Birds Wednesday

[jprzybyla]

Earlier I posted butterflies I shot today, here are a few of the birds I photographed today. C&C welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Turkey Vulture



Tri-colored Heron



Snowy Egret



Comorant



Little Blue Heron

[Bobobird]

Great shots as usual. Amazing the variety of stuff you get.

I am still struggling to get a good underside exposure like your last 2. What settings did you use?

[jprzybyla]

Great shots as usual. Amazing the variety of stuff you get.

I am still struggling to get a good underside exposure like your last 2. What settings did you use?

Thanks Bobo, the settings are easy. For birds that are not in flight I shoot everything with aperature priority, mostly with f/8. I change from that aperture if I need more depth of field. For birds in flight I shoot everything with shutter priority at either 1/1600 or 1/2000 depending on how fast the bird flies. I let the camera decide on the ISO needed for correct exposure. If I want to over or under expose (such as for a white or black bird) I use the +/- EV control. That being said what has improved my images the most has been paying attention to where the light is (the sun) and how it will light the subject. Where I photograph the most is a nauture preserve that is a large wetland/marsh area. There have been dikes constructed to control the water, the trails are on top of the dikes. When I walk out in the morning the sun is on my left. So whatever is on my right and slightly forward has the sun lighting it. So I only shoot that side whether the bird is stationary or flying. The only exception would be a white bird (such as the snowy egret) because I like them backlighted and it is easier to control the exposure.

[Bobobird]

Thanks Joe, that is more or less what I do though most times it is Manual and between 1/800-1/2000 depending on the light.
Will try shutter priority and +/- EV and see how that goes.

What metering do you use?

[jprzybyla]

Hi Bobo, I almost exclusively use Nikon's multi-pattern metering which meters the whole frame and then balances it out for the best exposure. I then adjust the exposure in post processing and use the tone curve and point curve in Adobe Lightroom to lighten or darken parts of the image. I just figure that I have paid over a $1000 dollars for a camera with the ability to autofocus, set exposure, and iso for whatever conditions are encountered so I trust and use the auto settings. The camera can do it faster and more accurate than I could. Also if you are panning shooting a bird in flight and the bird moves from clear blue sky to a cloudy overcast area the exposure needs to change. The auto settings in the camera can do that as needed by changing the iso. It just works for me, I know others do it differently. I like to keep it simple, paying attention to what aperture I need for the depth offield and what shutter speed I need for sharp images gives me only two things to set. Very simple and easy to do.

[Bobobird]

I will need to do as you do and let the camera do more work. Going to try that out this afternoon and see how that goes.

Thanks for your insights.