William, I was suprised to see no shadows, so my light statement was wrong. Perhaps a "high bright overcast" would have been more accurate. Either way, it is agreed the subject bird is under exposed up to one stop. I think this results in a very overexposed BG which is my concern. Summary 3 :- WB was set to auto so no specific info there. S4 :- I hope to expose the subject correctly. S5 :- The bird. S6 :- with spot on bird subject, I part depress the shutter button to hold the exposure and focus. Then recompose and make the exposure with full press. Since posting I have had reasonable ressults using the colour correction tool in ACR. Your further advice will be appreciated.
regards marty.