No issues at all and thank you for your response. I would never tell someone to do anything other than what works for them.

I wish that I had the luxury of shooting with decent lighting. My birding efforts are usually early when feeding is active. I prefer to shoot at F8 with a minimum 1/1250 and auto-iso, but often have to step up the speed and open up the aperture. Lol, lot of practice and thank goodness iso is a little more tolerable with some cameras. Ten to twenty thousand is not at all uncommon!

Keep posting those shots, fine job!

First: grandpaw, I want express appreciation for your topic. If every experienced photographer on UHH would post a tutorial or informational topic once a week, just imagine how this site would be changed for the better.

Two: just as important, you walk the walk! Here is one of your fantastic recent photographs for those who haven't looked for themselves: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-553593-1.html

The misunderstanding about whom Dave was originally speaking to aside, I also "grew up" with shutter priority as the go-to option for subjects that are moving. Smileangler's comment, "I have been trying to figure out how to get more speed to stop motion" speaks to the importance of understanding the properties of each setting, and most important how they work together. With experience comes falling into a routine of using what works best for each of us. Mine for the past year is auto ISO

Again, thank you for your time and inspiring talent!

I didn't even know auto ISO existed 18 months ago

Pro photographer and UHH member Steve Perry mentions its benefits here.

As one person in grandpaw's thread mentioned, I also have become quite wobbly. So setting my shutter speed and aperture while letting the ISO float (except in specific lighting conditions when I'll set it myself) has been a great solution.

I didn't even know auto ISO existed 18 months ago

Pro photographer and UHH member Steve Perry mentions its benefits here.

As one person in grandpaw's thread mentioned, I also have become quite wobbly. So setting my shutter speed and aperture while letting the ISO float (except in specific lighting conditions when I'll set it myself) has been a great solution.

I am going to share the settings I use for most of my wildlife photos. I have three cameras, a Nikon D7000, Nikon D600, and my Nikon D500. The D500 is what I use about 95% of the time and the lenses I use are a Nikon 70-200VR F2.8 and add a 2x extender sometimes for more reach. I also use my Tamron 150-600mm a lot and both of these lenses are the original versions. I normally shoot in “Aperture Priority Mode” because controlling the depth of field is very important to the look I like and my style of photography. Most of my images are shot at f8 or F9 depending on the distance to the subject being photographed. The longer the distance the more depth of field you will get and the closer the distance the less depth of field you will see.

I am sharing this information and I will add that it works for me and my style of shooting and may or may not work for you. The first thing I do is set my ISO to 500 and make sure my camera is on aperture priority. If the subject is close by I use F9 and for further away subjects I use F8 to get me the depth of field I am looking for. This combination gives me the needed shutter speed for just about anything I wish to photograph. Often I will have a minus 1/3 to one full stop of exposure compensation. I try to get a background that is not busy and with the shallow depth of field I get, this combination makes my subjects stand out from the background and look more like a portrait. These settings are NOT a one size fits all group of settings but do work well for me. I will add that I have extremely steady hands and that plays in to the settings I choose to use. I might add that I shoot almost everything hand held and seldom use a tripod.

Your camera, shooting technique, shooting situation, lens and experience all play into what settings will work for you. Remember that these settings work for me using my experience, my equipment and knowledge of my equipment and is not meant to say that this will also work for you. This is just meant as another option you can try and see if it works for you.

If you check the EXIF data on some of my pictures and it does not match this, please don’t waste your time pointing it out to me. These are general settings that I use and work for most of my photography.

If you find this helpful, thats great and if not just disregard this post and do it your way. Grandpaw

Most of my shooting is done during the day and by setting the ISO at 500 with the F-stop of 8 or 9 this gives me the shutter speed I need to stop any motion that my subjects have. I have taken horse shows with riding and jumping. birds in flight a lot, and baseball games and many other things during the day without any problems and it worked well. If I take football or lacrosse pictures at night then obviously these settings will have to change but as I said these work for the vast majority of what I shoot which is wildlife during the day. I plainly said these work for what I shoot and may or may not work for you.

My very first sentence said "I am going to share the settings I use for most of my wildlife photos." Another sentence said These settings are NOT a one size fits all group of settings but do work well for me." Wildlife is my main interest and is why I posted what I did.

Depending on the event I would up the ISO and use a larger F-stop to gain a faster shutter speed to stop the action. Also panning would be very helpful.

I am going to share the settings I use for most of my wildlife photos. I have three cameras, a Nikon D7000, Nikon D600, and my Nikon D500. The D500 is what I use about 95% of the time and the lenses I use are a Nikon 70-200VR F2.8 and add a 2x extender sometimes for more reach. I also use my Tamron 150-600mm a lot and both of these lenses are the original versions. I normally shoot in “Aperture Priority Mode” because controlling the depth of field is very important to the look I like and my style of photography. Most of my images are shot at f8 or F9 depending on the distance to the subject being photographed. The longer the distance the more depth of field you will get and the closer the distance the less depth of field you will see.

I am sharing this information and I will add that it works for me and my style of shooting and may or may not work for you. The first thing I do is set my ISO to 500 and make sure my camera is on aperture priority. If the subject is close by I use F9 and for further away subjects I use F8 to get me the depth of field I am looking for. This combination gives me the needed shutter speed for just about anything I wish to photograph. Often I will have a minus 1/3 to one full stop of exposure compensation. I try to get a background that is not busy and with the shallow depth of field I get, this combination makes my subjects stand out from the background and look more like a portrait. These settings are NOT a one size fits all group of settings but do work well for me. I will add that I have extremely steady hands and that plays in to the settings I choose to use. I might add that I shoot almost everything hand held and seldom use a tripod.

Your camera, shooting technique, shooting situation, lens and experience all play into what settings will work for you. Remember that these settings work for me using my experience, my equipment and knowledge of my equipment and is not meant to say that this will also work for you. This is just meant as another option you can try and see if it works for you.

If you check the EXIF data on some of my pictures and it does not match this, please don’t waste your time pointing it out to me. These are general settings that I use and work for most of my photography.

If you find this helpful, thats great and if not just disregard this post and do it your way. Grandpaw