Trying To Get Birds in Flight...

Haldir

Haldir

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300
Name
Pete
Edit My Images
Yes
Over the past week I've been down to the local park a few times for general shots of birds and wildlife. Yesterday I went with the intention of getting a few birds in flight.
Normally I have the camera set to manual exposure and focusing to single point, but yesterday, I set it on AP and focus tracking multi point everything it'll do. I got a few nice pics of a Heron standing still, and then several shots of it taking off. Can't tell you how excited I was, and looking at the monitor everything looked OK. Once home though, every bloody one was out of focus...Last night I get to watching a few videos and go about setting up my camera. I put focusing on the back button, and I came a cross a setting I hadn't heard of before where you set the camera to manual exposure and ISO to autoo_O I couldn't wait to get in the park this morning and give it a try, the Heron or Heron's were too far and too high up for my 55-200 mm so I waited to see if the Geese would be happy to help out. There's a long way to go obviously and I've used the Gaussian Blur on the background, but I'm quite pleased with this one...Exposure was F5.6 @ 2500 with auto ISO coming out at 2200...Lens was 116 mm which probably didn't help the back ground, but they were moving a bit and I don't have the confidence yet to try and fill the frame whilst concentrating on everything else.

Geese Landing BBG.jpg
 
It is a lot harder than you think getting good BIF's even some of the more accomplished birders on here have a keeper rate of less than they would like. As they say practice makes perfect, keep at it and it will get easier, you do not a steady hand though or a good head on your tripod.
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
It is a lot harder than you think getting good BIF's even some of the more accomplished birders on here have a keeper rate of less than they would like. As they say practice makes perfect, keep at it and it will get easier, you do not a steady hand though or a good head on your tripod.
Click to expand...

I found my thumb fighting for space with my nose using back button focus :giggle: but I find it in use a little easier than expected. I love this manual exposure mode with auto ISO,
what a difference.
 
Pete, I'm pleased to see you're having some success with BBF, manual exposure and auto ISO - I think those settings are the secret to BIF. It took me years of trial and error before discovering that combination myself! I don't know your camera/lens combo, but try and keep your shutter speed high for BIF (circa 1/2000s) and don't worry about noise - a sharp/noisy image is better than a blurred/ clean one (you can always do noise reduction in pp). And of course practice, practice. practice - particularly against a clear background (sky, grass) initially rather than trees 'cos they are trickier for the camera to hold focus.
You will also have to master exposure compensation to achieve correct exposure of light/dark birds against bright/dark skies - so keep practicing!

Russ
 
Rustydon said:
Pete, I'm pleased to see you're having some success with BBF, manual exposure and auto ISO - I think those settings are the secret to BIF. It took me years of trial and error before discovering that combination myself! I don't know your camera/lens combo, but try and keep your shutter speed high for BIF (circa 1/2000s) and don't worry about noise - a sharp/noisy image is better than a blurred/ clean one (you can always do noise reduction in pp). And of course practice, practice. practice - particularly against a clear background (sky, grass) initially rather than trees 'cos they are trickier for the camera to hold focus.
You will also have to master exposure compensation to achieve correct exposure of light/dark birds against bright/dark skies - so keep practicing!

Russ
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Hello Russ. Have to admit I've been keeping the ISO as low as possible and seeing too many shots coming out blur. Auto ISO just makes so much sense with manual exposure...
I've tried to avoid exposure compensation as much as possible :giggle:
 
" .Exposure was F5.6 @ 2500 " I think there's your problem nice fast shutter speed but a very shallow aperture, I always shoot at least on f8 / f9

maybe drop your shutter seed to say 1/1600th sec and f8 or as a minimum of f6.3

like this shot at 1/1600th sec f8 on auto ISO

DSC03076 Avocet by Les Moxon, on Flickr

Les :)
 
Lez325 said:
" .Exposure was F5.6 @ 2500 " I think there's your problem nice fast shutter speed but a very shallow aperture, I always shoot at least on f8 / f9....maybe drop your shutter seed to say 1/1600th sec and f8 or as a minimum of f6.3

Les :)
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That's a cracking shot Les. Did you use exposure compensation for this?
I will change the aperture next time I'm out, I think F5.6 is a little on the shallow side, not helped by the focusing not being sharp! I need to work on this.

I was out again this morning. Woke up around 4.50 am and the light was too tempting, quick brew and off I went. It's only two minutes away the park, and I've heard there are five may be seven Herons' although most of them tend to stay on the Island of the main lake which is too far for my lens. There is one that visits a small fishing lake early morning, but the light is quite poor around this time as it's surrounded by trees, but I couldn't resist. I have binned most of the images, either too dark or too far away. The image below might have been OK if, after diving it had come up facing me.

55-200 @ 200mm....F5.6, 2500 sec, auto ISO 3200
Out of the camera (RAW) this was pretty dark, so I've tried my best to get something out of it.

Heron Walk on Water.jpg

Same settings as above but a lot of cropping!

Heron Reeds.jpg
 
You are not far off a bit of pp gets a bit more out of this shot, brightness and contrast then run through Topaz to sharpen it .
Rob.
Heron Reeds.jpg
 
GyRob said:
You are not far off a bit of pp gets a bit more out of this shot, brightness and contrast then run through Topaz to sharpen it .
Rob.
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WOW, the sharpening has worked a treat Robert. First I've heard of Topaz and would be very handy to have:giggle:
 
Haldir said:
WOW, the sharpening has worked a treat Robert. First I've heard of Topaz and would be very handy to have:giggle:
Click to expand...
Hi Pete

Sharpening is a normal part of the post processing/editing 'process'.

The Topaz tools are quite novel in their function.

But if you tell 'us' what software you have for the pp'ing because all such software has sharpening tools in it!

What I am getting at, is do not feel driven to buy more software until you have properly tried what you have and learned whether it has limitations that might be addressed by spending more on extra software ;)
 
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Box Brownie said:
Hi Pete

Sharpening is a normal part of the post processing/editing 'process'.

The Topaz tools are quite novel in their function.

But if you tell 'us' what software you have for the pp'ing because all such software has sharpening tools in it!

What I am getting at, is do not feel driven to buy more software until you have properly tried what you have and learned whether it has limitations that might be addressed by spending more on extra software ;)
Click to expand...

I usually use Auto Sharpening in Adobe Elements, and having recently bought Affinity, I was bold over by the "Clarity" function in RAW. Definitely not in the market for any software at the moment...After 35 years a smoker, I've now been fag free for 11 days with the intention of buying one of the 150-600 mm lenses or may be the Nikon 200-500. The Sigma is very very tempting at £750.00, and with the pennies not going up in flames, I could buy one in thirty weeks :giggle:
 
Lez325 said:
Sony 200-600mm G lens [emoji16]
Click to expand...

I've been looking today at used 300 mm F4's as I'm itching for something bigger than my 55-200, but I keep hearing a voice telling me
to wait until I have the pennies for a 200-500!
 
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Haldir said:
I've been looking today at used 300 mm F4's as I'm itching for something bigger than my 55-200, but I keep hearing a voice telling me
to wait until I have the pennies for a 200-500!
Click to expand...

300mm is fine WITH a Teleconverter WITHOUT I found the focal length a little lacking for wildlife :)

Les
 
Haldir said:
I got a shock when I saw the cost of the converters Les! Cost more than both my zoom lenses...
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I have 2 converters 1.4 and 2.0 @ £500 each :ROFLMAO::sony:I use these on my Sony 100-400mm GM lens
 
Lez325 said:
I have 2 converters 1.4 and 2.0 @ £500 each :ROFLMAO::sony:I use these on my Sony 100-400mm GM lens
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This is interesting :giggle: The combination of converters with the 100-400, and you have the 200-600. Which is your go to lens?
I ask, as I mentioned I'm after something more than my 55-200, ideally the Nikon, but that can be £400.00 more than the Sigma 150-600 which for £750.00 at the moment
seems quite a good buy, £790 with the USB gadget...On my DX I'd be looking at an equivalent of 225 - 800, which seems huge having never used that focal length. The 100-400 on
a DX gives me 150-600...
 
I did own the Sigma 150-600mm Sport version, a very capable lens on a DX camera

My go to camera body is a FULL FRAME Sony a7Riii @ 42 Mega Pixels

Les :)
 
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