Lunch For Threeby
LVEComment by Pedro: you've attempted to capture a difficult scene here (tho I'm glad you did, because i think it has great impact and made me laugh).
The sunlight is coming through the trees, so
any subject is going to have hot spots and underexposed parts. To top it off, you've selected a very contrasty subject given the bright feathers against the shadows. Digital photography tends to lose detail both in highlights and shodows more than film, so correct exposure is paramount; if that's impossible, err to the side of underexposure, and try to bring back the detail is post-processing (true of film as well, only less pronounced).
If you're metering, meter to the whitest spot on the Ibis, because once that detail is gone, you can't get it back. Your camera has a 'highlight' feature that will show you the overexposed parts of the photo during the 2-second playback right after you take the pic (the blown out parts will flash). using this or the histogram function gives you immediate feedback on this. Short of that, you can bracket you exposure (take several shots with graduated exposure to make sure at least one of them is on).
One possible remedy is to intentionally underexpose the subject, and use a fill flash (low powered on-camera flash). this will all but eliminate the effect of the sun from close range, and as the name suggests 'fill' in light where there would be shadows.
Great composition, humorous subject, sharp focus, good color balance.
Overall worth more than the score it got. ;)
Pedro
