Nearly Comprehensive YouTube Video Guide: Shutter Speeds for Bird Photography
View, bookmark, and study this 46-minute video and learn about choosing a suitable shutter speed for all types of bird photography — for static subjects, for flight, and for various types of action. Not to mention for creating the pleasingly blurred images that I love. There is so much info in this 46 minutes video that serious bird photographers will wish to bookmark it for study. Scroll down to see the succinct summary below.
Note the Piping Plover image at the 31:40 mark was created by Clemens Van der Werf. It was inadvertently credited to David Pugsley.
What’s Up?
Today is Tuesday 10 December (can you believe it?) 2024. Bob and I will be headed down to the lake before 7:00am, but our streak of 46 in a row morning sessions together will end tomorrow as Mr. Eastman is headed to Vero Beach for 2 days to attend to some business. Despite perfect conditions on Monday morning, we pretty much wound up with squadoosh. On Monday evening we tried something new by working some backlit Boat-tailed Grackles bathing fifteen minutes before sunset. Whatever you choose to do, we hope that like us, you choose to be happy and have fun.
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Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM Lens
Price reduced $500.00 on 10 December 2024
Multiple IPT veteran Geri Georg is offering a rarely used Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM lens in Excellent Plus to Near-mint condition for the might-a-well-be-giving-it-away price of $599.00 (was $1099.00).
The sale includes the original box, the front and back lens caps, the lens pouch, the lens hood, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower-48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Please contact Geri via e-mail or by phone at (970) 219-4493 (MTD).
This lens is a scenic photographer’s dream come true. It sells new at B&H for $2199.00. Grab Geri’s pretty much new lens and save an incredible $1600.00. artie
Characterized by a revamped optical design, the EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM from Canon is a workhorse wide-angle zoom and member of the well-regarded L-series of lenses. Featuring a series of specialized elements, this lens utilizes a trio of aspherical elements and two ultra-low dispersion glass elements to control a variety of aberrations for high sharpness and clarity. Both SWC and ASC coatings have also been applied to the elements in order to reduce lens flare and ghosting for increased contrast and color accuracy.
Complementing its optical prowess, a ring-type Ultrasonic Motor offers fast, smooth, and near-silent autofocus performance, which is further benefitted by full-time manual focus operation and an internal focusing design. The lens is both water and dust-resistant, and fluorine coatings have also been applied to the front and rear elements to protect against fingerprints and smudges from affecting image quality. B&H and Canon
Shutter Speeds for Bird Photography
Below are my general recommendations for focal lengths up to 600mm. When adding teleconverters to long lenses you need to up your shutter speeds, unless you are on a sturdy tripod with a Levered-clamp FlexShooter Pro.
Exact shutter speeds will vary depending on the skill and sharpness techniques of the photographer, and again, on the focal length they are using. Again, in general, the longer the focal length the faster the shutter speed you will need (all else being equal).
Birds in flight
Ideal: 1/3200 or 1/4000 sec. or faster.
Usually acceptable: 1/2500 sec.
Sometimes you can get away with shutter speeds ranging from 1/1600 to 1/2000 sec.
On occasion, only when caught with your pants down, you might come up with something sharp at 1/1250, 1/1000, 1/800, 1/640, 1/500 sec., or even slower. But those are never recommended for flight.
Note: folks who want razor sharp wingtips when doing flight photography on small, fast species recommend a shutter speed of 1/8000 sec.
Birds in action
Ideal: 1/2000 or 1/2500 sec. is usually plenty unless the action is violent. With lots of light, go with 1/3200 or 1/4000 sec .
Usually acceptable: 1/1600 or 1/1250 sec.
In a pinch (such as in extreme low light conditions), you can often come up sharp at 1/1000, 1/800, 1/640, 1/500, or even 1/400 sec..
Birds moving slowly (as when preening, walking or swimming)
Ideal: 1/2000, 1/1600, 1/1250, or 1/1000 sec.
Usually acceptable: 1/800, 1/640, 1/500, or 1/400 sec. will often be sufficient.
Usually risky: 1/320 to 1/250 sec. You might get one or two sharp ones in a series.
Static Subjects/Lens Unsupported (hand holding, lens not braced)
Most folks can be assured of sharp results with a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec. or faster. Folks with superb hand holding sharpness techniques and do well at 1/800, 1/640, 1/500 sec. or even slower on occasion.
Static Subjects/Lens Supported (knee or foot pod technique, braced in some way as on a fence or with the lens hood on the ground, or best of all on a tripod).
1/500, 1/400, 1/320, or 1/250, or even 1/200 sec should work well (as long as the bird is not moving).
Folks with excellent sharpness technique should be fine down to 1/60 sec. or even slower (even when working at 1200mm).
Shutter Speeds for Pleasing Blurs
For decades, the classic blur speed has been 1/15th second. Remember that at a given shutter speed, the degree of blurring will increase as the distance to the subject decreases. All of that dependent of course on the speed and behavior of the subject and the skill of the person doing the panning. Faster shutter speeds ranging from 1/20 to 1/125 sec. (or faster) can work with birds flying or running by at close range. Slower shutter speeds in the range of 1/2 to 1/13 sec. can produce spectacular images on occasion. The slower the shutter speed you employ the fewer keepers you will have but your chances of creating a contest winner will increase.
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Thanks for your effort mate. You are one of a kind. Keep kicking.
Thanks for your kind words.
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