QuestionStarling murmurations, settings that don't turn into mush?

Right so the starlings have started coming in over the reedbed near me, couple of thousand most nights maybe more, and every year I go down and every year I come home with mush, the light goes so fast that by the time they're doing the good shapes I'm at ISO 12800 on the R7 and its just a grey smudge with black dots in it, or I go slow to keep ISO down and its blurry dots

the 100-400 is f/8 at the long end which doesnt help tbf, I usually end up nearer the wide end anyway because the flock is huge

what are people doing, am I just there too late, or is it accept the noise and denoise it, or go the other way and do a proper slow blur on purpose

Get there earlier and shoot the arrivals rather than the main display. The small groups coming in from the feeding fields in the half hour before they gather are often lit by what's left of the sun and much easier to make something of. By the time the full murmuration happens you're usually shooting into dusk whatever you do.

Also worth shooting the sky, not the birds. A shape against an orange band at the horizon is a picture. A shape against grey is a smudge, as you've found.

go the other way. 1/10 to 1/4 on a tripod and let them smear, the shapes look bloody brilliant like smoke. you'll bin 90% but the ones that work are better than any sharp one ive ever seen

davey1892 said:

1/10 to 1/4 on a tripod and let them smear

tried that last year mate but I was on the long end and it was just a blur of everything, maybe need to be wider for that

aye wider, get the reeds or a tree in the bottom of the frame so theres something sharp to hang it on

We don't get the big starling shows out here but we do get the sandhill cranes coming in to roost at Whitewater Draw in winter and it's the same problem... the good stuff happens right as the light goes.

IMHO accept the noise. Modern denoise will clean up 12800 from a sensor like the R7 much better than you think, as long as you expose it properly and don't try to brighten a dark file afterward. An underexposed 6400 file is uglier than a properly exposed 12800 one. FWIW I'd go 1/1000, wide open, auto ISO and let it climb, and give it +2/3 exposure comp because all that sky fools the meter.

• Walt

fen_and_field said:

shoot the arrivals rather than the main display

This is good advice, and it also means you're packed up before everyone else is tripping over tripods in the dark! We get small murmurations at a reservoir near me some winters and the early stragglers are the ones I actually like.