Advice please 2

[Acipiter]

What would be the best settings I could use, to take a picture of a bird sitting against a bright sky, while I am still inside a wood with poor light. This is what happened to me this morning. All I got was a very dark bird with no visible feature's. Thanks ...Alan.

[Lancashire Lad]

Because you are effectively shooting a dark subject against a light background, you will need to manually override your camera's auto exposure settings to force the camera to over expose the frame.

Just how much you will need to over expose, will be dependent upon just how bright the background, how dark the bird/branches etc. are, and how much of the frame the bird/branches occupy relative to the background.

I'd suggest trying +2 stops initially and checking what sort of result you get then its a case of tweaking things + or - as necessary.

The choice of metering might also be having an effect on your results.
You might get possibly get a better hit rate with spot metering - if the bird is large enough in the frame to meter solely from the bird itself.

Regards,
Mike.

[Acipiter]

That' great Mike, I will let you know how I get on. Alan.

[Bruce Williams]

If the subject is fairly static and your camera supports exposure bracketing it might be worthwhile giving it a try.

If your camera only supports 3 shots then one will be "normal", the second shot will under-expose by the (user set) exposure increment and the third shot will over-expose by the same increment. Try setting exposure increment to 2 stops as Mike suggested.

If your camera offers 5 shots then the first will be "normal", the next under-exposed by the exposure increment, the third under-exposed by twice the exposure increment and ditto for the two over exposed shots. In this instance you might try setting the exposure increment to 1 stop and go from there.

The advantage of this approach (particularly if the camera is on tripod) is that you can try merging the shots HDR fashion to avoid extreme over and under exposure.

Bruce

[Acipiter]

Hi I am back, I tried the exposure + 2 and everything in between, it was better but not that good. I guess I may have come to the limits with this camera, unless there is something else I could try. Maybe a slower speed? if so what mode or speed would you suggest.

Ps. I had a close one with a very angry deer stag this morning, so I am lucky to be back at all. ..............Alan.

[Lancashire Lad]

When you say it was better but not that good - was the bird still too dark?

If so, you need to overexpose by more than 2 stops to get it lighter and bring out the detail.

If the bird was now properly exposed, but without detail, then it could be very slight camera movement during exposure or slightly off target focussing etc. etc. - Or, as you say, you might just be trying to stretch what the camera will do beyond its limits.

A slower speed wouldn't alter the result unless you were on full manual. (otherwise the aperture would compensate to give the same overal exposure). Plus, slower speed would be more likely to show camera or subject movement during exposure.

It would be useful if we could see a photo that you've taken under these conditions - to try to gauge what might be the problem.

Regards,
Mike.

[Acipiter]

Hi mike, when I say +2 I meant exposure wide open, I used a mono pod Mike, as I never get the time to set up a tripod in the way I work. So you well could be right. I think I may well have to settle for what I have. I think I may have caught the equipment bug. I feel a upgrade may be on the cards, thats if my bank balence can stand it. The trouble is where do you stop.


Regards Alan.

[Hobjob]

Originally Posted by Acipiter

Ps. I had a close one with a very angry deer stag this morning, so I am lucky to be back at all. ..............Alan.

Rut not far off - perhaps his hormone levels are rising a bit and he sees you as a threat!

As for your photographic problem; even the most expensive camera will not give perfect results in these circumstances.

Another solution when distance allows, is to use fill-in flash. Faces in bright sunshine often benefit from this.


My daughter got told to stop using flash when doing wedding photographs in her early days in South Africa - She now explains why she [b]will[b] use flash in her initial meeting, and why she often prefers to use out of sun diffuse light shots which down there means using Southern Light, not Northern as in UK.

[Acipiter]

As for your photographic problem; even the most expensive camera will not give perfect results in these circumstances.[/quote]

I am glad you said that Hodjob, that's means the bank balance is safe. Flash would be no good, I am always too far away for that. Besides I like to keep my disturbance to a minimum. Thanks anyway.