Difficult avian subjects to photograph...

[Blackburnian]

Back to this black bird issue. I shot this bobolink using evaluate metering and I think it turned out ok. But don't always get the desired results. I'm able to use the partial metering along with the zone system techniques to properly expose landscapes and other scenes that give you the time to prepare. But bird photography doesn't let me the time so I usualy use evaluate metering with aperture or shutter priority as opposed to manual mode.

Another difficult avian subject are the fast moving warblers to are so beautiful but usualy pose the most chalenges. This palm warbler was shot in early morning light.

Q. What are your preferred methods for exposure when it comes to bird photograqphy?

Marc

[cfcRebel]

Nice captures!
70% of the time use Evaluative metering when shooting birds. 30% Partial metering when my subject allows me to do that. Fast fingers man, fast fingers.... :)

[Scottes]

I always use Evaluative, and try to compensate for the size of the bird in the viewfinder, the color of the bird, and the comparative brightness between the bird and the background.

This may seem like a lot, but it's really not so difficult. If the bird is small in the viewfinder it will almost be ignored by the exposure meter. Conversely, if it's quite large the background will almost be ignored. Black bird on a bright background? Crank up the EC to expose for the bird.

I also simplify things a bit: It's almost guaranteed that the exposure will never be exactly what the meter says, so I ignore that. Thus I think in 4 "strengths" of EC - plus a little, plus a lot, and the opposites of minus a little, minus a lot. Rarely do I seem to need "plus/minus a whole lot" so they're pretty much ignored, too.

It takes a bit of experience but it didn't take me too long to get used to it. Usually it's the extremes that throw you, like egrets or black birds. In these cases I don't even shoot them unless the sun and background are right. Egrets under a bright sun at mid-day? I won't even aim at them. Black birds on a cloudy day? Same thing. Why kill yourself by never get such exposures correct because they're often impossible to get correct?

Also, I shoot RAW. If I shot slide film I would have given up photography a long time ago. My methods often seem to me like "cheating" but there's more to bird photography than the exposure, and I rarely need much more than a little tweaking in C1 or PS, so I tell myself that I not cheating much... :-)

[larlen]

If I'm in a hurry I just use Sports mode ?