Please watch the entire video to understand the underlying message. This is not a tutorial on how to make sharper images, the message is about creating "prettier" images.
Good advice. Experimenting is the key. As Georgina Steytler often quotes, "learn the rules like a pro, break them like an artist". Beautiful set of portraits too Scott.
Finally someone that is willing to share his true knowledge of years of experience photographing birds. This is an excellent video that is worth the time to watch and absorb the advice given. Thanks you very much.
Been doing photography for 61 years. Last 6 years I have concentrated on bird photography. I think I've learned more about photography in those 6 years than all of the previous 55 years :). One thing I've learned is that when I leave the house with my camera I leave my preconceived ideas at home. Conditions and subject matter will dictate shutter speed, ISO, and f/stop. Light conditions, weather and locations won't be the same every day and neither will my camera settings. I've also learned not to be afraid of high ISO when it is required. When I go out to shoot birds I just do the best I can with what I have when I get there.
Best Advice I've ever got, thanks once again Scott. As somebody that is just starting out as a wildlife and bird photographer, you are the photographer that I aspire to be. I've got a Nikon 7500 DSLR and try and get out most mornings when the birds are out and the light is right to photograph. I will take your sound advice and shoot at lower shutter speeds.
Perfect timing to stumble on your video today as I’m getting ready to go on my vacation plus bird photography trip. Your advice on shutter speed goes against everything I heard so far but it makes sense and worth trying. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Thanks for the advice you gave in this video I am guilty of trying to get tack sharp images and discarding some very nice photos because they were a bit soft. You have given me something to work on here, looking forward to more of your videos and photos.
Scott, For the most part, I agree with everything you have said. One of my favorite bird images of the year was made at 1/160 hand holding a long telephoto lens, but the image stabilization on my camera and lens kit is exceptional. However, I do like to photograph birds in flight, and for that, you just have to go to higher shutter speeds. How fast depends a lot on the bird and the situation. For swallows, 1/4000 or faster unless they are flying into substantial wind. For larger birds such as the big wading birds, I can sometimes get by with 1/1000. The exception would be if I have a chance to drop down to 1/25 to 1/50 while panning with a bird. In those cases, I shoot at 20 frames per second and may expose hundreds of frames to get a single frame where the eye is sharp and the wings are blurred. Appreciate your channel and have watched dozens of your old videos a 13:06 s well as all in the past 2 years.
awesome! And yes for sure this is not about birds in flight. For the bigger birds, I/500 is the minimum for me and faster birds 1/2000 gets about right. That said I have done some neat shots with hummingbirds at shutters under 1/200 with sharp heads and blurred wings. Their ability to have their heads still while in flight, is incredible.
Great video Scott. And i agree in everything you said here. Very rarely that i use this very high shutter speeds. I mostly photographing in the Atlantic rainforest here in south Brazil where i live, and if i would use this high shutter speeds, my iso would never go under 6400. I mostly use 1/100 - 1/640. Not often i have enough light to go higher than that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this, and i wish you a great week. Cheers, Bjoern
Thanks for the B&H tip on the head. Recently your gimbal review trilogy pointed me towards either the Katana Jr or the Leofoto PG-1. I was ready to make the Katana order when I decided to review the Leofoto site again on a whim. While browsing I noted a 20% discount on the PG-1. So the $458 became about $366 and a $300 difference with the Katana Jr. Yep, the PG-1 arrives n a few days. Thanks so much for the great reviews. You're both credible and knowledgeable, a great combination.
Would be great idea if you could make new video and show and demonstrate how you hold heave lenses; for instance, Sigma 150-600mm, and what techniques do use to make frame stable without introducing a shake, What tripod do use or monopod and how do use them to make these adorable sharp pictures. I would love to watch something like this. Thank you.
This was one of the first suggestions you asked me to try out, drop that shutter speed. At first I wasn’t convinced, but inevitably you were right! Great content as always Scott
Thank you....I started with stock photography years ago. Work was rejected if not tack sharp. All these years....I had the mentality of if it's not tack sharp, no good. I've followed your work for awhile....and for whatever reason...it just hit me. It is OK that its NOT tack sharp. I think I knew that, but ....now it sunk in! Thank you.
its definitely a sticking point for some and if you are printing at 4 feet or more, ya sharpness may matter more, but is every beautiful painting completely realistic? There's a place for every style, we all just need to find our own I think...
Great video and good advise. The difference between artistic and technical images can be subtle or dramatic, but… both can be amazing in their own way. Thanks for all you do!
That is legit advice Scott! I always tried to figure out how in the world folks were achieving those shutter speeds in suitable light. I resigned myself to the fact that my equipment wasn’t going to measure up to those parameters and have been content with my still subjects, although I have grumbled about the overly-animated warblers during the start of a photo session haha! I appreciate your candid comments about some of these distortions of possibilities for a lack of a nicer way to put it. Keep up the awesome content!
I couldn't have said any better myself. Spot on Scott. Things change with moving subjects of course. "Pretty pictures" on a wall are so much better than technically perfect shots IMHO. Thanks for sharing
Good content. My "guideline" is to shoot at the fastest shutter speed possible while keeping my ISO at a manageable level. If I could shoot at 1/2000 all the time I would but that's not possible at dawn, dusk, and deep in the woods. I have plenty of acceptably sharp images that I shot at 1/125 and 1/160 with my 400mm IS lens. I even have one I shot at 1/13th that turned out better than would of imagined but I do take several pics at a t time so I can pick out the sharpest one. I have learned a lot from these videos and the photo critique videos. I follow you and ray on instagram and I've finally started stepping my game up thanks to ya'lls videos. Thanks a lot.
I saw this video being recommended the other day when scrolling and had to come find it to watch. I am guilty of wanting sharp images. And I have always started out at 1,600 as my base thinking I need to compensate for hand shake. I have only allowed myself to go down to 1/800th. But again I have sacrificed light. Was just in the cloud forest and because of that I have some high iso images. Thanks for this advice. I am going to try and experiment with this. And try to use my monopod more (watched your video on that as well). I enjoy watching your videos. Thanks for sharing. And your images are stunning!
Couldn't agree more on the shutter speed. I tend to shoot between 1/250 and 1/500 as well, happy for my ISO to be somewhere up to 1200. Most of my shooting is bird on a branch style and the reality is as long as I get the eye and head sharp, anything else that is sharp on the bird is a bonus. Great video, many thanks. John Pouw NZ
I echo what William Morrison has said below. I'm going to experiment more now, and hope to get some gorgeous shots like yours. Thank you for opening my eyes and my mind to this technique! Your images are really beautiful.
Great video Scott 👍🏻 I’ve just got home after shooting Dippers on a fast flowing river in dull grey light. A follower on Instagram challenged me to try a slow shutter speed shot for some milky water but a sharp Dipper. At the end of my session I got the opportunity to try. By shooting a sequence of maybe 10 frames all at 1/13th sec using a beanbag to support my lens I managed to get several ACCEPTABLY sharp shots of the bird. Then I come home & watch this video. Perfect timing! Your advice to try slower shutter speeds plus my experience of this morning gives me the confidence to try dialling down the speed more often 😎
Absolutely agree. I don’t tend to have a rule of thumb (probably the least technical photographer on the planet) I have shot bird portraits at down to 1/100 sometimes depending on the bird, not possible with a little wren because of how quick they twitch for instance. 200/300/400 very common for me. Great video
Great video. When I first started out, I followed the advice of high shutter speeds, even in early morning light. And I wondered why all of my photos were so lousy! It took a long time to figure this out.
Very sound advice - even though a year old there currently are recurring advice videos advocating extremely high shutter speeds, this time from bird photographers.
Excellent advice. I rarely watch these types of videos all the way through, but I did with this one. I live in Lancashire in the UK and if I can get 1/500th of a second in the woods I consider it a very good day. 😀
I've finally come to terms with the concept you espouse. Recently I discovered (because of the amount of rain) a new spot to capture some images of waterfowl. All images were captured either at sunrise or late evening just before sunset. They were not tack sharp but the colors were just mesmerizing. Initially I did try the higher speeds but eventually settled on lower speeds for better ISO performance. I really like the results and now crave some more of that soft quality you mention.
When I did birds in flight, I would always use a bit of manual flash no matter how bright the day was, and that was in in Florida. Maybe it's placebo, but even with a 200mm, I think it helped with sharpness and also gives a gleam to the bird's eye. With the frame rate of cameras now, one would have to be careful not to incinerate their flash unit. I don't have much in the way of fast lens, so maybe it helped make the bird pop from the background.
As a new player to photography, and birds in particular, I have been using shutter speed to compensate for motion blur. As time has moved on I have addressed this to some extent. Secondly as I am a walk around photographer, I am often in shadowy spots and I found the recent video on ISO invariance very good. The one thing as a beginner you don’t have is a f/2.8 lens that makes, I am assuming, a big difference to any situation. Thank heavens for Denoise AI. I photographed a Tawny Frogmouth yesterday in our driveway in suburban Brisbane. I could have had a shutter speed on 60 seconds or more 😂
Wish I'd watched this before buying a course by a "bird photographer" that recommended high shutter speeds (even 1/3200). Living in Scotland we have to sacrifice a goat in order for the sun to come out😂so that advice was useless. Your images have completely demonstrated it's not necessary. Thank you!!
Awesome Colin! Glad is was helpful, overcast light can look flat, which is why you may need to punch it up in post. But greens can look really nice in overcast conditions. You work with what you have !!
Wow, what a good talk. I am always inspired by the artist and always want my photography to be the artist, but I fall into the technician trap all the time. Sharper sharper sharper. To each their own, but this hits because I’m struggling in the balance of that.
It's very true.... I know a guy, he's like a genius but he cant get out of his own head. He knows according to charts that his lens is 1 % sharper at f8 as oppossed to f4, so he stops down (need more light) and he knows that its sharper with higher speeds so he shoots at 1/1000+ f8 ... 1/1000... Thats a LOT of natural light. so you right away you eliminate 90% of the "softest" light which for my personally is the most pleasing.
@@WildlifeInspired truthfully I just did this sort of thing. Although it’s a great lens, I just purchased a 100-500 and was going to sell my 500 f4 version 1 because the lens charts showed it was sharper. That’s embarrassing to admit, but I need to rethink this situation because the 500 was reasonably sharp. Man, I’m my own worst enemy. Lol
That's all covered by the exposure triangle, so yes slower shutter will allow more light and less noise in the final image. Higher SS will create sharper images overall (or a better chance for a sharper image).
In Colorado we have very few cloudy or rainy days. I really want to try this so I'm going to try just before dawn or around sunset as you suggest. Thanks!
I agree! Here in Australia 90% of our days are full sun (depending on location) so a lot of the time we have harsh light, it's really easy and fun to have lots of light and just keep your shutter speeds up high and it's easy to rattle off lots of shots knowing all of them are going to be sharp. But like you said these images generally look harsh and will have harsh shadows if the sun is not directly behind you. The bad advice comes in when people recommend you to 'not worry about the noise' and shoot high shutter even in low light just so you don't miss the shot. I find this advice comes from instagramers where quality is not a main priority. But slow shutter speeds in low light offers the best image/tone quality and lighting! I will risk missing shots to get that amazing image quality. But at the end of the day im on both sides of the fence, I do understand you have push that ISO up if you are on a long road trip looking for a rare bird, you just cannot afford to miss any shots.
Interestingly, I have a good friend who owns a successful gallery outside a National Park. He sells prints up to 36×60. The one thing he is always telling me is, in fact, don't worry about noise. Sharpness is far more important. Noise can be mitigated to some degree in post, but a blurry photo is always a blurry photo. At proper viewing distances a little noise is not apparent. The only people pixel peeping in his gallery are other photographers. As he puts it, "If you view the Mona Lisa from eight inches, it's nothing but a bunch of paint blotches. "
Love your advice! Unfortunately I'm a perfectionist to the point that's detrimental to my vision and sometimes enjoyment of Photography. That and fact that I am not nearly as well steady hand holding anymore as I get older🤷♂️! Thank you for the great video(s). I enjoy and always learn something new!
I know a few people that get so locked into the technical specs for example that they cant see past it. Read a chart that tells you the lens is sharpest at f8, so they shoot at f8 only (loss of 2 stops of light often which means that shoot is stronger harder light). but the human eye may not be able to discern the differences seen in charts especially when viewed or printed at a normal size. Pixel peeping can be terrible. and often in prints, some detail is lost. To me pretty light has always been more important than technical perfection. Like you alluded to, we are all "programmed" differently.
Agree with you entirely - shutter speed rules are made to be broken. For portraits sometimes shoot as low as 1/50th handheld at 840mm in low light - just use lucky imaging technique - taking lots of shots will usually result in some being sharp enough. Use of low shutter speeds for birds in flight is also sometimes required. My best Owl shots in flight last year were shot hand-held at 1/500th at dusk.
I find most bad advice is really only bad because the person giving it does not properly qualify it but presents more universally. Its not total nonsense that faster shutterspeeds can lead to better image quality but like you explained thats operating under the asusmption that there is plenty of light which isn't the case most of the time. Same thing with "put the sun to your back". That would be perfectly fine advice if it was qualified by saying "if your goal is to acheive X".
Exactly. Hard light can be great for certain looks which is why I try to qualify most stuff. This can work for this way. This can be useful for this..... great point Tobias.
I watched a video yesterday by a professional wildlife photog who was shooting Snowy Owls in Canada. Beside the fact they they were obviously baiting the owl, he was shooting the Z9 at 1/6400, f/8, ISO well over 3000. For the life of me I couldn't understand why.
for me, if youre shooting action that's fine, but if you are shooting portraits, you have too high shutter and ISO, you can drop that significantly. The point of this video isnt to product sharper images, its to experiment with lower, more pleasing light. If you shoot a 200mm lens, you are probably going to shoot much more environmental shots, so pleasing light is even more important and with shorter lens, the shutter speed can generally be a little lower too.
Since the rf800mm lens is F11 l have my starting point at 1/250 with the great ibis l have no issue if bird is stationary but if it moves l have a second back button set to 1/1250.
I didn't like the video, I Loved the video. Your style of photography is exactly what I strive to get better at. Your photos show the bird in some of its surroundings, I say it's it about them 'and' their habitat and as you say with an emphasis of background tones. Of course, subscribed your channel just now. PS. The Topaz prods are also very good, I currently have Sharpen AI and Denoise AI, both are excellent.
Yes good call I just shot a Bullfinch (a small bird) as low as 1/60th second in poor light ! Not all the photos were sharp but you do get keepers, especially if you shoot in SMALL BURSTS ! 👍🤔😍
Whole heartedly agree, if I/we went for a min of 1/1000 or even 1/500 I would never take a single image in a rainforest. Not that I've been doing this for too long, but I often get asked how I get some images in such poor light, my response is keep lowering your shutter speed and take small bursts until you find your limit where you're not getting a sharp one in that burst. Taking a digital image is in essence free when you're out there shooting, try, delete, try again.... but get that safety shot first if it's a rare moment!
Usually Im using a 400mm 2.8 wide open (to get as much light IN as possible) I often use a TC with this set up so all the images are at f2.8 but usually f4
I did mention it a few times in the video and the take away was suppose to be, if you commit to high shutters you will also likely be stuck with "bad" or hard light
With the slow shutter speed dont you have up your iso and open your aperture wide open? Speed light and aperture all have to combine to make a photo. All of my lenses tend to have sweet sharpness a couple stops above wide open.
the 400 2.8 is sharp all the way open and I usually shoot wide open all the time. some lenses definitely have a sweet spot but again at f8 (a typical sweet spot) you lose 1-3 stops of light which mean you have to sacrifice somewhere else OR shoot in a lot of direct light. For action, it's far less important, but portraits is another story.
Hi enjoyed your point of view but if you are shooting mostly birds in flight and action this is not good advice. For the style of shots you showed yes your advice makes sense but if you are shooting ospreys, or an eagle diving into the water to catch a fish, or Terns that zipping around and diving head first into the water you are not going to capture that with ss 250. I understand your point of you but this can also be just as confusing to a new photographer without clarifying that. No doubt the images you showed slower shutter speed is the way to go but the majority of those birds were not really moving. I enjoyed your video just putting my 2 cents in :) Stay safe and happy shooting !!!
I agree Sam...I stay high on the shutter speed even with a perched bird because you never know when it's going to fly...It has to be almost dark to at least not be shooting at 1/1500
This advice is relevant for 2012 but not today. A css as meta like the Z7ii or A7r3 will have virtually no noise up to about ISO 1000-1600, so not taking advantage of as high a shutter speed as possible, and thus increasing your keeper rate, makes no sense.
I am guessing you shoot in bright light? Have you ever tried shooting blue hour or early sunrise, or overcast wood warblers? This advice has nothing to do with sensors and everything to do with shooting in soft low light. Try it sometime!
Yes of course but the lesson is to prioritize shutter speed over ISO, at least to a point. For example, in low light I’d rather opt for a sharp shot at 1/1000 knowing I can denotes up to iso 3200 than risk blur at 1/125th.
Auto ISO in manual mode is the answer. Set your high iso limit, then choose your max shutter speed for the situation. 3200 for bright light with motion. 1000-2000 for bright light and still subjects. 250-1000 +/- in low light with motion. And down from there in low light with still subjects but your technique becomes critical at that point.
But you assume that you have enough light for that. My point is low light may give you 1/100 ISO 3200, would you avoid that light (as it sounds like you would) My point wasnt to say "shoot low shutter speeds to keep ISO low" My point is experiment in low light (pre-dawn for example) because the payoff can be gorgeous light. Maybe I didnt make the point enough.
I be agree and get that point. But the main reason people miss photos is because of a lack sharpness caused by movement, so shutter speed should always be a consideration, especially for beginners.
There is certainly a lot of truth and important information here, but/and I also find it pretty misleading or at least very narrow in scope. Pretty much every photo you show is a “field guide” style photo. OK, that’s possibly overstating - they’re more beautiful and artistic than a typical field guide shot. However they’re really based on very static subjects with very little behavioral and/or action attributes. And sure, in that context you can get very low shutter speeds. I’ve gotten some shots of owls using shutter speeds as slow as 1 second. But that’s just one aspect of “bird photography”, and to portray those types of shots as encompassing all of bird photography is really misleading. You do allude to possibly needing faster shutter speeds for action shots, but you spend almost all of your time saying you don’t need fast shutter speeds. If you’re looking for behavior and action shots, you really do need high shutter speeds. In fact it took me a looooong time to finally accept that. Coming from a film background, where the cameras almost never went above 1/1000, I felt that 1/1000 was fast enough for any photograph I could ever want. But so many of my shots came out lacking. It wasn’t until I got advice from multiple bird and wildlife photographers that I should be in the 1/1600 to 1/3200 range that things started to get a lot better. But that doesn’t mean you can’t shoot in beautiful light and at golden hour - that’s when I get the majority of my shots. It does mean fairly expensive, heavy glass though. I primarily shoot with an 800f5.6 and 600f4, sometimes with TCs attached, but most of my shots are during the golden hour and when I’m shooting action/behavior it’s usually above 1/1000. Now if I’m shooting a more static shot, I use much slower shutter speeds. But typically what I do is I get some “safety shots” with a higher shutter speed, then I start ratcheting it down. My philosophy is that you can typically fix noisy photos, but it’s nearly impossible to really fix motion blurred photos. So I get some shots where I know the shutter is fast enough that I’ve gotten some relatively sharp photos (albeit possibly with more noise than I’d like), then I start getting slower and slower shutter speeds, with long bursts hoping that I get a decently-sharp shot in the bunch. So while I generally agree that you don’t always need a fast shutter, I feel like you’re kind of leading people down a path that can set them up for a lot of disappointment. Just my $0.02.
I thought I was pretty clear about this being for portraiture type work, and I never make a point that you SHOULD shoot at low shutter, just that you CAN and that is vastly different. Thanks for the comments hope to hear from you again.
Good advice. Experimenting is the key. As Georgina Steytler often quotes, "learn the rules like a pro, break them like an artist". Beautiful set of portraits too Scott.
Now GS is a person everyone SHOULD listen to!
Finally someone that is willing to share his true knowledge of years of experience photographing birds. This is an excellent video that is worth the time to watch and absorb the advice given. Thanks you very much.
Wow, thanks! I appreciate that!
Been doing photography for 61 years. Last 6 years I have concentrated on bird photography. I think I've learned more about photography in those 6 years than all of the previous 55 years :). One thing I've learned is that when I leave the house with my camera I leave my preconceived ideas at home. Conditions and subject matter will dictate shutter speed, ISO, and f/stop. Light conditions, weather and locations won't be the same every day and neither will my camera settings. I've also learned not to be afraid of high ISO when it is required. When I go out to shoot birds I just do the best I can with what I have when I get there.
Best Advice I've ever got, thanks once again Scott. As somebody that is just starting out as a wildlife and bird photographer, you are the photographer that I aspire to be. I've got a Nikon 7500 DSLR and try and get out most mornings when the birds are out and the light is right to photograph. I will take your sound advice and shoot at lower shutter speeds.
focus on light and work with what it offers, not saying higher shutter speeds are better but it just usually means it can be harsh and unflattering.
Perfect timing to stumble on your video today as I’m getting ready to go on my vacation plus bird photography trip. Your advice on shutter speed goes against everything I heard so far but it makes sense and worth trying. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Excellent, what really sells it is the photos scrolling that prove the point. You always go the extra mile!!
Thanks Tim
absolutely beautiful. I can see why you and Josh get along so well.
Thank you so much!
A thoroughly enjoyable video, beautiful photos and great advice.
Glad you enjoyed!
Thanks for the advice you gave in this video I am guilty of trying to get tack sharp images and discarding some very nice photos because they were a bit soft. You have given me something to work on here, looking forward to more of your videos and photos.
Scott, the information you imparted in this video helps me so, so much! Thank you for sharing your advice with us all! Your images are stunning.
Means a lot to me really thanks
Scott, For the most part, I agree with everything you have said. One of my favorite bird images of the year was made at 1/160 hand holding a long telephoto lens, but the image stabilization on my camera and lens kit is exceptional. However, I do like to photograph birds in flight, and for that, you just have to go to higher shutter speeds. How fast depends a lot on the bird and the situation. For swallows, 1/4000 or faster unless they are flying into substantial wind. For larger birds such as the big wading birds, I can sometimes get by with 1/1000. The exception would be if I have a chance to drop down to 1/25 to 1/50 while panning with a bird. In those cases, I shoot at 20 frames per second and may expose hundreds of frames to get a single frame where the eye is sharp and the wings are blurred. Appreciate your channel and have watched dozens of your old videos a 13:06 s well as all in the past 2 years.
awesome! And yes for sure this is not about birds in flight. For the bigger birds, I/500 is the minimum for me and faster birds 1/2000 gets about right. That said I have done some neat shots with hummingbirds at shutters under 1/200 with sharp heads and blurred wings. Their ability to have their heads still while in flight, is incredible.
Great video Scott. And i agree in everything you said here. Very rarely that i use this very high shutter speeds. I mostly photographing in the Atlantic rainforest here in south Brazil where i live, and if i would use this high shutter speeds, my iso would never go under 6400. I mostly use 1/100 - 1/640. Not often i have enough light to go higher than that.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this, and i wish you a great week.
Cheers, Bjoern
Thanks for the B&H tip on the head. Recently your gimbal review trilogy pointed me towards either the Katana Jr or the Leofoto PG-1. I was ready to make the Katana order when I decided to review the Leofoto site again on a whim. While browsing I noted a 20% discount on the PG-1. So the $458 became about $366 and a $300 difference with the Katana Jr. Yep, the PG-1 arrives n a few days. Thanks so much for the great reviews. You're both credible and knowledgeable, a great combination.
Glad it was helpful!
Great advice as always, Scott. You have so many beautiful images in soft light at slower shutter speeds.
Thank AT
Would be great idea if you could make new video and show and demonstrate how you hold heave lenses; for instance, Sigma 150-600mm, and what techniques do use to make frame stable without introducing a shake, What tripod do use or monopod and how do use them to make these adorable sharp pictures. I would love to watch something like this. Thank you.
Ill try to do a behind the scenes one day, stay tuned and follow the channel.
This was one of the first suggestions you asked me to try out, drop that shutter speed. At first I wasn’t convinced, but inevitably you were right! Great content as always Scott
Thanks L
Thank you....I started with stock photography years ago. Work was rejected if not tack sharp. All these years....I had the mentality of if it's not tack sharp, no good. I've followed your work for awhile....and for whatever reason...it just hit me. It is OK that its NOT tack sharp. I think I knew that, but ....now it sunk in! Thank you.
its definitely a sticking point for some and if you are printing at 4 feet or more, ya sharpness may matter more, but is every beautiful painting completely realistic? There's a place for every style, we all just need to find our own I think...
FINALLY!!!!! Thank you for making me feel I am not alone with many of these shutter speed issues. And your images are so so beautiful.
Thank you so much !!
Thanks so much !!!
Great video and good advise. The difference between artistic and technical images can be subtle or dramatic, but… both can be amazing in their own way. Thanks for all you do!
Well said!
Great video, as always, Scott!
Thanks CC
That is legit advice Scott! I always tried to figure out how in the world folks were achieving those shutter speeds in suitable light. I resigned myself to the fact that my equipment wasn’t going to measure up to those parameters and have been content with my still subjects, although I have grumbled about the overly-animated warblers during the start of a photo session haha! I appreciate your candid comments about some of these distortions of possibilities for a lack of a nicer way to put it. Keep up the awesome content!
Thansk !
I couldn't have said any better myself. Spot on Scott. Things change with moving subjects of course. "Pretty pictures" on a wall are so much better than technically perfect shots IMHO. Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching and subscribing!
Great video and amazing images.
Many thanks!
Good content. My "guideline" is to shoot at the fastest shutter speed possible while keeping my ISO at a manageable level. If I could shoot at 1/2000 all the time I would but that's not possible at dawn, dusk, and deep in the woods. I have plenty of acceptably sharp images that I shot at 1/125 and 1/160 with my 400mm IS lens. I even have one I shot at 1/13th that turned out better than would of imagined but I do take several pics at a t time so I can pick out the sharpest one. I have learned a lot from these videos and the photo critique videos. I follow you and ray on instagram and I've finally started stepping my game up thanks to ya'lls videos. Thanks a lot.
appreciate that!
I saw this video being recommended the other day when scrolling and had to come find it to watch. I am guilty of wanting sharp images. And I have always started out at 1,600 as my base thinking I need to compensate for hand shake. I have only allowed myself to go down to 1/800th. But again I have sacrificed light. Was just in the cloud forest and because of that I have some high iso images. Thanks for this advice. I am going to try and experiment with this. And try to use my monopod more (watched your video on that as well). I enjoy watching your videos. Thanks for sharing. And your images are stunning!
Thanks so much. Newer stabilization is making it easier to get down to to 1/200 and 1/100 even.
Thanks for this food for thought. As always, challenges me to think more about the way I shoot. Beautiful images
Thanks becks
Thank you for sharing your view and the details about the why. It is a struggle choosing a shutter speed.
Thanks!
Couldn't agree more on the shutter speed. I tend to shoot between 1/250 and 1/500 as well, happy for my ISO to be somewhere up to 1200. Most of my shooting is bird on a branch style and the reality is as long as I get the eye and head sharp, anything else that is sharp on the bird is a bonus. Great video, many thanks. John Pouw NZ
Thanks!
Thank you for the reassurance that it is okay to step outside of this guideline!!!
Always
excellent advise. thanks buddy.
Glad you enjoyed!
I echo what William Morrison has said below. I'm going to experiment more now, and hope to get some gorgeous shots like yours. Thank you for opening my eyes and my mind to this technique! Your images are really beautiful.
Thanks so much. no right or wrong, just continue to explore
Great video Scott 👍🏻 I’ve just got home after shooting Dippers on a fast flowing river in dull grey light. A follower on Instagram challenged me to try a slow shutter speed shot for some milky water but a sharp Dipper. At the end of my session I got the opportunity to try. By shooting a sequence of maybe 10 frames all at 1/13th sec using a beanbag to support my lens I managed to get several ACCEPTABLY sharp shots of the bird. Then I come home & watch this video. Perfect timing! Your advice to try slower shutter speeds plus my experience of this morning gives me the confidence to try dialling down the speed more often 😎
love it just dont yell at me when you missed the perfect action shot lol
Absolutely agree. I don’t tend to have a rule of thumb (probably the least technical photographer on the planet) I have shot bird portraits at down to 1/100 sometimes depending on the bird, not possible with a little wren because of how quick they twitch for instance. 200/300/400 very common for me. Great video
Thanks !
Great video. When I first started out, I followed the advice of high shutter speeds, even in early morning light. And I wondered why all of my photos were so lousy! It took a long time to figure this out.
Try not to cringe at the spelling errors my friend lol
@@WildlifeInspired Haha!
Very sound advice - even though a year old there currently are recurring advice videos advocating extremely high shutter speeds, this time from bird photographers.
Awesome advice. Makes me want to think outside the box more than i currently do
break the rules a little and see what happens
Excellent advice. I rarely watch these types of videos all the way through, but I did with this one. I live in Lancashire in the UK and if I can get 1/500th of a second in the woods I consider it a very good day. 😀
lol I have heard this a couple times from the land with no sun
@@WildlifeInspired 🙂🤣
I've finally come to terms with the concept you espouse. Recently I discovered (because of the amount of rain) a new spot to capture some images of waterfowl.
All images were captured either at sunrise or late evening just before sunset. They were not tack sharp but the colors were just mesmerizing. Initially I did try the higher speeds but eventually settled on lower speeds for better ISO performance.
I really like the results and now crave some more of that soft quality you mention.
Once you soak yourself in good light, you can't get dry
All great shots, love the muted background colors. Also great advised as always.
Thanks Michael
When I did birds in flight, I would always use a bit of manual flash no matter how bright the day was, and that was in in Florida. Maybe it's placebo, but even with a 200mm, I think it helped with sharpness and also gives a gleam to the bird's eye. With the frame rate of cameras now, one would have to be careful not to incinerate their flash unit.
I don't have much in the way of fast lens, so maybe it helped make the bird pop from the background.
Nice. I need to play with that (I don't do a tons of birds in flight except during migrations and further out)
This is fine for stationary birds. But I’m always looking for the birds to fly. In that case it’s high shutter speed for me.
Exactly i tried to put that in there a couple times.... this only really applies to "still" portraits
As a new player to photography, and birds in particular, I have been using shutter speed to compensate for motion blur. As time has moved on I have addressed this to some extent. Secondly as I am a walk around photographer, I am often in shadowy spots and I found the recent video on ISO invariance very good. The one thing as a beginner you don’t have is a f/2.8 lens that makes, I am assuming, a big difference to any situation. Thank heavens for Denoise AI.
I photographed a Tawny Frogmouth yesterday in our driveway in suburban Brisbane. I could have had a shutter speed on 60 seconds or more 😂
Knowing the subject and behavior matters BEST OF LUCK!
Wish I'd watched this before buying a course by a "bird photographer" that recommended high shutter speeds (even 1/3200). Living in Scotland we have to sacrifice a goat in order for the sun to come out😂so that advice was useless. Your images have completely demonstrated it's not necessary. Thank you!!
Awesome Colin! Glad is was helpful, overcast light can look flat, which is why you may need to punch it up in post. But greens can look really nice in overcast conditions. You work with what you have !!
Awesome content! I shoot with fujifilm and I love shooting slow shutter speed it’s fun! Lol
Wow, what a good talk. I am always inspired by the artist and always want my photography to be the artist, but I fall into the technician trap all the time. Sharper sharper sharper. To each their own, but this hits because I’m struggling in the balance of that.
It's very true.... I know a guy, he's like a genius but he cant get out of his own head. He knows according to charts that his lens is 1 % sharper at f8 as oppossed to f4, so he stops down (need more light) and he knows that its sharper with higher speeds so he shoots at 1/1000+ f8 ... 1/1000... Thats a LOT of natural light. so you right away you eliminate 90% of the "softest" light which for my personally is the most pleasing.
@@WildlifeInspired truthfully I just did this sort of thing. Although it’s a great lens, I just purchased a 100-500 and was going to sell my 500 f4 version 1 because the lens charts showed it was sharper. That’s embarrassing to admit, but I need to rethink this situation because the 500 was reasonably sharp. Man, I’m my own worst enemy. Lol
Thank you!
Thanks Alicia
Beautiful ,excellent, good advice , thanks a lot. I have a question whether high ss affects noise/adds noise?
That's all covered by the exposure triangle, so yes slower shutter will allow more light and less noise in the final image. Higher SS will create sharper images overall (or a better chance for a sharper image).
In Colorado we have very few cloudy or rainy days. I really want to try this so I'm going to try just before dawn or around sunset as you suggest. Thanks!
i have a video coming out on blue hour photography make sure you subscribe to the channel and set reminders!
@@WildlifeInspired Done!
I agree! Here in Australia 90% of our days are full sun (depending on location) so a lot of the time we have harsh light, it's really easy and fun to have lots of light and just keep your shutter speeds up high and it's easy to rattle off lots of shots knowing all of them are going to be sharp. But like you said these images generally look harsh and will have harsh shadows if the sun is not directly behind you.
The bad advice comes in when people recommend you to 'not worry about the noise' and shoot high shutter even in low light just so you don't miss the shot. I find this advice comes from instagramers where quality is not a main priority. But slow shutter speeds in low light offers the best image/tone quality and lighting! I will risk missing shots to get that amazing image quality.
But at the end of the day im on both sides of the fence, I do understand you have push that ISO up if you are on a long road trip looking for a rare bird, you just cannot afford to miss any shots.
good points Thanks!
Interestingly, I have a good friend who owns a successful gallery outside a National Park. He sells prints up to 36×60. The one thing he is always telling me is, in fact, don't worry about noise. Sharpness is far more important. Noise can be mitigated to some degree in post, but a blurry photo is always a blurry photo. At proper viewing distances a little noise is not apparent. The only people pixel peeping in his gallery are other photographers. As he puts it, "If you view the Mona Lisa from eight inches, it's nothing but a bunch of paint blotches. "
Love your advice! Unfortunately I'm a perfectionist to the point that's detrimental to my vision and sometimes enjoyment of Photography. That and fact that I am not nearly as well steady hand holding anymore as I get older🤷♂️! Thank you for the great video(s). I enjoy and always learn something new!
I know a few people that get so locked into the technical specs for example that they cant see past it. Read a chart that tells you the lens is sharpest at f8, so they shoot at f8 only (loss of 2 stops of light often which means that shoot is stronger harder light). but the human eye may not be able to discern the differences seen in charts especially when viewed or printed at a normal size. Pixel peeping can be terrible. and often in prints, some detail is lost. To me pretty light has always been more important than technical perfection. Like you alluded to, we are all "programmed" differently.
Agree with you entirely - shutter speed rules are made to be broken. For portraits sometimes shoot as low as 1/50th handheld at 840mm in low light - just use lucky imaging technique - taking lots of shots will usually result in some being sharp enough. Use of low shutter speeds for birds in flight is also sometimes required. My best Owl shots in flight last year were shot hand-held at 1/500th at dusk.
1/50 is tough ! But yes. It can be done.
I find most bad advice is really only bad because the person giving it does not properly qualify it but presents more universally. Its not total nonsense that faster shutterspeeds can lead to better image quality but like you explained thats operating under the asusmption that there is plenty of light which isn't the case most of the time. Same thing with "put the sun to your back". That would be perfectly fine advice if it was qualified by saying "if your goal is to acheive X".
Exactly. Hard light can be great for certain looks which is why I try to qualify most stuff. This can work for this way. This can be useful for this..... great point Tobias.
I watched a video yesterday by a professional wildlife photog who was shooting Snowy Owls in Canada. Beside the fact they they were obviously baiting the owl, he was shooting the Z9 at 1/6400, f/8, ISO well over 3000. For the life of me I couldn't understand why.
I can say with some confidence. My camera has never seen those settings. Lol.
@@WildlifeInspired Same here...
Thanks
THANKS!!!!!!
200mm f4 lens. All I have to work with.
Use auto iso max 4000.
Shutter 2000-4000, depending on the light.
F4.
Can I do anything to get it sharper?
for me, if youre shooting action that's fine, but if you are shooting portraits, you have too high shutter and ISO, you can drop that significantly. The point of this video isnt to product sharper images, its to experiment with lower, more pleasing light. If you shoot a 200mm lens, you are probably going to shoot much more environmental shots, so pleasing light is even more important and with shorter lens, the shutter speed can generally be a little lower too.
Since the rf800mm lens is F11 l have my starting point at 1/250 with the great ibis l have no issue if bird is stationary but if it moves l have a second back button set to 1/1250.
makes sense to have "flight" setting ready to go!
I didn't like the video, I Loved the video. Your style of photography is exactly what I strive to get better at. Your photos show the bird in some of its surroundings, I say it's it about them 'and' their habitat and as you say with an emphasis of background tones. Of course, subscribed your channel just now. PS. The Topaz prods are also very good, I currently have Sharpen AI and Denoise AI, both are excellent.
Wonderful comment! thanks! feel free to spread the word
Yes good call I just shot a Bullfinch (a small bird) as low as 1/60th second in poor light ! Not all the photos were sharp but you do get keepers, especially if you shoot in SMALL BURSTS ! 👍🤔😍
definitely the bursts! Thanks for watching and please subscribe!
@@WildlifeInspired Already subscribed great work keep it up !
Whole heartedly agree, if I/we went for a min of 1/1000 or even 1/500 I would never take a single image in a rainforest. Not that I've been doing this for too long, but I often get asked how I get some images in such poor light, my response is keep lowering your shutter speed and take small bursts until you find your limit where you're not getting a sharp one in that burst. Taking a digital image is in essence free when you're out there shooting, try, delete, try again.... but get that safety shot first if it's a rare moment!
rainforest.... that's a whole different beast. youll never see 1/1000
@@WildlifeInspired It is, but so much fun!
So that image at 1/100 what lens were you using and what aperture?
Usually Im using a 400mm 2.8 wide open (to get as much light IN as possible) I often use a TC with this set up so all the images are at f2.8 but usually f4
I started shooting birds when I was a kid. I used an old Canon TX, the max shutter was 1/500th.
Thank you, but i would mention stationary birds in the title.
I did mention it a few times in the video and the take away was suppose to be, if you commit to high shutters you will also likely be stuck with "bad" or hard light
With the slow shutter speed dont you have up your iso and open your aperture wide open? Speed light and aperture all have to combine to make a photo. All of my lenses tend to have sweet sharpness a couple stops above wide open.
the 400 2.8 is sharp all the way open and I usually shoot wide open all the time. some lenses definitely have a sweet spot but again at f8 (a typical sweet spot) you lose 1-3 stops of light which mean you have to sacrifice somewhere else OR shoot in a lot of direct light. For action, it's far less important, but portraits is another story.
Hi enjoyed your point of view but if you are shooting mostly birds in flight and action this is not good advice. For the style of shots you showed yes your advice makes sense but if you are shooting ospreys, or an eagle diving into the water to catch a fish, or Terns that zipping around and diving head first into the water you are not going to capture that with ss 250. I understand your point of you but this can also be just as confusing to a new photographer without clarifying that. No doubt the images you showed slower shutter speed is the way to go but the majority of those birds were not really moving. I enjoyed your video just putting my 2 cents in :) Stay safe and happy shooting !!!
I literally put in the video a message that says, this is not suitable for action photos.
I agree Sam...I stay high on the shutter speed even with a perched bird because you never know when it's going to fly...It has to be almost dark to at least not be shooting at 1/1500
This advice is relevant for 2012 but not today. A css as meta like the Z7ii or A7r3 will have virtually no noise up to about ISO 1000-1600, so not taking advantage of as high a shutter speed as possible, and thus increasing your keeper rate, makes no sense.
I am guessing you shoot in bright light? Have you ever tried shooting blue hour or early sunrise, or overcast wood warblers? This advice has nothing to do with sensors and everything to do with shooting in soft low light. Try it sometime!
Yes of course but the lesson is to prioritize shutter speed over ISO, at least to a point.
For example, in low light I’d rather opt for a sharp shot at 1/1000 knowing I can denotes up to iso 3200 than risk blur at 1/125th.
Auto ISO in manual mode is the answer. Set your high iso limit, then choose your max shutter speed for the situation. 3200 for bright light with motion. 1000-2000 for bright light and still subjects. 250-1000 +/- in low light with motion. And down from there in low light with still subjects but your technique becomes critical at that point.
But you assume that you have enough light for that. My point is low light may give you 1/100 ISO 3200, would you avoid that light (as it sounds like you would) My point wasnt to say "shoot low shutter speeds to keep ISO low" My point is experiment in low light (pre-dawn for example) because the payoff can be gorgeous light. Maybe I didnt make the point enough.
I be agree and get that point. But the main reason people miss photos is because of a lack sharpness caused by movement, so shutter speed should always be a consideration, especially for beginners.
I have some task sharp Bird Images at 1/10- 1/20th of sec.... HANDHELD !
it can be done!
@@WildlifeInspired Yep.. It can be done.. I was a dark location early morning one day with really bad light.. I have added those images on my Insta.
There is certainly a lot of truth and important information here, but/and I also find it pretty misleading or at least very narrow in scope. Pretty much every photo you show is a “field guide” style photo. OK, that’s possibly overstating - they’re more beautiful and artistic than a typical field guide shot. However they’re really based on very static subjects with very little behavioral and/or action attributes. And sure, in that context you can get very low shutter speeds. I’ve gotten some shots of owls using shutter speeds as slow as 1 second. But that’s just one aspect of “bird photography”, and to portray those types of shots as encompassing all of bird photography is really misleading. You do allude to possibly needing faster shutter speeds for action shots, but you spend almost all of your time saying you don’t need fast shutter speeds. If you’re looking for behavior and action shots, you really do need high shutter speeds. In fact it took me a looooong time to finally accept that. Coming from a film background, where the cameras almost never went above 1/1000, I felt that 1/1000 was fast enough for any photograph I could ever want. But so many of my shots came out lacking. It wasn’t until I got advice from multiple bird and wildlife photographers that I should be in the 1/1600 to 1/3200 range that things started to get a lot better. But that doesn’t mean you can’t shoot in beautiful light and at golden hour - that’s when I get the majority of my shots. It does mean fairly expensive, heavy glass though. I primarily shoot with an 800f5.6 and 600f4, sometimes with TCs attached, but most of my shots are during the golden hour and when I’m shooting action/behavior it’s usually above 1/1000. Now if I’m shooting a more static shot, I use much slower shutter speeds. But typically what I do is I get some “safety shots” with a higher shutter speed, then I start ratcheting it down. My philosophy is that you can typically fix noisy photos, but it’s nearly impossible to really fix motion blurred photos. So I get some shots where I know the shutter is fast enough that I’ve gotten some relatively sharp photos (albeit possibly with more noise than I’d like), then I start getting slower and slower shutter speeds, with long bursts hoping that I get a decently-sharp shot in the bunch. So while I generally agree that you don’t always need a fast shutter, I feel like you’re kind of leading people down a path that can set them up for a lot of disappointment. Just my $0.02.
I thought I was pretty clear about this being for portraiture type work, and I never make a point that you SHOULD shoot at low shutter, just that you CAN and that is vastly different. Thanks for the comments hope to hear from you again.