Metering for bird in flight

[bwest]

Lately I started being interested in taking photos of bird in flights.
I normally uses matrix when taking BIF flying horizontal in more or less eyelevel.
However, when the birds are overhead and background is a blue sky or overcast using matrix on a black bird does not give a good result.
So, here is the silly question - what is the best metering to use ?
I have tried spot and center, but with a reasonable fast bird it is rather difficult even with Group settings.
Thanks.

 

[dabhand16]

For anything on a lighter BG than the subject I ues exposure compenstion. You have to be aware that in aperture prioity this will slow the shutter speed though. If there are sunny conditions and you can keep it behind you it will light the subject and compensation is seldom needed I've found.

 

[EricBowles]

This is exactly why I use full Manual mode with a fixed ISO for birds in flight. If the light is not changing, but compositions and backgrounds may vary, just set your correct exposure manually and leave it. Sunny 16 is always the same exposure.

The easy alternative when light starts to change is to move to Auto ISO. Your aperture and shutter speed won't change, but Auto ISO will at least get you close as far as the exposure is concerned.

The other issue in your scenario is you are photographing the shadow side of the bird - the underside. That's a very different exposure than the same bird in full sun. It's very hard to switch back and forth between full sun and full shade - especially when the rest of the scene is a bright sky. This means the light on y our subject has changed, and you need either different settings in Manual mode, or to invoke a semi-automated mode like Auto ISO with plus exposure compensation of +2.3 stops or so. Because in Manual described mode above you can disregard the meter, you can set up Auto ISO with Exposure Comp for this scenario in advance. So when you switch from full Manual to Manual with Auto ISO, the exposure is already set correctly for a shadow.

These scenarios can be challenging. The trick is to have a plan for a full sun subject and an alternative. My Nikon cameras are designed for this approach. The ISO button is easily accessed near the shutter. If I need to invoke Auto ISO, I simply hold the ISO button and rotate the front control wheel one click. To return to fixed ISO, I simply repeat the process.

I find Center weighted metering does get me a little closer to the right exposure. Spot metering is too variable for a moving subject because if you miss the target slightly, it's a discard.

 

[bleirer]

The answers above are spot on. As to which metering mode to use, all metering modes are good if you know how they work and what they are trying to do. Matrix essentially tries to guess what kind of lighting situation you are in and adjusts accordingly. So to a degree it can recognize backlit scenes and sometimes does a good job of compensating. But if it gets it wrong you have to compensate. When the sky is bright the meter will want to darken it down to a middle value, but the bird will get darker too. So positive exposure compensation brings the bird back up. Problem is the sky will then possibly be so bright there is no detail in the sky. Either live with with it, at least you got the bird well exposed, or if you have time try something else with the idea of fixing it in your editor. You could try to put the brightest part that you care about right at the top of the histogram but not climbing the right wall. Test shots with your blinkies turned on can let you find that highest point. Then in your editor adjust to get the bird and the sky just right. Or you can take one shot of the bird correctly exposed and one of the sky correctly exposed and combine them in a composite. Or move to get a better background or some light falling on the camera side of the subject.

 

[DRwyoming]

As posted above, it's not primarily a question of the metering mode, it's a question of whether to run an automatic mode with appropriate exposure compensation or run full manual mode with manual ISO regardless of how you meter to determine best exposure.

FWIW, I'll almost always use one of these two approaches for BIF or other active wildlife:

- If the light is steady but backgrounds or even subjects are changing a lot( e.g. very bright and then very dark birds filling a lot of the frame) then I'd go with Eric's answer and fix the exposure by running full manual including manual ISO. I'll usually meter off of something like sunlit green grass or something else mid-toned in the same light as the subjet(s) to set the exposure and then just shoot with everything fixed. This works great unless the light is changing, for instance a day when clouds are coming and going in which case I'd have to repeat the metering every time there's a significant change in lighting. Whether to use Matrix, Center Weighted or Spot metering just depends on how accurately I can meter that mid-toned area in good light, if that metering area is small then Center Weighted or Spot Metering can be good ways to go but this only helps set the mid-toned exposure as the metering is ignored once exposure is fixed and I'm capturing images. Sometimes when there's no obvious mid-toned things to meter off of I'll Spot Meter of something like the white breast on a bird and then dial in a stop or more of positive exposure compensation to keep those white's white but again only for the purpose of fixing the overall exposure and then shoot full manual, manual ISO.

- If the light is changing a lot then I'll shoot Manual Mode/Auto ISO and use exposure compensation based on the overall scene and the tones of both the main subject (the birds in flight) and the background. But if either of those change substantially then I'll have to dial up or dial down the exposure compensation. I almost always use Matrix Metering when operating this way. Realistically this is how I tend to shoot most active wildlife including BIF but it does mean constantly looking at the scene and making an on the fly exposure comp decision but I'm often shooting in changing light conditions like near sunrise, near sunset and on patchy cloudy days.

Whichever method I use I'll check my histograms and blinkies from time to time to make sure I'm not blowing out highlights or excessively under exposing the image.

Lot's of ways to get this stuff done but there's no real magic to spot metering alone. It lets you meter off a very small portion of the image which can be helpful for instance when fixing the overall exposure in that first method above but spot metering in automatic exposure modes while actually tracking active subjects can be very difficult.

 

[Ralph]

All the above recommendations are great advice. Just keep in mind that each situation may dictate a different approach. When I plan on taking shots of birds in flight I always try to keep the sun behind me or at least to one side. I only shoot when light is in front of me if I can reasonably fill the frame with the subject. In many situations I usually use matrix metering with exposure compensation and autoISO. Again each situation is different. Bird color also comes into play.

 

[bwest]

Thank you all for very detailed information.
Luckily I am retired so have plenty of time to practice
Thanks again.

 

[EricBowles]

All the above recommendations are great advice. Just keep in mind that each situation may dictate a different approach. When I plan on taking shots of birds in flight I always try to keep the sun behind me or at least to one side. I only shoot when light is in front of me if I can reasonably fill the frame with the subject. In many situations I usually use matrix metering with exposure compensation and auto ISO. Again each situation is different. Bird color also comes into play.

Ralph makes a really good point. If your subject can be anywhere - 180 degrees above you across the sky, and 360 degrees around you - it's extremely difficult for you and your camera to always produce the right exposure. Even more, the subject is going to have uneven or excessive shadows that reduce image quality. I try to have a "shooting cone" of about 30 degrees and only as high as 50-60 degrees above the horizon - and only when the sun is at 60-70 degrees or lower. Birds in that area will all be well lit. Outside of that "cone", I may see birds and shoot for practice with timing, but I don't spend much time on them. It's different when your purpose is record shots or identification.

 

[Ken Miracle]

Pretty much what @EricBowles and @Ralph Bruno said ... I do a lot of shots for record or ID on BIF and sitting for that matter. I spend 90% of the time in center weighted metering and manual with auto ISO and deploy EV compensation as needed depending on where the sun is, bird color etc.. Auto ISO is usually quite good with my D500, D850 and had been with my D6 until the last two days of shooting ... these were just after a D6 firmware update so will have to contact Nikon on Monday and see if they are aware of an issue of a sudden jump in ISO to blow out of the whites and only way to fix it is pull the battery. Then all back to normal ... firmware update was partially to improve some erratic AF issues.

 

[SteveReid]

I love shooting Ospreys and Eagles fishing and on a sunny morning, it's really tough shooting one 50 feet above the water and follow it catching a fish and flying off so I started using the setting at the point of the catch that captures the sharpest image and just suffer sharpness at the point of the dive.