Advice on camera setting

[KJ_North]

There are two major types of noise in a Shot, (random photons), which is in every scene, and Digital (amplification). If your SNR is to low, (underexpose) the camera sensor records more Shot. Any gain applied (ISO or boost post), will amplify and increase "all recorded noise. Your scene is much like shooting a snow scene where the camera is fooled into reading the sky as 18% and adjusting accordingly. As mentioned overexposed by 1-1 1/2 stops can help. The other problem that comes in is the scene DR, if it exceeds the camera capability then something will suffer (sky or bird). In this scenario ideally you're best option would be to bracket. In worst case you could combine the best exposure on the bird with the best sky/water exposure post.

Thank you I appreciate the info as I try and understand it more.

 

[smoke665]

Thank you I appreciate the info as I try and understand it more.

It's also important to keep an open mind, the solution to an exposure problem isn't always one option.

 

[KJ_North]

It's also important to keep an open mind, the solution to an exposure problem isn't always one option.

Absolutely

 

[greybeard50 22]

Shooting RAW you can control in camera the focus, aperture (DoF), shutter speed, and exposure. In your picture the focus, DoF and stop action are good. The exposure is good enough to be perfected in post. When shooting in jpeg, you can also control contrast, color profile and saturation, sharpening and probably some things I have forgotten. All these variables are available in post when shooting RAW and you can preview all of them. So, as long as you shoot RAW, you are limited as to how much in camera control you have. Shooting RAW and post processing go hand in hand.

 

[KJ_North]

Shooting RAW you can control in camera the focus, aperture (DoF), shutter speed, and exposure. In your picture the focus, DoF and stop action are good. The exposure is good enough to be perfected in post. When shooting in jpeg, you can also control contrast, color profile and saturation, sharpening and probably some things I have forgotten. All these variables are available in post when shooting RAW and you can preview all of them. So, as long as you shoot RAW, you are limited as to how much in camera control you have. Shooting RAW and post processing go hand in hand.

Absolutely thank you

 

[LWW2]

Actually, I think you did pretty well. I might have used one stop higher shutter speed and dhutter priority.

Not being overly familiar with your gear, if you have an ISO invariant sensor.8

Also, using your fastest FPS will be your friend.

That being said, this would IMHO be a good time to try shooting it at native ISO and adjusting in post.

BIF will always present a challenge as no matter what my plan is, the bird has its own plan.

Even in the age of VR/IS handholding and personal stability are going to mayor in shots like these.

That all being said, everyones skills are individual and these are the things that have helped me.

 

[Light Fandango]

You don't say which camera or lens you are using.

SHOOTING:

"I was thinking maybe I should have upper the exposure maybe 1-1.5 ? But would that have blown out the sky?"
No one can answer that. You will know by doing it and seeing how the camera handles the contrast. We weren't there on that day. 1.5 sounds like a bit much, though, the sun is already setting.

if you were shooting birds in general that late day, you could have used Auto-ASA (if your camera has it) and set your exsposure compensation, as mentioned, to maybe a 1/2 stop over to stay safe. Then tweak in post.
Don't worry about 'noise' if it happens ; if you don't get the shot to begin with, that becomes academic.

POST:
Unless it's lack of resolution in the JPEG, the bird is only marginally sharp; it seems to be a combination of focus/lack of depth of field/blur from motion. A bit more depth of field could have helped to encompass the whole bird.
Some unsharp enhancement may be beneficial.

It's a nice enough shot, just work on the exposure curves (if you have that option) and sharpness, straighten the horizon, and let's see it again.

C.

 

[AlanKlein98 14]

Use your camera's histogram. Here's your shot showing the apparent histogram. Notice how most of the data is to the darker left. By adjusting the settings, you should have moved it more to the right, brightening it up. Also, your camera screen probably showed the picture darker than it should be.

 

[MikeTZ]

>> I was in TV priority, With the aperture set as open as possible with the lens..

This seems contradictory. You manually set the shutter speed, and shoot with the lens as open as possible, so the only variable left for the camera is ISO?

As to what settings you could have changed to lighten the image, you had two options - lengthen the shutter period (added a little more motion blur) or increase the ISO. (added more noise) Either will achieve a better exposed image at the cost of quality.