Regarding batteries--when I come in from a shoot, I remove my memory cards and my battery; before putting the battery down, I plug it into a charger already plugged in and once charged, it then goes to my battery storage drawer--only fully charged batteries are stored here. Next time I go out, I have to put a battery in and it will come from this drawer. I find your videos very helpful.
Oh boy, that Fox photo at 3:50 is stunningly beautiful. It just goes to show that more megapixels are not necessarily the only part of the sum that makes great image quality. Less is more, a case in point right here.
For me I turned of bluetooth/wifi in the camera and it significantly increased the battery life. I am not a fire a hundred shots a second snapper, just a casual joe. so It was by far the best thing i did
Batteries are so cheap,compared to the rest of your equipment, so buy more than one battery, Always number your batteries, so if you have four batteries, then number 1 to 4 . So when they are all charged , and you use number 1 battery, number two is obviously the next battery and so on ? Never count or use them going backwards in numbering. This is foolproof, as then when you arrive home, and you’re using number 3 , number 4 will be the only battery not needing to be charged. Plus keep all your batteries together all the times, except for the one in the camera ! This principle applies to film too, then you know precisely where you are if you number them, and should you need to differentiate, ie reshoot something , or push a certain roll for some reason. This is all basic stuff in a professional studio, or paid work ! I hope this is helpful. Oh and I enjoy your images and work by the way !
Tips are always helpful. I have employed the strategy of removing batteries as soon as I get home. I also place battery right side up when charged, converse if I have not charged it yet. I still check them before leaving on my next trip, but it has worked to save me from lost shots. I like your tip of closing aperture. I still make the mistake from time to time.
In the past I tried to limit the ISO to 1600 on my old Pentax K3 and anything more was a waste of time. Now I use Topaz AI DeNoise, I can get usable shots up to ISO 16,000. Not a typing mistake ISO 16,000 with an old technology Pentax K3. Topaz is a really useful way to extend the max ISO of a camera.
I agree. I was getting quite noisy images out of my 7D Mk II with ISOs that weren't too high and AI DeNoise really helps to fix that. But I discovered another thing by accident. I use Photoshop Elements (with the Elements+ add-in), which has Adobe Camera Raw to process the raw images. I can't remember why but I tried using Digital Photo Professional and found that it gave a much less noisy image. I don't know enough about what may be going on in the background that might allow me to adjust ACR to give the same results and so I have been using DPP to create a TIFF that I then work on in Photoshop Elements. I miss the ACR tools, which I found very easy to use to adjust things like temperature, shadows, saturation, etc., and it works better with Elements+; it's also much neater not having to switch apps, but until I find a better way (or get better at using DPP) I'll use DPP as my raw converter.
I have learned so much from you over the months! I went from underexposing to over exposing though, as my new glasses make everything in the viewfinder look really dark - but finally I have learned to look at the histogram and the exposure meter in my viewfinder and am getting better results again. There's a LOT more to getting a good image than I ever imagined when I bought my camera! but videos like yours are really helpful and very much appreciated. Happy Christmas!
Food for thought and I do many of the same, especially with ISO! Thanks for all the advice, you've become my "go to" RU-vidr for bird photography this year. Happy Christmas 🎄
I've been making the mistake of not pushing the ISO, today in unexpected fog (it started off sunny this morning) so I experimented with ISO & some of the images are quite nice. I also used to make the mistake of not changing my settings. I always try to change them now.
I always have spare batteries in my camera bag where I won't forget them. As soon as the level starts dropping, I swap the one in the camera, and the old one goes in my pocket where I won't forget to charge it.
Yes Paul knowing your camera or cameras I use D500 great for most wildlife BUT in Low light its suck after 2500 then go to my D810 slower yes but low light fantastic
What I do is change battery for new one pre-charged when I take out SD card to extract photos if battery has dropped below 80%. I have two spare batteries to allow for spare in bag and another at home being charged.
Merry Christmas Paul I always enjoy your video's, I'm shooting a Canon 90D with a battery grip, I have 4 batteries used in pairs, one marked "A" the other "B" when they run down they get swapped and the flat set are charged. They never seem to lose enough charge to get concerned about. I've been shooting in AV with Auto ISO mainly but recently I've changed the auto ISO parameters to bring the max down to 1600 or 3200 depending on the subject. Changing the settings is a new one that I have recently started trying as I always used to be adamant that all shots had to be taken in M and all settings chosen by me, how wrong I was, so many lost, under/over exposed pictures and missed opportunities. That said I've spent the last 6 months trying to get a willing kingfisher to sit for me and although I have seen a few I've not managed to get close enough to one to get a good shot, even with canon 1.4 mkIII extender fitted to my Canon EF 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS II but I'll keep trying and would love to see some tips to get me closer to getting the pictures. I'm planning on getting a pop up hide to try and getting out in the morning rather than the afternoons to see if this improves my chances. Keep up the great tutorials.
I always carry an extra battery and SD cards. But I double check the batteries/ SD cards before i leave the house. Its more likely i leave the hide keys behind!!! Thanks again Paul for another great video
Can depend on how the camera is set. If spot metering then on a white subject such as a swan think of photographing snow. Usually with snow/whiteish we overexpose. Metering can has a great influence on the area that the camera takes it's reading from to measure the amount of exposure to use. Dead battery (dumb), Forgot card (dumb). Lot's of noise (get a better camera). Heh Heh 😁😁
Underexposure was something I used to do on a regular basis. Especially when I used to shoot with my Canon 40d. I did it to achieve a faster shutter speed. I didn't like increasing the iso above 800. It became a habit that I carried on when I upgraded to a Canon 1d mk4. I soon realised that I don't have to do this. Going out more and shooting more got me out of it. Watching videos on RU-vid helped, too. That's how I found your channel. Anyways, another helpful video from your good self. Merry Christmas to you and yours. Hope you have a good one.
I was in the same boat. I was a photojournalist for one of the major wire services back in the film days. I shot Tri-X exclusively, ASA 400. (ASA = ISO). Sometimes I would push process to 1200. After that, film started to get grainy. While I have a degree in Journalism, I also have a degree in Computer Science and my career choices pulled me into the IT world. After retirement, I picked up the cameras again, this time a Nikon D7200 and was floored by the crazy ISO speeds. Now I'm shooting with a Z6II but I still set my ISO to 400. I too am working on breaking that habit as well as getting used to image stabilization, auto focus and almost unlimited images on a memory card. Old habits can be hard to break, but they are not necessarily bad habits.
@@patrickg2410 I agree. Habits we learned before are hard to break. I became obsessed with noise and the problems it can bring. Then I discovered DXO software and I've never looked back. I have their latest version, DXO photolab 5 and regularly shoot above 20,000 iso and produce smooth images. I don't shoot commercially, just for my own pleasure, but I am very particular. And I just do basic edits of my RAW files. I try very hard to get an image right in camera as I don't want to spend ages working on an image. So, in humble opinion, habits, like rules, are meant to be broken. But it can be hard.
Merry Christmas from down under Paul. On one of your tips, there's a saying that goes something like "there's nothing worse than a blurry photo of a good concept" - with wildlife better to up the shutter speed and take the ISO noise hit to get a sharp shot than one blurred by subject or camera movement with less noise.
I always struggle to increase ISO. Even when I was shooting the 1DX2 I hated to increase it even though I had taken a shot once at 16,000 that after using Topaz it looked great. I’m getting better with pushing it now with the R5, that I usually use ISO 1000 as my base. I also used to shoot everything at F4 but the past couple years I’ve always try multiple settings with a subject that’s willing to give me time. I had a great burrowing owl that I went from F4-F13 with to see how the images would compare, it was a good owl to work with.
With regard to batteries, I keep two spare batteries fully charged in my camera bag. Then I never get caught flat-footed. Then when I get home I immediately exchange out the old camera battery for a fresh one.
I never forgot to insert a memory card. And I wish I could say I never forgot to charge the battery, but sadly that’s not the case. But I normally bring at least two extra batteries, And although they may not be fully charged either, I’ve so far never totally run out of power.
Thanks, Paul. Your presenting style is very honest and clear. When photographing birds I use spot metering and auto iso at max aperture (with the Sigma 150 -600 it’s F6.3) so I only have to think about shutter speed - but when I’m shooting static birds with a slower shutter speed and, for example, a bird suddenly takes flight, I don’t have enough time to focus and change the shutter speed. So now my default is to keep a faster speed in readiness for those situations. If the subject is stationary or slow moving you have enough time to slow things down and let the ISO drop or change aperture. Any thoughts?
I keep all my charged batteries in a cloth bag inside my camera bag. Once a battery is discharged I always make sure it either goes into a separate section of my camera bag, or if they're not full of other stuff, one of my pockets. That way I (except once) remember to charge my batteries as soon as I get back in. I was thinking about getting an in car battery charger, just as a fall back for emergencies. As regards iso, it's been so miserable this month I'm starting to think of 8000 as low. Luckily with my R6 I can get away with that for internet images.
I recently had a session photographing from a hide where the subjects weren’t very away but the light was awful. I used a Canon 500 mm f/4 lens and came away with lots of images shot at f/4 in which not all of the bird was in focus - beautifully sharp head and body but not enough depth of focus to include the tail.
