I assume you're going to be using a fairly long lens? That flash isn't going to be powerful enought to have much affect on the exposure outdoors. I'd try shooting at ISO 400. Set exposure manually to one stop under a spot meter reading on the bird feeder at as large an aperture as possible. Then use the flash set to high speed synch at full power. Check your results and histogram and adjust accordingly if necessary. But I'm guessing you'll be fairly close.
> Need advice, gang. > > My wife has set up a bird feeder that is the most popular thing (for birds) > since day-old bread. Every time I try to approach with my camera on monopod, > though, off they fly. I don't have time to wait for them to get used to me. > But > I can shoot them in the mornings from our kitchen window (with the window > open). > Trouble is, the feeder is in shade and the background is quite bright. I can > shoot with the AF 360 FGZ flash to get enough light into the feeder itself. > But > how do I meter for this? If I set the cameras' meter to spot, will the *ist > D's > flash sensor read only that area, or will it insist on reading the whole > scene > (as, I believe, P-TTL does)? > > Yes, I could probably calculate the flash manually, but I have paid for all > this > automation, and I want to use it. > > Advice appreciated. > > Joe > >
