Beginner A Question for bird photographers

@Phil V Yes the lightbulb is on and I understand what you are saying about a correctly exposed subject being correctly exposed regardless of the background. However in my limited experience with bird photography my problem is finding the correct exposure in the first place, the first time I see the damn thing is usually when it flies across in front of me. I'm not naïve enough to believe anyone can give me a simple answer in a single sentence on web forum, so I guess the real answer is trial and error and practice, followed by more practice. But if anyone does have any simple “tricks of the trade” then they would be more than welcome.
If the light is fairly constant, then full manual is probably the easiest method to use... set it and forget it. If your subject is not present or in the light where you want to take the picture there are a couple of options. You can set the exposure off of something "neutral" like green grass; I prefer to set it off of something white, even a specular reflection if possible. Alternatively, if you are also in the same light you can set the exposure using incident metering... either a handheld meter or converting your camera's reflectance meter.
 
Spot metering off a bird in flight? Are you joking or trolling?
Actually, I've used it extensively. With Nikons the spot metering is centered around the active focus point... if you miss the exposure you probably also missed the focus. And Nikon spot metering is not nearly as small as it might seem... it's about 1/2 the area of CW metering (default). That said, I don't think it's necessarily any better.
 
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Having* been through the mil on this with most brands of camera here’s my p.o.v ,with canons e.t.r is the right way to do it ,however with the older Nikon’s e.t.l was the best way ,not sure about modern Nikon’s though .
Auto I.s.o on modern cameras is a godsend and in a lot of cases can do away with exp compensation , but coming back to the o.p’s post I don’t really think that either camera he has listed is any good for b.i.f . ,I manage with a pano g80 but it’s nowhere near as good as a DSLR
As usual kodiak ( captain chaos) has muddied the waters advocating his method of doing things with Nikon when the o.p is using a totally different mirrorless system .
 
Just recently I've been trying to get some BIF shots. So trying to keep the shutter speed up and the aperture at something to give a reasonable DoF I have the camera in manual and use auto iso to take care of the exposure, however when taking a shot against a light background i.e. sky, I need to over expose slightly to get the right exposure for the subject. Neither my EM5i or EM10ii will allow exposure comp in manual so how do I get the right exposre for the bird?


your best bet especially with this light at the moment is to use .a.v mode ,dial in about 2/3 of a stop positive exp comp and use multi point focus where possible ,both your cameras are a bit slow to focus so I would suggest playing around ,you dont state what lens your using but if for instance its a 300mm then I would suggest a minimum shutter speed of at least 1/800th sec ,for some reason m.f.t seem to need that higher shutter speed , I'm going to try my pl 100-400 on my new olympus om-10mk2 in the week so I'll let you know the results
 
use .a.v mode ,dial in about 2/3 of a stop positive exp comp

I though the issue the OP had was using bodies with no exposure compensation function, hence the earlier advice to shoot in manual?

GC
 
I though the issue the OP had was using bodies with no exposure compensation function, hence the earlier advice to shoot in manual?

GC
No, its that theres no way of setting exp comp when using M and auto iso. A function missing from many cameras.

When mfrs introduced auto iso, i think they believed it was just a crutch for beginners, without realising how great a feature itd be for experts too. Nikon already had a strange idea about exp comp, but it fit the bill. Other mfrs had to ‘design in’ a new exp comp function.

Of my 5 Canon bodies with auto ISO, only the M5 has the facility, but lacks the ability to set a min SS for auto iso (half arsed)
 
So trying to keep the shutter speed up and the aperture at something to give a reasonable DoF
No ones addressed the fact that it’s highly unlikely you need anything more than wide open for a BiF due to the shooting distance.
 
I though the issue the OP had was using bodies with no exposure compensation function, hence the earlier advice to shoot in manual?

GC
its the old old story on here ,people responding to a question with a answer with what they would do on THERE NIKON/CANON cameras ,the o.p has asked a question re- b.i.f on his OLYMPUS bodies my reply was to advise him on that ,I have just bought one of the bodies he owns and as I said if he shoots in a/v mode then exposure compensation is available on the front command dial on the om-d 10mk2 ,.
the o.p has probably been told by a canon idx user that he SHOULD be shooting b.i.f in manual mode ,when there no need . and if the o.p does reply after all the confusing b******t thats taken place it would help to know which lens he is using for further advise :beer:
 
No ones addressed the fact that it’s highly unlikely you need anything more than wide open for a BiF due to the shooting distance.
Something I'd not really thought about, but as I'm most likely using a pano 100-300 f4 - f5.6 on a M43 body I guess you're right.
its the old old story on here ,people responding to a question with a answer with what they would do on THERE NIKON/CANON cameras ,the o.p has asked a question re- b.i.f on his OLYMPUS bodies my reply was to advise him on that ,I have just bought one of the bodies he owns and as I said if he shoots in a/v mode then exposure compensation is available on the front command dial on the om-d 10mk2 ,.
the o.p has probably been told by a canon idx user that he SHOULD be shooting b.i.f in manual mode ,when there no need . and if the o.p does reply after all the confusing b******t thats taken place it would help to know which lens he is using for further advise :beer:

I have seen a number of website and youtube turorials advocating the use of manual, auto iso and exposure compensation, hence my original post.
To clarify I have 2 bodies an E-M10 mk2 and an E-M5 Mk1, I have 2 lenses which I can use, an Olympus 14-150mm f4-f5.6 and a Panosonic 100-300mm f4-f5.6.
 
The 100.300 is the one you want as you probably know that to much cropping induces noise with these small sensors . ,so use the bigger lens and use either shutter priority or aperture priority ,using auto iso will in most cases give you a to slow shutter speed on these cameras .
I have yet to try my m10 with the big lens 100-400 but I would advocate a iso of around 800 ,stop down one stop for a bit of sharpness , a shutter speed of at least 1/750th sec or higher and two thirds of a stop pos exp compensation ( which is why the higher iso is needed ) multi point focus . This should at least put you into the ball park ,
I,ll go feed the gulls in a bit and see what the m10 is like for b.i.f
 
here ya go ,had to spend a hour or so setting the camera up ,a quiet complicated process finding all the sub menus as you probably know ,but its a lovely little beast and well up there with my panasonic g80 , so yes it does b.i.f easily any advise re-settings etc your quiet welcome to p.m me on here to avoid confusing replies . and b.t.w I only bought this on Friday so there might be some other tricks its capable of

practise time again by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

jumping jack flash by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

ryanair by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr
 
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Just recently I've been trying to get some BIF shots. So trying to keep the shutter speed up and the aperture at something to give a reasonable DoF I have the camera in manual and use auto iso to take care of the exposure, however when taking a shot against a light background i.e. sky, I need to over expose slightly to get the right exposure for the subject. Neither my EM5i or EM10ii will allow exposure comp in manual so how do I get the right exposre for the bird?

Paul as I explained initially ,I only got my em10mk2 on Friday so I was a bit hazy with what it could actually do I demonstrated that it was o.k for b.i.f above ,on Monday I sat down and worked on the settings to what I thought would be right as a experienced birder .,yesterday I went for a wander on the estuary and to be honest I,m totally blown away by this pocket demon ,heres just a couple of the 300+ shots I took to demonstrate this camera is up there with the heavyweights ..keep at it you have the right gear .
20 shades of white by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

downbeat by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr
 
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@the black fox Which just goes to confirm my suspicion that in my case it's not the camera but the numpty driving it.:( :olympus:
 
@the black fox Which just goes to confirm my suspicion that in my case it's not the camera but the numpty driving it.:( :olympus:
The menu system on this is fairly logical ,you just got to tell it your requirements ,I have a feeling this will become my number one camera ,which I totally didn’t expect either
 
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