The Spot Meter Setting Saves the Day in Harsh Lighting

^{Note: This tip comes from Photographylife’s article- 21 Tips for Bird Photography}

Tip #1 - Spot metering can be an excellent option for tricky lighting conditions.

Bird photographers usually use Matrix/Evaluative metering, which is the default option in cameras today. It works well to balance most lighting conditions and achieve good overall exposure.

Sometimes, spot metering is the way to go, especially in high-contrast scenes. If you place the spot meter directly on your subject, you can be sure that the subject will be exposed correctly, regardless of how the remaining image looks. This is great when your subject is much brighter or darker than the background. 

For example, take a look at the little egret picture below:

The bird was properly lit and perched on a mangrove tree.

The background was much darker than the subject.

Tip #2—The photographer used a spot meter for the bird's white feathers, ignoring the background, which would be underexposed. This created a high-contrast, low-key image.

On the other extreme, look at the Imperial eagle pictured above. It was perched against a grey, overcast sky without any details. The photographer exposed for the shadows in the bird, making the sky blow out entirely and resulting in a much more interesting high-key image.

Tip #3 - Spot metering makes it more likely that the background areas will blow out the highlights or let the shadow areas go dark. But in general, by embracing the extreme shadows and highlights provided, the subject itself has no clipped details. It makes the photos look more dramatic, which in turn carries the emotion of the light. It simply leads to better pictures in many cases.

Want more? If you want to learn more about bird photography, and capture beautiful shots of your own, we recommend downloading and printing out Photzy’s 10 Bird Photography Cheat Sheets (Special bonus available now!)