Confusing for me, any help?

[kcirtap]

Hi everyone. I was wondering if I could get some help. In a photo like this, I want the bird to be exposed properly since it's the main subject. However, I do not want the background to be blown out. In times of bright sunlight, and with the subject moving away so quickly, how would I go about doing this? I've read the books "understanding exposure", "dslr photography for idiots" and "outdoor photography" but some it the exposure stuff is still a little confusing at times like this. If it helps any, the camera is a nikon d80 with the kit lens [18-135mm, 1:3.5-5.6G] Thank you for any help I may recieve! (and hopefully I got the image up here correctly!)


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[artoledo]

Hi everyone. I was wondering if I could get some help. In a photo like this, I want the bird to be exposed properly since it's the main subject. However, I do not want the background to be blown out. In times of bright sunlight, and with the subject moving away so quickly, how would I go about doing this? I've read the books "understanding exposure", "dslr photography for idiots" and "outdoor photography" but some it the exposure stuff is still a little confusing at times like this. If it helps any, the camera is a nikon d80 with the kit lens [18-135mm, 1:3.5-5.6G] Thank you for any help I may recieve! (and hopefully I got the image up here correctly!)


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The picture is a little blurry. I would say bump up your shutter speed a bit and see what results you get with that. Then work your way up from there adjusting your settings... (iso, F-stop, etc...). Also, make sure you when you shoot your subjects you dont have a distracting shadow in the picture.

 

[KmH]

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The dove is in the deep shadow and your camera metered and exposed for the bright sunlit grass that comprises the vast majority of the scene.

Had you tripped the shutter just 1 second later the dove would have been in the sunlight.
The only way to have gotten the dove exposed properly would have been to spot meter the shadow. But then, the rest of the scene would have been way overexposed and blown out.

 

[EhJsNe]

Well you have a problem.

If you expose properly for the bird, you might blow out the background, try shooting in RAW, you can fix overexposed pictures to an extant, or you can expose for the backround and lighten the exposure on the bird.

 

[LarryD]

You're asking the camera to do an awful lot in a scene like that...

Generally, if you want the subject in the shadow to be properly exposed, you need to spot meter on the shadow, lock it, then recompose and take your shot..

However, you have so much light area here compared to the shadow, you will lose light detail..

If your subject is in shadow, then zoom in, or recompose so there is more shadow in the frame and limit the amount of meter confusing brights.. If you want the brights exposed, then do the reverse..