• Replies 20 replies
  • Subscribers 33 subscribers
  • Views 1782 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Latest posts

A bit of a mixture

i love robins
17/02/2021 23:08

  • 18/02/2021 07:51
    Lovely to see your garden visitors and overhead flypast with the gull; robin looks like it's in full vocal mode lol Can't wait for springtime although its chucking it down with rain today and still gloomy outside.
  • 18/02/2021 10:25 in reply to HAZY
    Thank you Hazel, yes the Robin was on the top of the tree singing away and you could hear another robin singing as if replying to it’s song, We do get two robins in the garden at the same time so it may have been its mate. Shame about the gull photos I have been messing about with my camera settings and didn’t, get them right again, but you know what they say practice makes perfect, in my case maybe a bit better, hopefully. Lol
  • 18/02/2021 21:12
    More birds are definitely singing from the treetops now, even the Dunnocks have got the elevator up a level or two!
    If it helps, I used to set up one of the user programs on my camera as a general birds in flight program, then you only had to quickly switch user program and not all the individual settings. It was not perfect for everything but I found it at least improved the odds when something unexpected flew by. It's all down to personal preference though.
  • 18/02/2021 23:07 in reply to Nigel O
    Hi Nigel by that you mean for instance P. S. A. or Manual
    I have in recent months used shutter Priority for general photographing of birds and in flight.
    And recently or so I thought was more adept at understanding the settings and having some success using Manual
    and choosing the settings that i thought appropriate. That was untill recently when i started to photogragh birds in flight. In manual mode its getting the right balance with the correct shutter speed, the correct ISO and the aperture and getting the correct exposure compensation, And that's the current challenge to overcome and not to be downhearted i am sure it will come with a little more practice.Thanks very much Nigel, your help and advice is always appreciated.
















    -



















    -
  • 19/02/2021 19:01 in reply to i love robins
    i love robins said:
    by that you mean for instance P. S. A. or Manual

    If those are your options then your camera may not have user programmable modes, which on Nikons are labelled U1, U2 etc. It's odd, cameras for beginners don't have them (but have less useful fixed ones like Night, Portrait, etc). Then enthusiast cameras do. Then pro cameras don't again!

    Doing it on M is fine but if you are struggling take some of the heat off until you get more practice. Set the camera to Auto ISO, so you only have worry about shutter speed and aperture, which will let you adjust exposure compensation as you take it. Personally, I do birds in flight on Shutter priority and let the camera decide the aperture, although I may use exposure compensation as well. I normally decide which ISO I want when I first take the camera out of the car boot, so I know it will be OK for the days weather or at least until it changes!

    In a camera with programmable Modes you can set all this up and just set the Mode in a single switch, but not all cameras have them, including my main one, now - and I admit it I miss it!

  • 19/02/2021 22:21 in reply to Nigel O

    Hi NIgel My camera is. 2004 model Nikon D80 no video. The modern features on new cameras it won’t have.
    Having said that it was a very good camera in its day. it does have the standard modes Auto, Portrait, Landscape, close up, sports, night landscape, and night portrait. It also has custom settings that can be programmed in.
    The manual has 148 pages and is very comprehensive. I bought the camera in 2019 second hand for a very good price and I purchased the Sigma contemporary lens 150 600 for it last year second hand and got that for a very good price too.
    I am retired now so a camera upgrade would be nice but I will stick with the one I have and keep practicing and learning as I go on. I keep watching Utube as well and there is lots of good advice on there. Many thanks Nigel for your help, we need some good weather and blue sky’s for spring now that would be nice.

  • 20/02/2021 13:57

    I'll endorse Nigel's advice with the ISO, leave it on auto.

    While photos can be grainy at high ISO's, it isn't quite as critical as it was (is for those still using film) for film, where you really would see grainy appearances at ISO's of 1600 and above.

  • 20/02/2021 17:47 in reply to Mike B

    Hi Mike I did try that for a while and recently, I have also watched a Utube tutorial of trying Aperture priority with auto ISO, I will try that as well. The weather has been grey and white sky’s of late so a bit more practicing is in order for birds in flight. I had my first vaccine jab last Monday and I have been going to quiet locations locally and after my second jab in May it may give us more options of venues where more birds are on lakes and nature reserves.