The following are two YouTube videos by Ken Rockwell. Both of them made a lot of suggestions on how I could set up my D780 to work better for me. I’ve done many of them, but not all. I guess I could have left the camera the way it came from Nikon, but the overwhelming majority of these things made it a better camera for me:
A lot of what you write here I do without specifically thinking about it. Certainly a good list.
To be honest, I usually shoot first, then think. I’ve missed too many shots by not taking one photo immediately, and trying to everything “perfect”, by which time the image I wanted is already lost. …and sometimes I spend forever, getting things just the way I want, as you describe. I try to have the camera properly configured before I even raise it to my eye.
I don’t think @Joanna said it specifically, but something I try to do most of the time is “imagine” my image before pressing the shutter release - that would include both what you wrote, along with composition, and what I want included (or not) in the image. Thanks to DxO and also to my camera, if there is any doubt, I don’t mind raising the ISO speed so I can use a faster shutter speed.
Final thought - I thought I had learned to put my camera in (M) mode, and leave it there. Lately I prefer using (A)perture priority mode, along with auto-iso, (but also checking that the shutter speed isn’t getting too slow).
If the camera has it, why not use the built-in tracking focus? Just hold in the back-button focus while the bird is moving.
Thanks for that pointer - I found it on Ken’s videos last night, and will program the camera that way next time. I never even thought about this.
One more setting to be aware of. Thank you!