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trying to eliminate hummingbird glare on videos
I recently purchased a “prosumer” Panasonic TM700 to capture hummingbirds up close in detail. Although I have used a variety of prior camcorders successfully, I am always struggling with one big problem- overexposure! The hummingbirds in my area have a characteristic white collar that always shows up overexposed despite the remainder of the bird being fine. The only way I have been able to sort of get around this is to set the shutter so that the white is properly exposed, but then I am left with too little exposure over the rest of the bird. I can correct this in software, but noise greatly increases, and I have been looking for another way. I have used a variety of light sources from just plain sunlight to artificial lighting placed at various angles, but still end up with too bright of white. One thing the Panasonic has that my other camcorders didn’t is a threaded ring for filters. Is there a filter that might be able to alleviate or at least greatly reduce this overexposure of white problem or is there another approach I could take?
Thanks in advance,
Jon -
2 Replies
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Yes, you could try a neutral density “ND” filter. Or put some kind of sun shade above the feeders?
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I think what you really want is a low contrast filter or maybe in addition to, here’s what Tiffen says https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=https://www.tiffen.com/literature/Contrast_FactSheet_Lo.pdf
https://www.tiffen.com/results.html?search_type_no=369&tablename=filters
Of course there’s a hundred of them, but more research will guide you.
Also, make sure your camera is on manual control and no AGC (auto gain). Have fun!
Steve
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