Dreary Day Surprises

[mosgood]

Something I have noticed about overcast skies is that colors seem to be more vivid. Great job with the little bird...nice narrow depth of field makes it really stand out. Never seen juvenile eagles before....but then again, I've only seen a few Bald Eagles in a zoo setting. Well done! Don't let cloudy days stop you from shooting.

[KurtM]

Originally Posted by mosgood

Don't let cloudy days stop you from shooting.

You're my hero. That is exactly the message I was hoping to get .... and pass along.

[STB]

I've just learned this cloudy day lesson myself. Also learned, ahem, that it was a much better time to play in shutter priority mode than aperture.

[KurtM]

Curious - whyzat?

I usually shoot birds in ap-priority, with ap set wide open, to get fastest shutter speed. Generally set ISO to 400, and go 800 on overcast days, again to keep the SS up.

I'll occasionally go to shutter priority if I want to capture action, like blurred wings to depict flight action, etc.

(I almost never shoot birds in manual for the same reason I practically never use tripods or monopods on them. Birds simply don't give you time to play with all that.)

[mosgood]

Originally Posted by KurtM

Curious - whyzat?

I usually shoot birds in ap-priority, with ap set wide open, to get fastest shutter speed. Generally set ISO to 400, and go 800 on overcast days, again to keep the SS up.

I'll occasionally go to shutter priority if I want to capture action, like blurred wings to depict flight action, etc.

(I almost never shoot birds in manual for the same reason I practically never use tripods or monopods on them. Birds simply don't give you time to play with all that.)

Those are some good tips as I almost always shoot in manual. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I am photographing birds.

Also never let a cloudy day stop you from venturing out. Your friend has no idea what a loss it is to wait for clear skies.

[STB]

Originally Posted by KurtM

Curious - whyzat?

I usually shoot birds in ap-priority, with ap set wide open, to get fastest shutter speed. Generally set ISO to 400, and go 800 on overcast days, again to keep the SS up.

I'll occasionally go to shutter priority if I want to capture action, like blurred wings to depict flight action, etc.

(I almost never shoot birds in manual for the same reason I practically never use tripods or monopods on them. Birds simply don't give you time to play with all that.)

Well Kurt, here's where my lack of knowledge and possibly my little bridge camera can't keep up. When I shoot up into the neighbor's tree on an overcast say in AP, everything is dark. When I shoot in SO, I can see the birds I was aiming for.

I can't catch anything in flight.

[KurtM]

Susan, that brings up another little trick ....... if your camera supports it. Spot metering.

mosgood, I shoot either Av or Tv when my subjects are moving ones (I also shoot a fair amount of airplanes and helicopters). Futzing with buttons and knobs causes lost shots. I have a feeling we tend to think of shooting in manual as "what the pros do", when actually, the pros use their automatic functions very judiciously. What the pros really do is understand ALL the functions, and use them to their utmost advantage.

By the way, I need to add this: I shoulda said "I set ISO to 800 or higher on overcast days." Higher ISO can be your friend....

[dvtldav]

Something I have done with wildlife photography is shoot in manual at 1/500 sec @ f/8 and my ISO set to auto. With my 60D I can set the ISO to max at a certain speed and I usually set the max at 3200 but on a bright day usually it only goes to about 400 or so and on overcast maybe 1600 and the 60D does pretty good with noise at those ISO's. I keep an eye on the exposure meter and adjust the shutter speed and aperture as needed to get make any changes I might need. Try it, it works really good and it is an easy way to keep the shutter at 1/focal length or faster.

Dave

[KurtM]

That's an interesting take. But one of the reasons I use Av and set ap wide open is to "shallow up" the DOF, which helps feature the critter as chief subject. How do you keep F/8 from giving sharp background and foreground, making your shots too busy with the auto ISO approach?

[dvtldav]

Originally Posted by KurtM

That's an interesting take. But one of the reasons I use Av and set ap wide open is to "shallow up" the DOF, which helps feature the critter as chief subject. How do you keep F/8 from giving sharp background and foreground, making your shots too busy with the auto ISO approach?

Set your aperture at what ever you want. Set it at 2.8 and then your ISO will just get lower. By using this method you can set the aperture to control the depth of field, the shutter to eliminate blur from camera shake or subject movement and basically let the autoISO control the exposure. I just happen to use f8 because that is a little sharper than shooting wide open with my lens.
Where is Clear Lake? My son lives in Cypress which is northwest Houston out by Katy.

Dave