action shots

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john
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Hi I am new to this site and to photography. I have bought a Nikon D40 and although I can take reasonable still photos I would like to know how to take good action shots without blurring ie: birds in flight. Thanks
 
Depending on the bird,you need a fast shutter speed ,at least 250
and it depends if using a tripod or just hand holding the camera.

If hand holding it then depends on the size of the lens .

Give us a clue to what lens and what it's fastest apperture is, 2.8,3.5 ,5.6 :shrug:

We can then give you more advice.:thumbs:
 
im using a nikon d40 camera and a AF70-300mm F/4-5.6 ld macro 1;2 if that helps im new to all this,cheers john.
 
I would say that birds in flight requires a shutter speed of at least 1/1250 to be sure of a sharp shot. You also need to remember that the sky will fool the camera meter into thinking it is much brighter than it is, = dark bird in a bright sky, so be sure to compensate by 1.5-2 stops to bring the detail out on the underside of the bird.
Rgds
Jonathan
 
Practice taing shots of cars on the motor-way, this is good for getting your reaction time up to speed and tracking a moving object, you don't even need to take a photo but try and get your centre focus point in one spot and move with the object trying to keep it in the same place, then its just a question of doing the same thing but pressing the shutter release at the same time.

A few years back i shot rocket drag cars at Santa-pod Raceway, these babies do 1/4mile in 5seconds, so you can imagine its pretty damn fast.
 
Just a thought, has anyone taken any shots of flying birds using the sport mode. I may be wrong but I was thinking that there's not much difference between running humans and flying birds, they are both moving objects. As I said just a thought.
 
In addition to the other comments John, you could also try to go somewhere where your guaranteed BIF shots all the time. I'm local to you and have had some good shots from Old moor Wetlands, but my fave location is Harwood House, they feed the Herons and red kites there so there is always plenty of action.

F
 
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