how fast do things move??? 1/3500 still blurry

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alexsmith

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ok so not birds (which I normally shoot or try to ). But at my mums yesterday, I saw a hover fly going round the flower beds. looked shootable. errrr no:eek:
it took an hour to find it in the viewfinder:eek:
Anyways the iso was 800 in bright sun , the shutter was 1/3500 second and his wings still came out blurry.. oh and I still only got a rubbish pic..All I can say is they must be VERY quick....

P4184399_filtered.jpg
 
RRtom said:
i like this alot, you have a steadier hand than me! :LOL:
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not much of a steady hand's needed at 1/3500th :p but wow those wings must be moving insanely fast...cool shot :)
 
what's the f-stop? the exif been stripped and it may just be too narrow depth of field that's made it soft
 
Actually that sucks, the focus is on eye 357, would have looked a lot better if you had focused-recomposed off eye 653. Good try but give yourself some more time the next time! :D












Great shot...!!!
 
The wings will come out blurry, because they "flap" about 400 times per second (which at 1/3500th is about 12% of a flap).

What you need here is high speed flash photography, where you can get exposures down to about 1/40,000th of a second using speedlights on minimum power.

Like this fella (although, I'll admit, he did go a little over the top).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fotoopa_hs/collections/72157616371829502/
 
High speed sync is fun. I sorted out a sound trigger the other day, got it all working with my PovertyWizards so I can utilise all 6 speedlights.

Now to think of some experiments that haven't been done to death (must.. stay away... from... water... droplets) ;)
 
CT said:
LOL A little? :D

Hi speed flash sync is the way to go though for freezng the wing action - I quite agree.
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but even then some of his werent perfect.

After all the farting about id wont perfection every shot lol :)
 
joker2006 said:
but even then some of his werent perfect.

After all the farting about id wont perfection every shot lol :)
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LOL. Indeed. Just a single on-camera flash makes all the difference though to these shots. These are a couple I took yonks ago just with a 580EX on the camera using hi speed sync. I think I had a Fong dffuser on the flash, but I can't remember for sure now.

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4336_2245210524623f68733db4.jpg
 
Kaouthia said:
High speed sync is fun. I sorted out a sound trigger the other day, got it all working with my PovertyWizards so I can utilise all 6 speedlights.

Now to think of some experiments that haven't been done to death (must.. stay away... from... water... droplets) ;)
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Bursting acne :shrug:?





:puke:
 
Those hover flies move very very fast.. I recently attempted to capture them with a sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and although the focus was a bit off, I was slightly pleased with them :)

But.. Although the pics are soft at 1/640 and 1/1250 the wings are quite solid
4525478745_d999c88c27_b.jpg


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Must be lazier here :)
 
Kaouthia said:
Not that solid. The proper high speed photography stuff is at 1/20,000th of a second or faster to truly freeze their motion.

Like these.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbottnaturephotography/3410421855/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregonwild/4392875367/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbottnaturephotography/3410422011/
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Now they are sharp! But If i could be a bit of a nit picker :p Those flies/wasps wing movements would be much slower that that of a hover fly I think..
 
If I can nitpick, 1/640th and 1/1250th ain't gonna freeze either of 'em anyway. ;)

Hoverflies average a higher wing flap speed (300-400 flaps per second), although wasps can get up there too, anywhere from 100-400 flaps per second.

Whatever flying bug you're shooting, you're never going to get razor sharp wings without high speed flash durations.
 
Kaouthia said:
If I can nitpick, 1/640th and 1/1250th ain't gonna freeze either of 'em anyway. ;)

Hoverflies average a higher wing flap speed (300-400 flaps per second), although wasps can get up there too, anywhere from 100-400 flaps per second.

Whatever flying bug you're shooting, you're never going to get razor sharp wings without high speed flash durations.
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But my initial comment was that the wings of the hover flies I shot were as solid as that of the OP's shots.. And my shutter speed was quite a lot slower!

Any who I was merely attempting to capture these flies while I was outside one day and you seem to be very 'in the know' in this area, So I'll agree with you :)
 
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that they weren't great shots, for those kinds of shutter speeds they are good. :)

Sometimes I think the movement of the wings even adds to the effect. High speed photography isn't something I normally prefer to do with flying insects (too much of a pain in the bum, and I like the effects of a sharp body and motion blurred wings).

The high speed stuff gets really complicated real fast when you're trying to figure out your flash durations (especially if you're mixing and matching different brands and models of flash), and it's VERY hit and miss during the learning process, but it's so much fun experimenting. :)
 
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