You are most welcome.

Long overdue vacation starts Wednesday, and I’m going to practice manual-mode photography for much of my trip.

Enjoy and practice!

The trick, as i see it, was knowing your optimal exposure in the first place.

That is true whether you are in Av or Tv or Manual mode… And that is why God invented histograms…

Using the meter at the side of the viewfinder in manual mode (I never paid attention to that before) will get me most of the way there, and then use the histogram to get whites just below the right edge.

Be sure not to get the WHITEs right to the edge; that will give you WHITEs with RGB values in the high 240s or even the dreaded 250s.

Taking ISO out of Auto mode allows me to get the EC by adjusting shutter speed and f-stop.

Good. You should be setting the ISO depending on the conditions (i.e., the light levels) and the shutter speed that you need.

Before, I had been switching to Av-mode, using point (sic: spot) metering on a grey spot, memorizing the numbers, switching back to manual, dialing them in, then wondering where the bird went. 🙂

Even if the bird did not fly that is a bad approach as it will only give you a good exposure for a middle toned subject… I would strongly suggest that you study the section on Exposure Theory in the original The Art of Bird Photography that is available in soft cover here.

As always, i appreciate your blog.

I am glad for that. artie

All the best
Tony

Like you I have no problem with the supposedly “non-native” ISOs.

Are you using Auto ISO or ISO Safety Shift?

More soon.

a