Camera Settings.

All modern cameras come with the ability to operate in full automatic mode. As the photographer all you need to do is point and shoot. For everyday photographs, snaps of the family, landscapes, holiday pictures, etc. this is fine. However, you'll not get many good bird photographs in this mode. This is because birds are often lurking in the dark or flitting about rapidly or they are posed against low contrast backgrounds and all of these create problems that a camera in fully automatic mode will not be able to handle.

There are a number of semi-automatic options that you can use and of course, you can also go fully manual. So what are the main semi-automatic modes and when would you choose to use them and in what circumstances would you go fully manual? Well based on my own humble experience I hope that the information below will help you to make a decision. I use terms such as aperture, ISO and the like, so if you are not familiar with camera jargon, read my camera jargon page first and may be do a little research on the internet to ensure that you understand these photography terms properly.

Let's start with shutter priority mode. This mode allows you to set the desired shutter speed and ISO whilst allowing the camera to calculate the best aperture for the lens you have attached. If you choose a speed that is too fast for your attached lens the calculated aperture value will be the maximum your lens can provide and if the value flashes in your view finder then it isn't enough and your picture will be too dark (under-exposed). You'll need to either increase the ISO and/or reduce the shutter speed until the value stops flashing. I don't use this mode often even though high shutter speeds are desirable. I think correct exposure is more important. Of course, fast shutter speeds of 1/250^th of a second or less are usually needed to 'freeze' any movement of the bird and to reduce camera shake if you are using a telephoto lens. You can get away with slower speeds in some cases (as I have found out with experience), however it is true the faster the speed the more chance you have of freezing motion and getting a sharper picture. In fact, if you're trying to photograph a bird in flight, you might want to consider a shutter speed of 1/1000^th of a second to 1/8000^th if the light is good. So I tend to use this mode only in very bright light when I can get a really fast shutter speed.

Fast shutter speeds have one major drawback. They don't allow much light to hit the film or the digital sensor and so tend to result in darker (under exposed) pictures in poor light. When I first started taking digital pictures I found this to be happening most of the time, since my lens did not allow the aperture to open wide enough in most circumstances where I wanted a fast shutter speed but where the light was not good. Sadly poor light is often the norm in the grey North West of England and birds are often in cover or under the canopy of trees, even if the sun is out. That's why I usually use aperture priority mode. This is where I set the aperture value and allow the cameras meter to work out the best shutter speed for correct exposure. The advantages of this are that on really bright days it will use really fast shutter speeds 1/1000 or less for really sharp images. If the light isn't that good and the shutter speed comes out between 1/100 and 1/250 of a second, then I take a rapid burst of several shots. I keep doing this as long as the subject is obliging. Most are usually distorted by slight movement but I find that a few a sufficiently sharp to keep me happy and of course, they don't suffer from chronic under-exposure. If the speed comes out at slower than 1/100 of a second, I still sometimes try a rapid burst but I also increase the ISO setting, all the way up to 1600 if necessary. This helps by making the sensor more sensitive to light and allowing the shutter speed to increase. So what aperture to use? Well if the light isn't great set it to the maximum your lens will allow, focus on the birds head, adjust the ISO if the calculated shutter speed is less than 1/100 second and take your shots. If the light is great try an aperture setting of 6.3 or even 7.1 for really sharp pictures across a good depth of field. I don't usually go above 7.1 as I like the depth of field to be fairly narrow. Not so narrow as to get the head in focus and the tail out of focus, but I like a sharp image of the bird against a soft blurred background. It's makes the bird stand out better.

Let's consider ISO for a moment. If the lighting isn't good and your aperture is wide open and you are still getting a slow shutter speed, then increasing the ISO setting (if you're using a digital camera that is) can help you get correct exposure with a faster shutter speed. There is a price to pay however. The higher the ISO the more 'noise' (grainy texture to the image) you get. So if the light is good try to stick to low ISO settings of 100 or 200. I used to hate ISO 400 or above because the grainy nature of the pictures was pretty horrible in my opinion. However, as camera sensors and processor technology and other technology, such as noise reduction features of photo editing software, have improved, I no longer mind using high ISO values, even up to 1600. In fact without doing this I would not have got some of the pictures I have taken. If you have a full frame shot with little cropping needed then the results can be almost as satisfactory as with lower ISO. Of course, 'noise' is exaggerated by enlarging the picture so there are limits to the use of high ISO that may affect image quality.

Exposure adjustment may be needed at times. The cameras metering system (the bit that works out the shutter speed when your in aperture priority mode or the aperture if your in shutter priority mode) can at times be fooled. If your subject is mostly white or very pale you may get an under-exposed image and likewise if your subject is black or very dark you may get an over-exposed image. This is made worse if you have a white bird against a light background or a dark bird against a dark background. Also if the bird only fills a small portion of your frame and the background is pale sky, you may get an under-exposed image even if the bird is dark. Most modern cameras allow you to adjust exposure by up to two stops up or down in 1/3 stop increments. So if you have a situation where you have a dark bird against a dark background you can decrease the exposure a little and for a pale bird against a pale background you can increase the exposure a little. Just how much will depend on the circumstances. I use between +/- 1 and 2 stops depending on the circumstances. Find yourself a seagull on a post against the sky, a swan under an grey overcast sky or a blackbird in your garden and practice until you are confident with this technique. Make sure you are familiar with your cameras controls for adjusting exposure. They are usually quite simple to use.

As an alternative to exposure adjustment, you can have a go with full manual mode. For a seagull on a post for example, set the camera in aperture priority mode and focus on some nearby object that is as equally well lit as the bird but with a more average mix of light and dark tones. Note the shutter speed the camera suggests. Switch to manual mode and set the same aperture and shutter speed. This should be correct for the bird too. Experiment a little with some fixed objects until you are happy with this technique.

Metering is also something that you need to consider. Metering examines the image in the view finder and analyses the mixture of light and dark tones to calculate a shutter speed and/or aperture setting to correctly expose the image. There are several types of metering. I normally use spot metering. This is where only the centre of this image is analysed. This is handy as I seldom get close enough for a bird to fill the frame and yet the bird is the subject of my picture and so by using spot metering in these circumstances I can get better exposure calculations for the bird itself rather than for the whole image. However, if you are very close to the bird this can cause problems. I recently photographed a razorbill at St Bees Head in Cumbria that was incredibly close but forgot to switch to evaluative metering (where the whole image is analysed). When the bird faced me the camera took a reading from its white breast only and I got an almost black image except for the white breast. Likewise when it turned it's back, the meter analysed the black feathers only and resulted in a gross over-exposure. So whilst I recommend spot metering most of the time, be careful to consider the metering mode if you are close to the bird, especially if it is very dark or very light bird.

At present I don't use flash. I do have a EX580 Speedlite but it's range is inadequate in most cases. You can buy a device called a Better Beamer that focuses the beam and improves the range. I'd only really experiment with this if I was in cover and fairly close to the birds. It could be useful for freezing birds in flight and could also be useful for providing some gentle fill-in flash if the natural light direction is unfavourable. However, it often startles your subject limiting the number of shots you can get and I'm uncomfortable with causing birds unnecessary disturbance. In addition, if you're not alone, your fellow bird watchers might not be impressed if you spook the bird that they were watching.

When it comes to picture quality, I use RAW, large, fine setting. This allows me the best editing options using photo editing software later. If you don't have a RAW format editor I recommend that you get one. If not, use the best possible JPEG setting (i.e. 'large' and 'fine').

At present, I pretty much leave everything else as default settings. You can alter colour balance and other things before taking your pictures but it is easier to do these things with photo editing software afterwards.