washed out background/sky with sx60hs

[celticfiddle]

I took some photos this morning of birds on top of trees with a blue sky in the background.  When I got home, the sky was completely washed out.  the photo looked like a superimposed bird on a poster board.  I tried taking photos in aperture priority but they were blurry, shot priority and they were black and in auto and P the pictures were washed out.  I am beginning to hate this camera.  Anyone have suggestions for proper settings?  I do not have these problems with my Nikon d7100. 

[cicopo]

Learn how to expose your target rather than the general scene, and this applies to all cameras including other brands. When the background is bright you need to overexpose to keep the subject (the bird) properly exposed rather than having it look like a silhouette. When the target is something bright (like someone in white with the sun shining on them) you need to underexpose. I do it by using Av or Tv or even P along with Exposure Compensation (+ or -) but others do it using manual mode & increase / decrease either the Tv or aperture. 

[celticfiddle]

Thanks. I appreciate your suggestions.   I understand adjusting aperture, iso and shutter speed but find that this camera limits the adjustments to compensate for the brightness of the background.  In shutter priority for a moving subject the camera does not adapt to the light and I often get a dark exposure.  In aperture priority with the same subject I get blur. In manual the aperture seems limited by the iso settings (even when in auto) and it is usually underexposed. I could not get the settings toregister on the meter...so I was really underexposed regardless of adjustment.   Auto was not correcting for the movement.  I understand that I have to use the sport setting for now until I can figure out how to best address the limitations.  I realize this is not a dslr and I will not get the same functionality or quality as my higher end dslr.  I just find that my frustration is the result of trying to address the limitations with the manual.  Not too helpful.  For this upcoming trip I was hoping to get some good photos without lugging around all the extra lenses.  And I go out and take pictures daily for practice and to learn the ins and outs of the canon but the icons/functions have a different name and I am new to canon.  I will keep plugging along and hope for success.

[smack53]

Make sure the metering is either center weighted or evaluative, and not spot. I kept using the spot metering and got blown out skies all the time, but center weighted metering helped quite a bit.

Also see if the camera has any dynamic range (I-Contrat) correction in it. That might help a little.

Steve M.

[celticfiddle]

Thank you!

[Grazie]

Get a Polarizer Filter. Mine is permanently on my SX50.

[celticfiddle]

I will look for one