Turangi Tui on White

tony
November 8, 2020
birds / New Zealand

Photo of a Tui feeding on Kōwhai captured against a grey sky to create a high key image — Tui feeding on Kōwhai captured against a grey sky to create a high key image

As mentioned in my Whio/Blue Duck duckling post the trigger for this trip was a weather forecast that promised flat light. This is my preferred light to photograph birds but is also essential for achieving what I look for in my long term series of Birds on White images.

Photo of a Tui landing on a Kōwhai twig — Tui landing on a Kōwhai twig

Working in manual exposure mode is essential when photographing birds in flight and is my exposure mode 99% of the time. For high key images “overexposing” a grey sky background by around 2 stops pushes it to white and achieves the correct exposure for the subject.

High key photo of Tui in Kōwhai — High key Tui in Kōwhai

Keeping an eye on the histogram can help ensure the exposure is correct and I use the “blinky” display as my default. I am quite happy to have the background flashing at me warning of “overexposure” as long as the bird subject is not flashing. There is plenty of exposure latitude with modern sensors so I am happy to tolerate a flashing white bib on a Tui.