Exposure question

I have great difficulty in exposure when there are areas of pure white in a bird's plumage. I always end up with an area of over-exposure. Yet I have seen some really good shots here of difficult birds (coots, with the white frontal shield spring to mind) where the white areas end up to be not intrusive or disturbing.
How do they do it?
Here is what I mean. I like this shot because there is a story behind it, but I dislike the overexposed undersides of the wings.
Any tips for someone struggling with this?

Set your camera to expose the whites, especially in an overall mid-tone birdlike this. Or maybe underexpose by a stop or so. In these kinds of situations, bracketing is also your friend.

Jim is correct - expose for the whites. You do this by using your best friend the histogram. Ste the exposure so the histogram shows pixels some which are in the far right area of the graph but not climbing the right side. The image you posted looks to be over exposed in general. So, I would guess about a -1 EV would have done the trick.

I also use Light Room for initial RAW processing. I adjust the exposure slider to again have pixels just shy of over exposure, except for specular highlights or very bright sky which if exposed less will make the subject too dark. I then adjust the black slider to just show a tad of totally black areas - not much. This will create an image that sometimes looks still way too bright. I then adjust the brightness slider (usually down) to adjust the image to taste.

I do all my sharpening in PS and still do some local adjustments in PS so after the LR adjustments I send the image to PS for final preparation.

There are as many ways to accomplish this task as there are photographers. However this system has worked for me so I offer it to you as a suggestion.

Have fun.

I agree with the advice so far: expose for the whites, shoot in raw, and use the sliders in raw conversion to keep the entire histogram under control.

But of upmost importance is the light at the time you take the image - avoid contrasty mid day light as much as possible. Get out at dawn for the softer light and work at sunset when you get another chance at softer light.

Johan
Might I make a suggestion to get one or both of the following books on bird photography. The Art of Bird Photography, by Arthur Morris or How to Photograph Birds, by Larry West & Julie Ridl. They both go into exposure and how to photograph bird with a lot of white feathers and birds with a lot of black. I own both books and they have helped a lot. They can be found on line or check your local library.

Good photographing
Dickson
Brigham City, Ut.

One of the great boons of digital photography is that it gives you instant feedback. You know immediately whether or not the picture is over-exposed. The histogram, as advised by the other commenters, will tell you. If the graph touches the right edge of the frame, there are some areas that are over-exposed. If the graph touches the left edge of the frame, there are areas that are under-exposed. You should endeavor to keep the right edge of histogram graph as far to the right as you can without actually letting it touch the edge of the frame.

Also, you should enable the highlight warning feature, also known as the 'the blinkies', on your LCD preview screen. If you see the blinkies on your preview screen, those areas are overexposed. Set your exposure compensation to reduce the exposure and shoot again.

Shoot in Av (aperture priority) or Tv (shutter priority) rather than P (program) or Automatic. These will let you use exposure compensation. Think of your camera's meter reading as a recommendation. If there are a few areas in the picture that are bright while most of the picture is mid tones or darker, the recommendation probably will overexpose the bright areas. With a little practice, you will be able to predict how much exposure compensation is needed depending on the situation.

You can use spot metering to more accurately meter small areas of the picture, but this can be tricky with a moving subject.

If you want to really learn exposure, set your camera to manual mode and learn the sunny 16 rule. After a while you can develop a sixth sense about exposure.

I agree with most that has been stated so far. However, I would like to add something about "exposing for the whites." Yes, expose for the whites, by keeping the whites in mind, but not to get them exposed perfect. Doing so will get you nice looking whites, but often times result in too dark dark plumage and shadow areas. I suggest, if I may, exposing so the whites will be a bit bright but workable in RAW processing. This will many times result in dark plumages and shadows with enough light to work with and whites that are managable as well. I also strongly agree with Rich. Shoot birds with white in early, late, or overcast light. Works wonders. Turns images into art. Cheers.

Thanks everyone for your excellent feedback. I will go out and experiment with all the suggestions. I guess it depends also on meticulous composition, in a way.
Thanks again to all.
BTW, the bird is a Spotted thick-knees (previously Spotted Dikkop) in a threatening pose after I wandered too near to their breeding nest. They are fearless and chased away dogs from nearby houses, I was told.
I moved away and visited the scene again a few days later. They were doing well.