Sandhill Crane Head Shot In-Flight at Sunrise

Nikon D1h, 500mm f/4 AF-S, Matrix Metering, 1/750sec, f/8, -0.7EV, ISO 200, Gitzo 410, Wimberly Sidekick, RAW Format

I discovered your entire digital workflow is critical to making awesome digital images. You can't only depend on the camera to make it happen. In this case, I had routinely compensated for the Sandhill Crane's white cheeks by applying a -0.3 EV compensation. This would work for film. For some reason, I tended to blow out the highlights using this setting when making the rest of the image look right. My solution now for any compenstion that's required because of white patch is adding another -0.3 EV. That way, I have more white information because its not over exposed and I can use the million tools in Photoshop to make the image look right. In this case, I've adopted a procedure many film imagers use--expose for highlights, develope for shadows. I essentially do this in my digital darkroom