using the A mode (1 Viewer)

Hello!

I've heard in a couple of placed that using the A mode (apeture priority auto) is best for bird photography.
I tried using it, but all of my pictures seem to turn out very dark overall.
May I have some tips on what to do about this?

Also, I don't know if it is appropriate to ask here, but I just bought a Nikon D7000 and am looking for advice on what settings are best (of course for bird photography).

Thank you!

as this is your third post, welcome here.

I agree that aperture priority mode is stated as the best for bird photography, visit http://mikeatkinson.net/ regarding settings, but consider

1. the smaller the bird, the more active it is, so you will need a fast shutter speed.
2. The bird's eye should usually be the focal point, so a single enabled focal point is usual - I use Canon, so am not familiar with Nikon settings

reagrds HKW

HKW,

Thank you very much for the advice and the welcome!
The site recommended is very easy to understand and very helpful!

unipega13

if you haven't already; check that you're set to spot metering. if you're shooting up into the trees you'll often have the sky as a backdrop, so if you're set to anything other than spot metering it will take the sky into account when metering and under expose (it will auto set the shutter speed too high).

I've set my camera to the recommended settings according to the above mentioned site.
For Nikon, it suggests using the matrix mode as opposed to the spot-metering, which apparently calculates various elements in order to achieve best settings. I find that that is working quite well as far as I have tried.

I'm currently having trouble with auto focusing though... I think I'll play around with that a little bit more and come ask again if I still can't figure it out

Thank you for the help!

When shooting a darkish bird against a bright sky you will almost always need to apply some plus exposure compensation, how much will depend on how big the bird is in the frame. If it is very small in the frame you may need to dial-in as much as Ev+2 or even more depending on the metering mode you are in. When you first start I always think it is best to get used the one metering mode and learn just how much Ev comp is needed for any given situation (I agree that Matrix or Evaluative for Canon is the one to learn first). When you have a light bird against a dark background like trees you will need to dial-in some Ev-compensation otherwise the bird will be overexposed (blown!).

None of this has got anything to do with the fact that you are shooting in aperture priority mode.

Mr. Roy C,

I definitely agree using Ev+ or - is necessary at times especially when shooting bird of prey. How much is a matter of experience I guess. I am still working on adjusting how much. Still getting many iffy photos, but hopefully I will get myself used to it. (^^;
Although I've been shooting for some while, I used to always shoot w/ auto mode, so I wasn't aware of all the things one could do with an SLR. So, any kind of advice is super helpful!
Thank you very much!