Quick settings question

[kelvindavies11]

Hi guys and Girls,
I took a couple of birds around the feeder on the weekend and was wondering what settings you guys use for photographing birds.

I was using a Sony A200, with a 100-300mm lens. Can you guys suggest what base settings are should be using. Thank you.

Kelvin

 

[HoppyUK]

1) It's not easy! And unless you have very high end kit, you need good light.
2) You need to get absolutely as close as possible.
3) Even then for small garden birds you will need the longest lens you can get hold of.
4) Keep the shutter speed high. Even when small birds are not doing much, their jerky movements are very fast.
5) Don't under-expose, and if you have to crop more than a little, you either need to get closer, or use a longer lens, or both.
6) Patience is a virtue.

 

[kelvindavies11]

thank you.

 

[Scarecrow]

The images you have posted look underexposed on my monitor, especially the middle one. Also, you may want to take a little more care of your framing (or cropping if those images are cropped) as in all three the subjects all look as if they are about to leave the frame. It is usually more aesthetically pleasing if the subject has room in the frame to move in to. In the middle image you have lost the tip of the wing, and in the bottom image you are very close to losing the little fellow's beak.

 

[kelvindavies11]

The images you have posted look underexposed on my monitor, especially the middle one. Also, you may want to take a little more care of your framing (or cropping if those images are cropped) as in all three the subjects all look as if they are about to leave the frame. It is usually more aesthetically pleasing if the subject has room in the frame to move in to. In the middle image you have lost the tip of the wing, and in the bottom image you are very close to losing the little fellow's beak.

Sadly I have not cropped the images, these are the best of the set I took, all the birds seemed to land further left

 

[Valleyman]

These look noisy, like you're using a high ISO. I understand the light is hard but your secrets are:

1) Large aperture (small number, as small as it will go).
2) High Shutter Speed.
3) Lower your ISO as much as possible whilst still maintaining sharp photos.

Sorry if this is patronising. The high ISO may have been a necessary evil... Your photos won't let me check the EXIF data to check the shutter speed and aperture to see if anything would give a bit in order to reduce the ISO.

Either that or this monitor is broken

 

[towershot]

Obviously shot from a tripod,try and frame the shots beforehand and get rid of any highlights (top of each shot) as these highlights will either blow the shot or make it to dark.
Also try and camouflage the feeder with a bit of moss to pretty the shot up and make it look more natural.
Have a branch set up near the station so birds can land on this while waiting their turn.
You will get better shots from the branch after a while.

 

[kelvindavies11]

These look noisy, like you're using a high ISO. I understand the light is hard but your secrets are:

1) Large aperture (small number, as small as it will go).
2) High Shutter Speed.
3) Lower your ISO as much as possible whilst still maintaining sharp photos.

Sorry if this is patronising. The high ISO may have been a necessary evil... Your photos won't let me check the EXIF data to check the shutter speed and aperture to see if anything would give a bit in order to reduce the ISO.

Either that or this monitor is broken

Not patronising at all, this is the type of answer I was after. Thank you. I will try again this weekend and post results Thank you.

 

[kelvindavies11]

Obviously shot from a tripod,try and frame the shots beforehand and get rid of any highlights (top of each shot) as these highlights will either blow the shot or make it to dark.
Also try and camouflage the feeder with a bit of moss to pretty the shot up and make it look more natural.
Have a branch set up near the station so birds can land on this while waiting their turn.
You will get better shots from the branch after a while.

Brilliant and thank you for the tips. I will definitely try to set-up a perch and take photos of the birds from there.

Good spot on the highlight, I didn't event think about that

 

[kelvindavies11]

Thank you both, I will try again thsi weekend and will re-post hopefully we will see some improvement