27 May 2021

Low Light Bird Photography | Table Bay Nature Reserve

Canon Birds / Birds in Flight Photography in Low Light Conditions

Grey Heron in Flight Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton
Grey Heron in Flight Table Bay Nature Reserve


I was greeted this morning with wet and foggy conditions...

What a miserable morning! I almost turned around due to the depressing low light. But, decided to give my kit a low light workout – working with lower shutter speeds on the birds in flight – with the objective in bringing the Auto-ISO one to two stops down for compensating for the probable high noise conditions.

I was very surprised with the abundance of birds and could manage a few bird images worth sharing.

Cape Town Location
Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island,  Milnerton – walking distance from my Photography Training Studio

A few birds in flight from this morning
  • Grey heron
  • Cape spurfowl
  • Red-eyed dove
  • Little egret
  • Black-headed heron
  • Portrait of a Grey heron
  • Southern masked weaver
  • Levaillant's Cisticola

Canon Camera / Lens Settings
  • Canon EOS 7D Mark II Body
  • EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Lens
  • Manual Mode
  • Auto-ISO: 500 - 640
  • Aperture:  f/5.6 - f/6.3
  • Shutter Speed: 1/1000 - 1/2000
  • AI Servo: Case 1: Wide Zone
  • 10 fps High Speed Continuous Mode
  • Handheld

Post-Processing
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC 9.4: Cropping. Colour correction / noise reduction / lens profile correction.

Cape Spurfowl in flight Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton
Cape Spurfowl in flight Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton

Red-Eyed Dove in flight Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton
Red-Eyed Dove in flight Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton

Little Egret in Fight Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton
Little Egret in Flight Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton

Black-Head Heron in flight Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton
Black-Headed Heron taking flight Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton

Grey Heron Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton
Portrait of a Grey Heron Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton

Southern Masked Weaver Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton
Southern Masked Weaver Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton

Levaillant's Cisticola Table Bay Nature Reserve Milnerton Vernon Chalmers Photography
Levaillant's Cisticola Table Bay Nature Reserve Woodbridge Island, Milnerton

Birds in Flight Photography Cape Town View

Bird Species Woodbridge Island, Cape Town View