice shooting!!

[fred_kamphues]

Normal metering from the camera works fine for me:

http://www.photo.net/photo/942061

 

Good luck,

 

Fred