Canon Rebel settings for wildlife photography?

[Bob Williams]

I have my new Rebel T2i in my hands and I am stumbling through the manual and wondering what settings I should try. My plan is to photograph wildlife and birds using my 70-300 IS lens. At this point I am not quite ready to start using RAW. I know it has real advantages (the Best Buy salesman was really pusing RAW) but at this point I want to concentrate on all of the new features that the T2i has over my old S5 IS.

The salesman at Best Buy suggested using only the center autofocus point. What picture style is best for wildlife? Should I be using Adobe RGB or sRGB? Should I be using the Ai-Servo feature or single focus?

Any tips are appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

[rockpics]

When I shoot wildlife I like to shoot with a high shutter speed, so I shoot with the lens at maximum aperture, and I let the camera choose the shutter speed for correct exposure. With the lens I usually use that is F5.6. Some lenses aren't as sharp at maximum aperture as at other apertures, but I have not noticed a loss of sharpness with the lens I use. To shoot at maximum aperture and let the camera choose the correct shutter speed use Av. The maximum aperture will be the lowest F number. Depending on the amount of noise in the camera you are using you should be able to use an ISO of 800 or 1600. This will also allow for a faster shutter speed than you would get at lower ISOs. There may be situations that you find later where you want a smaller aperture or want to use a lower ISO, but you'll find out what those are as you go along.

[jfoureyes]

Sounds like you are ready for a test run out to BBSP. Shooting in Raw just gives you more post processing options ...do not be fearful of using that format. I shoot wildlife/birds in aperture priority f 5.6-f11 and let the camera select the shutter speed at ISO 200-400 and use the center focus area on my camera. I also use sRGB, auto WB but I can change these in post processing shooting in RAW...another good reason to use RAW format.


This is a site of a guy that I highly respect as wildlife/ bird shooter that tested the camera you have and it may help you some. I'll be at BBSP early in the morning to do some bug/tree frog shootin' in the prairie area by Horseshoe lakes...if you're out there stop by and say hello.


Greg's site:
Canon Rebel T2i Photo Gallery by Greg Lavaty at pbase.com

[snidow]

I use the lowest possible ISO setting to help with image quality and the aperture setting depends on how much depth of field I want. I like f/8 again because of detail but often use 5.6 because I want a smooth background.

[texkam]

I am not quite ready to start using RAW. I know it has real advantages (the Best Buy salesman was really pusing RAW) but at this point I want to concentrate on all of the new features that the T2i has over my old S5 IS.

Switching it to RAW won't affect this.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks very much everyone for your input. I will be trying Av mode for sure and I guess I will start out in sRGB with the standard picture style. Has anyone tried any of the other picture styles? Does anyone see any advantages to Standard over say neutral or faithful… ? Do most of you shoot one shot at a time or do you find the burst mode more useful?

What metering mode do you folks use? Is there an advantage to using spot metering vs the default? Spot metering sounds pretty useful for when I can’t get close to the subject.

The guy at Best Buy said that the 70-300 IS would probably be at its best around f/8 so to get the sharpest pictures I should try to use f/8.

I do understand that RAW will still allow the camera to do everything it can do but at this point I am overwhelmed enough just learning the DSLR without trying to learn the RAW software… Once I am comfortable with the camera I will certainly play around with the RAW software.

Thanks again,

Bob

[Patti Edens]

To answer a couple of your questions that I didn't see addressed...

If you are shooting birds in flight or anything that is moving that you want to track, use AI Servo. If your subject is still, use One Shot.

Metering: I almost always use Evaluative (same as Matrix on Nikon) unless I'm shooting a very white bird when everything else in the frame is very dark. Then I use spot on the bird so I don't blow it out. But there are other ways to handle that as well.

If you are not worrying about running out of CF card space, why not shoot both jpeg and RAW. Then you will have something to play with later when you want to expand your post processing skills. And heck, what if you get that award winning shot of the gator eating the spotted owl and only have a crummy jpeg.

Congratulations on your camera! Exciting times ahead.

Oh, one other thought...you might want to take a dSLR course at LLU. I have taken all of the ones offered by Kathy Adams Clark and have learned a ton from her. There are other good instructors there too I've heard.

This link will take you directly to LLUs photography classes.

[rockpics]

I've tried all of the picture styles, and I like standard best. Picture styles only matter for jpegs, or for raw if you use the Canon raw editing software that comes with the camera (Digital Photo Professional). One thing you can do if you use the Canon editing software is you can shoot raw and later change the picture styles to see which one you like.

Some people will tell you to only use Adobe RGB because it is a larger color space than sRGB. I've shot with both, and the truth is that in the final print I can't tell the difference. I doubt that the paper I use is able to take advantage of the extra color gamut of Adobe RGB. Also, the web is sRGB, so your photos posted in Adobe RGB will look dull compared to those posted in sRGB. You will need to convert the photo to sRGB before posting for the colors to look right.

Again, if you shoot raw you save all of the colors captured at the time you shot the frame, and the color space you use is less important because you can select the one you want when you make a jpeg, tiff or other conversion from raw.

[rockpics]

I've been using one shot on my XSI because I've had more luck with it, but I haven't ever shot birds in flight. I think people who shoot birds in flight use one of the other focus selections.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks for the tips everyone, there certainly is a lot to think about. One of my issues right now is that I only had three 2GB SD cards going into this purchase and I must say that I was not really prepared for how big the 18MP files were going to be. I think eventually I am going to have to buy some more cards but for now I am going to have to make do with 6GB worth and also with shooting JPG. I have no doubt that RAW is the bee’s knees but I am just going to have to work my way up to it.

I will start out with using the Evaluative metering (that is what I used today on my first outing). So far it seems to do a good job so I am pleased. I also went with Standard picture style and again the results so far were encouraging. My only complaint with standard at this point is that the default setting seems to have the contrast set rather high. I tried faithful and the photos looked washed out so I went back to standard and dropped the contrast a couple of notches and I think I am happy.

I am used to post processing my images from my S5, mainly in terms of noise reduction and levels adjustment. I will say that from the little bit of experience I have had with the T2i I am VERY impressed with how much post processing the files will tolerate before they start looking trashed.

I did use one shot autofocus and it seems very accurate. The guy at Best Buy had me a little worried about the Canon since he suggested that Canon has a lot of AF problems and that I might need to send my lens in for calibration.

I don’t think I am quite ready for birds in flight just yet since I am still trying to nail down getting good shots of animals that are being still.

I was a little worried about the small grip on the Rebel camera. I must say that the display model of the Nikon did feel quite comfortable to hold but I am a lot more at ease with the handling of the Canon. I think I will do just great for me.

I will post a photo that I took today in another post in a few minutes but I would really like to offer my sincere thanks for all of your help.

Bob