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2 thoughts on “Wildlife Photography and Long Lens Technique”

  1. I can’t believe I found a podcast covering the type of photography I am interested in EXCLUSIVELY!

    Something that took me a while to grasp was shooting at maximum aperture is not always good. I use a Sigma 150-500mm for bird photography and I have found this lens performs best at f/9-f/13. I usually keep at f/11 and change as the lighting changes. I also find that manual is the only way to go with these long focal length lenses. I usually shoot “free hand” – that is, no tri/mono-pods. Birds rarely sit still and by the time you get the shot set, they are long gone. That said, keeping the shutter speed at 1/800 or faster and the aperture at f/11, I am stuck with manual mode. I just let the ISO float as the camera sees fit.

    Here is a setting I like to call “ISO Priority” Set your ISO to the maximum you feel is acceptable for image quality. T\Of course this depends totally on the camera your using. For my Canon 60D and now 70D, that ISO is 2000 Anything higher is too difficult to clean up in Lightroom. Next set the camera mode dial to ‘P’ (for professional – HAHA) Program Mode I use “ISO Priority” for low light situations and you get interesting results. Granted they are not always good. This works good for indoor sports photography at times as well.

    Enough blathering – thanks, and I look forward to your next episode.

    Mark L.

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