Shutter Priority Mode on the Nikon D500

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gjh

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Hobbyist photographer here and I mainly shoot wildlife. Birds in particular, because we have a lot of birds in Florida. I have the Nikon D500 with the 200-500 mm lens. I have been shooting in Shutter Priority with Auto ISO. It is my understanding that in Shutter Priority, I set the shutter where I want (ie: 1/2000 sec for a fast bird) and the camera will adjust the ISO and aperture. The thing I am finding and find very frustrating is my aperture on the 2-500mm is always at 5.6. Even on bright sunny days. There are times when 5.6 works out great, but other times it doesn't. They say the "sweet spot" for this lens is somewhere around F8 and that would have worked to my advantage recently when I was shooting two Great Blue Herons during their mating ritual, but the camera chose 5.6 so the heron behind the one in front is not sharp. Do I need to take off Auto ISO so the aperture will change? I have tried Manual Mode and in situations where I have more time it works out good, but I'm not experienced enough for the changing conditions that you encounter when shooting wildlife. Any suggestions are appreciated. TIA
 
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Yup - what Warren says. M + Auto ISO is the best way to do BIF with autoexposure (actually, the best way to do los any wildlife with autoexposure). It puts you in the driver's seat of the two most important controls - shutter speed and F/stop. Once you try it, you'll wonder how you lived without it. I won't shoot wildlife in any other autoexposure mode.

This video is from 2014 but still just as relevant today:
 
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I totally agree with Warren on all counts. During the film days shutter-preferred or manual were my primary choice of settings. But with the present DSLRs the best option is manual with auto ISO. Then compensate with exposure compensation if needed.
 
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Manual with auto ISO for sure if dealing with variable exposure conditions - but remember that the camera will set ISO to give what IT thinks is the correct exposure, so you still need to dial-in exposure comp (+/-) if the matrix metering is off (that's another one of Steve's priceless videos - just need to combine both).
All manual is good too if you don't need to constantly change exposure and I found it easier when I tried with mirrorless since you see how "off" you may be - especially if you can overlay a histogram in a corner (I shot quite a few times with a fuji Xpro2 and that was one of my favorite features).
 
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gjh said:
Hobbyist photographer here and I mainly shoot wildlife. Birds in particular, because we have a lot of birds in Florida. I have the Nikon D500 with the 200-500 mm lens. I have been shooting in Shutter Priority with Auto ISO. It is my understanding that in Shutter Priority, I set the shutter where I want (ie: 1/2000 sec for a fast bird) and the camera will adjust the ISO and aperture. The thing I am finding and find very frustrating is my aperture on the 2-500mm is always at 5.6. Even on bright sunny days. There are times when 5.6 works out great, but other times it doesn't. They say the "sweet spot" for this lens is somewhere around F8 and that would have worked to my advantage recently when I was shooting two Great Blue Herons during their mating ritual, but the camera chose 5.6 so the heron behind the one in front is not sharp. Do I need to take off Auto ISO so the aperture will change? I have tried Manual Mode and in situations where I have more time it works out good, but I'm not experienced enough for the changing conditions that you encounter when shooting wildlife. Any suggestions are appreciated. TIA
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You are setting one parameter of three and leaving the camera to decide on the other two (aperture and ISO) without a way of telling the camera to prioritize one of the two settings. That's leaving too much control up to the camera, with the results that you get. After reading Steve's recommendations I set the camera's dial to manual and select my own shutter speed and aperture. ISO is set to Auto, allowing the camera to select only that one parameter while I control the other two. Since starting that I've never looked back.
 
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