{"id":17765,"date":"2024-03-10T07:47:58","date_gmt":"2024-03-09T18:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/?p=17765"},"modified":"2024-03-12T09:10:48","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T20:10:48","slug":"why-i-use-manual-exposure-for-bird-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/17765","title":{"rendered":"Why I Use Manual Exposure For Bird Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Tar\u0101punga\/Red-billed Gull. Manual exposure keeps correct exposure protecting the highlights with a dark shade background<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I have written about this in the past but my exposure settings for birds are always fully manual except in some very specific circumstances. A recent sequence illustrated the reason for this quite nicely despite not resulting in any special images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a walk around the base track of Mount Maunganui my camera always comes along. There is always something to see and episodically some gems like a Reef heron or Wandering tattler will make an appearance. On this walk it was the usual Pied shags, gulls and passing gannets. The light was harsh sun, so not lovely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gull perched on a rock gave me the chance to look at some rim lit options keeping the exposure correct to protect the highlights. Birds, being birds, are prone to take flight and this gull was no exception, flying down off its perch in front of the shaded rock and then over the sea reflecting the sun. This gallery shows uncropped, unprocessed images from the sequence.<\/p>\n\n\n\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n\n\n\n

With the exposure set manually – shutter speed, aperture and ISO (Manual with auto ISO is an auto mode) – the exposure remains constant despite the background going from almost black to bright specular highlights. Any auto mode would have adjusted for the changing luminance of the scene, overexposing the bird in the earlier frames and underexposing in the brighter frames. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only drawback to this approach is if the bird were to fly from bright light into shade. This is not often a situation I have run into but even then the ISOless nature of Nikon sensors allows shadow recovery with little, if any, penalty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reverse situation of a bird flying from shade into bright light is more of a challenge as an exposure set for the shade will seriously overexpose the bird when it flies into the sun resulting in unrecoverable blown highlights. In that situation I choose my exposure for the situation that will give the best background and not shoot in the other lighting scenario.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have written about this in the past but my exposure settings for birds are always fully manual except in some very specific circumstances. A recent sequence illustrated the reason for this quite nicely despite not resulting in any special images. On a walk around the base track of Mount Maunganui my camera always comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[982,17],"tags":[26,605,25,220,221,641,869,609,194,190,971],"class_list":["post-17765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bird-photography","category-tips","tag-bird-photography","tag-bird-photography-tips","tag-birds","tag-birds-in-flight","tag-nikon","tag-nikon-nz","tag-nikon-z","tag-nikonnz","tag-photo","tag-photography","tag-wildlife","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy I Use Manual Exposure For Bird Photography - WildLight Photography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/17765\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why I Use Manual Exposure For Bird Photography - WildLight Photography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have written about this in the past but my exposure settings for birds are always fully manual except in some very specific circumstances. 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It is a lovely venue just an hour from home and apart from regular day trips we usually stay for a week or so in the summer to enjoy the sea and the walk around the Mount each\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Black-backedGullNoFlash_D815815-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Black-backedGullNoFlash_D815815-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Black-backedGullNoFlash_D815815-web.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Black-backedGullNoFlash_D815815-web.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1573,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/1573","url_meta":{"origin":17765,"position":2},"title":"Exposure – when is manual exposure mode important?","author":"tony","date":"September 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This post was triggered by a visit to Storms River Mouth in the Tsitsikamma National Park on the Garden Route. It is a great place to see African Black Oystercatchers and I had hoped to get a chance to photograph them despite being there in the middle of the day\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/AfricanBlackOystercatcher_D806520v2-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/AfricanBlackOystercatcher_D806520v2-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/AfricanBlackOystercatcher_D806520v2-web.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/AfricanBlackOystercatcher_D806520v2-web.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":19159,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/19159","url_meta":{"origin":17765,"position":3},"title":"Nikon Z8 Better than Z9 for Bird Photography (again)","author":"tony","date":"July 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Nikon Z8 Better than Z9 for Bird Photography (again). Firmware version 3.0 adds in-camera focus limiter so Nikon Z8 jumps ahead of the flagship Nikon Z9 for bird photography","rel":"","context":"In "Bird Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Bird Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/bird-photography"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Red-billedGull-20250705-NZ8_3836-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Red-billedGull-20250705-NZ8_3836-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Red-billedGull-20250705-NZ8_3836-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Red-billedGull-20250705-NZ8_3836-web.jpg?fit=960%2C640&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":907,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/907","url_meta":{"origin":17765,"position":4},"title":"Spring is in the Air – Nesting Shags at Sulphur Point, Lake Rotorua.","author":"tony","date":"September 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The colony of Little Shags that nests at Sulphur Point, Lake Rotorua, is a good indicator that spring is well and truly on the way. They started nest building a couple of weeks ago and now some are sitting and others still building. The birds nest in trees on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "birds"","block_context":{"text":"birds","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/birds"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14171,"url":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/14171","url_meta":{"origin":17765,"position":5},"title":"Nikon Z7 vs Nikon D850","author":"tony","date":"June 13, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Thoughts on Nikon Z7 and Nikon D850 camera bodies. Which is best?","rel":"","context":"In "opinion"","block_context":{"text":"opinion","link":"https:\/\/www.tonywhitehead.com\/wildlight\/archives\/category\/opinion"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo of the view from Te Mata Peak, Hawkes Bay. 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