{"id":44836,"date":"2017-02-07T06:51:25","date_gmt":"2017-02-07T13:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=44836"},"modified":"2025-06-09T05:41:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T10:41:19","slug":"gray-partridges-in-snow-and-low-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/02\/07\/gray-partridges-in-snow-and-low-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Gray Partridges in Snow and Low Light – Frustrations in Bird Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gray Partridges<\/h2>\n

\"LowLow light Gray Partridge in snow – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 1000, +2.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I mentioned in my Rough-legged Hawk<\/span><\/a> post yesterday that I saw plenty of birds when I was up north and that the light wasn’t all that great at times. I saw Bald and Golden Eagles, Red-tailed and Rough-legged Hawks, Northern Harriers, Prairie Falcons, American Kestrels, Horned Larks, Western Meadowlarks, Red-winged Blackbirds, Turkeys, Chukars, Ring-necked Pheasants and Gray Partridges<\/span><\/a>. I may have forgotten a species or two.<\/p>\n

The surprise birds of the day were Gray Partridges in an area where I hadn’t seen them before and they were feeding close to the edge of the road.<\/p>\n

Snow and low light<\/h2>\n

I tried a few test shots to get my exposure set because the light was low and I was surprised that I had to bump my exposure up as high as I did to get the birds exposed well in the snowy setting.<\/p>\n

Not one of the images that I took showed that the whites were blown out on the histogram on my LCD screen so I started to photograph the partridges as they moved around on top of the snow and down snow banks.<\/p>\n

The exposure of the birds looked good on my camera’s LCD screen and when I zoomed in on a few of the images I could tell they were sharp, the colors in the feathers were vibrant and I could see nice details in the plumages of the partridges.<\/p>\n

\"GrayGray Partridge walking down a bank of snow – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 1000, +2.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I got home and uploaded the files to my computer and viewed them on my screen I was so disappointed because even though not one of the images was overexposed I couldn’t see much detail at all in the snow, it was as if I had taken these images on a sheet of white paper in a studio.<\/p>\n

I do as little post processing in Photoshop as possible on almost all of my images because in the field I do my best to get the images I am striving for. I love taking images.<\/p>\n

I don’t love sitting in front of my computer editing.<\/p>\n

I felt like these partridge images were worth a little more time spent post processing them to see if I could tease a small amount of details out of the snow. I played around with the dehaze slider in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw). Then adjusted some of the mid-tones of the snow in a levels layer, brought down the exposure of the snow and I was able to bring out a few of those details. Not much, but they are there.<\/p>\n

\"GrayGray Partridge walking in snow – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 1000, +2.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m not sure why the original files lacked detail in the snow, they weren’t over exposed, the details should have been visible right out of the camera.<\/p>\n

I wish the light had been as bright when I photographed these partridges as it had been when I photographed the Rough-legged Hawk then I wouldn’t have needed to spend time teasing out the details in the snow in these images.<\/p>\n

But light varies and bird photography isn’t always easy, it isn’t a cake walk.\u00a0I think these Gray Partridge photos turned out okay.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

To view more of my Gray Partridge photos plus facts and information about this species click here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The surprise birds of the day were Gray Partridges in an area where I hadn’t seen them before and they were feeding close to the edge of the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1148,386,26],"tags":[4004,1023,5006,2411,1123,156,9141,633,634,4050,401,373],"class_list":["post-44836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-gray-partridges","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-frustrations-in-bird-photography1","tag-game-birds","tag-gray-partridge","tag-high-key-2","tag-low-light-2","tag-partridge","tag-partridges","tag-perdix-perdix","tag-snow","tag-upland-game-birds","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/gray-partridge-winter-mia-mcpherson-4196.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-bFa","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":78894,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/02\/04\/high-key-gray-partridge\/","url_meta":{"origin":44836,"position":0},"title":"High Key Gray Partridge","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Snow continues to pass by where I live in northern Utah this winter so I thought I'd bring some snow to my site with a high key Gray Partridge photo.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"High key Gray Partridge in a winter whiteout, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/gray-partridge-high-key-mia-mcpherson-4227.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/gray-partridge-high-key-mia-mcpherson-4227.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/gray-partridge-high-key-mia-mcpherson-4227.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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has been gray for a couple of days and it supposed to be gray until this front passes and while gray days can get me down gray birds lift me back up.","rel":"","context":"In "Bahamas"","block_context":{"text":"Bahamas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/bahamas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Gray Partridge running through a field in Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/gray-partridge-adult-mia-mcpherson-1335.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/gray-partridge-adult-mia-mcpherson-1335.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/gray-partridge-adult-mia-mcpherson-1335.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Heat Waves Suck","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Every single image I took yesterday was way softer than they would have been had it not been for those heat waves coming up the side of the pickup. To say I was disappointed is putting it lightly.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rough-legged Hawk on a snow-covered hill, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-on-mound-of-snow-mia-mcpherson-3087.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-on-mound-of-snow-mia-mcpherson-3087.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-on-mound-of-snow-mia-mcpherson-3087.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-on-mound-of-snow-mia-mcpherson-3087.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17756,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/12\/13\/rough-legged-hawk-on-a-gray-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":44836,"position":5},"title":"Rough-legged Hawk On A Gray Day","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The day in 2011 when I photographed this Rough-legged Hawk was gray but it didn't really bother me to capture this handsome bird in low light.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rough-legged Hawk on a gray day, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-flight-mia-mcpherson-6669.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-flight-mia-mcpherson-6669.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-flight-mia-mcpherson-6669.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rough-legged-hawk-flight-mia-mcpherson-6669.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}