At Lake Belverdere at Olympic park about a week ago... just might print this one as I really love the atmosphere.
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Thats a cool photo Sue, I see why you like it.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Very nice! Love the mood and lighting.
Technical question Sue (cos I'm trying to learn). EXIF data shows Aperture Priority was used, but not the aperture itself. I guess at 600mm that was on the Tamron 150-600, which at 600 has max aperture of 6.3, and presumably you were shooting at that to achieve 1/1250th. As we would normally be shooting wide open to get max shutter speed, and that is determined by the lens anyway, my question is why you'd shoot AP rather than SP? Would have thought SP would give you more control of the shutter speed, and then let the camera determine required ISO (or go full manual). Thanks, just trying to learn how you work.
Sorry Sue if I'm butting in, not sure I can answer your question Alex, but I will explain MY rationale for shooting Aperture Priority (on the Canon), and maybe some other questions will arise or be satisfied without needing to ask. I will also point out that I am learning big time as I go. I let the Nikon P900 do its own thing with scene set to birding - mixed results but overall I end up with some keepers.
I think aperture priority is better for potentially moving object, and shutter priority better for stills. Shutter priority on night shoots - need long shutter speeds and probably a tripod to get good exposure, with aperture open and auto ISO, High ISO can also result in grainy images with fast shutter speeds.
The most important thing IMHO is the amount of light which is allowed to contact the image sensor. If you are post processing your photos, you can lighten or darken the image to a certain extent, but it is hard to repair a badly out of focus/blurry subject. You also can't add more light after the event. I haven't started post processing yet, I am still trying to get my head around the camera. Hopefully over the next few weeks I will start tinkering to improve my end results.
I think shutter priority for potentially fast moving objects is asking to much of the camera, and poor photos will be the result. This also puts restrictions on the amount of light you can allow in. With my Canon, if I try to shoot with Sutter priority in poor lighting, the camera says NO, it actually won't take a picture if the aperture can't open up enough. This becomes more critical with longer lenses, as they allow less light to reach the sensor anyway (physics, I think).
You can adjust shutter speed according to what your subject is, for example a fast moving object will require a fast shutter speed to "capture the moment", otherwise you may have an out of focus image (BIF for example). Alternately a slower shutter speed will allow you to get more depth of field, and reduce the noise in the picture (portraits for example). Fast shutter speeds will result in a shallower depth of field, and more background noise, resulting in a "flatter" or less 3 dimensional image. I actually like an element of noise or bokeh to highlight some subjects.
I usually allow ISO to take care of itself (auto ISO) as it can be easy to up the ISO (thinking more light is a good thing) resulting in over exposed images, talking from experience here! Again it is harder to fix badly over/under exposed images.
On most modern DSLRs you can also adjust Exposure Compensation, if your test image is too light or dark.
I like to take a couple of photos, and review on the screen, what the final result might look like. You can also on most DSLRS review the histogram, which gives an indication of exposure, and using this info, you an adjust exposure compensation and or shutter speed accordingly. This is fine if your in an even light situation, but becomes tricky if your walking through a forest, with lots of different lighting situations!
At the end of the day, you should expiremnt with various settings in different light scenarios and do whatever works best for you.
Hopefully answered some of your questions, and as always, look forward to other opinions, particularly from Sue, as the question was directed at her!
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Hi Alex and Dale,
I agree with Dale and thanks for the comment. Light is the key. Everything he has said is good. I sometimes go full Manual after choosing a suitable ISO as with the Tawnies and if the light is even but generally use Aperture Priority and leave the camera to decide speed. .
This photo is unprocessed except to downsize before upload as it did not require any improvement to my mind... not even cropped. It was taken at 2.06pm under a nice clear sky with the D500 and Tamron zoomed right out to 600mm or very close to that as I usually pull back a fraction. I was careful to focus on the bird's head and took a burst of shots as it came in and commenced bathing --- having trouble picking my favourite. Good focus and stable hold in good light. I look at the histogram rather than trusting what I see on the camera screen as it is deceptive and when the whites blow out it is the point of no return. Post-processing won't recover them.
Auto ISO was 250; Aperture Priority set at F/8 so I had some depth of field which helps if the focal point is slightly off; Spot Metering so that the white balance was set on the bird and the whites not blown; Speed was set by the camera at 1/1250 sec.
It came together well. I liked the atmosphere of the dark background and the white was good. Some earlier shots had a few highlights blown out but a slight change in postion corrected that. I was lucky! This setup is a fast combination. Not one of my BIF is Shutter Priority.
Hope that is of some help but really practice is the only way and decide what works for you.
Thanks for the considered replies Dale and Sue.