Question for bird photographers: When going for bifs, I usually set my Canon 7D on shutter priority and start with 1/1000. The other day I had taken some shots on aperture priority and...

nat Loc: Martha's Vineyard, MA

When going for bifs, I usually set my Canon 7D on shutter priority and start with 1/1000. The other day I had taken some shots on aperture priority and forgot to change over when I went to shoot terns flying around and feeding in the harbor. When I downloaded the photos on my computer later I was very surprised to see that the shutter speed can go up to 1/8000 and that the camera adjusted the shutter speed very well depending on whether I was shooting terns in the sky or with a background of ferry boats or trees. So, my question is:When shooting birds in flight is it acceptable technique to set the camera on aperture priority(instead of shutter priority) and let the amount of light dictate the shutter speed. It seemed to work very well for me at that time. I've always believed that aperture priority was for stills and shutter priority was for moving objects, but this seemed to be the exception. Was I just lucky, or is there something to this?

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

90% of the time I shoot in Aperture Priority. ISO 400 so I have plenty of speed for the shutter. If really bright I back the ISO off. Mind you this is when I have plenty of light. When it gets darker you can still use aperture priority and set camera to ISO 800. Any more than that and the noise is just to much. Also when you have two birds or groups you need to set aperture to at least F/9 or higher to get all in focus. You will loose shots either way. With shutter Priority you loose shots if to bright and with Aperture Priority when to dark. With BIF they can fly thru all conditions. Really, what works for you is the most important.. If it ain't broke don't fix it......

nat Loc: Martha's Vineyard, MA

fstop22 wrote:

90% of the time I shoot in Aperture Priority. ISO ... (show quote)

Thank you very much. This is kind of a breakthrough for me!

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

Just remember when they fly threw dark areas your shutter speed will be to slow. If sitting still than no problem. If you learn both shutter and aperture priority then your ahead of the game and know when to choose either for the best shot.

nat wrote:

quote=fstop22 90% of the time I shoot in Aperture... (show quote)

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

When I am shooting birds, I use manual. 1/2000, f/8, ISO 800 with my canon 500 mm. It is a permutation of the sunny 16 rule. That way, a bird that is in sunlight is always exposed correctly regardless of the background. I will adjust aperture first then shutter speed if I have less light.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

I think Nat was talking about birds in flight, where as they fly in and out of different light. I would never lock both settings in with Birds In Flight, Unless I left ISO on Auto.

birdpix wrote:

When I am shooting birds, I use manual. 1/2000, f/8, ISO 800 with my canon 500 mm. It is a permutation of the sunny 16 rule. That way, a bird that is in sunlight is always exposed correctly regardless of the background. I will adjust aperture first then shutter speed if I have less light.

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

fstop22 wrote:

I think Nat was talking about birds in flight, where as they fly in and out of different light. I would never lock both settings in with Birds In Flight, Unless I left ISO on Auto.

birdpix wrote:

When I am shooting birds, I use manual. 1/2000, f/8, ISO 800 with my canon 500 mm. It is a permutation of the sunny 16 rule. That way, a bird that is in sunlight is always exposed correctly regardless of the background. I will adjust aperture first then shutter speed if I have less light.

The truth is that most of the bird photographers I know use aperture priority for BIF's. It works well under most conditions. I cut my eye teeth on a Nikon Photomic FTN, a completely ,manual camera, so I am quite comfortable adjusting the settings on the fly. I do use aperture priority and auto ISO when the conditions warrant such as partly cloudy skies or birds in shaded areas. Everyone has to find what works for them and what they are comfortable with.

Brian Thomas

Although, not an expert by any means, I reckon the priority is to become totally conversant with whatever camera you are using, so that you can change from one to the other in an instant as you need to. If you have to take the camera away from your eye to check what you are doing, then you probably are not conversant enough with your gear, and need to spend time on that first. It just might mean that you get 'The Shot' that we are all looking for.

krf4 Loc: Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

This is what is most impressive about the UHH forum, you learn so much even if it is not your question. I just picked up some clarification and information, so thanks again.

oldmalky Loc: West Midlands,England.

When I was having problems with my bird pics a pro advised me to shoot in A mode which I now do.

oldtool2 Loc: South Jersey

birdpix wrote:

When I am shooting birds, I use manual. 1/2000, f/8, ISO 800 with my canon 500 mm. It is a permutation of the sunny 16 rule. That way, a bird that is in sunlight is always exposed correctly regardless of the background. I will adjust aperture first then shutter speed if I have less light.

Great answer, I agree and try to do this but often back off to 1/1600, 1/1250 at the lowest. If I am not in manual I am in AV. I would be happy if my camera only had these two setting. I very rarely use TV. I have tried it a number of times but seem to switch back to AV or manual sometime during the shoot.

You can tell I shoot Canon, AV = aperture priority, TV = shutter priority

Jim D

MtnMan Loc: ID

I plan to shoot a different type of BIF this Saturday (Blue Angels) with my Sigma 150-500. I already know that when swiging it around I don't have enough dexterity to also fiddle with camera settings.

I have a D5100. I recently discovered using shutter priority on Osprey and it seemed to work pretty good with ISO set at 500.

With the D5100 I could set the minimum shutter speed to something like 1/1000, use Aperture priority, and let ISO float (Auto). Would that work?

(They don't flap their wings much.)

Why aperture priority anyway?

He was onto me!

MtnMan Loc: ID

MtnMan wrote:

With the D5100 I could set the minimum shutter speed to something like 1/1000, use Aperture priority, and let ISO float (Auto). Would that work?

(They don't flap their wings much.)

Oh, and although I usually use spot focus for everything I switch from matrix to spot metering for big birds. Do you all do that also?

PS: I also found it desirable to set the camera to continuous shooting and AE/AF lock. That way I can follow the bird with the shutter release held down and the camera will take the shot when it is focused and metered.

MtnMan Loc: ID

Deleted repost.

acellis Loc: Charleston, SC

MtnMan, w the exception of the shutter speed/Apreture and ISO setting I set my D5100 the same way. I generally set shutter to focal and apreture to 7.1 which is the cleanest setting for my lense. I then adjust iso mannually until the exposure is correct. I toss too many photos so after reading this I am going to try your method and go to A mode. I don't like grain at all so I try and keep ISO <= 800. I will try it this weekend. Thanks for the post.

Arthur