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Magnolia Warbler - Setophaga magnolia The forest was dark, but I have to get a grip on my camera settings for birding. The ISO is way too high and causing a lot of noise. Plus, I probably need to increase the shutter speed.<br />
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Habitat: Deciduous forest Geotagged,Magnolia warbler,Setophaga magnolia,Spring,United States,setophaga,warbler Click/tap to enlarge

Magnolia Warbler - Setophaga magnolia

The forest was dark, but I have to get a grip on my camera settings for birding. The ISO is way too high and causing a lot of noise. Plus, I probably need to increase the shutter speed.

Habitat: Deciduous forest

    comments (8)

  1. A high ISO is often unavoidable in dark places. That said, from EXIF settings it looks to me like you left the aperture value to what you probably were using for macro shooting: f/18.

    For subjects at a distance, use the lowest possible value on the lens, which for your 300mm lens would probably be around f/5.6. That's multiple full stops of difference, and ISO perhaps would be 800-1600, around that level.
    Posted 3 years ago
    1. Yes, I was still using macro settings, lol. I'll change the aperture and if that's not enough, maybe change shutter speed or else use the exposure compensation. Posted 3 years ago
      1. For shutter speed there's also a rule of thumb: for a focal length of 300mm, the minimum would be 1/300s. So don't go slower than that.

        Some nuance though: it's an old rule that does not take into account image stabilization and vibrance reduction that your camera/lens might have. Those would allow you to go slower than 1/300s. Note that this rule only takes into account your own movement, not that of the subject.

        In this case you're close enough to the recommended shutter speed and clearly aperture is the bigger factor creating the high ISO.
        Posted 3 years ago
        1. Thanks for the info...

          The next time I go birding, I am going to try the following:
          1. Shutter speed set to f/5.6 or f/8
          2. Try to get by with the ISO at 800 in the woods.

          **I read that some cameras have settings where you can set a maximum ISO and also set the lowest shutter speed. I'm not sure if my camera does this; but, if it does, then I will set the maximum ISO at 1600 and the lowest shutter speed at 1/1000s.

          Otherwise, I could consider shooting in shutter-priority mode if the woods are super dark? Or, I could shoot manual, which would be a last resort for me because, eek.

          Posted 3 years ago
          1. Yes, the setting you refer to looks like this in the Nikon world:
            https://digital-photography-school.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Nikon-ISO.jpg

            I use this all the time for bird photography in dark forests as there's just no time to set ISO manually. So I chose the minimum shutter speed and let the camera pick the ISO. It's not perfect, sometimes I feel the camera picks a too high ISO, but it's a very pragmatic way to go about things and nowadays noise reduction in post processing works reasonably well.

            I don't set a low maximum like you do with 1600. I set the maximum much higher. What if 1600 is not enough for the scene you're photographing, in that case the camera will slow down the shutter speed, which for bird photography leads to many misses (blurry).

            It's a balancing act, best to just try some thresholds. I would add one extra optimization as a "next step" after this. There's a big difference between a stationary bird and one in flight or jumping around. You might get away with 1/100s for the stationary one (thus low noise) but for an active one need 1/500s or higher. For an in-flight one it depends on how much of the frame the bird fills. A distant bird needs less shutter speed compared to one flying across your lens very closely.
            Posted 3 years ago
            1. Very good points to consider. Thanks for the input! I seriously thought I was imparting new knowledge on you about setting minimum and maximum values. Is there anything you don't already know?! Posted 3 years ago
              1. Lots. You're just really good at asking question that I do know :) Posted 3 years ago
                1. I know enough to know that I know very little. Posted 3 years ago

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The magnolia warbler is a member of the family Parulidae, the New world warblers. It breeds in forests in the northern US and Canada. During the winter, the warbler migrates through the eastern half of the United States to southern Mexico and Central America.

Similar species: Perching Birds
Species identified by Christine Young
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By Christine Young

All rights reserved
Uploaded May 17, 2022. Captured May 17, 2022 09:26 in 118 East St, Litchfield, CT 06759, USA.
  • Canon EOS 90D
  • f/18.0
  • 1/512s
  • ISO6400
  • 300mm