Taking shots against cloudy sky (2 Viewers)

Okay....been reading up on all and since the NW of America if almost always cloudy about now, I have plenty of chances to experiment with photos and settings. I have found that when a bird is against a cloudy backdrop such as in flight or perched the following settings work well.

5.6 aperture...... 1600 ISO (although might be able to go down depending on cloud and light shining through but not today), Exposure of + 2 or + 1 2/3. This gives me a shutter between 1/500 and 1/640 today. Now these are not images to place in a scrap book but perfect for identification purposes if I need it.

For birds on a cloudy day and not having the clouds as a backdrop...what are good settings? usually these birds are in somewhat shadowy areas, in bushes or near etc... I haven't quite figured out settings for that...Ideas?

Generally speaking when photographing birds which do not fill the frame you can get a more accurate exposure reading by using spot metering if your camera supports it (or partial metering). However, since the meter will try to expose for a mid grey colour you will need to adjust differently for light or dark birds.

There is a good guide to this on Mike Atkinsons site.

lmans66 said:

Okay....been reading up on all and since the NW of America if almost always cloudy about now, I have plenty of chances to experiment with photos and settings. I have found that when a bird is against a cloudy backdrop such as in flight or perched the following settings work well.

5.6 aperture...... 1600 ISO (although might be able to go down depending on cloud and light shining through but not today), Exposure of + 2 or + 1 2/3. This gives me a shutter between 1/500 and 1/640 today. Now these are not images to place in a scrap book but perfect for identification purposes if I need it.

For birds on a cloudy day and not having the clouds as a backdrop...what are good settings? usually these birds are in somewhat shadowy areas, in bushes or near etc... I haven't quite figured out settings for that...Ideas?

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You cannot generalise like this. For a start you have not said what metering mode you are using!
Exposing for the bird depends on how much the bird is in the frame e.g if the bird fills 1/2 of the frame you will get a different exposure then if the bird only fills say 1/4 of the frame so the amount of exposure compensation needed would vary (spot metering could help this as Ian has said)
Also the colour of the bird makes a difference as to the amount of compensation needed. For a dark bird you need to overexpose more than for a light coloured bird, especially if it is small in the frame.
I personally use manual metering, taking a reading off something that is about 18% grey to give me the ambient light. With this method anything that is around 18% in tone will be exposed correctly if it is in the ambient light, regardless of how big it is in the frame. You will still need to overexpose for darker birds and underexpose for lighter birds but in manual mode this is very easy to do.

Roy...good points...and yes there is no sure fire formula. You are correct on the type (color or white or black) of the bird. I have been experimenting with this as of late since all we have are cloudy days it seems....still, nothing I would consider a 'keeper'...if the bird can be found in sunny weather, I'll take that. I consider cloudy weather photography for ID purposes only. Do you get any you take in cloudy weather you consider worth keeping for your best photo's?

lmans66 said:

Do you get any you take in cloudy weather you consider worth keeping for your best photo's?

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Imans,providing it is not mega cloudy then you can get better colour saturation and detail than on a sunny day IMO. Shooting in bright sun light around midday is horrible.

For birds in flight (or perched birds against a bright/sky background) metering is the single most important factor which is why I like to use manual mode.

If you have a dark bird that is small in the frame against a bright sky then manual mode is the only way to expose correctly as dialing in +2 exposure comp could still not be enough.

lmans66 said:

I have been experimenting with this as of late since all we have are cloudy days it seems....still, nothing I would consider a 'keeper'...if the bird can be found in sunny weather, I'll take that. I consider cloudy weather photography for ID purposes only. Do you get any you take in cloudy weather you consider worth keeping for your best photo's?

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Cloudy skies are a big softbox, so it's actually easier than bright sunshine to get keepers, sometimes.

These were all taken in cloudy/rainy conditions, and I consider them keepers:

super!

Very impressive shots.....can I ask on the first two your settings? I am impressed!

avwh said:

Cloudy skies are a big softbox, so it's actually easier than bright sunshine to get keepers, sometimes.

These were all taken in cloudy/rainy conditions, and I consider them keepers:

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lmans66 said:

Very impressive shots.....can I ask on the first two your settings? I am impressed!

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Both were taken AV priority, spot metering (which are my default bird photo settings).

Thrush: 500mm + 1.4x lens, f/4.5, 1/160 @ ISO 1250, monopod

Cedar waxwing: 300mm + 1.4x lens, f/7.1, 1/200 @ ISO 1000, handheld

So you can see these were in pretty poor light conditions, since even at very high ISOs, the shutter speeds were marginal at best, and were really too slow for the length lens I was using - I was lucky I got such image quality. But, I've gotten pretty good at staying still while handholding the 300, and my technique is still improving with the 500 and the monopod.

Right, the speeds were slow but you still had excellent focus.... I know I shoot without a mono-pod with 400 zoom and can get pretty still but you have done wonderfully. I will go out tomorrow (I am sure it will be a cloudy day) and play a bit with all. I do recognize that in cloudy days shots from afar are just not going to cut it. I need to sit down and just wait in the cold for a bird to come fairly close to me and play with shots. Will try to post a few tomorrow....