Kite practise

Briony

Briony

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Nicki.
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I have been having trouble capturing Kites in flight and as we have so m any over here it would be nice just to get 1 decent photo.

I went out today to where my other half was ploughing and there must have been over 100 kites, 20 buzzards and lapwings and gulls, so these out of over hundred I took were what I thought the most decent.

I really could do with C & C please as I do so want to get this right and I am so lucky as to be able to take shots like these.

The best ones I took were on setting A-Dep was this right?

Here are a couple below for you to peruse, pick at or do what you want with them.

056.jpg


055.jpg


Exif data

F stop 5.6
1/1600
ISO 400
setting A Dep
Taken with Sigma 120 - 400 mm
 
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Well two good captures and they look sharp enough, any chance of posting an original straight conversion and link to a bigger image? It is hard to tell what has been done in pp and you cannot get back what is not there really ;)
 
A-Dep isn't really the way to do this Briony so I think it's more of a coincidence that they are the best ones. You should stick to Tv for BIF but you can see from the EXIF in those two (the second of which I REALLY like btw) that a fast shutter is good. Those settings you have look fine now but as I say it's really more of a fluke that the camera picked them.

If you had it in Tv mode with 1/1600 set and ISO 400 you would have achieved the same shot, in fact I think the AF/Metering might have worked quicker (not 100% sure on that so maybe someone else will comment) because it wouldn't have to work out the front and rear focussing (A-Dep attempts to get everything in the frame in focus).

So it depends on what the conditions are like but the faster the shutter speed you can get the better, taking into account that you get more noise with higher ISO of course, and after that you just have to practice your technique. Which by the looks of things is getting better pretty quickly!
 
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I was experimenting and to be honest I most prob had it in TV or AV mode I did try sports mode also so who knows!!! I have not done any editing on these either, but was playing around with the dial and knobs LOL like you do :naughty: so tomorrow I will beback out there again and use the TV mode with the 1/6000 and the ISO 400 and see what I get but things looked to have omproved slightly by my eyes :shrug:

Just checked Exposure programme was Aperture Priority
 
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Briony said:
things looked to have omproved slightly by my eyes :shrug:
Click to expand...

and mine!!

It depends on what light you have available but basically, set ISO to 400 and keep upping the shutter speed until the exposure meter starts moving down/aperture setting starts flashing. Set AF Servo mode and pick the centre AF point. Should work fine.
 
This one was taken on TV mode with F stop 7.1 ISO 400 and exposure 1/1250

011.jpg
 
By the centre AF point do you mean those little blue squares as I had all of those showing instead of just the middle on so I should change back to sentre AF point then?
 
I agree with Jon, they are looking much better Briony. I've tried both with just the centre and all AF points... I read somewhere (but can't remember where) that setting all AF points works best, as long as you pick up the bird on the centre point first, then the camera switches af points as you track it.
 
Back out again tomorrow afternoon to see if I can better them again.
 
I take it you've got your camera set to use AI Servo, that way your camera will keep the bird in focus as it moves?
 
I'm not sure how the 450 works but I think it's the same as the 7D in so far as when you are in AF Servo mode, if you have all points active with the centre one selected, you can frame the shot with the BIF in the middle, the camera will focus using the centre point but then as you pan with the bird, if it moves off the centre point and on to one of the others then camera will pass the focus on to that point and carry on tracking.

So (without teaching you to suck eggs) the steps are;

Set camera in Tv with as high an SS as you can get (balancing ISO if you need to)
Use AF in Servo mode with all points active but centre point selected
Frame shot with centre AF point over BIF
Half press shutter and pan with BIF
Once AF achieved and panning stable, press shutter
If you want to take more than one shot, don't fully release the shutter button but go back from full press to half press.

If I were you I would also give burst mode a go tomorrow and see what happens.

(y)
 
Like them, with a bit of practice I can see you getting some cracking shots of them. (y)
 
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