Apologies again. I didn’t press the button to Post. 🙂
There is a long standing photo adage, “Previsualise (always with a ‘z’) the photo”. Promolagated by St Ansel (Adams).
His point had little to do with the content of the picture and all to do with making sure the exposure was set correctly to cover the gradient range of the “Zone System” But more of that on another occassion.
The term seems to have wandered its way into the vocabularly of creative photographers, as in “I pre-visualised the way this picture would look, feel, express what I thought, etc etc. blah. “
Sometimes tis true, just by the sheer magic of a moment.
I knew when I saw this little Hoary-headed Grebe that it would look great against the be-jewelled backdrop of the early morning light on the water. That amazing rim-light running around the edges of the bird was just too good to ignore.
But also I knew that the little Grebe would be terribly dark and underexposed. Perhaps two shots and merge then in Layers in Photoshop was one response. In the end, I opted to make the exposure for the middle densities and hope that Lightroom would handle the highlights and a bit of work with a brush might bring out some of the detail of the ‘underexposed’ Grebe.
That’s why the puruists will tell you, ‘We Shot raw!!” Gives us so much flexibiltiy in post-processing.
For the record.
This was made from a JPEG from the D500.
Enjoy
Birds as Poetry —— Just because I WANDER doesn't mean I'm LOST 
A fabulous image to view, David!
And a fine discussion of the process!
The light is magic with wonderful definition!
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Hi David
Thanks for that. I suppose I could ramble on about the process of Post in this shot. There are a few masks of varying densities to hold back some of the higlights and a couple of brush masks on the Grebe and foreground, but its mostly only technical stuff and most could do it with a bit of thought.
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This beautifully executed capture is exactly what I often aim for, mainly because my morning route around the Braeside Wetland gives me often no other choice but to shoot against the light. Having not much choice, I try to turn the difficulty into an advantage. I’ve got no idea how much “pre-visualisation” I employ, but I am always keen to be surprised by the results.
I’m certainly looking forward for you to elaborate on the correct exposure settings to cover the gradient range of the “Zone System”.
Thanks, David for this interesting post.
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Hello Adam, most days, now, I no longer make the journey to experience that magic of the early morning light. I do envy you in a good way for the quality of the light that you work with in a lot of your shots.
Often its as you say, being suprised by the results. Rim-light is so challenging and in someways a bit unpredictable.
Pre-visualisation is really something St Ansel and Fred Archer put together to deal with the rather limited film and developer products available to them at the time. The fabled Zone System is really much more suited to a single sheet of film, exposed and processed, to achieve a certain result or balance of lights and darks.
Interestingly enough in the Nik Collection, the Silver Efx Pro unit has a “Zone System” module where its possible to see in zebra stripes the various levels of the system displayed on the selected shot.
For the rest of us, digital and the tools in our best post software, really by pass the need to determine where each zone might fall in an image.
But, the concept of dealing with how to manage the highlights and at what level to lose the shadows to blocked up black is always a challenge in difficult lighting.
Always learning.
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Interesting process David. I guess I am not in that professional league being very amateur as I am. I do appreciate the quality and craft that you always display in the images in your posts. The Grebe is an example of how important the balance of light it. My daughter when she studied Photography at Uni said once ‘it is all about light dad, and how we use it.’ and she did a series on night images. Likewise, what you shared resonates with this, and the mastering of technique and technical skill to create what is visualized. It is all very clever and I appreciate the effort you go to to create not only beautiful images but beautiful and artistically captured moments in the life of the birds.
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Hello Ashley, yes your daughter is right. Years ago I managed to be fortunate enough to attend a workshop by Dean Collins, who earned the title Master of Light. Too much to include in a blog reply, but I still ponder the balance of shadow and light that he demonstrated. Tools and techniques change, but the essential basics remain.
I’ve said it before, but I’m a photographer of birds, not birdo who takes pictures of birds.
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A beautiful image David,as the Grebe floats in the glittering water. The head turn is perfect – that bird is a pro!
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An awesome photo, and more interesting thoughts thanks David…!
Cheers,
Lance
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