Shooting into the sun

[Ollie]

Hi all.

As some of you may already know I have recently moved my feeding station in the front garden. It's been a great success and is attracting many more birds than previously.

However the problem is that in a morning the sun is directly shining straight on to the new station and the branches I have set up as perches for photographing the birds.

Can anyone give me advice on settings to use for shooting into the sun. I have shown a couple of examples from this morning and I aren't happy with the quality of these at all.





Both photos were the same camera settings, ISO 400, f7.1, -2/3rds of a stop exposure compensation. I did try a few at - one full stop exposure and a few at - one and a third stops but they were even worse.

Any hints or tips would be appreciated.
Thanks
Roger

[Interpreter]

They look fine to me.

Does your camera have an exposure bracketing facility or a 'back lit' mode?

[Ambriel]

For this kind of thing I usually set my camera for spot metering but other than that I'd echo what the other poster has said; bracket or backlit.

[Maccattack]

Probably wont like this suggestion but could use flash at -2 stops possibly with one of those light concentrator things ( ? better beamer) to get the punchy results you get with non back lit shots. Could try reducing degradation of the image from the stray light by shielding , tho not poss with a huge lens unless you have very long arms(have seen some effective heath robinson arrangements) . I wonder if iso 200 would be better ? How about having something shiney on the feeding station to reflect some light into the shadow areas?
Just some musings , I like backlit or side lit shots .

Malcolm Mac

[matt_xyz]

I also think those shots look about right Roger. I have a similar problem in my garden and I tend to use spot metering on the bird to get the exposure right. As Malcolm says above, the alternatives would be a reflector or some fill-in flash. I plan to experiment with both of these options this winter as the lighting in my garden is awful in winter.

Matt

[Ollie]

Thanks for the replies folks. I probably should have added that it's impossible for me to change position as I shoot from just inside my front door.

Never thought about changing the metering to spot or partial as Canon refer to it. I usually shoot using centre weighted average for birds so will give it a go

The camera does have an expopsure bracketing mode so will give that a go as well. Only got the on board camera flash and didn't know if it would reach that far to make any difference but it's another thing I could try.

Thanks for the help
Roger

[naturelover]

look good to me,very sharp and clear you dont need to do anything just keep snapping.

[stirling]

From an artistic point of view i like the back light,no good at photography though!.
Best from mike.

[RichBrew]

I'd set the camera to bracket only over the metered reading if you adopt this approach, as there's no point in under exposing if you can set up your camera in this way. I frequently shoot against the light, or contre jour as it's known. Rim lighting can be very effective with certain subjects, although tricky to expose for. I usually just add plus one to one and a half stops of exposure compensation under these conditions (a backlight button does the same thing). With experience, you will get to be able to judge how much you need, and compensate without thinking.

RichBrew