a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

As in most things, shooting wildlife, especially those creatures that are likely to move and especially those who move quickly, the challenge in my experience is to find a balance for maximum image quality. You need to stay inside the "envelope" (aviation term).

The problem is that a long lens is usually not a fast lens. Let's assume F 5.6 for example. Now let's assume a minimum shutter speed of 1/1000 in this thought experiment. So on a "sunny 16" day with the light full on the subject (no, it's not usually that good) the ISO will be 100 and that's very good.

Explanation: 16-125, 11-250, 8-500, 5.6-1000 are the EV combinations for ISO 100. [Note that for a few reasons that I'm leaving out of this post, I used 1/125 instead of 1/100.]

So whenever you have any combination of..
A. you need a faster shutter for motion
B. you need a smaller aperture for DOF or the lens's limit or both
C. you need to compensate for less light than S16 or backlight or both..

Then you need to go to a higher ISO. That is where the IQ issue comes in and, of course, it's worse on smaller sensors such as crop, one-inch or even 1/2.3.

As a result of this set of limits I often find myself using a slower shutter speed than I would otherwise want. Sometimes that works out and sometimes it doesn't. Failing that, I have to accept the IQ issues that come with higher ISO settings. If there is time, I'll start low and keep shooting with gradually increasing shutter speed. That strategy, if conditions allow, has a fair chance of finding the best set of compromises.

And yes, this tactic logically demands that I use auto ISO but the more adept snappers may choose to manually control that, too. While I am doing this mind dump I'll add "shoot raw". Don't throw away a stop or two of dynamic range when you are already bumping the limits of the envelope.

RickL Loc: Vail, Az

Exceptional series

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Thanks!

You can see more here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gene_lugo/

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

There is no particular setting or group of settings for wildlife photography. It varies wildly depending upon the specific situation.

Your best bet would be to:

1. Click this link: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-Fourth-Photographs-Camera/dp/1607748509/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1512320442&sr=1-1&keywords=understanding+exposure
2. Buy book and wait for it to arrive.
3. Once book arrives, pour yourself a glass of wine, sit down and start reading.
4. Repeat step 3 until you have read and understand the entire book.

Doing this you'll learn how your camera works and why you'd choose various settings for different situations. This will be FAR more useful to you than us trying to give you some "one size fits all" recommendation.

While at the Amazon website, you might also want to purchase a guide book for your specific camera. We don't know what that is... so do a search and you'll probably find one.

You also might want to do a search at Amazon for books about "wildlife photography"... and buy a few additional bottles of wine.

I just did that search and there appear to be 9000+ books available. Some of those are "how to" books that might be helpful with technique... Others are "identification" manuals and field guides from Audubon, Nat Geo, etc... While still others are "coffee table" books, monographs, awards & annual "best of" compilations, or beautiful calendars, all of which might be inspirational.

I'm familiar with some of the authors: John and Barbara Gerlach, George Lepp, Art Wolfe, Tim Fitzharris, Joel Sartore, Moose Peterson, Joe and Mary MacDonald, Frans Lanting and Thomas Mangelsen. Others I didn't see, bu t recommend: Art Morris, Nial Benvie, and Heather Angel. I imagine I'm forgetting some more! And there many listed whom I'm not familiar with, whose books appear very interesting.

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

I live in a rural forested area and the wildlife photo ops from my back deck are unlimited -deer, birds and squirrels - I keep my Canon rebel XTi set on auto because the time of day, lighting, weather changes so much from one opportunity to the next can be extreme.
Good luck on your "Hunting"
Harvey

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2Much Loc: WA

Best advice I've seen. There's a lot more to it than camera settings. Perry's book is an easily read but thorough coverage of the subject. He provides the needed technical information, but more importantly describes the craft he employs to achieve results that truly are stunning.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

I agree but also use auto ISO with the top range at 2500

adamsg Loc: Chubbuck, ID

I just purchased this book and, as yet, have not read it thoroughly (for the first of several times). But, in skimming through it, it has a wealth of information. Based on what I have read, I recommend it to you, highly.

srt101fan

Don't know how much you want to delve into this subject, but you might find John Gerlach's thread interesting. He is a nature/wildlife photographer, author and safari guide - http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-487131-1.html

Geezer Bill Loc: San Diego County, CA

The image I'm sharing is of a Snowy Egret trying to avoid incoming surf. It was taken with a Nikon D810 with a Nikkor 70-300 lens set at 300mm. The exposure was 1/320 sec at f5.6 and ISO 125. It's easy to see in this situation this combination was even able to stop the motion of the moving water along with a moving bird. This is approximately a 50% crop of the original with out of focus water at the top and out of focus rocks at the bottom removed.

kcooke Loc: Alabama

Here is one shot on a D200. Program mode with auto ISO set for 100 ranging to 1600 I think no pp for this shot

kcooke Loc: Alabama

Sorry here is the photo

Sdubois Loc: Narragansett RI

Jim Bob is spot on, loved the comment! haha

It's not rocket science, a solid tripod or monopod, I shoot everything that moves at 1/2000 of a second minimum. That means cranking up ISO if necessary. My D500 does great locking on in AP-C in group mode, that means that the camera will lock on and change focus as needed on-the-fly on anything that enters the cross hairs after I have pushed the focus button. If I used AP-S mode it locks focus and doesn't changed until I have lifted my finger from the focus button this mode is great for stationary targets.

My best advice - Google is your friend.

Your lens is super important. The faster the lens the better the image. For this image I used a Nikon D810 and a 300mm f/2.8 at ISO800 1/2500 sec at f/5 for this image of a horse jumping. Look closely at the detail here, this horse is flying, the image is sharp and not blurred and my camera was not panning.

CO

Good information. I haven't been using auto ISO but will try it out more.

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

Great capture - true wildlife.