BIRDS 4 WINGING IT!
Black birds against a dark background, such as this cormorant drying its wings after taking a dip for some fish (left), can fool your camera into over-exposing, so dial in some negative compensation. Whereas when I was composing with the cormorant from a different angle, so it was against clear white sky behind it (above), I needed to be careful of underexposure as my EOS camera was cautious of capturing the light sky too bright, rending the sky and black bird too dark. This time, positive exposure compensation was required. It’s easiest if you’re set up in either Av (Aperture Priority), Tv (Shutter Priority), or Manual mode to then dial in negative or positive exposure compensation.