flying alone
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Welcome to TP Ikaal. I have no choice other than to agree with Steve, its way out of focus. You have been panning to get this shot and have either not kept a steady pan or you have used a shutter speed that's far to slow, or both. I cant see any EXIF so don't know what gear or settings you used.
Birds in flight aren't easy and need a lot of practice, plus you will need to be nearer to the bird either physically or with a much longer lens.
Sorry to be so negative and good luck with trying again.
Birds in flight aren't easy and need a lot of practice, plus you will need to be nearer to the bird either physically or with a much longer lens.
Sorry to be so negative and good luck with trying again.
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Thanks for the info Ikkal. I am not conversant with the Pentax K-5 so can only generalise.
97.5 mm on a 1.5 crop gives a 35mm equivalent of 146.25 mm. Ideally you need a FL of 250 mm, or more if possible for this type of shot, so as I said, you need to be closer.
F/13 aperture is too small, you can comfortably open as wide as possible, that will depend on the lens you are using, but f/5.6 is common for BIF. This will reduce your DoF but that is acceptable at this range and for BiF shots.
I think you can select your AF point on your Pentax, so if possible, select the single centre point and aim that at the bird as you track it.
Your shutter speed is far too slow for this type of shot, for BIF I usually try to use in excess of 1/1000, but 1/1500 if I can. Opening the aperture up will help achieve this, and increase your ISO to give you more speed.
All being well, someone who knows your camera in more detail will be able to advise you more.
I hope this helps
Trev
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Thanks for starting this thread, Ikkal, I was going to do one like it, my own first BIF shots the other day being less than satisfactory. (Crap, actually!).
Thanks of course, to the replies, they've helped me too
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Thanks for the info Ikkal. I am not conversant with the Pentax K-5 so can only generalise.
97.5 mm on a 1.5 crop gives a 35mm equivalent of 146.25 mm. Ideally you need a FL of 250 mm, or more if possible for this type of shot, so as I said, you need to be closer.
F/13 aperture is too small, you can comfortably open as wide as possible, that will depend on the lens you are using, but f/5.6 is common for BIF. This will reduce your DoF but that is acceptable at this range and for BiF shots.
I think you can select your AF point on your Pentax, so if possible, select the single centre point and aim that at the bird as you track it.
Your shutter speed is far too slow for this type of shot, for BIF I usually try to use in excess of 1/1000, but 1/1500 if I can. Opening the aperture up will help achieve this, and increase your ISO to give you more speed.
All being well, someone who knows your camera in more detail will be able to advise you more.
I hope this helps
Trev
Trev, thank you for this very helpful feedback, really appreciated. I'll try and hopefully I can post a better one in the next thread
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Thanks for starting this thread, Ikkal, I was going to do one like it, my own first BIF shots the other day being less than satisfactory. (Crap, actually!).
Thanks of course, to the replies, they've helped me too
Mike, definitely Trev's comment and yours would help me too...
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Well this was my best effort, out of about 20+ tries!
seagull by Michael B O'Brien, on Flickr
Quite a severe crop, terrible loss of detail. I used the Canon 55-250 at full stretch.
1/1250, f9 ISO400.
I struggled with the focussing, but after reading the advice, I'll forget the AI modes and spot focus! And try to get closer, obviously
seagull by Michael B O'Brien, on Flickr
Quite a severe crop, terrible loss of detail. I used the Canon 55-250 at full stretch.
1/1250, f9 ISO400.
I struggled with the focussing, but after reading the advice, I'll forget the AI modes and spot focus! And try to get closer, obviously
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That's quite a good attempt Mike, you can see the difference it has made using 250mm compared to Ikkal's 97.5mm even with the crop (no disrespect meant to Ikkal). As you say, some detail has been lost but the image looks quite sharp.
I'm not sure why you said forget AI, the settings I would suggest, bearing in mind I haven't used a 60D or am sure what is available to you on that camera are:
AI servo, high speed shooting, centre point AF (on the 7D there is an expanded centre point which is ideal for BIF, I don't know if this is available on the 60D).
Either manual or AV, probably AV will be the best until you get more comfortable with this type of photography. On your pic Mike, you have used f/9, you could afford to open the lens up even more to maybe f/5.6, that will give you an even higher shutter speed, or you could reduce the ISO by a stop and reduce the noise, yet still keep the shutter speed high. Reducing the ISO would have been my choice rather than having a higher shutter speed. Birds with a slow wing movement don't need such a high shutter speed, and in fact its better to get a slight wing movement blur to give a feeling of action to the shot. That of course is for the picture you posted, under different conditions you will need to use the appropriate settings depending on the light etc.
The lighting looks quite harsh on this picture, the top of the bird is bordering on blowing, but the under wings are dark. Its difficult to do anything different at the time you took it, adding some positive compensation would most likely have blown the whites, however, in PP you cold raise the shadows slightly to show more detail.
Practice and getting as close as you can is the answer, its not easy when you start but satisfying when you get it right. There's a member on here who uses the same 55-250 lens for birding and gets excellent results, he might pop in to offer some advice for you on that lens.
Trev
I'm not sure why you said forget AI, the settings I would suggest, bearing in mind I haven't used a 60D or am sure what is available to you on that camera are:
AI servo, high speed shooting, centre point AF (on the 7D there is an expanded centre point which is ideal for BIF, I don't know if this is available on the 60D).
Either manual or AV, probably AV will be the best until you get more comfortable with this type of photography. On your pic Mike, you have used f/9, you could afford to open the lens up even more to maybe f/5.6, that will give you an even higher shutter speed, or you could reduce the ISO by a stop and reduce the noise, yet still keep the shutter speed high. Reducing the ISO would have been my choice rather than having a higher shutter speed. Birds with a slow wing movement don't need such a high shutter speed, and in fact its better to get a slight wing movement blur to give a feeling of action to the shot. That of course is for the picture you posted, under different conditions you will need to use the appropriate settings depending on the light etc.
The lighting looks quite harsh on this picture, the top of the bird is bordering on blowing, but the under wings are dark. Its difficult to do anything different at the time you took it, adding some positive compensation would most likely have blown the whites, however, in PP you cold raise the shadows slightly to show more detail.
Practice and getting as close as you can is the answer, its not easy when you start but satisfying when you get it right. There's a member on here who uses the same 55-250 lens for birding and gets excellent results, he might pop in to offer some advice for you on that lens.
Trev