Foto at top: Holland 2022 Great Spotted Woodpecker size 25cm distance 25m equivalent 750mm, direct sunlight and shadow shadow, Z50 Nikkor 500mm f/5.6 PF VR standard camouflage, extraordinary light contrast in this example picture. APERTURE Mode Birds 1/750 second f/5.6 ISO 560 -1.5 EV. Crop 2600 x 2400. RAW workflow: suffficient detail, light and color contrast in all areas of the picture.
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Introduction
If you happen to be a so called “serious enthousiast birder photographer” it may take you considerable time and effort acquiring the right equipment that fits your budget and developing the necessary knowledge about birds and photograpging skills. Last but not least you have to optimally set your equipment and avoid this almost continuous “check & reset of your camera during actual photography! This site wil help you out. We wish you much joy and losts of luck in your bird photography!
Camera settings for certain categories of bird photography
In this blog we talk about optimal settings in bird photography. As representative camera’s and lenses and converters we chose Nikon DSLR D500 and Nikon mirrorless Z50 and Z7 II, Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF VR and Nikkor 500mm f/45.6 PF VR both using Phase Fresnel technology, TC-14E III and aspherical TC-20E III.
You really don’t need full pro equipment, often quite heavy and expensive, equipment any more. Modern lightweight equipment and the right settings thereof will do the job for you perfectly as long as you don’t disturb our endangerd birds! We keep saying this. Also to ourselves, day after day! We definitely see species defiinitely disappearing almost year after year. Please use effective camouflage and stay at safe distance from the birds, especially in spring when they need to recover after long yournies and start their breeding and feeding. We will show the specific settings of Nikon camera’s suitable for lightweight bird photography at separate pages. As we mentioned before we’ll use D500 and Z50, both affordable high quality lightweight camera’s with substantial reach as representatives of all Nikon DSLR’s and MLC’s. By the way D500 and Z50 both have the same sensor architecture so their settings are more or less compatible.
Automatic Exposure measurement AE (automatische lichtmeting)
The setting of this camera item via button (D500) or menu (Z50) is important in bird photography!
Every time you full press Release button the camera will automatically perform a light measurement. You have to set up your camera for one of six light measurement methods:
1 Matrix metering: the result of the measurement is based on the amount of light measured in the total image. Advantage: Nikon camera’s produce almost perfect out-of-the-camera pictures when using this Matrix metering. Disadvantage: Centre weighted metering maybe a better choice, particularly if intensity light and colors bird and background are differen which often is the situation.
2 Centre weighted metering: amount of light measured in central area image will carry more weight in the calculation of EXPOSURE TIME. The relative size of this central area can be separately set in the camera menu. By the way in our bird photographys we always point the camera in way such that the bird centrally located in viewfinder) except when we use focus and recompose (richt camera, focusseer en kadreer zonodig later). Advantage: often ideal in bird potography. Disadvantage: you need some testing and experience quantifying the effect of this type of measurement in case of (partially) large, light or dark tinted birds like male Goosander (Grote Zaagbek) or Avocet (Kluut). Look at examples at 3. APERTURE and practice at small and large birds of various species.
3 Spot metering: camera bases measurement on amount of light measured at a relatively small spot in the image. Advantage: very accurate if accuracy is required. Disadvantage: if the selected spot happens to be in the middle of a white or dark part of the body of a bird like a Little Owl (Steenuil), Magpie (Ekster) or Avocet (Steltkluut), the amount of light measured at this particular spot will put too much weight in the calculation of EXPOSURE time of the entire picture. So we prefer centre weighted metering in bird photography however use b in special cases like (partly) white colored birds in deep shadow.
4 Highlight protecting metering: Advantage: avoids “clipping” (detailverlies in Hoge Lichten), is an exact and safe method in most cases. Disadvantage: may conflict with systematic underexposure -0.5 – 2.5 EV via EXPOSURE Compensation +/- button in bird ACTION photography. So use either method and never both at the time.
5. APERTURE mode Birds, an extra mode we developed over the years. We list the settings of this spcial “Birds mode” at Settings APERTURE mode Birds Z50 and Settings APERTURE mode Birds D500. Photographing birds with fixed APERTURE values and never stopping down lenses are the sound basis for this effective and very comfortable mode. When using APERTURE Mode BIRDS you can spend most of your focus and time observing the birds, anticipate their actions and shoot pictures at the very right moments in stead of more or less continuously checking an resetting your camera.
Some examples APERTURE mode Birds
