Metering dark birds against bright sky/background

B

Blacktop

Senior Member
Went out and did some shots with exposure comp set to +2 on the dark birds and +1 on the lighter ones. They are coming out a little better. Larger birds like geese and pgeons are not a problem, but those tiny black ones are crazy hard.
I'll post some in the BIF section soon.

I also made settings for U1 and U2. Auto ISO 100-1100. Shutter speed Auto with a +2 Matrix metering and a +1 and a +2 exposure compensation respectively
 
Woodyg3

Woodyg3

Senior Member
Contributor
It's very hard to get detail in any black animal, you need hard light at the correct angle to really get it right. The only solution I have found for BIF is exposure compensation and careful post processing. The adjustment brushes in Lightroom have been very handy tool at times, and have made several shots work that I thought were lost.

That said, I've tossed a LOT of cormorant pictures that I simply couldn't save. Those black feathers just suck up the photons and never let them go! :)
 
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