Aperture Priority Usually Fails for Me

 Aperture Priority is likely the most  popular mode on your camera. But it frequently results in a blurry subject. Oh yes I have image stabilization on my camera. That's not the  problem. The background is fine. Its the subject that is blurred. You guessed it, it's Shutter speed being to low. 

The theory behind of using Aperture Priority is to set the ISO and the Aperture and the camera will choose the shutter speed to result in a proper exposed photo.  There are 2 problems, one is that metering may fool your camera and give an over or under exposed photo. Ok you can use Exposure Compensation to over come that. The is using Auto ISO not setting a minimum ISO to insure a sharp photo. Since I usually shoot with natural light I am subject to changes to light levels.  In your camera Auto ISO setting you could set a minimum shutter speed and your camera would automatically boost the ISO to get a proper exposure. That works but what is the minimum Shutter Speed should you set?  One stop higher than 1/focal length? So on my 14-150mm which on my 2x crop that means 1/300 sec as a minimum. I would set my auto iso minimum shutter speed 1/600 sec. So my camera would 1/500 or 1/640 seconds.

My choice is to set 1/125 sec when  using Aperture Priority. But my real choice is use Manual.

Really it would be a semi-auto setting since I would use Auto ISO. I would choose my Aperture based on DoF and Shutter Speed based on subject. The ISO would float to give you a proper exposure. You can usually set ISO levels. Usually it is best to choose the base ISO for your camera and the upper limit based on your ISO noise tolerance. My OM-D E-M5 iii will not go above ISO 6400 in Auto. I believe this is because OM Solutions/Olympus above 6400 is an extended ISO.

Image Stabilization On or Off?

 Should you turn off image stabilization when you camera is mounted to a tripod?

You can find augments for yes or  no. 

I believe yes if you are talking about the first or second generation of digital cameras. I have found it difficult to find reliable information.  I believe that the implementation by a camera manufacture is the real reason for the variance for the belief. Link to Nikon VR this from B & H.

Olympus/ OM Systems provides this and from Robin Wong

For me I always forget to even think about turning off stabilization when I am using a tripod. When I remember to take long exposure photo I'll try to remember to do my own test with my OM-D E-M5 iii.

The best answer is to your own testing on your camera. 

From fstoppers

It's Insane

 My camera, using electronic shutter, will go as high as 1/32000 sec. That's insane.

What about rolling shutter? Lets see if I see it.

I choose a shutting position about 1/4 mile from a highway. Manual, Auto ISO, f/5.6, 1/32000 sec, 150mm. No panning and wait for vehicles traveling 50 mph. Single point focus. I tripped the shutter when a truck was in my view. The focus point it happened to be  the rear door of the truck.

In Lightroom Classic I set the detail tab to zero the sharpen and luminance values. Edit in Topaz De Noise AI then Topaz Sharpen AI.  Back in LR I adjusted the Highlights, Shadows, Whites, blacks and added some Clarity.  

When I look at 200% I see some slight distortion but I don't think it is rolling shutter.

Behind the Shot

The shot,

I think it's important to learn what did the photographer do to create a photo.

I use an OM-D E-M5 iii with a 14-150mm lens. I used Manual mode with the Aperture as wide the lens allows. This lens is a variable Aperture f/4.0-5.6. when set at 14mm I set the Aperture to f/4.0 since I zoom the Aperture stay wide open.  Usually, for BIF, I start with a Shutter Speed of 1/1250s. Knowing I would be photographing  hummingbird's I chose to it use the Shutter mode pro-capture H. I set it to 30fps, 14 per-capture images and limited to 50 total images. The shutter speed was set to 1/12800s. Since I use auto ISO I knew the ISO would be 200-6400.

I set-up a tripod to a wide enough field of view so hummingbird would be in flight and focused on the feeder.  I then enabled WiFi to I could remotely trigger the shutter with my cellphone.

On my cellphone, while sitting in a comfortable chair, I enabled WiFi and connected to the camera. In the Oi.Share app I enabled the half way setting. Using the remote shutter feature I pressed the Half Way button. The camera began storing 14 images. When a hummingbird was in the frame I pressed the shutter button. 

50 shots. 

I repeated  it l until I felt had enough. From time to time I would tap the Half Way button to stop and restart the sequence.

Importing images into Lightroom classic I set cap locked and used the x, p, u keys to mark delete, pick, unmark and advance to the next image. I used P to mark those birds is right. X was empty frame or otherwise bad images. U for any just to advance to the next image that I wasn't interested for this review.

Sorted to the picks and press 3 or 4 for those I wanted to edit and 1 just to advance to the next image. Then the best 3 or 4 we're choose to editing.

In the Develop mode, crop, white balance to daytime, exposure Auto. Then hold the Alt and set white point and black point then  Vibrance.

Remove distractions if necessary in Photoshop. Then Topaz De Noise AI and Topaz Sharpen AI. 

Back in Lightroom, set to 5 and a Green label. Export.

Remember "show your best".