# Blue tits ? iso ? shutter speed ?



## lil-lynx (6 Apr 2010)

hello i have a home made bird box which now are occupied by some blue tits with baby blue tits in side, I all ways see them flying in and out with bits of wood and dyed grass I take it they are making a nest, any way they both fly in then sit on a little branch about the box for about 5 secs look around fly of and get more twigs and grass for there nest,what i would like to no is what shall i set my camera as ? exp iso shutter speed f number ect ect,   i have a canon eos 20d and i will be using a 70-300mm lens, shooting at 300mm to get a nice close image that's all I know.

help please !


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## lil-lynx (6 Apr 2010)




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## lil-lynx (6 Apr 2010)




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## lil-lynx (6 Apr 2010)

please look at my attempts they are rubbish  just need a little help, come on people


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## LondonDragon (6 Apr 2010)

First is blown and the second looks like the bird house is falling off the tree, careful on the angles.
Increase to F8+ to try and avoid the whites to be blown, I am no expert though lol

This is the best I could manage at 400mm:


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## lil-lynx (6 Apr 2010)

wow nice picture, no my bird box is just sitting on a branch lol, where did you take that ?


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## LondonDragon (6 Apr 2010)

lil-lynx said:
			
		

> wow nice picture, no my bird box is just sitting on a branch lol, where did you take that ?


Hyde Park Corner in London, have hundreds of them, just never really bothered to place them online! lol


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## lil-lynx (6 Apr 2010)

nice, might take a trip up there one day


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## LondonDragon (6 Apr 2010)

lil-lynx said:
			
		

> nice, might take a trip up there one day


Some can be found here: http://olhares.aeiou.pt/galeriasprivada ... r_id=22751 nothing recent though. Its in portuguese but easy to navigate, just click the page numbers and then on the thumbnail to view full size, most of them taken on London Parks.


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## tyrophagus (19 Apr 2010)

Use a tripod if you can and pre-focused manually on where the bird will land.  There may be some trial and error but if your camera does not move position you should find the perfect focus because the bird always lands in the same spot   

ISO 400
Aperture as wide as the lens allows, so the lowest f number.  This will reduce the depth of field and make for a  nicer image and lets maximum light into the camera.  

Set the camera to aperture priority and the camera will select the fastest shutter speed it can to achieve the correct exposure.  Another tip would be to change your exposure mode so that the cameras exposure system takes it reading from the bird not the background, so spot metering.

This image was shot hand held at 300mm with a Nikon d70 and 70 -300mm lens with no vr.  I did what I described above to get the fastest shutter speed to prevent blur.  The image was obviously cropped to a square shape.


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## John Starkey (30 Apr 2010)

These are my settings for still shots of birds,mostly you will be shooting wide open,i shoot in manual mode by the way,on my longest lens canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 L,i usually start at f/5.6 and take it from there,i mostly use auto white balance (AWB),but if its sunny most of the time i will use the sun mode,by shooting in manual you can dial in your own exposure by using the main dial,ISO,i usually start at iso 400,but i can switch between that and iso 800,it depends on the bird really,if its a small bird that just doesn,t sit still for long then a higher iso i find is better, i use the centre focus point because in the bird photography world if you dont have a catch light in the eye then its not noted as a good shot   ,the other setting will be AL-SERVO,CONTINUOUS SHOOT (high speed),
For birds in flight the only main change to settings are in the focus mode,on the canon 7D there is a focus mode for tracking birds in flight, it called the expansion focus point which is just a cross section centrally located,most cameras have this setting,once you focus on the bird it stays locked on as long as your panning is still on the bird,
Hope this helps a bit,
regards,
john.


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## lil-lynx (1 May 2010)

thanks :O will start shooting some more pictures


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## lil-lynx (20 May 2010)

right well i have had another attempt and well, i am setting my canon on av with a iso of 400 and the lowest f number i can get which is 5.3 i think not sure :S im shooting with a canon eod 20d with a canon EF 70-300MM lens, and well the picture of the bird im trying to get a photo of it dull and dark, when in real life its much more colourful,( the sun isn't on my side) any way i will show you some new photos below.


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## lil-lynx (20 May 2010)

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## lil-lynx (20 May 2010)

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## lil-lynx (21 May 2010)

right so I have had another go and this is what I got 





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## lil-lynx (21 May 2010)

any improvements ?


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## John Starkey (22 May 2010)

lil-lynx said:
			
		

> any improvements ?



When doing birds the focus must be on the eye nowhere else,use the single focus point in the  centre when looking through your camera ,in bird photography if there isn't a catch light on the eye it's not classed as a good shot,also unless the birds are realy  close 300mm can be a bit short,buy your last pic is a big improvement,next time just focus on the eye and the rest will be sharp and the areas you want blurred should be so, 
doing birds is not easy,people look at the pics and some think yes another bird!!,but they don't appreciate what it takes to get a good shot of one,
regards 
john.


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## lil-lynx (22 May 2010)

thanks i will trying foucusing on the eye next time, and yeah its very hard lol. Really quick little things, right i will trying foucusing on the eye next time il post some more once i have then


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