Camera Settings

I agree with the majority of replies.  I always set my camera on aperture priority for bird photos with the aperture setting as wide as possible (lowest number).  The reason for this is that you will get the fastest possible shutter speed, which is essential for shooting images of things that move quickly. Also, you will get good bokeh, which means the soft blur of things in the background.  This makes your target image of the bird clear and less clutter in the photo.   In good sunlight you shouldn't need to increase ISO but if you do increase ISO you need to experiment a bit and see which highest ISO you can go to without getting noise ( specks of grainy colour) on the image.  I agree, if the camera is mounted on a tripod, the IS should be switched off to avoid out of focus shots where the camera compensates for slight camera shake.  

I am very impressed with the latest bridge cameras and may even get one as my DSLR is bulky and a tad heavy, although it gives excellent results and if you shoot in RAW, you can get very large prints without losing any quality, which I am told you can't do with a bridge camera.  It all depends on how you want to process the photos after I guess.  I have Nikon D80 and Nikon D7000, the latter is great for low light shots with low or no noise from high ISO settings.

Hope this helps.

Val

Hi Val

Thanks for your reply. After reading all of the replies so far today, I have a lot of things to try out. Thank god for smart phones, as i will be able to refer back to all these tips whilst getting out there.

Steve

Steve, I always walk round with my Bridge camera (and DSLR) in aperture priority mode set to the widest aperture and the highest ISO setting that won't give too much noise. The reason for this is that for bird shots is that you will always get the fastest possible shutter speed for the given conditions giving the best chance of a sharp shot under pressure. This will also give the best chance of a blurred background making the shot less cluttered. This is of course a generalisation but in my opinion the most reliable starting point. Then if you have time you can retake the shot in a more considered way. e.g if you have sufficient light you could lower the ISO and maybe move a stop or two away from widest aperture where the lens will be even sharper.

It is recommended that you turn off shake reduction on a tripod but I often forget and honestly haven't seen any difference.

Shooting in raw gives the most flexibility and potentially the best final image but involves more post processing which without will probably give you a worse instant picture than a JPEG.

Hope this helps, have fun,

Dave

my.opera.com/.../blog

The arguments for switching off Image stabalisation when your camera is mounted on a tripod really does depend on the tripod you are using as well as the conditions. manually clicking the shutter on the camera can induce shake as well as an unstable surface or the wind, even on a concrete surface people walking by can cause shake. Unless you are using a remote shutter release, are on a completley stable surface and not affected by wind/vibration then I would advise you to leave IS switched on, you probably won't even notice a difference between on and off unless you are at the very furthest zoom range and then start to crop heavily.

Go manual. Once you get to grips with it you'll never use anything else.

Perhaps you got lucky ;-) I can't see that manual is the best initial setting, especially if you are not very experienced with your camera. It has advantages in terms of ultimate control but if you want to quickly take a shot of a bird that flies out in front of you and then goes you are unlikely to have time to get the exposure right manually. Even if you do the Bokeh may well not be optimum. I would still stick with the majority advice of aperture priority as you walk about so as not to miss that one off opportunity and try the other settings when time permits like e.g in a hide with waders.

Dave

my.opera.com/.../blog

For general photography AP is fine , but when your subject is a small bird it will often let you down by setting the exposure in favour of the overall scene not the bird. That's why so many birds in flight shots turn out as silhouettes. Of course you could try spot metering , but try keeping the spot on a tiny bird and you'll see why AP isn't the best option.

But whatever works for you is fine.

All my photos turn out either worse than I expected or better than I deserve , so if I knew the answer I would bottle it and sell it.  LOL

I agree with you Galatas for a tiny bird. But to get good quality shots you would need to get close using fieldcraft anyway. I always recommend spot metering for the reason you say and it is always within the realms of pp adjustment. Birds in flight against the sky are, as you say, a different kettle of fish but then shutter speed isn't a problem and you can set a smaller aperture and add 1 or 2 EV but I think the post was really about general conditions as you walk round.

In answer to the question of why my shots appear sharp I forgot to mention about all the ones in the bin that are fuzzy! But actually this isn't as flippant as it sounds. I forgot to mention it is a good idea to have the shutter on burst mode so you take several shots and you will find one is usually sharper than the rest as the bird or your hand was steadier for that split second. I would estimate that 90% of blurred shots are caused by camera shake or subject movement which is why having the camera initially set to it's widest aperture is good because it absolutely guarantees the maximum shutter speed for the given light conditions.

Lastly of course, most of my shots and most people's have  a degree of post processing (pp) sharpening added!

Dave

Hi Everyone,

A great pocket sized book to own is the Lonely Planet - wildlife travel photography by Andy Rouse.

Its packed with lots of technical info and example photos of how to get the best out of your camera when in the field. Its very easy to read and you can get some really quick and improved results from reading it.

heres the link:

www.amazon.co.uk/.../1740599004

Good luck

Craig