Wildlife Photography

[mdees88]

I am finding the transition from 1200mm to 450mm so damn hard. I was using a 2X teleconverter but the images just weren't that amazing. DSLRs are much harder than I thought

I struggled when I started too. I took tons of pics of animals but they didn't look that good, even with high quality equipment. It wasn't until I realized how close people were getting to their subjects that I started taking better pics. You have to get CLOSE!!!

Now when I see an interesting subject, I won't even pick my camera up unless I can get close to it. If the terrain won't allow me to sneak closer, I say "well that's a cool bird"... and I move on...

 

[sandburRanch]

Hello, I figured out how to get some recent pictures onto a computer. Yesterday a saw a beautiful great blue heron as well as some fearless wild turkeys that would have made some nice pictures. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me...

Anyway, I was able to get some pictures of some chickadees and such.

Eris militaris female and male:
View attachment 3284607View attachment 3284608

White-breasted Nuthatch:
View attachment 3284613

Black-capped Chickadees:
View attachment 3284616
View attachment 3284620View attachment 3284622

(there was some man-made stuff in the background that I cropped out.... I dislike the look of most things unnatural in my pics)
View attachment 3284624

White-throated Sparrow:
View attachment 3284641
I'm not sure why, but all the bird pictures for some reason look a lot darker/have higher contrast than on the camera. It might just be the something with this specific computer's display, though.

Once i get a pic in a folder i can adjust bright and contrast .

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

I struggled when I started too. I took tons of pics of animals but they didn't look that good, even with high quality equipment. It wasn't until I realized how close people were getting to their subjects that I started taking better pics. You have to get CLOSE!!!

Now when I see an interesting subject, I won't even pick my camera up unless I can get close to it. If the terrain won't allow me to sneak closer, I say "well that's a cool bird"... and I move on...

Maybe it's because of how I do it? I go for a walk with my missus and our son in his pushchair around either a local farm or local pond. The pond is hard because you can't really get close to the cool looking birds as they sit on a island in the middle of the pond. I would love to be able to dedicate some real time to sneaking up on birds and sitting in brush waiting but I just unfortunately don't have it at the moment (would rather spend it with kids too tbh).

That's why I fully understand my photos will never be the level of most the ones posted here I just want to improve myself and be able to get a few here and there in that way.

Cheers as always @mdees88 !

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

Not perfect but my first somewhat sharp BIF

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

Some cormorant photos.. definitely doing something wrong with my ISO/aperture/shutter speeds, everywhere I read a different amount of this and that and idk I think that plays a big part in why these images are just missing it.. my focusing seems way off too especially as I think most of these were autofocus.. some were manual.. I was told f8.0, 1/4000 shutter, auto iso but I've been speaking to someone else who doesn't use Pentax cameras specifically and he said don't do that. Use f4.0-6.3, auto iso and most bif only need 1/2000 shutter speed, smaller ones need more but most you could even do with less. And that is definitely making a huge difference

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

I thought these would be great because they were close but idk if it's my editing or what.. they're really not fab..

This old one looks so much better.. yes the angle was better because it was summer, this angle isn't possible now thanks to the rain flooding the lake

 

[mdees88]

Some cormorant photos.. definitely doing something wrong with my ISO/aperture/shutter speeds, everywhere I read a different amount of this and that and idk I think that plays a big part in why these images are just missing it.. my focusing seems way off too especially as I think most of these were autofocus.. some were manual.. I was told f8.0, 1/4000 shutter, auto iso but I've been speaking to someone else who doesn't use Pentax cameras specifically and he said don't do that. Use f4.0-6.3, auto iso and most bif only need 1/2000 shutter speed, smaller ones need more but most you could even do with less. And that is definitely making a huge difference
View attachment 3289769View attachment 3289771View attachment 3289772View attachment 3289773

It's always a balancing act between shutter speed, aperture, and iso. I shoot in shutter priority 90% of the time which means I set the shutter speed and the camera adjusts aperture and iso automatically.

You want to make sure your iso is as close to 100 as possible because the higher the iso the more noise there is.

I'm usually somewhere around 1/400th for any birds that aren't flying. For flying birds I set it as fast as possible based on the available light. Most of the time this is 1/2000th. The faster the better but if you set it too fast, the iso will be high and your pic will be noisy. Most of the time there's not enough light available for me to shoot 1/4000th of a second. If it is bright enough i will though. 95% of my shots are less than 1/1000th on shutter speed, and flying shots are usually end up between 1/1000 and 1/2000.

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

It's always a balancing act between shutter speed, aperture, and iso. I shoot in shutter priority 90% of the time which means I set the shutter speed and the camera adjusts aperture and iso automatically.

You want to make sure your iso is as close to 100 as possible because the higher the iso the more noise there is.

I'm usually somewhere around 1/400th for any birds that aren't flying. For flying birds I set it as fast as possible based on the available light. Most of the time this is 1/2000th. The faster the better but if you set it too fast, the iso will be high and your pic will be noisy. There's almost never enough light available for me to shoot 1/4000th of a second. 95% of my shots are less than 1/1000th on shutter speed, and flying shots are usually end up between 1/1000 and 1/2000.

I've yet to do much playing around with Shutter Priority (that's Tv right?) So far been using TAv mode just to get used to everything and test different apertures. I read somewhere every lens has an aperture that has the most sharpness so been trying to find that? The guys I was getting help from advised I was told to use the 1/4000 and 1/2000 for still birds.. when I read that I thought that sounds stupid, how could a standstill bird need 1/2000.. nevertheless they persuaded me.. now to learn everything again lol. Did some still birds in 1/200 today I think they look better I'll see if I have time to process them soon. Thanks as always mdees

 

[mdees88]

I've yet to do much playing around with Shutter Priority (that's Tv right?) So far been using TAv mode just to get used to everything and test different apertures. I read somewhere every lens has an aperture that has the most sharpness so been trying to find that? The guys I was getting help from advised I was told to use the 1/4000 and 1/2000 for still birds.. when I read that I thought that sounds stupid, how could a standstill bird need 1/2000.. nevertheless they persuaded me.. now to learn everything again lol. Did some still birds in 1/200 today I think they look better I'll see if I have time to process them soon. Thanks as always mdees

Yes Tv. Yeah the 1/2000 still bird guy doesn't know what he's talking about unfortunately.

Most lenses are sharpest at F8. So the 1/2000-1/4000, f/8, auto ISO recommendation for flying birds is good advice, BUT.... not all the time can you use these settings because there won't be enough light and your ISO will be so high that you pics end up grainy.

Every time I adjust shutter speed I'm looking at my iso. I speed up the shutter speed until the ISO starts rising to 800 and then I'll stop. I don't like shooting at a higher iso than that even though my camera does a decent job at 1600, and even 3200. For you I would probably set 800 as my max and try to stay at 400 or 200 when possible.

If you want to test your gear to see what it is capable of, go outside on bright day with tye sun at your back, place a detailed object about 5 meters away, set your camera to f/8, iso 100, and at least 1/400 or higher shutter speed. (You can put in aperture priority f/8, iso 100 then the canera will set the shutter speed). Then take some pictures. These will be the sharpest pictures possible with your setup. That should give you a baseline of what to expect...

 

[BrandonsBirbs]

F6.7 - 1/125s - 300mm - ISO 320​

A picture from today with new settings, was pretty damn close, other than the objects around the image I like it. Will leave some other examples below.

F6.7 - 1/200s - ISO 800​

F6.7 - 1/2000s - ISO 3200 (not great)​

F6.7 - 1/200s - ISO 800​