Problems with grey sky and BIF.

I wonder if anyone can give me advice about shooting BIF against pale grey/flat sky.
I had a go yesterday at some flying mallard and my shots came out pretty poor, the sky is over exposed and the ducks are dark, as you would expect.
Im new to shooting a 5d3 and learning as im going along.
Is there a setting which would be better to use in situations like that. Afterwards i thought that altering the white balance from AWB to cloudy might have been better ?
Any pointers in the right direction will help thanks.

Altering WB settings won't affect the exposure, so you may as well stay in AWB.

You say "the sky is over exposed and the ducks are dark, as you would expect". Well, if you are expecting that, surely you know that you need to increase exposure to correctly expose the duck ? Just dial in some +ve EC, or use manual mode, to set a suitable exposure. The sky will look crap, but that is always the problem with shooting against flat, pale grey sky.

The best pointer I can give is to pick your time better. Overcast skies are great for some shooting, but not when the sky is the background to a bird. Photography is all about light, you need to shoot when conditions are optimal if you want great results. The mallard will look much better against a blue sky, and positioning yourself so that the sun lights the bird nicely will give better results.

Thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately, its only once a fortnight i get the chance to get out and practice this type of shot so i have to give it a try regardless of conditions.
I did think about increasing exposure, but the sky was bad enough as it was, so thought its best left alone.
I will take your advice next time i get the chance to get out and have a practice, cheers.

Expose for the bird and forget about the sky, as it's gonna be blown out anyway. You can crop in on the bird in post to make the white canvas of sky less dominant. Of course, this also depends on what lens you're using: if your longest focal length renders the bird as 2% of the frame, then forget about cropping: you'll get a thumbnail.

The bottom line is you can't get a perfect picture with less than perfect light.
So the only option is blow the sky out and try to get the bird exposed well, which will mean manual exposure settings
Even if you get it right, with bad light, you still don;t get great photos.

That said, you are right, shoot shoot shoot in any condition!
This is how you learn everything, including how to deal with bad light.

One possible option depending on distances is to try and use fill flash. It's not easy to employ for birding, but it can be done and it can help a lot.
Plus, you'll then be learning about fill and FEC etc..

And you can blue up the sky a little in Photoshop

Spot meter on the bird

john crossley wrote in post #17182408
Spot meter on the bird

Nothing wrong with this suggestion, but you will need to understand spot metering and use it as a starting point for judging exposure that you set yourself, rather than simply use it in auto mode with Av, Tv etc. It works well if you are in a situation where you can take a reading from a suitable mid tone and lock that in manually.

Spot metering will suggest far too much exposure when shooting black / dark birds and far too little when shooting white / light birds. Shooting a white swan against a grey sky would quite likely result in the bird being MORE underexposed using spot metering, than using evaluative, because the meter is seeing more white and less grey.

If not choosing an exposure manually, you will need to set appropriate +ve or -ve EC according to the bird. This can be tricky to do in time if set to record a light coloured bird and a black one suddenly flies into view. Using Ev metering, which will take much more sky into account, you can set maybe +1 or +1 1/2 stops to increase exposure and be more in the ballpark for whatever flies past.

Keep in mind that the exposure needed will also be likely to vary depending on whether you are seeing mainly the top or underside of the bird, and that can change in a moment if it suddenly banks the other way.

There are lots of ways to try, the best is to not shoot with those conditions. Kinda coldhearted but true...

Oldjackssparrows wrote in post #17182664
There are lots of ways to try, the best is to not shoot with those conditions. Kinda coldhearted but true...

Actually, if the OP is just starting, these conditions are the best to be shooting in, as there's no sun or brightest patches of sky that will require him to quickly change settings on the fly. Since the sky is uniform in its brightness, he can do just as Sandpiper suggested: use spot meter to take a reading off a mid tone, say a bright red wall or car, then lock that exposure in manually and focus only on aiming the camera at the bird and tracking its movement: no more tampering with the exposure.

It's blue skies and sunny conditions that can be more challenging.

If it is a bright enough day, I will shoot at a low ISO of 100-200 and then underexpose the bird by 1 stop. Most of the time, this will give me enough to bring the sky back, as well as push the bird up. I've found that sensors are quite good at pushing shadows when shot at low ISO's.

If it was a fairly dark day, shooting at ISO 100-200 isn't going to give me the shutter speeds that I need, so this option will be thrown out. I prefer to do it with the lower ISO's because when you push the bird, you don't introduce nearly the same amount of noise that you would at ISO's of 400+.