Settings Advice

I'm hoping there might be some bird watchers on this site that could help me figure out some settings. I'm going on a bird banding adventure in which cameras are welcome, but I don't know what settings to use. I've only had the D3200 since February and have pretty much just stuck to guide mode thus far. Obviously, I don't want to use flash and I see there is a "no flash" type icon on the mode dial, so I was hoping that would be appropriate. I have used Aperture mode at times but it seems to want to use flash even when I don't ask it to. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

What lens do you have?
Are you shooting birds from a distance or in an enclosed place like a zoo?
if it's in the open you'll need a zoom lens obviously.
flash will be of no use, cos it wouldn't reach more than a few feet away..

shoot in AF-C mode, try to keep the shutter speed as fast as possible so you can freeze the action and can take multiple shots
3d tracking would be good too.

Regarding your second query, are you shooting in 'A'perture mode or 'A'uto mode?
if it's in auto mode, the flash will fire if it 'feels' there's not sufficient light

I would try shutter priority. Birds are fast and you probably want to keep your shutter speed up. Of course ideally, you need to start practicing shooting in manual mode. I know it may appear to be daunting but once you master it you will never go back.

Sorry, I have a 18-55 and a 55-200. I will have them both with me,but feel I will be using the 18-55 more. The atmosphere is an outdoor nature preserve, but participants will be able to hold and get very close to the birds (I've never been, so I can't say how close exactly, but I've seen pictures from past events in which its sort of like a camp fire setting).

Aperture mode is what I've shot in and have the flash pop up on it's own accord.

WhiteLight said:

What lens do you have?
Are you shooting birds from a distance or in an enclosed place like a zoo?
if it's in the open you'll need a zoom lens obviously.
flash will be of no use, cos it wouldn't reach more than a few feet away..

shoot in AF-C mode, try to keep the shutter speed as fast as possible so you can freeze the action and can take multiple shots
3d tracking would be good too.

Regarding your second query, are you shooting in 'A'perture mode or 'A'uto mode?
if it's in auto mode, the flash will fire if it 'feels' there's not sufficient light

Click to expand...

If you are doing ringing, you should be able to almost be on top of the bird. I would use the 55-200 tho. Wide angle may give you some unwanted distortion.

It sounds like you will be near the nets? Instead of in the woods looking for the birds as you would birding.

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mellie1984 said:

Sorry, I have a 18-55 and a 55-200. I will have them both with me,but feel I will be using the 18-55 more. The atmosphere is an outdoor nature preserve, but participants will be able to hold and get very close to the birds (I've never been, so I can't say how close exactly, but I've seen pictures from past events in which its sort of like a camp fire setting).

Aperture mode is what I've shot in and have the flash pop up on it's own accord.

Click to expand...

Take the 55-200mm lens as Deezey suggested. Less distortion and has reach just in case you needed it.

As to the shots themselves, it will depend on how close you are and what bird it is and if its small or large.

First, keep your lens somewhere off of either end of the extreme zoom range. For example, shoot close shots at say 60mm length and telephoto shots at the 180mm length. Some lenses don't like either extreme end of their zoom range.

Second, if you are close to the bird and it is relatively still you can use the AF-S mode for AF Single servo. This will allow you to get locked focus directly on the eyes of the bird which is what you want. If you are shooting a bird that is moving a lot, or even flying around, set the AF mode to AF-C for continuous focus servo.

I would plan on using Aperture Priority Mode, set aperture to f/8 to keep enough depth of field to get all of the bird in focus. Shutter Priority is fine to stop motion blur but you will need to keep your depth of field in control or you will come out with a lot of out of focus bird shots.

If you do use a wider aperture, say f/4.5 or f/5.6, you will need to be very diligent that your focus is on the eyes and that the eyes are perfectly focused. If not, you will have a bird with blurry eyes and sharp, in focus, neck feathers or beak area.

If it were me I would use Auto ISO and set the ISO not to go higher than ISO 800 so you can keep the grain and noise levels down. While in that menu set the minimum shutter speed to not drop below 1/1000th sec. If you have good daylight this will work.If its cloudy or dark day you will not get away with this setting.

Make sure the sun is coming from behind you and lights the birds body without a ton of shadows or without a silhouette.

I suggest to shoot RAW/NEF format if you have the software to edit and work with RAW files. If not, shoot JPEG High, set sharpening levels to +7, and set color to Vivid.



Also, read this entire thread I started. You will see my progress from horrible bird shots to what I consider are fantastic shots because of the help I got here on this forum.

http://nikonites.com/wild-life/17882-my-bird-shots-just-horrible-i-need-some-help.html#axzz2ydlnmVrS

I would suggest that you shoot in RAW. The basic software - View NX is free and supplied with the camera. Download it if you do not have it.

Secondly try to be away from the 55mm end of 18-55 (limit your self to 40-45mm). Similarly is possible avoid the 200mm end and try to be within 150mm. The reason is that though they are not bad, the longer ends of both zooms are a bit soft, so that your photographs are not as sharp as they can be.

The utility of a sharp lense is that you can then use the full power of the 24MP sensor.


This is a 100% crop, taken with the 50mm prime. Note how sharp it is even though blown up a lot. That is the advantage of a high MP sensor. With proper lense you can crop the hell out of it and still get a decent image.