Canon EOS R10 - Shutter Priority Issues

[Ethan120607]

Hi, I am new to the Canon R10 and I like taking pictures of birds. I recently switched my settings to shutter priority and now everything in the camera is super dark. Just went on a 5 mile hike and got home and all my pictures and totally trashed. I checked my ISO and it is on auto. If anyone could help me that would be greatly appreciated.

[Tronhard]

Basically shutter priority will attempt to create a correctly exposed image (according to what the camera meters) when you set a shutter speed.  The camera will then use an algorithm that seeks to change the ISO and aperture give give the correct exposure.  Setting ISO in Auto is a good idea, but you can also add a limit to that and set it to not set an ISO above a maximum value, such as 3200.  In that case, when the max ISO is reached, the camera will try to get the correct exposure changing the aperture, unless it is impossible to do so for the lighting conditions, in which case the setting will display in flashing mode in your EVF.

[Tronhard]

Further to that, in your case you set a shutter speed of 1/2000 sec, which was probably too fast considering the birds were not on the wing.  You could have shot much slower than that and thus given the camera much more latitude to adjust aperture and ISO to the conditions.
TBH, I am a wildlife shooter and very rarely use Tv.  I prefer Av or manual - but usually the former, so that I can control what is in focus.  I set ISO at auto with a max value of 3200 or 6400, depending on the camera and the lens.

I also do not use evaluative metering (the default) - for me it is ok for landscapes but not for wildlife or situations with a lot of contrasting areas: I use both spot metering locked in the centre, so I can select the correct exposure point precisely, and I assign that to the * button on the back of the camera.   I also use Back Button Focus (see: video) also centre locked.  That way, I just set my exposure, lock it with one button, focus on say the eye of my subject and lock that, recompose and shoot.

All of the images below were taken in Av mode and the methods alluded to.
Rifleman R6, RF100-500 @ 400mm, f/5.6, 1/100sec, ISO-1600  Male Korimako (Bellbird): 500mm, f/7.1, 1/200 sec, ISO-6400  Hihi: 500mm, f/7.1, 1/200 sec, ISO-6400  R6MkII, EF 100-400@ 400mm, f/8, 1/400sec, ISO-6400

[shadowsports]

Greetings Ethan,

May I suggest this.  You do not need to shoot at 1/2000 for stationary birds... Try 1/250 - 1/400.  Set the AF to a single focus point. Is the lens an EF400mm f5.6?

[Ethan120607]

Thank you so much to all your help. Yes I always use spot in the woods, getting between all those branches can be tricky. I was using 2000 shutter speed for shore birds. I will take your advice though to turn it down in certain environments. 

[Tronhard · Accepted solution]

The key with shutter speed is you need to go fast only if the birds are actually moving: even then, unless they are particularly swift, you could likely get away with 1/1000 sec.  For birds relatively static or just perching, as your images seem to be, you can get away with shots much, much slower, as my good colleague Rick suggested.  If you check out my sample images, they were shot at between 1/100 and 1/400sec.