# What Shutter Speed to Use For Bird/Wildlife Photography?



## timarp000 (Oct 2, 2013)

What shutter speed is good enough to freeze the action of a bird in flight and any other moving wildlife? Is 1/1000 sec sufficient to freeze the action?

Also another question i wanted to ask,
I was reading up many tips for wildlife photography. Some people said you should use Manual mode with Auto ISO set and Change the Aperture and shutter speed manually.
Others said that you should us Aperture Priority mode with Auto ISO and Setting a minimum shutter speed. i.e, Slowest usable shutter speed.

Which mode should I use? 

I have a Nikon D7100 and will be shooting with the Nikon 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 VR


----------



## pixmedic (Oct 2, 2013)

I dont do wildlife photography other than the occasional shots from the dog park, but for fast moving objects i usually just use shutter priority. 
i pick a shutter speed i "think" will be fast enough, take a few test shots, and adjust accordingly. 
I always leave ISO on auto and shoot in raw.

I would imagine that ANY of the cameras modes would be sufficient for wildlife photography if you are proficient with your camera.


----------



## timarp000 (Oct 2, 2013)

pixmedic said:


> I dont do wildlife photography other than the occasional shots from the dog park, but for fast moving objects i usually just use shutter priority.
> i pick a shutter speed i "think" will be fast enough, take a few test shots, and adjust accordingly.
> I always leave ISO on auto and shoot in raw.
> 
> I would imagine that ANY of the cameras modes would be sufficient for wildlife photography if you are proficient with your camera.



But if you use Shutter Priority, The aperture may close down. That will reduce the "Bokeh" and wont isolate the subject. Thats why I want a fixed aperture, i.e, f/5.6 on my lens...


----------



## pixmedic (Oct 2, 2013)

timarp000 said:


> pixmedic said:
> 
> 
> > I dont do wildlife photography other than the occasional shots from the dog park, but for fast moving objects i usually just use shutter priority.
> ...



depending on shooting conditions, using aperture priority could cause the camera to slow the shutter speed down too much and you will get blur. 
there are + and - to every shooting mode. 
manual will give you the most consistent results if conditions are not rapidly changing.


----------



## astroNikon (Oct 2, 2013)

I sat down at the park one day that had a ton of ducks.  I took many shots of getting them in motion, them fully stopped, etc.
I was shooting in manual at a certain apertures, and then varying my shutter speed slightly here and there

It will take some experimenting to get exactly what you want.  
I found that a perfectly still shot of a flying duck isn't the greatest in one sense, where getting it wtih it's wings in slight motion is a pretty neat picture that shows some "movement".

But I've found Manual mode the best for full experimentation for what you want. Then you know the settings that you prefer.


Just take the settings you are doing in aperture or shutter mode and replicate it in manual mode as a starting place.  It will take some practice to get over the frustration of manual if you aren't used to it .. but when you start getting it you'll love it.


----------



## tirediron (Oct 2, 2013)

Unless you are very close to your subject, or have a very long lens (400+) chances are, you're focus is going to be at/near infinity and the whole "bokeh" issue will be null and void.  If it isn't you need to prioritize which is more important; the unfocused background elements or the subject.  I know which one I would pick.  While I don't do a lot of wildlife work, I find 1/1000 is sufficient for all but the very fastest/closest animals/birds (with the exception of hummingbirds).  Set yourself up in shutter priority and shoot away!


----------



## timarp000 (Oct 2, 2013)

pixmedic said:


> timarp000 said:
> 
> 
> > pixmedic said:
> ...


I can use aperture priority mode, with Auto ISO and set the minimum shutter speed to 1/1000 or 1/2000 sec which will make sure that the camera wont shoot at a lower shutter speed. Or to gain more control, I can shoot manual with auto ISO, controlling Aperture (Which I will leave at f/5.6) and Shutter speed constantly... But if i miss the shutter speed, i can get a wrongly exposed shot


----------



## SCraig (Oct 2, 2013)

Once again, there are *NO* cast-in-stone rules to shooting wildlife or anything else.  When shooting birds and wildlife I use aperture priority, shutter priority, and manual depending on what is needed AT THE TIME to get the shot that I want.  I change settings CONSTANTLY when shooting birds.  I switch among all three modes because I want the setting that is necessary to get the shot that I want.  Your camera is not going to be locked into one mode, you can change it any time that you want to in less than a second.

Once again, find out what works best FOR YOU.  You keep bringing this up, but it is a meaningless question.  What works best for me or anyone else is absolutely meaningless, all that should matter to you is what works best FOR YOU and to find that out you will have to try different things.  Yes, you will miss some shots.  Yes, you will mess up some shots.  But it is also the ONLY way to learn.


----------



## pixmedic (Oct 2, 2013)

timarp000 said:


> pixmedic said:
> 
> 
> > timarp000 said:
> ...



sounds like you have this all figured out.


----------



## astroNikon (Oct 2, 2013)

watch your exposure meter through the viewfinder and adjust shutter/priority etc as needed


----------



## sm4him (Oct 2, 2013)

My answer: It depends. 

Well, seriously, it does. Depends on the lighting, on the type of birds (1/1000 is just fine for a big ole lumbering great egret flying across the sky, but a belted kingfisher or a peregrine falcon, that's another story...).

But as a basic starting point, I shoot in manual, set my shutter speed at about 1/1000, my aperture somewhere between wide open and f/8, depending on lighting conditions, and then I use auto-ISO, set to a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 3200. That way, the aperture and shutter speed stay where I want them and only the ISO changes depending on lighting conditions. So, if I'm shooting into the bright blue sky, my ISO is likely to be 100-200, but if I suddenly see a green heron land in the dark, green muck along the shore, and turn to shoot that, I don't end up with an underexposed photo, it just automatically bumps the ISO to what it needs to be (up to 3200, anyway).


----------



## KmH (Oct 2, 2013)

timarp000 said:


> But if you use Shutter Priority, The aperture may close down. That will reduce the "Bokeh" and wont isolate the subject. .


No it won't, because bokeh cannot be reduced or increased by changing the lens aperture.
Bokeh can only be adjusted by changing to a different make/model of lens.

What you are referring to is depth-of-field (DoF). DoF is not bokeh.

You will likely be panning to shoot a BIF (bird-in-flight), unless the bird is moving directly at you or away from you.
Consequently a blurred background will result from camera motion, not DoF.
When using aperture priority you need to keep an eye in the viewfinder what shutter speed the camera is selecting.
No 1 shutter speed will cover all the bases. For example if you pan and trip the shutter of a BIF when it's wings are at the top or bottom of a flap, you won't need as much shutter speed as when the wings are mid-flap.

A lot BIF shots will have sky as the background.
If a background is to 'busy' it could make the shot a recycle bib candidate rather than a keeper.

Shooting action, of any kind, requires thinking on your feet and making camera/lens adjustments on an as needed basis.


----------



## hirejn (Oct 2, 2013)

First, always use the appropriate shutter speed. Second, do what works best for you. Manual mode with auto ISO isn't really manual as the camera is filling in a variable automatically. If you're using A, you can't set a minimum shutter speed as it will change depending on where you point the lens. If shutter speed is important, there's a mode for that called shutter priority, where you set the speed you want and let the camera pick aperture. As a rule of thumb, go with the lowest ISO that enables you to get the settings you want. Yes 1/1,000 should be enough to freeze most movement. The higher the better but 1/5,000 isn't an absolute necessity. There's no one right way. Often the most interesting images of birds in flight are with the shutter dragged and the lens panned to show the subject sharp and background blurred.


----------



## Gavjenks (Oct 7, 2013)

There's no basic answer to this question, as it could vary by a number of stops depending on, for example:

1) How the bird flies (A hummingbird is going to require several stops faster shutter speed than a gliding albatross)
2) How big the bird is in your frame (a flock photo where each bird takes up only a couple hundred pixels can withstand probably several stops slower shutter speed than one bird taking up the whole image)
3) How good you are at panning (less relevant for something like a hummingbird where the subject movement is much more than your hand movement, but quite relevant for that albatross)

1/1000 is a fine starting point, but I would never sit there for hours waiting for a decisive moment without having first tested the chosen shutter speed on something similar. Double check and readjust in the field. Or if it's such a rare bird that you only get one shot, find a bird that flies in a similar manner nearer to home and practice on it with similar magnification.


----------

