Severely Back lit Subject

[Neon Rosell II]

Here is a shooters nightmare, a gray bird on a cloudy sky but I was happy and except for the expected fringing, the result was not that bad.

Since we'll surely encounter this situation more often than not in the field, I'll just share how I was able to pull this off.

1. Shoot in manual mode. Which I almost always use now.

2. As soon as I saw the bird land. I searched for an area near the bird where the bright BG is not showing and aimed my camera to get a centered exposure reading. Just used the ISO and aperture values as is (pre adjusted to the general shooting conditions of the area). If the bird is still there when you get the first burst you can adjust these settings later and shoot some more, I know for a fact that this bird won't stay still. To get the exposure reading I just adjusted the shutter speed.

3. Aim back at the bird and just depressed the shutter release button.

4. Adjusted a little bit on the levels during PP to get the grays and blacks right.

White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike (Coracina papuensis)
40D + 300 mm f4 IS + 1.4x Sigma TC, f 5.6, 1/640 sec, Manual exposure, hand held, raw capture in available light.

[Lydia Robledo]

You really need to share this trick. Oftentimes we have a nice bird perch and we have this situation. Goody, goody.
Thanks for sharing, Tisoy. tely:D

[Ronnie Dominguez]

just a question-- Why not use spot metering with either Tv or Av modes and perhaps top it off with +1 to +2 compensation if needed? or even set a a wide f-stop or Tv range of bracketted exposure in your burst mode? or view with the depth field button to get a feel of the light levels not to mention the depth of field? This is some of what I used to set with my 20+ year old EOS camera.

just sharing this too-- for PS camera shooters out there-- normally the manual mode shows the actual light levels that will be captured, so the shifting of TV or AV is quite easy in that mode.

BTW, the picture is superb!

[Conrad Arellano]

Great photo Neon.

I also shoot in manual mode and spot metering most of the time. I find it easier and much quicker to get the correct exposure in this mode. The K10D (I'm sure canon/nikon has same function) has the Green button where in Manual mode, all you need is set the aperture and ISO value you want, aim to the area you want to take a reading, hit the green button and it will give you the equivalent shutter speed value for the correct exposure.

As long as the subject stays in the same spot (same lighting), I don't have to worry with exposure since it will always stay the same.

[Neon Rosell II]

May 22, 2009 13:58:35 GMT Ronnie Dominguez said:

just a question-- Why not use spot metering with either Tv or Av modes and perhaps top it off with +1 to +2 compensation if needed? or even set a a wide f-stop or Tv range of bracketted exposure in your burst mode? or view with the depth field button to get a feel of the light levels not to mention the depth of field? This is some of what I used to set with my 20+ year old EOS camera.

just sharing this too-- for PS camera shooters out there-- normally the manual mode shows the actual light levels that will be captured, so the shifting of TV or AV is quite easy in that mode.

BTW, the picture is superb!

Thanks Ron for sharing another way of getting this shot. Yes, I've tried your way and it works great!! Actually I'm using Tv mode right now and find it easier to get well exposed flight shots when you overexposed it to +1, if in sky BG.