Metering for wildlife

So.... I did search on this forum already, and all the topics i found seemed to explain certain steps to carry out to try and get the correct exposure...however, for wildlife photography one does not really have the time to keep checking the histogram etc and then taking another shot...cos by that time..the shot has probably gone!

My question is, what is the best metering mode to keep on while shooting wildlife and birds?

does it depend on the size of the animal being photographed (e.g. spot metering for a small bird and evaluative metering for an elephant?)

I hope I am on the right track, but basically my problem is that when shooting in harsh light I seem to get very strong overexposed areas, which kind of ruins the shot sometimes. I am shooting in raw but still cant seem to recover these blown bits...

Hope to get some great advice from you guys!

asavani wrote in post #8833790
...for wildlife photography one does not really have the time to keep checking the histogram etc and then taking another shot...cos by that time..the shot has probably gone!

How true! It cracks me up when I read similar advice geared toward wild subjects. There really is no time to make adjustments, usually.

asavani wrote in post #8833790
does it depend on the size of the animal being photographed (e.g. spot metering for a small bird and evaluative metering for an elephant?)

Yes, size and shade of the subject matter, as does the amount of the frame that the subject will fill. If you're shooting dark subjects like Moose or Black Bears you may find your preset metering tends to overexpose because it's reading off the subject and not taking the rest of the frame into consideration.

asavani wrote in post #8833790
I hope I am on the right track, but basically my problem is that when shooting in harsh light I seem to get very strong overexposed areas, which kind of ruins the shot sometimes. I am shooting in raw but still cant seem to recover these blown bits...

If you're shooting in harsh light, you're probably not going to get incredible images, no matter what your settings are set at. Harsh light is nasty, period.

First post for me, so hi'up to all,in answer to your question, I have been getting better images with small birds useing the "partial metering",ISO set @400,f8/f11.
I use a 40d,with 150x500 lens.
I only started this hobby 3 months ago, and it very hard,but very rewarding,so I am only a beginner,but these camera settings were given to me to try by a guy who has been doing it for ever,don't know about RAW,as I have'nt used that as yet..

Spot metering for me 99% of the time, shooting in manual mode using this technique...
determine SS needed/wanted, do you want to freeze everything or blur the moving feet or wingtips>
then f/stop, what DOF is needed/desired, long glass will give a nice brokah using wide open f/stop>
use ISO to control exposure, chasing the needle, while chimping to check histogram and blinkies.

An over/under exposed background generally doesn't concern me...the subject does.

In unchanging light - manual exposure is preferable. If you can't rely on the light then I use AV with evaluative metering on the 7D and 50D. With the 40D I don't reckon evaluative is so good, so I tend to use partial or spot.

Tom Reichner wrote in post #8835794
How true! It cracks me up when I read similar advice geared toward wild subjects. There really is no time to make adjustments, usually.

Yes, size and shade of the subject matter, as does the amount of the frame that the subject will fill. If you're shooting dark subjects like Moose or Black Bears you may find your preset metering tends to overexpose because it's reading off the subject and not taking the rest of the frame into consideration.


If you're shooting in harsh light, you're probably not going to get incredible images, no matter what your settings are set at. Harsh light is nasty, period.

so would you then suggest using evaluative metering for dark or light coloured animals?

sparkyboy wrote in post #8835984
First post for me, so hi'up to all,in answer to your question, I have been getting better images with small birds useing the "partial metering",ISO set @400,f8/f11.
I use a 40d,with 150x500 lens.
I only started this hobby 3 months ago, and it very hard,but very rewarding,so I am only a beginner,but these camera settings were given to me to try by a guy who has been doing it for ever,don't know about RAW,as I have'nt used that as yet..

yeah same here... i started off using spot metering but partial seemed to give me better pictures! however it sucks that the 450d starts getting noisy at iso 400, so i try stay below that...

I use partial 90% of the time, spot the rest. Evaluative maybe okay for a wider enviornmental type image I suppose, but I rarely will shoot that type of image nor do I shoot to "crop" into an image. Others may so the techniques would vary as well.

I want to expose the subject properly, I really don't care what happens to the edges of the frame, in most cases it works out just fine.

However if you aren't getting the subject to fill 50% or more of the frame or have the subject large enough to cover the area of the metering than the above may not work as well. Metering like aperture, ISO or shutter speed can be just as situationally dependent as those other variables.