Hi,
I have been trying to capture a decent photo of a Barn Owl for a number of weeks, I've tried at a couple of venues locally but I have come up against a number of issues.
1) Lens; As the owls usually come out in the fading light (of evening) the maximum aperture of my 400mm f/5.6 lens means I have to increase the ISO and reduce the shutter speed, even with the lens tripod mounted
2) Settings; as the light fades should I stick with ISO 1600 when the required shutter speed gets to below 1/100 sec, or switch to 3200 ?
(Because the result of increasing the exposure in RAW conversion would be as noisy, if not noisier wouldn't it.)
3) Method; I have tried a mobile set up (waiting till I spot the owl then try to get as close as possible before attempting a photo, usually in flight) and also a static approach (positioning myself close to a post which I seen the bird use a number of times).
4) Location; choice of venue is difficult as sometimes the bird/s turn up and sometimes they don't (or they do but not until it's far too dark to even attempt a photo)
5) Using Flash as the main lighting in twilight; This seems to be an ethical issue to me.
Is it worth getting a good photo at the cost of an owl losing it's dark adaption, and therefore, potentially, harming it's ability to hunt for the next 30-40 minutes? (the amount of time said for it to recover it's dark adaption).
So if anyone could offer some help or advice/ share experiences that would be great.
Cheers,
Julian.
PS. Below is the best effort I've managed so far, it was taken at ISO 1600 but was so underexposed that I had to boost it by +2 stops in RAW conversion (Hand held, f/5.6, 1/500 sec).