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Aperture Vs. Shutter Speed Priority (1 Viewer)

EsotericForest

EsotericForest

Survivalist
I just have a question regarding which setting you usually tend to shoot in for your wildlife photography. Do you shoot in Manual, AV, or TV most of the time? I usually did most of my shooting in TV, because otherwise I worry that my shutter speed won't be high enough to freeze frame an animal...maybe I'm not trusting my camera enough, but that is my theory. I've been really trying to step up my photography though, so I've been trying to do a lot of reading, and in the last book it said that TV is of little importance to a wildlife photographer, and that you should mainly be in AV mode. It made me start wondering if I'm doing things backwards, which could partly be why I don't get the results I want a lot of the time.

I shoot a Cannon Rebel XSI.

Regards,
Josh
 
I believe that has to depend on the camera you are using, and on how much you for each shot look at your settings and adjust as needed before pressing the shutter.

I used to have P&S or superzoom cameras, so I always used A priority, set at the most wide open setting and then hoping that the shutter speed would go high enough that at least a fraction of the shots would be usable. That was due to the higher iso performance being bad.

I have just upgraded to a Pana GH2 with 100-300. I trust high iso to be good, so I usually use Shutter priority set at between 1/400 and 1/650 -- that will give wide open aperture and whatever the automatic iso will give me (up to a max of 3200). If the conditions are right, I may adjust once the first few shots are in the box.

Niels
 
AV mode for me....just play with IS or....just accept that the shot might not be one your keepers....that is okay.
 
At the end of the day as long as you get the exposure you want is what matters most. How you get it is up to you in its entirety.

I generally shoot in Av mode using Evaluative Metering, except for birds in flight in CONSTANT light REGARDLESS of background tonality. In this latter instance I'd use manual mode and take a test shot to expose for a mid-tone grey color and adjust for target bird tonality (faster shutter speed for a lighter bird, slower for a darker bird).

However, the most important friend for the digital photographer is the histogram and understanding HOW THE CAMERA captures the exposure. What looks fine on the LCD is not necessarily a good digital exposure. I tend to shoot as far right as possible without clipping the whites.

As for aperture, I tend to choose the widest (smallest f-number) I can get away with at my chosen focal length. Note, the longer your focal length and the closer you are, the less depth of field you will get.
 
I agree with birdman's first sentence - the exposure is what matters . Getting it right means you shot properly .
There is no "Law" that says whats right or wrong . Most nature photographists that i know shoot in Av mode, ( while using EV compensation accordingly ) .
I use exclusively Manual exposure , while "playing " around with shutter speed , aperture and Iso .I aim for exposure depending on the bird's color ( spot metering), sometimes allowing a bit of "over" or "under" depending on the situation .I shoot only Raw , to allow adjustments later ( if necessary ) .
 
I don't think it matters too much which mode you use as long as you're comfortable with the one you're using.

On not so bright days I favour AV with the aperture wide open as I know the lens is sharp and I will get the maximum shutter speed for the light conditions.

Generally I used to shoot AV 95% and manual 5% making use of EV compensation. I don't think you can beat manual exposure for taking birds in flight.

At present though it's more like 80% manual and 20% AV especially if the light levels are constant as you can pretty much forget about having to adjust exposure and concentrate on tacking the bird, focus, composition getting the pose you want.
 
Hand on heart, I've never used Tv - I can see the reason for it, but I prefer to ensure that I get the DoF I want, and deal with keeping the shutter speed up in other ways.

IS helps immensely, of course...
 
Keith Reeder said:
Hand on heart, I've never used Tv - I can see the reason for it, but I prefer to ensure that I get the DoF I want, and deal with keeping the shutter speed up in other ways.

IS helps immensely, of course...
Click to expand...


My preference is for Manual, followed by AV if the conditions warrant it. I used TV for the first time last month when I was photographing a very active firecrest that kept jumping from sunlight to deep shadow in a Mediterranean pine tree.

It was handy in conjunction with Auto ISO to ensure I avoided camera shake in the shade when firing off shots before it got into cover again. AV a couple of days before under similar circumstances had given me some shutter speeds of 1/400 which under the circumstances were just too slow.

I set a TV speed of 1/1000 with Auto ISO and the problem went away.

It was a one-off occasion, though.
 
Birdman had it right....the importance of the histogram will be the key....look at it while taking your shots and adjust. That is your guide..
 
One of my firecrest shots, taken on TV with variable ISO. The speed was actually set for 1/800, not 1/1000 as I said earlier.

The camera selected F5.6 and ISO 400.

It's the only time I've used it so far, but it's a useful weapon.
 

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Most of the time in wildlife photography you shoot for a shutter speed of around 1/800 or 1/1000, right? I think the main reason I tend to focus on shutter speed is that I tend to shoot a lot of waterfalls, and I need to play with my shutter speed to get different effects on the flow of the water. That being said I see how prioritizing your aperture would help in your photo composition as well. I may end up being one of those people who just shoot in manual though, because I do like the control.

As far as the histogram goes, I've set it on my camera so that when I go back to look at a picture, it automatically brings up the histogram, next to the picture itself. I can see how using that can really help understand the exposure levels of a photo. I do also shoot in raw as well which helps since your WB settings can really be worried about later.
 
The trouble with the on-camera histogram is that it's based on the preview jpeg (with whatever in-camera contrast, WB, saturation etc. settings applied) rather than on the RAW file - it's often not that accurate compared to the RAW.

It's better than nothing, but I don't much trust it myself. I'm more comfortable just getting a handle on the camera's behaviour and making decisions based on experience of the camera.
 
Based on being in the field with 100+ photographers for long periods of time.

AV works best in 80% of circumstances, but does require some knowledge of exposure compensation, which is really guesswork combined with experience.

TV is required when shooting with an f2.8 lens in good light. I have found that the 300 f2.8 cannot be used wide open at ISO 400 in bright evening light (nice problem!) so have switched to TV and set at 1/5000

Manual, I use quite frequently especially for BIF.

Incidentally I have found that Nikon users seem to fair better with AV over manual in some circumstances. Odd. The scenario maybe a BIF against varying backgrounds and lights. The Nikon sensor seems to meter more accurately and respond much more effectively than the Canon one - instantly adjusting to the changing backgrounds where there maybe a small (1 or 2 shot delay at 1/2000+) on the Canon prosumer bodies.

Just my two penneth worth.
 
Keith Reeder said:
I'm more comfortable just getting a handle on the camera's behaviour and making decisions based on experience of the camera.
Click to expand...

I'm with Keith here, I almost never check the histogram.

I use Manual most of the time now. In most situations I like my lens best at f7.1/f8 and I adjust the shutter speed/ISO accordingly. You get used to different lighting and anyway you can tell how accurate your exposure is by how the Exposure Compensation setting in the viewfinder is behaving, bearing in mind too that sometimes you actually want to under or overexpose a subject.

For BIFs I use Manual with 1/1600, f7.1 and ISO 400. I can adjust the shutter speed up to 1/2000 or higher on a bright day or down to 1/1000 on a dark day, if that still isn't enough I then raise the ISO.

I used to use AV mode but found it a bit limiting especially on dark days when often the shutter speed was too low, I tried it with auto ISO but found a lot of times the camera was choosing ISO 1600 or higher no matter which metering mode I selected. TV mode never really worked for me.

I wish my camera (the Canon 7D) had user defined limits on auto ISO, if they did I would use it much more often.

Anyway exposure is not an exact science and I'm sure we all mess it up no matter what settings we use as birds constantly move from one different lighting situation to another.
 
Even if it's showing slight blinkies on a camera jpeg, then you can be guaranteed that the highlights will be far better preserved in the RAW file. In any case, whatever works for every one. :)
I do trust my histogram and to my knowledge so do many of the world's best bird photogs .... not that I compare, just mentioning the fact. :)
 
I usually, when in pretty weather stable conditions, use manual, but sometimes change over to shutter priority Tv, and heres why.
Shooting at distance, 200, 300, 400mm lens, its imperative to get a sharp unblurred image. Depth of field is always a problem, but its no use having depth of field and getting a blurry image by the camera choosing 1/30 sec f8 when 1/125 f4 enables a sharper shot due to the shorter exposure. How much depth of field do you need anyway, its usually a bird, less than 15cm.

toad
 
well to me if you use AV or TV and then use ex compensation then your shooting Manul .
Rob.
 
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