Beginner bird photography with the Z5II and Samuel Houcken

Samuel’s kitbag

• Nikon Z5II
• NIKKOR Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 VR
• Lexar Professional 64GB SD card
• Small bean bag for low-angle perspectives
• Three ‘just in case’ batteries
• RØDE wireless microphone for filming nature sounds

Search for different light

Shortly before sunrise, Samuel headed to Fischland-Darß-Zingst beach in north-eastern Germany to make the most of golden hour, when warm light and morning haze add atmosphere. A hotspot for cranes, he set his Z5II to Aperture Priority mode, selecting f/6.3 (the widest on his lens at 600mm) to let in as much light as possible while keeping the birds sharp. The camera selected a fast shutter speed of 1/4000 secs, with Auto ISO adjusting exposure as light changed. “I wanted the cranes small in the frame, with the rising flight path to add movement,” he explains. Photographing into the light allowed silhouettes and dust-filled air to glow, creating a sense of scale rather than focusing on detail alone. “When the sun shines through the clouds, it acts like a diffuser,” he adds. “That’s when you achieve the most variety: golden hues, high key, low key and different perspectives.”

Create drama with perspective

Samuel’s most important tip? Never stay in the same position. In Fischland-Darß-Zingst, he used a low perspective to dramatise a great crested grebe opening its wings.  “When the background is clean and the water is calm, you can really focus on composition,” Samuel explains. “These are perfect situations to learn what focal length and distance do to an image.” Using Aperture Priority mode at f/6.3 to allow enough depth while isolating the subject, the camera selected a fast shutter speed of 1/1000, with Auto ISO compensating as light shifted. Samuel deliberately underexposed the frame to -1.67 to deepen the background, later refining contrast in post. “When the grebe lifted its wings,” he says, “the scene becomes dramatic.”

Experiment with high key minimalism

Soft, overcast light and clean backgrounds are the perfect conditions for high-key photography, a stylistic element that reduces the image to the subject, often with a white background. Spotting a cormorant, Samuel selected Aperture Priority mode, stopping down to f/13 to retain sharpness at distance as the camera selected 1/640 secs shutter speed. “I put the ISO on Auto so I could focus on Exposure Value,” he explains. Setting his Exposure Value to +1, +2 and then +3.33 pushed the cloudy sky to white, removing any distractions. “High key reduces the image to behaviour and shape,” he says, explaining he waited until the cormorant stretched to dry its wings for full impact. “The background goes white – and that’s the magic behind high key.”

Keep alert and make the most of Aperture Priority

As he was driving, Samuel noticed a large roadside sunflower strip. Getting out of his car quickly – but quietly – he spotted a goldfinch pecking on the seeds. Keeping to a distance, Samuel worked in Aperture Priority mode, setting f/6.3 for background separation, while the camera selected a fast shutter speed of 1/640 secs and Auto ISO (in the final image case, ISO 900) adjusted for changing light. “I saw the green meadow behind immediately,” he explains, “it complements the goldfinch’s vivid red and yellow plumage. This is one of my dream shots. I’ve been wanting to capture a shot like this for five years now.”

Control speed and focus for birds in flight

As the late afternoon sun shone through the trees of Samuel’s garden, the background foliage and f/6.3 aperture created a colourful green bokeh, as seen in the above video. Working in Manual mode, he set his shutter speed to 1/8000 secs to freeze wing movement and f/6.3 to isolate the subject, with Auto ISO handling exposure. “The bird was in shadow, but the background was bright,” he explains, as he added +0.67 Exposure Value to balance the scene. “Without the sun, this image wouldn’t have worked as well.” AF-C with wide-area tracking (set to bird mode) kept focus locked, despite constant bird movement. “This set-up lets me react instantly,” Samuel says, explaining it allowed him to concentrate on timing and composition rather than camera adjustments.

Set autofocus modes on function buttons

Looking to photograph a bird quickly? Set up exact autofocus modes on your custom controls. “The Z5II’s autofocus is fast, precise and impressive, even for smaller birds,” Samuel enthuses. “I use my function buttons to set up bird subject detection and wide-area AF (both small and large) to track birds quicker. With a burst rate of 14fps in RAW and 11fps in 14-bit RAW, it’s not as fast as the pro Z8 or Z6III (20fps), but this is a perfect entry into a full-frame camera.”  

Exploit the Z5II’s high ISO performance

“As a 24MP body, the Z5II is capable of such a high ISO – even to the end at 64,000 and there’s little to no noise at 10,000 to 20,000,” Samuel shares. Why is this useful? “High ISO enables fast shutter speeds (such as 1/2000-1/4000s) for birds in flight or stopped-down apertures (f/8-f/13) when you need more depth of field without killing exposure.”

Advancing tip: use mechanical shutter to control rolling shutter

When photographing birds in motion, mechanical shutter can keep the image looking natural. “With electronic shutters, you can get rolling shutter effects,” Samuel explains. Because an electronic shutter reads the sensor line by line rather than all at once, fast movement – such as wing beats – can appear distorted or unnatural. “Bird wings move very fast,” he adds. “If you use an electronic shutter, the wings can look bent or stretched.”

The mechanical shutter exposes the entire frame at the same moment, which helps preserve natural wing shapes and realistic motion. “For me, the mechanical shutter gives a more honest image,” he says. “The movement looks real, especially when the bird is close or flying across the frame.”

Five ways to make the most of the Z5II

• Test the Vibration Reduction. Sharp images are possible handheld even at 1/60 second with a 600mm lens.
• Allow the electronic viewfinder to guide you. “The colours are great – sitting down and using the EVF felt very natural,” Samuel explains. “And what you see is very close to the final image.”
• Photograph at low angles. Take advantage of the light body and good grip and use the tilting vari-angle monitor.
• Enable power-saving display timeouts to stretch battery life. This allowed Samuel more than 1,000 shots per battery.
• Experiment with video. The Z5II is the first Nikon Z camera to record N-RAW footage direct to an SD memory card and captures 4K/30p full frame, 4K/60p cropped and super smooth slow-mo at 120p in Full HD.

Follow along on Samuel’s adventures here.