9 replies to this topic

[smo4142]

I need some advice on how to set the exposures in partly cloudy conditions, under a tree. I missed some great photo opportunities with some yellow-rumped warblers who oblivious to me standing next to them this morning because I had my camera's exposures set for more sunny conditions (manual) and as soon as I started to take the pictures a huge cloud blew over and there went my sunny conditions. Needless to say my pictures came out dark. I was so upset. I had may camera set f/8, 250 shutter, and ISO 400.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to compensate for changing lighting conditions..especially in the shade?

Any ideas would be most appreciative. I have a Nikon D40, with a 300 mm manual zoom lens. 

[Photgog]

There was a very good thread here

http://www.whatbird.com/Forums/forums/thread/196754.aspx

There is good discussion about settings.

For me I use Aperture priority with ISO at 400 and manual setting of F-8.   This lets your shutter speed vary with lighting conditions.  If the little bugger goes into the shade (often) then manually shift your camera to max aperture for your captures.

 This lets your shutter speed increase as your lighting improves... which improves your chances of a better shot.  If the lightisg is generally good then lower the ISO setting.

Study Study Study... practice practice practice ... Take lots of exposures (Digital film is cheap and reusable) 

In low light conditions it helps a bunch to have a tripod ar at least a monopod.   All things help a bit.   There is no 'Golden Setting' but these things improve your chances.

Fraser

[lonestranger]

Changing lighting situations would be hard to deal with when shooting totally in manual mode. If you set the exposure for bright conditions, you need to reset it for cloudy situations, but only practice and experience will give you the right settings for those situations. In this particular case, you needed to let more light into the camera for a brighter picture and that could have been done a number of ways. You could have increased your ISO and made the sensor more sensitive to the light which would have given you a brighten image at the cost of increasing noise to the picture, not the best option considering your alternatives. Another option to increase the light in this situation would be to use a slower shutter speed to allow more time for the light to reach the sensor. Slower shutter speeds run the risk of introducing motion blur so that's not the best option either. Another way to let more light into the camera for brighter pictures is by opening the aperture, which would be my first choice for a brighter picture in this particular case. By opening your aperture from F8 to F7.1 or F6.3, you would be letting in more light and producing brighter pictures.

I have to admit that I don't really know how a manual lens works. I always assumed that a manual lens needed to be focused manually and have the aperture physically adjusted, but does a manual lens let the camera do any metering for you? Does the camera still indicate where the exposure should be before you take the pictures? Is there a sliding scale in the bottom of the viewfinder that moves from one side to the other when you look up at a bright sky and then down to a dark shadowed area? If the camera does meter the shot, try setting your exposure so the metering is more to the right of center which will give you brighter pictures in those situations. Another option if the camera does do the metering, is like Fraser suggested and that is to put the camera on aperture or shutter priority, set your metering mode to centerweighted and let the camera set the exposure with you making fine adjustments with the exposure compensation button. If the camera doesn't do any metering, well that would make things a little tougher on you and experience will probably be your best teacher. There is a formula used for calculating the right exposure without the aid of any light metering devices called the "Sunny 16 rule" which might be helpful to check out on google, but having your camera help with the light metering would be the easiest solution if that's even possible with a manual lens.

As for the picture you posted, don't be so disappointed with the results. Post processing can easily brighten this image. Most any photo processing software should allow brightening in one way or another. I use Picasa's free software most of the time because it's simple and user friendly but any photo editing software should allow for simple lightening or darkening. I used Picasa here to add some fill light to your picture just by moving a slider to the halfway point, probably a little too much lightening but I wanted to show what can be done with some minor adjustments in post production.

 

 

[lonestranger]

Just for fun I ran your photo through Picasa's one click "I'm Feeling Lucky" option to see what it would look like. Here's the results after the automated adjustments.

 

[smo4142]

thank you so much photogog and lonestranger for your very helpful advice. I need to work more with aperture or shutter priority. I find myself using manual mode most of the time, which doesn't work well with changing light conditions and a manual focus lens.

 Thanks for the photoshop lonestranger.

Happy Birding!

Linda

[thekiwi]

if you encounter dark lighting conditions you use your flash as fill light the flash will not scare the birds flash is often used to photograph humming birds in flight to get stop motion of the wings. So try using fill light with the flash if you have lens hood remove it first before using the flash.

[canon eos]

I have been shooting for over three decades (of course, more recently in digital, and now birds) and I would rarely suggest using Manual mode now. Today's cameras (and your D40?) have wonderfully smart 'brains', almost always outdoing ours as far as exposure is considered. The suggestions above re aperture priority are what would most often be suggested. If you are using a manually-focusing lens having the camera in 'M' is adding to the complexity, especially in challenging lighting conditions. The suggestion to try/use fill flash is valid, and the D40 handles that very well.

But, there are also times when there just plain is not enough good light to get the image we want!

I'm not sure if this might help, but Ken Rockwell has some good real-life input on your D40.              >http://www.kenrockwe.../nikon/d40.htm<

 

 

 

[issa]

hi, i am not a professional but always shoot in manual except when shooting birds.  for birds i shoot in A mode for exposure.  i set my camera and lens on manual and set the focus myself.  i can't walk around outside so my shots are through the window on a tripod which sometimes makes it darker.  

i use the setting f6.3, change the iso depending on dark, cloudy, sunny, etc, and also adjust the white balance to warm it up or cool it some. if need be i will change app. to 5.6 as suggested above.

also, post processing is fairly easy too.  i use photoshop elements.  the above edited ones look nice.  

good luck!

issa 

 

[JimUSNY]

My advice would be use aperture priority, using the widest f stop you can get decently sharp images with, if your camera has auto ISO, that may be better than just setting at a set spot for changing conditions, you would be ready for birds in light if you have to quickly without changing things, use spot metering and meter on the the bird, so its not metereing on bright spots coming through the branches and underexposing, if you don't want iso to be selected too high there should be a limit in the menu to set it for in auto, like 800 or what ever.. check your manual

[JimB]

Keep in mind also that the camera's meter can be fooled regardless if you're using manual or auto modes. In this instance the background is fairly bright which would result in an underexposed image and would require some exposure compensation. How much depends on how bright the background is and how bright or dark the subject is, that's where photography comes in to play and not just pointing the camera and relying on it to make all the decisions. Much can be done to "fix" an image in post processing but it's always best to get it right in the camera.