Help me improve, please.

[Joanne]

Every situation will be different. I know that when shooting BIF (and I’ve only been doing that for the past two or three years) I try to keep my shutter speed above 1/2000, preferably 1/2500 or better. When I was shooting BIF with my D500 I always used shutter priority and let the camera manage the aperture, and I generally shot at an ISO of somewhere between 400 and 1200, preferring to keep it at 800 or lower. Having read Steve’s guides, and now shooting with the Z9 where AF tracking is improved, I plan to shoot next summer with auto-ISO for the first time. For static subjects, the question becomes more of what are you comfortable handholding and what shutter speed is really needed. With the 500 PF without the TC, I would be easily comfortable at 1/500 for a perched bird or a wading birds that were standing still; for birds floating on the water it would depend on whether they were moving fast enough for me to pan or not. The TC is going to change things a bit…it not only magnifies your image, but any shake/vibration is also magnified. Take your time, don’t be afraid to experiment and learn from the photographers here while relying on your own experience as well. The more you shoot the more it becomes second nature.

Thank you for your comments. I appreciate them.

 

[bleirer]

Yes, you are correct, EC was -.3

That makes more sense. I guess it just got fooled by all the dark water and pushed the exposure up. The blinkies should have been going off on those white areas and the histogram must have been climbing the right wall a bit. You can't always check when there is wildlife moving about.

 

[bleirer]

I thought it was -3, too. Look again, it is actually -.3.

The OP must have fixed it.

 

[jeffnles1]

Jeff, you are absolutely right about it being an ID photo, cute, but far from a "wow" shot. I live in Northern California, and we have been inundated with dark overcast skies and rain since the arrival of my Nikon 500 PF. I have been out in far less than-ideal, or interesting, lighting when there has been a break in the rain. The Bufflehead male's white breast was the brightest thing my camera had been pointed at for two weeks. I had been photographing with a Nikon 200-500mm, so the lighter and more water-resistant 500 PF lens was too tempting not to go out and try it on anything. Your critic is honest and spot on. Thank you.

Joanne,
Here in Kentucky we've had more than our fair share of dreary, gray, wet days since about the first of December. The sun was out today but I had commitments that did not involve being out in the field. The good news is "The sun will come out tomorrow" (or at least that is what Annie said).

Good stuff, I am looking forward to your photos with the new lens as you get better shooting conditions.

Jeff

 

[DRM]

Buffleheads are harder than a lot of other birds to expose right in camera. Their white almost seems to glow. I position a lowish sun at my back and expose for the whites as others have said. Then pull up the shadows on a masked subject in post. For me a flying bufflehead demands a shutter speed of 1/3200. On stationary birds, shoot pics in a series of steps, dropping your shutter speed and ISO down each step, or have two different modes readily available to try to get ISO as low as possible while still giving you sharp results.

I realize you have a D500 but you might one day ask what benefits a mirrorless camera could give you. With a mirrorless Nikon, it’s super easy to 1) see the actual exposure in camera and 2) super quick to magnify the subject 100% and 200% and check out how that exposure is rendering the various parts of the bird. When birds aren’t filling the frame, it’s tough for my eyes to accurately see what exactly is going on in the EVF of my Z 6II. So with a single button pushed I magnify the subject in camera to see if I need to tweak exposure up or down. For me that has made a big difference. Also, in camera stabilization coupled with lens VR has been great for dropping shutter speeds on stationary subjects which allows ISO to drop and results in overall better images, especially when shadows are pulled up later in post.

 

[Joanne]

Jeff, you are absolutely right about it being an ID photo, cute, but far from a "wow" shot. I live in Northern California, and we have been inundated with dark overcast skies and rain since the arrival of my Nikon 500 PF. I have been out in far less than-ideal, or interesting, lighting when there has been a break in the rain. The Bufflehead male's white breast was the brightest thing my camera had been pointed at for two weeks. I had been photographing with a Nikon 200-500mm, so the lighter and more water-resistant 500 PF lens was too tempting not to go out and try it on anything. Your critic is honest and spot on. Thank you.

Thank you!

 

[Turberticus]

Just wanted to chime in on the Buffleheads - get low if you can. Down to water level if possible. It will give you a MUCH better (distant) background while being at eye level, instead of having in focus water in front of and behind the bird, almost like you're looking down at them which is not ideal for Waterfowl photography.