Quick Question

M

Marik

Guest
Hi, when taking photos of birds, which are directly infront of the sky, I often get really overexposed images, and You can't actully the bird. Any tips on how to overcome this? I presume the most obvious is exposure compensation.

thanks Dan
 
what camera do you use?
 
Actually I think the problem is that you are underexposing (the bird) but yes exposure compensation would be the thing. You need to over expose the shot to bring out the bird, that will of course burn out the sky but you can't have everything.

Alternatively you could try flash if the bird is close enough for it to be effective.
 
What metering are you using ? Spot metering, rather than weighted, on the bird itself should produce better results ...
 
I have a 350d I'm using evaluative, I presume i should use partial?
 
Partial is better but its not spot metering. If I was trying to shoot a bird in flight against the sky with my 20D (no spot metering either) I'd shoot RAW and try some test shots at one and two stops over exposed using the exposure compensation and look at the results.
 
Robert is right, the Partial or Centre Weighted metering areas would probably still be too large for your bird shots, and would still be over-influenced by the sky, resulting in your bird being under-exposed (dark). Spot metering is a boon in those situations, but not all cameras have it.

An old trick you could try is to extend your left hand out towards the sky as far as you can and take a reading from that, using it for your bird shots. Together with shooting RAW, which has the most exposure latitude, that should give you the best chance of reasonably well exposed shots.
 
Duh! Just remembered I encountered this precise problem photographing Red Kites in Wales recently. Despite the size of these huge birds, the small size of the spot metering area, and the fast and erratic flight patterns of the birds meant there was no hope of following the birds in the viewfinder and keeping the spot metering area on the birds - it was difficult to fill the frame too, even with the 100-400L.

The best shots were taken using partial (centre) metering, and giving extra exposure of about 1.5 stops IIRC.

Missing+feathers.jpg


You can see how grey and lifeless that sky is. Two full stops extra exposure wouldn't have been too much, but on a really bright sunny day you could well need to give even more.
 
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