I photographed this young panda in China, and it was quite a challenge. First, trying to retain detail in both the highlights and very dark shadows in a single shot seemed almost impossible. Second, the snowfall was quite dense, and most of the snowflakes between my shooting position and the panda were out of focus. I felt they interfered with and somewhat obscured the panda. Third, the exposure was hard to assess because much of the center of the frame was taken up by the animal's dark fur, and I was concerned this would overexpose the image. I kept checking the LCD screen on the back of the camera, trying to keep the exposure within an acceptable range. In post-processing, I lightened the shadows so detail in the dark fur wasn't completely lost while, at the same time, working to retain details in the white fur and the snow. My settings were 1/320, f/4.5, and 1000 ISO.
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