Birds with white plumage can be a challenging subject to photograph. The problem lies in the white plumage that will fool your camera meter into underexposing in many situations. This will tend to cause your white bird to turn out gray. In this month's article we will suggest a strategy to solve this problem. In tips#5, on winter photography we discussed the theoretical basis for this problem. White birds such as Great and Snowy egrets and many gulls will cause a similar problem to occur.

Most of the time when we are granted an opportunity to photograph anything, we will simply shoot with the camera in its default metering mode. This usually takes the form of a system called matrix, evaluative, or honeycomb metering. The difficulty with these systems is that they work by evaluating multiple segments of the image, and based upon some formula that would put nuclear plant designers to shame, the camera arrives at a decision. This type of metering, while superb for most situations, is not very predictable when dealing with difficult lighting situations such as white or dark subjects. Therefore, when you are trying to compensate, you risk over or under-compensating because you do not know how the camera arrived at its decision. For example, if you have a Great Egret that occupies a 1/3 of the frame, we know that our camera will lean toward underexposure due to the white plumage. Typically, to keep the plumage white, you would add +1 to +11/2 stops of light. When faced with situations such as this, bracketing a few exposures is a good idea. As mentioned in other tips articles, bracketing is the deliberate over and/or underexposing of a series of shots. The theory being, that one of the shots will be the correct exposure. The first shot could be taken as the camera meter suggests, then another shot adding +1 stops or if in direct sunlight consider adding +1 1/2 stops.

One way to get around the unpredictability of the multiple segment meters is to switch to center weighted (CW) metering which is present on many cameras today. In this mode, the camera will bias it's metering to the area around the center of the viewfinder. (Refer to your camera manual for the exact size of the area) In CW metering, the camera will simply average the light reflected from this central area to make a decision. To use CW metering, be sure the bird occupies the CW metering area. If the bird takes up most of this area, add +1 stop. (In direct sunlight, add +1.5 stops)

The advantage of CW metering is that you know exactly what area is being metered and how the camera arrives at its decision. Remember to take detailed notes about what you have done for study later when you get your pictures back. This way you can determine what works for your camera in a given situation and you will not require as much bracketing in the future.

In summary, compensation is necessary when photographing white birds as the majority of cameras will misinterpret the increased reflectance and underexpose the image. To date, only Nikon's F5 with its color matrix meter is capable of recognizing and properly exposing for white subjects in most circumstances. (Tell Santa early!) Next month we will discuss magazines and books that are helpful in furthering your knowledge of bird photography.

Gulls are notorious troublemakers to photograph. In these two photographs, we have the white plumage and light toned surroundings to deal with. In the first photo, +11/3 stops overexposure has been dialed in using center-weighting metering. The second is an intentionally darkened image to simulate what the shot would have looked like without compensation. Adding more light has kept the plumage white. Ring-billed Gull photo by Scott Fairbairn, Nikon F5, 500mmf4 with 1.4x TC. CW metering.