Best settings to use for night capturing?

Mark-Anthony

Mark-Anthony

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Hi All

Last night, I went out to get some sunset pics. I phoned my mate to come along with me as He is new to photography. He's mad on wildlife, especially owls. After following lanes that we ride in the day on bikes, we spotted around 5 tawny owls....all unfortunately dead from being hit by a car.

I suggested going down to a little village near by, sure enough, we saw 3 Tawny owls sitting on telegraph poles hunting their prey.

thing is, I'm only using a standard nikon 55-300 lens.

I had it set to

1/100
iso 640
f5.6 (300mm zoom)

I caught the pic but, it's came out pretty grainy, is there any other settings you would suggest.

don't laugh as I've never shot at night like this before.

View attachment 18628

The place where we were, was completely pitch black. he had to use a torch to see the lanes.
 
I can't give you advice but i'll give your thread a little bump as i am interested too, i'm going to Birmingham for the day/evening as my girl is going to a concert and i'll be left to toddle around on my own, so i could do with camera settings for night time as well:D(y)
 
No problem... if it doesn't work i'll throw myself on the floor kicking and screaming until they do:D
 
For these kind of shots, in low light, I would;
Shoot raw -to give you more control of noise (possibly selectivly) when PPing.
Kick up your ISO (1600?)
Shoot wide open and take what ever shutter speed you can get.
If you have more light than what you need consider reducing the ISO.
Get the exposure correct for the subject. Trying to "fix" under exposed pics, when PPing, just creates more noise
 
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At night your never get the ISO high enough ( depends if its late you won't ) I would suggest getting something like a Nikon SB-700 and a FX-3 Better Beamer, but that will cause alot of debate if you want to use flash on a owl or not...
 
An A7S might start to get close to the ISO required....
 
I have the sb-800, is there any equivalent for that flash?
 
Using flash on nocturnal birds is always a very debatable subject as to what effect it has on the bird and its ability to hunt/survive. There is an interesting thread here on bird photographers that may be of help.

The problem with night is the lack of a light source. To get anything you need the highest ISO you can use and the widest aperture to get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the subjects movement or camera movement. You are likely going to struggle if you can't use a faster aperture or up the ISO. If the owl is perched and not moving then the camera/lens on a tripod with a remote release may allow you a slower shutter speed to allow more light to hit the sensor.

I would suggest seeing if they are out earlier when light levels are higher or go out on a clear night with moonlight as an additional light source. I would steer clear of using flash until you read up/research more as a photograph is not worth the harm of an animal. Without knowing if/how it will affect the owls ability to see, efficiently hunt and feed itself (and possibly it's young)it's not worth trying just to get a photograph.
 
Get the iso as high you are comfortable with and then take lots of images reducing the iso as you go.
 
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