Back lit subjects

snake · #1 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 08:57 PM

This little chap came and sat at the top of a bush next to me this afternoon.
He looked very dark against the sky and had the sun behind him.
I grabbed the camera and took a few shots then dialed in as much exposure compensation as I could and took a few more before he flew off.
The first shoys came out much to dark and the rest were to bright. None of them are much good.

Did I do it wrong or was there anything else I should have done?

Ollie · #2 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 09:38 PM

The second two don't look bad at all to me Snake.

You don't mention what metering mode you were using but I would probably have switched to spot metering, assuming your camera has this option it should then have metered for the bird if your focussing was spot on rather than the background.

Saying that though I have had mixed results with spot metering in cases like this, some have worked out ok some not. Can't see that there was much else you could have tried. Always a difficult shot to get under those circumstances and I think you did pretty good.

pressld2 · #3 (**permalink**) 08-10-2009, 10:10 PM

Yep, I agree with Roger. A difficult subject but your second two are very good - about as good as it was possible to get in the conditions. I would also go for spot metering if your camera has the option but you've done really well with the exposure compensation.

Dave P.

Geoff F · #4 (**permalink**) 10-10-2009, 07:35 PM

That's not far out. How much exposure compensation to use is always a bit hit or miss, even with spot metering, but you eventually get an eye for how much to use. And loss of background is normally unavoidable.

You could try adding a tiny bit of saturation to your photos, and possibly a careful tweak with Curves on the midtones; but don't overexpose the highlights or lighten the shadows. A shallow bow shaped curve might be worth a try.