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Birds In Flight
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Hi all,
I am setting myself a project each weekend and this one (so long as my new canon arrives!) will be to take a decent picture of a bird in flight. Can anyone advise as to what kind of settings would be suitable? All dependent on light also I guess? Tripod, no tripod…..?
Any advice would be appreciated!
Cheers
Tara
:D
It all depends on available light, ISO setting, focal length, size and speed of the bird, what effect you want (movement from flapping wings or something like a sea-gull slowly gliding).
I would suggest an outdoor setting where there are lots of birds :lol:
Best of luck with that new camera of yours! I’m not jealous at all :-(
A few suggestions… I am by no means an expert at this but i know this works for me sometimes…! Iwould start with setting the focus mode to Servo focusing.. thsi mode will track the movement of the bird… I sometimes use a single focus point and other times use all points… depends on what the background is like and how far away from the background the moving bird is… I would suggest shooting in TV mode (speed priority) and at least a speed of 1/500 of a second to freeze the movement of the bird… if ye cant get that speed without the aperature value flashing dont be afraid to raise your ISO value a stop or two… I tend to try shoot with the sun behind me and if conditions allow shoot the bird coming towards me or from left to right acroos the frame… its better this way as you wont be shooting into the light throwing your exposure… try going to a park where the birds a little more used to people and you can get closer to them… my final tip would be to shoot, shoot and shoot… you will have few keepers at first but they will increase as you persist..!
Richie
Richie is right with the servo mode. You definitely need to use it. Also shutter priority also but ideally manual.
1/500 sounds good. If you?re planning on shooting seabirds, you will find that if you shoot against
the sea the bird will be overexposed as the camera will try and brighten up the sea and therefore overexpose the bird. If using shutter priority punch in some neg EV, if shooting manual take a reading against the sea and underexpose (ie increase the shutter speed) by anything up to 1 full stop depends on the camera really.
Trial and error, look at the histogram on the back of the camera (if digital of course) and secondly the image itself.Mark
Thanks for the advice! I’ll put up a couple of “efforts” and ye can see how I got on!
Cheers
Tara
:D
This is one I’ve been trying myself. I got lucky in Africa one day when I was surrounded by 7 Black Kites and could shoot non-stop to get a decent shot. 200 shots later and I had maybe 3 or 4 good shots :-) But I did learn a thing or two. They were a decent size (3 or 4 foot wingspan) and they got real close to me (one nearly hit me with it’s wing) which made it easier. I got lucky with a Goshwak and Vulture but screwed up several Ealge shots.
What I found worked for me: Manual control, centre point focusing, fastest shutter I can get. If I had a 1D or maybe a 20/30D I’d consider multi point focus but my 350D is soooo sloooooow to focus I can’t trust it to adjust quickly if it makes a mistake. ISO 400 if necessary to get fast shutter. I meter from the ground where I expect the bird to pass over and then adjust as necessary after some test shots.
I’ve tried shooting garden birds at the feeders at my family home but they are so quick and erratic it’s impossible to keep up. I’ve recently found a site with a Marsh Harrier and I’m trying to get some shots of her. She’s proving tough to get close to and I’ll soon have to give up when she migrates for the Winter.
Good Luck!
U are starting right, well then start at the beginning, set ur camera to aperateur priority as wide as possible 2.8 if u have a lens that fast, and leave the camera on automatic, look for a bird sitting somewhere or an object roughly in the direction of the shot u would like to take doesnt matter if the bird is on the ground, all ur doing is measuring the available light a simple way, take a picture when ur happy the exposure is looking right check the file and read the settings from it say its 500th of a second at 2.8, switch to manual and and set the camera to 500th at 2.8 shoot away at the birds flying u will get one right and if its digital it wont cost u anything.
give it a try, it takes ur mind of the technical aspect and allows u to concentrate on the composition.
I didnd read the posts, and just noticed u gave the same advice above me.
well now they has it twice lolnot yet! have been on holidays so need to get myself out next weekend! recommend any good bird spotting places around Dublin?!
Tara
Other than Temple Bar ?? ;)
The only place I can think of his Howth Summit – from the Sutton car park there is a walk to Howth Village along the cliffs – Lots of sea birds.. but I’m sure others will have more ideas.. Good luck and don’t forget to post your results :)
L
Catching a bird in flight is hard task indeed, espeically if there’s a drunken group of them. That aside try St Annes Park, Bull Island, Dollymount Strand, Howth Harbour/village, Portmarnock, Malahide. Howth Harbour is the bizz, if the fishing boats still come in there (I think they do), their will be loads of gulls.
You could also try bringing along some bread to attract the birds.
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