What bird is this?

[WifeKidsandDog]

I went down to the dam to feed the ducks today and all of a sudden they started fussing and I looked up and saw this guy (girl) hovering way above. Anyone tell what it is?

[Steve Foss]

Nice capture of an osprey, Cheryl.

[WifeKidsandDog]

Thanks, Steve.

A question -- if the sky is very grey, to get a shot like this, what + EV should I set? I seem to overcompensate and set too much. I basically overexposed the shots of the osprey and did it last year with the eagles too.

I'd rather have the sky blown out and not underexpose the bird but I'm not getting it right. Do you think +1 EV would be enough?

Cheryl

[Steve Foss]

Chery, I rarely use exposure compensation. When I'm shooting a bird against a sky lighter than the bird, I set the camera to manual and begin by overexposing the image one stop. If I had spot metering capability, I wouldn't have to do that, but the 20D doesn't have it. If it's a fairly pale bird, like this osprey, one stop over will be plenty on a cloudy day. If it's a darker bird, you may have to go another stop or so. It's just easier for me to spin the dial on the back of the camera when it's in manual to change exposure than it is to adjust the exposure compensation.

Whichever you use, when it's a big bird of prey, most of which move fairly slowly, you generally can rip off a few frames, change the EV or spin the dial, take a few more, spin it again and take a few more yet before the bird is gone.

Eventually, you'll know just by looking at the bird and sky what level to overexpose. Also, unless you have top glass, chromatic aberration is much more common when overexposing a dark object against a pale background.

[WifeKidsandDog]

Thanks Steve

I normally shoot in AV or Manual mode -- I will remember +1 for light bird, and even more for dark.

Cheers

Cheryl

[Swimmer]

Nice photo. Being the rank amature that I am and not knowing what camera you shoot, I use the auto-exposture-bracketing feature on the 30d which shoots three quick shots. One with "normal" setting, one slightly overexposed, and one slightly underexposed. Usualy gets the correct exposure and sometimes the under or over exposure is the more "creative" shot. It is a step on the learning curve for me, since it is still difficult for me to manualy judge which shutter speed to go with my chosen f-stop and ISO.

And don't even talk about "spot metering" since I still can't figure it out in the manual...OK, do talk about it.

[WifeKidsandDog]

I have a 20D. The bracketing is a good idea, I forget about stuff like that. I don't know about spot metering -- except that the 20D doesn't have it, LOL.

How do you like the 30D?

[Steve Foss]

One of the updgraded features is that the 30D has spot metering.