Amateur Photography - Wildlife, Aeroplanes

BrandonsBirbs · Jul 17, 2022

Never used a real camera before so this thread will be a showcase of what I capture on my journey to mastering the camera. Hopefully you will be able to see improvements along the way, and if anyone has any advice feel free to pitch in!

I am using a Panasonic Lumix FZ82.

Aeroplane Album

Wildlife Photos

mdees88 · Jul 18, 2022

Nice images, you are off to a good start. I like the "grey squirrel' and "mummy swan". I got into photography about 7 years ago and it has been a fun journey. I started off not knowing anything and through trial and error and watching a lot of YouTube videos I have improved quite a bit. Here are some tips I wrote for how take better wildlife pics....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wildlife-photography.1367815/page-9#post-22691023

BrandonsBirbs · Jul 19, 2022

mdees88 said:
Nice images, you are off to a good start. I like the "grey squirrel' and "mummy swan". I got into photography about 7 years ago and it has been a fun journey. I started off not knowing anything and through trial and error and watching a lot of YouTube videos I have improved quite a bit. Here are some tips I wrote for how take better wildlife pics....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wildlife-photography.1367815/page-9#post-22691023

Thank you, they're super helpful tips and I really like that you added photographic examples! I do struggle with getting close as the animals always seem so skittish so they second I make a sound they bounce. Really wish I could've gotten in front of the dragonfly but there was a pond in front of him haha! Would you happen to have any tips on how to photograph moving animals such as flying birds?

mdees88 · Jul 19, 2022

For moving animals you will want to shoot in shutter priority mode and you will want as fast of a shutter speed as light will allow (don't want the ISO to get too high though). For birds in flight I want at least 1/2000th of a second. Also you want your drive mode set to high speed continuous or burst mode so it takes as many images as fast as it can so you do not miss any action. Your AF mode should be set to AI servo which is called AFC on the lumix. This means the AF is constantly acquiring focus while the bird is moving. You can limit the AF area by going to 49 point, hit the down arrow, and set a 9pt cluster in the middle of the camera. This will give the camera a smaller area to focus in which will keep it from grabbing other things at the edge of the screen. But you will have to keep the bird in the middle of the screen for it to focus on him. IF its too hard you can leave it on 49 pt.

Over time you will get smooth at panning which will help and you will get better at keeping the birds inside the viewfinder when following them.

Birds in flight are one of the most challenging wildlife images to get. This is where using very high quality gear will benefit you the most. Fast lenses allow really fast shutter speeds and cameras with the latest AF systems can acquire and track the birds accurately through the sky. Taking pictures of static animals is MUCH easier and can be done with the most basic of equipment.

Don't want to discourage you from trying to get birds in flight just know it's not easy. Hold the shutter down and take a bunch of pics when they're flying. You will have to cull through them but eventually one will be in focus and sharp. It's best to do this in very good light so you can get your shutter speed up pretty high.

BrandonsBirbs · Jul 19, 2022

mdees88 said:
For moving animals you will want to shoot in shutter priority mode and you will want as fast of a shutter speed as light will allow (don't want the ISO to get too high though). For birds in flight I want at least 1/2000th of a second. Also you want your drive mode set to high speed continuous or burst mode so it takes as many images as fast as it can so you do not miss any action. Your AF mode should be set to AI servo which is called AFC on the lumix. This means the AF is constantly acquiring focus while the bird is moving. You can limit the AF area by going to 49 point, hit the down arrow, and set a 9pt cluster in the middle of the camera. This will give the camera a smaller area to focus in which will keep it from grabbing other things at the edge of the screen. But you will have to keep the bird in the middle of the screen for it to focus on him. IF its too hard you can leave it on 49 pt.

Over time you will get smooth at panning which will help and you will get better at keeping the birds inside the viewfinder when following them.

Birds in flight are one of the most challenging wildlife images to get. This is where using very high quality gear will benefit you the most. Fast lenses allow really fast shutter speeds and cameras with the latest AF systems can acquire and track the birds accurately through the sky. Taking pictures of static animals is MUCH easier and can be done with the most basic of equipment.

Don't want to discourage you from trying to get birds in flight just know it's not easy. Hold the shutter down and take a bunch of pics when they're flying. You will have to cull through them but eventually one will be in focus and sharp. It's best to do this in very good light so you can get your shutter speed up pretty high.

I'm not expecting it to be easy don't worry haha! Just definitely a goal I've set myself is to capture a good, clear photo of a bird flying. I take a long of aircraft too and I think it's almost similar, except aircraft follow a straight line and animals DO NOT!

Thank you so much for such a detailed response, especially tailored to my camera, that's fantastic. I will look at this later, I do know I already use the AFC and 49 modes with a maximum ISO set at 1600 and high-burst mode enabled. I found those settings relatively useful for birds sitting still too!

Going through many of my photos I have found that I don't seem to be able to focus on the animal/aircraft very well and the cameras focus keeps sticking to the plants surrounding them. I've tried to set a 9-block square but my photos still turned out the same. Not sure what my shutter speed is, will have to try and find it in my settings. My main challenge currently is just learning how to focus the camera better, quicker and stop myself from shaking.

I have a tripod coming tomorrow but I do not think it will be useful for most photos as I walk around pushing my baby in pushchair and don't have time to set it up everytime, will be handy for the garden though.

mdees88 · Jul 20, 2022

I have never used a tripod for wildlife. It's just not practical for me, might work around your house though. Shutter speed is VERY important for any fast moving animals. Definitely start shooting in shutter priority mode and set is as fast as you can without making the ISO out.

When you use 49pt mode the camera is looking at the whole screen and it's easier for it to accidentally focus on the wrong thing. I would switch back to 9pt for fast moving/flying subjects and try it for a while and make sure your shutter speed is at a bare minimum 1/1000 but preferably 1/2000 or faster.

For stationary animals I use a single AF point. The smallest one you can set. Then I have it in the center of screen and I place it on the animals eye. Then I will crop in later to compose my image. Sometimes I will move it around to better compose the image before I take the picture but it's much easier to leave it in the middle and crop later (if you don't mind losing a little resolution from cropping). I don't like giving the camera the full 49pt and much prefer using that single AF point. I know where I want the focus to be and many times the camera will get it wrong if you let it.... this is pretty much standard practice in wildlife photography. At least until the eye tracking came out on the newer mirrorless cameras...

BrandonsBirbs · Jul 20, 2022

The tripod never came lol. The reason I want to try it is purely because I have a few trees opposite our place which attract all the local birds and butterflies and I think it might be an easier/lazier approach for watching them.

Finally found how to change my shutter speeds, would keeping it at 1/2000 always be a silly idea? I'd assume not as it can affect stationary photos negatively.

I will try this eye trick the next time I take a photo of one stationary, I took some today but genuinely forgot to do this!! Hopefully the pictures look okay, I will post them soon.

Thanks again for your awesome help!

mdees88 · Jul 20, 2022

BrandonsQuails said:
The tripod never came lol. The reason I want to try it is purely because I have a few trees opposite our place which attract all the local birds and butterflies and I think it might be an easier/lazier approach for watching them.

Finally found how to change my shutter speeds, would keeping it at 1/2000 always be a silly idea? I'd assume not as it can affect stationary photos negatively.

I will try this eye trick the next time I take a photo of one stationary, I took some today but genuinely forgot to do this!! Hopefully the pictures look okay, I will post them soon.

Thanks again for your awesome help!

Keeping the shutter speed fast all the time would be fine but a lot of time there is not enough light available to do that. When you increase the shutter speed it let's in less light so the camera compensates by first opening the aperture up. Then once the aperture is wide open it will increase the ISO. Higher ISOs add noise to the image so you have to balance the shutter speed to keep ISO from getting too high.

If you are shooting a stationary bird and it's very bright outside, it's fine to use 1/2000 because your ISO will probably 100-400. But if you're set at 1/2000 and the ISO is at 1600 you are now introducing noise and reducing image quality unnecessarily because you could've shot at 1/400 which would reduce the ISO.

So rule of thumb is you always want to shoot the fastest shutter speed you can while also keeping the ISO pretty low.