problems shooting BIF against flat/grey sky ?

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bx338

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john
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I wonder if anyone can give me advice about shooting BIF against pale grey/flat sky.
I had a go yesterday at some flying mallard and my shots came out pretty poor, the sky is over exposed and the ducks are dark, as you would expect.
Im new to shooting a 5d3 and learning as im going along.
Is there a setting which would be better to use in situations like that, afterwards i thought that altering the white balance from AWB to cloudy might have been better ?
Any pointers in the right direction will help thanks.
 
Hi John,if you posted the shots with as much exif info as possible it could help a lot to answer your question, if for example I was photographing a Kestrel against a grey dull sky I would have my shutter speed set for what I would consider a fast speed for the bird on the day ,ISO to match aperture set to what I could get away with and I would be more than likely pushing at least two stops EV
 
Thanks for the replies.
Unfortunately i deleted the shots from saturday so i cant load the pics.
Theres some good advice to take on-board, i might get chance for another try soon so will make the adjustments depending on conditions and hope things are an improvement.
Bad light is bad light, but i am fairly certain that making a few changes will help to compensate against it slightly.
 
I would use exposure compensation to allow for the bright background (as mentioned by Dennis above)

I believe you can dial in exposure comp in both aperture and shutter priority on the Canon or set to manual and get the exposure you need by altering ISO, shutter and aperture to over expose.

Take some test shots and see if you have the right exposure set.

The problem is when the bird swoops down to tree level and the sky is not in shot anymore.

Nothing easy about wildlife photography. I was frantically pushing buttons today when a Kestrel turned up :)

The same problem exists when shooting over water on bright days.

Dave.
 
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Best to keep it basic to start with. So the best advice I can give u is simply to aim at a tree in line with the grey sky. Go for the leaves fire off a few shots start at +1 then plus or minus until the leaves are perfectly exposed, u now have the exposure. Maybe a slight tweak required but ur there or there abouts. Happy shooting. Tone. (y)
 
I would probably not bother trying. However, if it's a shot you really want then I'd use a lot of EC. This Osprey was +2. The sky is almost totally blown, but it was probably my last good chance of catching one for many years.

Osprey.jpg
 
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