Why Checking Exposure and White Balance Is Essential in Changing Conditions
How to adapt to light for better bird photography
Bill Harris
March 14, 2025
Note: This tip comes from Audubon’s article - 10 Tips for Photographing Birds
Photograph by Zdenek Machacek
Environmental conditions in bird photography can change rapidly, and keeping an eye on your exposure and white balance is crucial to capturing well-exposed shots. Clouds rolling in, sunlight breaking through, or birds moving from open areas to shaded environments can all impact the lighting of your scene. If you aren’t constantly checking your exposure, you risk underexposed or overexposed photos, which can result in lost details in highlights or shadows. By regularly monitoring your camera’s histogram or exposure meter, you can make minor adjustments on the fly to ensure the best results.
Photograph by Vincent Van Zalinge – The white balance will also likely change when the lighting changes. It is a good idea to watch how the colors in your images appear. This example photo is not natural to the setting. It is skewed toward the blue/cyan color spectrum.
Changes in light often require tweaks to your camera settings. For instance, if clouds reduce the available light, you may need to widen your aperture or increase your ISO to maintain a fast enough shutter speed for sharp images. Conversely, in bright conditions, you might need to lower your ISO or stop down your aperture to avoid overexposing highlights. Using exposure compensation is another valuable tool, especially in scenes with extreme contrasts, like a dark bird against a bright sky or a white bird in harsh sunlight. These situations often fool your camera’s metering system, and slight adjustments (+/- 1 stop) can make all the difference.
Photograph by Rusty Watson
Ultimately, staying mindful of exposure and adjusting your settings to match shifting conditions allows you to adapt seamlessly to nature’s unpredictability.
Light changes are inevitable, but your response can ensure your photos remain properly exposed and retain their visual impact. A quick glance at your camera’s highlights, shadows, WB, and histogram will save you from missed opportunities and guarantee more keepers in your collection.
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