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      07-31-2017, 02:09 PM   #10936
dcstep
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Drives: '09 Cpe Silverstone FR 6MT
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2009 M3  [8.40]
Shane, I dove deeper into your hummingbird shot's EXIF data. The under-exposure was caused by you being in Automatic mode. The bright background raised the shutter speed way higher than it needed to be.

If you're going to shoot birds-in-flight, you have to break out of the Automatic mode and go to Manual. The shutter speed required to get some color on the hummer is about half where your camera chose. If going to Manual seems too daunting, then you might try Av or Tv mode and then using the EV adjustment to deal with the changing background. For instance, if I was in Av mode for that shot, I would have spun the big wheel on the back of the camera to get to +1EV, realizing that the bright background was going to under-expose the main subject, if I didn't adjust.

I shot in Av mode for several years. Av and Tv are good stepping stones to full Manual. You have to understand how the meter is working, but then you can easily adjust exposure with the +-EV wheel. For birds-in-flight, I ultimately went to full manual because there were too many situations where the bird would start against a dark cloud, go in front of a white could, then blue sky and finally trees. I couldn't spin the EV wheel fast enough and accurately enough to expose the bird correctly. In manual, I expose for the subject and don't worry about BG. Of course, I have to be constantly aware of changing light conditions and manually changing my setting. That's the downside, but, if you shoot enough, you get used to it.
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