nikonbrain Loc: Crystal River Florida

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

Living in Southeast Alaska we like to say that if you don't see a dozen eagles everyday you didn't get out of bed. The advice here has been good. Lots of talk about metering on the head. Unfortunately eagles tend to appear suddenly, and even with your long lens they can be pretty far away. On my tours, shooting an eagle is one of the top priorities but sometimes they appear before I even get around to talking to my guest about the problem of photographing them in trees. Digital tends to want to make green dark, so we have dark woods and dark eagles with bright white heads and tails. I don't mess around with trying to get that close up meter reading. When eagles are in the trees or down in a creek bed I set my EV to -1.5. (I usually shoot on aperture priority). It's easy for RAW to bring anything too dark back to life and still gives you flexibility to brighten or darken that head. If you don't get detail on the head you've got nothing. If the eagles are just hanging around you can always check your histogram for that right side spike.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

"Lately having trouble with blowed our white heads of eagles. I am shooting a Canon 7 D Mark II. My setting are usually f/8 1/1000 sec auto iso - .7 or -1 ev."

Again, where are you metering from? When exposing with digital the most important thing to keep in mind is avoiding blown highlights. When a highlight is important or takes a considerable amount of space in the viewfinder then metering the highlight makes a lot of sense. Spot metering, if the bird is not moving, is pretty accurate as a metering modality. Meter from the head and open 1 stop of light from meter reading. To make absolutely sure you nailed the exposure look at the histogram. If necessary make further adjustments to the exposure till you get it right.

Simple, isn't it?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I am not sure where Not Sure is, but I suspect you are near water.

I don't like Auto ISO for the same reason I don't like Aperture or Shutter priority - I want to make that decision. If you are getting good results that you are happy with, there is nothing I could or should tell you to change or critique. Totally agree with the Osprey, but the even harder shot is when you have a great white egret and a red winged blackbird in the same shot.

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Bill_de Loc: US

Kind of a moot point. The OP was already given all the information to move forward.

I think it was Gene who first explained in great detail with great examples of what can be expected.

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Pat McGuinness

Great shots. Right place with equipment in hand. my wife and I both enjoyed these shots.

jdupps

Set image review to show "blinkies" and adjust EC to eliminate them in Manual exposure mode.

nikonbrain Loc: Crystal River Florida

I shoot a Nikon d810 and a d7100 , but I noticed you float your ISO I do the same , but in my ISO sensitivity settings I can also set maximum ISO sensitivity , and minimum shutter speed , usually set at a 1/000 Of a second , and ISO 1000 while in shutter priority usually forces the camera to pull f 7.1 to f8 as the camera is trying to keep the aperture as high as possible , with the ISO as low as possible, coupled with AE Lock and 3d trackiing , 14 bit raw , usually drives shadows down a bit but easily recoverable in post . With the d810 new highlight weighted metering , blown highlights have not been a problem. Of coarse all this means a a frame rate no more than 5 frames a sec ..but I have never been one to Rambo shoot . I Don't know if you can set your 7d mll the same or not .....

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

If you are using manual mode you don't need to use exposure compensation. You can make your settings whatever they have to be to avoid the blinkies.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Seems to be an overly complicated solution to what is a simple problem. Better to take control over the settings, and leave nothing to chance.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

There is no need to use your meter at all on a bright sunny day. In fact, auto-exposure in any form is probably going to cause problems.

All you need to do is follow the Sunny 16 rule - shutter speed = 1/ISO @ f/16 or any variation from that. It works for egrets and eagles, cars of all colors, etc. I have never had a blown highlight.

I went to a car show on Saturday and kept the camera on manual exposure nearly the entire time: ISO 400, 1/1000 @ f/11*. The only time I varied from that setting was when the sun went behind an occasional cloud (I opened to f/8 or slowed the shutter to 1/500) or I was shooting into a shady area. I use the same method when I am at a rookery photographing egrets and other light colored birds.

The main concern is to watch your histogram or blinkies to be sure you have not made a mistake setting your exposure. Deep shadows are a separate issue but not a problem if you develop from raw.

* That's about 1/3 stop below Sunny 16 because there is a lot of chrome involved.

A little shadow recovery - Daylight WB

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nikonbrain Loc: Crystal River Florida

Not at all it is all in my custom menu settings and saved to my main c.f. card .custom birds in flight .The camera handles it , works in aperture priority , shutter priority , and manual mode . With no blown highlights . Thom Hogan book on d810...p.s. I have complete control in what I shoot , been doing it since the 70's you only need to set your camera up the way it is designed to work ... I can spend more time on composition than trying to worry about exposure when my camera can do a lot of the heavy lifting