Birders I need some help!

Josh_Houchin · Feb 15, 2014

Ok, so today was my first attempt at getting some bird in flight shots. I was short on time due to running around with my wife so the photos were shot later in the afternoon on a pretty overcast day so the light isn't very good at all. I was shooting in manual and I will post the settings as well so you can give me some input in how to improve. I can tell already my ISO probably needed bumped up substantially.... I know these aren't great shots at all and I am posting them exactly how they came out of the camera, no post work at all. I did this so you guys could criticize and I could learn, so don't pull any punches. I am shooting a D7100 with a Nikkor 70-300mm f4.5-5.6

First shot settings are 1/1250, f5.6, ISO 360, 300mm. I believe I had the camera set to iso auto though I am honestly not sure. Its a new body and I need to read the manual more and verify that.

Second shot settings are as follows.. 1/1250, F4.5, ISO 280, 70MM

dxqcanada · Feb 15, 2014

Hmm, your camera metered the sky ... so it under-exposed.

Remember to brighten more than that as the bird will be darker than the sky ... in your case you would have to crank up the ISO to get a good balance of shutter speed (as it appears your lens was wide open).

Newtricks · Feb 15, 2014

Higher ISO would have helped with the second shot, yet not being over exposed there is still a lot of detail in the highlights. I try to focus on the birds eye if possible if not it's head, motion blur in the wings is fine IMO so long as the body/head are in focus. I'd like to see the second shot after compensating the exposure and sharpening the image.

Anthony

ps I've been birding less than a year.

Aloicious · Feb 15, 2014

what metering mode were you on? i'm guessing matrix metering maybe? (sorry can't view exif where I'm at right now)

try keeping it in manual mode, your shutter speed looks good, aperture is decent also, IIRC the 70-300 isn't great wide open so if you are able to stop down, that might help.

IMO keep auto-ISO on, and set the limits to something you're comfortable with, I'm not sure the d7100's ISO abilities, but personally I'd raise it to to something like 2000-2500 ISO on the top end, then when you're in the field, play with your shutter and/or aperture as needed for the overall conditions, but let the auto ISO adjust to correct for lighting anomalies on the fly so you can concentrate on shooting.

switch your metering to spot, or center weighted, spot is good, but I do find center weighted (with ~12mm circle) tends to get better results on animals that are VERY light or VERY dark in coloring. but try them both out and see what works best for you.

hope that helps. #2 is actually a pretty cool shot, just severely underexposed.

Josh_Houchin · Feb 15, 2014

I was on matrix metering so I just switched it to spot. I will keep it on auto iso and see what happens tomorrow. Thanks for the help!

SCraig · Feb 16, 2014

Any time you're shooting against the sky underexposure is going to happen unless you get lucky and happen to spot-meter on the bird right as you press the shutter release. Two things you can do:

1. Meter something neutral (grass, light-colored asphalt, a gray card, even the palm of your hand) and use that exposure in manual mode.
2. Meter something neutral and meter the sky. The difference between the two is how much exposure compensation you need to overexpose the shot.

Personally I don't use auto-ISO however many people do with excellent results. ISO is one of the settings that I want to choose, plus when shooting against the sky I don't want the camera adjusting the exposure I set.

Josh_Houchin · Feb 16, 2014

A couple shots after making the adjustments aloicious suggested. A marked improvement from yesterday but still a lot to learn.

The first pictures settings are 1/2500, f8, ISO 560

The second photos settings are 1/2000, f7.1, ISO 560

Aloicious · Feb 17, 2014

oh yeah, those are much better. keep shooting and you'll figure out what works best for you and how to get your preferred results. there are many ways to go about it all.

JacaRanda · Feb 17, 2014

Josh_Houchin said:
A couple shots after making the adjustments aloicious suggested. A marked improvement from yesterday but still a lot to learn.

The first pictures settings are 1/2500, f8, ISO 560

The second photos settings are 1/2000, f7.1, ISO 560

Significant improvement. How different were the conditions from the first set to the second set? (sunny, cloudy, time of day etc.)

BillM · Feb 17, 2014

Real nice improvement, keep shooting and you'll get where you want to go :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

sm4him · Feb 17, 2014

That second round of photos already shows a vast improvement over the first!
I might suggest that you still have plenty of room to drop that shutter speed a little more, which would allow you to shoot at f/8 (if that's where you lens seems to be sharpest) and still keep the ISO low for the best possible shot.
I usually shoot birds at 1/1000 or 1/1250 and it's more than fast enough to get them in sharp focus. I generally reserve 1/1600 and 1/2000 speeds for the very fastest birds, or for certain situations, like osprey or eagles diving into the water for fish.