Exposing for bird photography

Clickr

Senior Member
I see birds many times are captured flying in sky. Since the sky will be brighter than the subject, is it always the photographer will expose for the sky and only later in postprocessing, he would brighten up the subject (bird) or any other tips to expose for the subject. I am just curious to know..
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
When a bird is in the sky, I usually start at +0.7 but at times have gone up over +1.0. If it is really overcast, I might start at +0.3. What metering mode do you usually use? Either spot metering or center-weighted metering will help with more consistent results. If you are using matrix metering and have some tree tops along the edges of your frame, the meter will factor those into the equation.
 

Clickr

Senior Member
I always use Spot Metering. In this scenario, I expose for the sky, make sure it does not get clipped and then just bring up the subject's shadows in post. Just wanted to know the expert's views..
 

JoeIskor

Banned
A good and professional photographer always edits the photo he had shouted. Your pic can be perfect but it anyway will need editing and correcting the light or something else. I am a wedding photographer and my brother is a nature photographer. He knows a lot about taking pics of animals and he had taught me about some things too. He always says to me that I need to be patient when I take photos of animals and especially birds. And I always edit my pics with this software ... So, at a wedding when I take a photo of a bride and groom and white pigeons, I choose carefully the background of the photo. And in the end, I edit pics.
 
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