shooting flying birds in aperture priority?

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alexsmith

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THis weeks Amateur photographer has an article on shooting birds in flight and the guy gives a tip to use Ap priority. He also says to use fast shutter speed...This may be obvious to some of you but not to me. I would have presumed shutter priority would be better. on my d40 if I use "A" I can't adjust the shutter speed as well.
I know he's doing the right thing but can anyone tell me why?
:shrug:
Alex
 
i suppose if you use your largest aperture you will always get your fastest shutter speed you can attain
 
Got to say I have usually opted for S priority or totally manual for flying birds too. Problem with A and using it wide open is that if you miss the focus point slightly, you have no leeway at all, the difference between f2.8 and for example f8 could be the difference, especially for the inexperienced, between getting the shot and binning it :shrug: I dunno, maybe there is an advantage to AP, I just can't see one, or maybe its just horses for courses.
 
aperture or shutter priority.. surely same problem? how on earth do you get a proper exposure on a small bird in a massive sky? must be doable if a mag says so but I would ahve presumed this was the sort of shot crying out for manual?
 
Personally, I would use Aperture priority and if the conditions were not giving me a good enough shutter speed I would either increase the ISO or crank the exposure compensation up a little.

Some people are afraid to use the ISO. I find my Nikon still produces excellent quality, even at ISO 400.
 
If you are shooting birds in flight, that will usually mean more sky in the image than usual leading to under-exposure if shutter or aperture priority are used.

I would switch to manual, set a shutter speed to suit the subject (i.e. do you want to freeze motion?) and set the aperture to suit a 'more normal' scene.


Steve.
 
I often use Aperture Priority for birds in flight and to counter for the brightness of the sky I use exposure compensation - something a lot of people forget about.

Therefore if the sun is moving in and out between cloud, the Av mode keeps up with it. Only exception to that for me is birds swooping from sky to ground background when you need to use manual as the compensation would change.
 
Not sure where AV is on my D40 ?
I've been experimenting this afternoon with the above advice
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Some interseting results... this crow was upside down :)

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will try to find AV now as exp. comp all the time is a pain -7 pointing down +7 in the sky ???
Alex
 
Av is Canon speak for A in Nikon speak. Tv is Canon speak for S in Nikon.

To avoid comp, that's where manual comes in. If you are moving between ground and sky you need to. If light levels are changing its a pain...
 
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