I just invested in a Canon 100-400 IS lens. I tried to search through the articles and did find one that told me I had gotten a good lens. I am afraid that practice is going to be the most important key. I am mainly after seagulls and pelicans in flight. My backyard will be great for tripod practice. I got a Manfrotto monopod. This senior citizen will also have to train with small weights for the handheld shots
Hi Barbara. I've been shooting that lens for four years now, and it can take very nice BIF shots.
There are some total assassins here when it comes to avian photography, and while I shoot birds pretty often, it's not the huge majority of my business like it is for some of the excellent avian shooters on NPN. Likely you'll hear worthwhile advice from those folks.
It also will help a bit to know what body you shoot. Here are my default settings when shooting BIF. I mostly shoot the 30D, with occasional adventures into "1" series land. I change the settings as needed, but these work in many situations and sometimes there's no time to goof around with settings when a bird flies by: iso400, Av mode, f8, (shutter speed takes care of itself), Al servo focus mode, center focus point selected, IS mode 2 (panning mode), lens distance setting at 6.5 meters, center-weighted metering.
A note on the metering. Some birds are significantly lighter or darker than the sky, and if they're large enough in the frame, center-weighted has worked well for me. I am ready at an instant's notice, however, to over or underexpose using the exposure compensation feature. With many gulls against a blue sky, you may find yourself using EC to underexpose a bit. Same with white pelicans, though brown pelicans may have you going the other direction.
Iso400 because IQ is quite nice still at 400 with the crop bodies, and because stopping down one stop to f8 and sometimes having to overexpose a stop or two to accurately expose a dark bird against a pale sky will both cost you some shutter speed, and I like my shutter speed for BIF to stay up around 1/500 or better. The better you get at using the IS panning mode and keeping your focus point steady on the portion of the bird you want sharp (usually the eye/head), the lower your shutter speed eventually can go, although it's nice sometimes to be able to freeze wingbeats.
I choose f8 because the 100-400L IS, while producing images of marketable sharpness wide open and at 400mm, is at its best for sharpness stopped down to f8.
Center focus point is simply the best all-around in the most situations. If I've got a bird coming in from the side from far enough away that I can see it coming, I'll quickly change focus point. If a bird is flying from left to right, say, I'll select the right-hand focus point, and so forth. Only takes a second to change.
Setting the lens distance at a minimum focus distance of 6.5 meters instead of 1.8 meters is supposed to help the lens acquire and track focus more quickly. I have never noticed a difference, but when in doubt, my policy is to do what the Canon owner's manual people recommend. They generally know their onions. It's pretty darn rare a person can track a BIF inside 20 feet, anyway, unless it's a hovering hummer or other such situation.
If you cup the lens from underneath, the muscles most taxed will be your left bicep and deltoid. I go handheld with BIF almost completely with that lens, but it is not heavy for me. Should you use the tripod/monopod? Maybe. Experiment to see which you like best.
No doubt others will chime in with useful advice, but that's how I do it. I'd also insert a note of caution to be patient with yourself. Not only is it a new lens that sounds like it'll be just a bit heavy for you at first, but you're tackling a challenging niche within avian photography (I believe avian shooting to be among the most challenging types of nature photography), so don't be too hard on yourself. Have a lot of fun with it.
Lastly, if you don't already have it, I would recommend you go to www.birdsasart.com and pick up Arthur Morris' CD "The Art of Bird Photography II." It's full of things about avian photography and BIF that you really will want to know.
Hope that helps, and enjoy your new lens. It's a good one.
This may not seem important Barbara, perhaps going as far as "picky," but for me positioning of my body and tripod are really important for panning. Okay, maybe this is time for true confessions: I'm really good at tangling my big feet and long legs in tripods!
Anyhow, I have learned to take my best guess on where I'll actually be pointing as I shoot, then orient my gear around that point. For me it helps if one of the tripod legs is pointed back at me so that I'm more or less straddling it. This works because as I shift my body and swing to follow a bird moving in either direction, I'm stepping into the clear areas on either side of that leg, giving more distance to move before hitting the next tripod leg. If instead I organize myself so that I am standing between two legs when I start out, I almost inevitably hit a leg no matter which way I move.
Does that make sense? I still have to keep track of the tripod leg between my feet, but I can do that by feel without taking my eye from the viewfinder, while legs on either side tend to get kicked.
Posted by Nate Chappell on July 23, 2007 at 12:25 PM
Hi Barbara, 2 things that I do differently than Steve for flight shots are following: I usually shoot in manual mode, this is a bit more work because you have to adjust the shutter speed and aperture yourself but it makes a big difference. The reason is that the autofocus will not work as well in aperture priority causing you to lose many shots due to lack of focus. I often shoot wide open which with that lens would be F5.6 but I don't use that lens so I'm not sure if that's good advice for you. I also do not use the image stabilization function on the lens when taking flight shots, I find that this also slows down the autofocus and I'm usually shooting at a high shutter speed so I don't need it anyway. I use Canon 20D and 500 and 300 mm lenses.
Oh good, Nate, a different perspective. I'll try those things and see if my percentage of keepers improves. Anything a person can do to speed up autofocus performance has to be a good thing for BIF.
Nate,
This is the first that I've heard that autofocus is slowed when in aperture priority mode. Can you give a little more information (e.g. why, is it the same for all models, etc.)?
Wow, great info! Glad you posted the question, Barbara.
I'll just say that my life with panning a big/heavy lens got WAY better when I added the Wimberley Sidekick to my tripod head. It handles the weight of the lens entirely and enables you to track your subject t as if you were hand holding. So now I can focus on my focus point instead of being so aware of the pain and the wobbles in my noodly arms! Hard to track birds with that going on! Other than having the Sidekick, you'd need a guy's strong arms and shoulders.
Using manual focus for birds of flight is a way of keeping you exposure constant as the bird moves against different backgrounds or for light or dark colored birds. You set you exposure for the light, and you only have to adjust the exposure if the light changes.
I've never heard before that Av reduces autofocus performance. Are you sure about this, Nate?
Another reason for shooting at f8 is that it gives you a little bit more DOF - a little room for error if the focus isn't spot on. This is particularly true if shooting with a faster lens, e.g. f2.8.
I have trouble hand-holding. It aggravates my tendinitis. I've often wondered if a shoulder stock is worthwhile.
As I understand it when in aperture priority the fact that the camera is constantly searching for the correct autoexposure when you are panning and the background is changing causes autofocus function to slow and/or not focus. This is certainly what I have seen in practice with my shooting. I started using aperture priority with flight shots, then I noticed Jim Neiger always used manual exposure. I changed and the number of good flight images I get has gone up greatly. I generally use a 20D and a 500mm F4 lens.
I find for me personally that shooting a high shutter speed is one of the most important things to do to get sharp flight shots. I typically shoot iso 400 and either wide open or one stop below wide open so that I have the shutter speed to freeze the action. Given a choice between the shutter speed I want (generally around 1/2000 or above) and more depth of field, I almost always choose the faster shutter speed.
The Af works the same way in AV or manual mode. The main reason to shoot in manual mode is to get good exposures even when bgs are changing. There are many other reasons to shoot in manual mode. Shooting in manual mode is one thing that really improved my photography when I made the switch.
With the 1.6 crop factor cameras F8 is usually overkill and it comes at the price of losing shutter speed. F5.6 is generaly a good rule of thumb for BIF with a 1.6 crop camera. FOr 1.3 crop cameras my rule of thumb is F7.1 and it's F8 for full frame cameras.
I leave IS on all the time even when I have enough shutter speed not to need it. I think that the Af speed diference with it on vs off is unnoticable.
Needing lots of strength to shoot large lenses hand held is a myth. If you can hold the camera and lens up to your eye in shooting position for 10 seconds, that's all you need for successfull BIF shooting if you use proper techniques. The most important things for shooting hand held are to use the proper techniques, learn and practice the several difernt skills involved in shooting BIF, and learning to shoot efficiently. These are the things I teach people during my workshops.
Barbara,
If you invest some time learning the proper techniques, etc. I think you will be much more successfull with BIF shooting hand held than you will be using a tripod.
Thanks, Jim. I was searching pretty hard with the sources I know to find out if Av actually slows down autofocus compared with manual, and couldn't find any info on it. Nor does Morris say anything about that issue that I could find in his ABP II.
I've also started working a bit in manual mode when the lighting is consistent, and for exactly the reason that you and Morris have mentioned: As a bird passes through changing backgrounds, the automatic metering modes will produce different exposure values that have little to do with the actual proper exposure for the bird. Shooting manual was not something I was comfortable with as a beginning BIFer, and tho I'm by no means an expert now, I'm a lot more comfortable in manual mode and will be doing more and more shooting in it, thanks partly to the urging of people like you.
Posted by Richard Wong on July 24, 2007 at 5:15 PM
for blur I set the metering on S mode and shoot for 1/30 or less, then try to track the subject as it moves. Using a fill flash could help too. AF or MF makes no difference to me. If the birds are eye level or below me then I'll use a tripod. If they are above me and / or are too fast then I'll handhold. don't be afraid to make mistakes, the majority of mine are horrible.
Discussion
12 repliesThere are some total assassins here when it comes to avian photography, and while I shoot birds pretty often, it's not the huge majority of my business like it is for some of the excellent avian shooters on NPN. Likely you'll hear worthwhile advice from those folks.
It also will help a bit to know what body you shoot. Here are my default settings when shooting BIF. I mostly shoot the 30D, with occasional adventures into "1" series land. I change the settings as needed, but these work in many situations and sometimes there's no time to goof around with settings when a bird flies by: iso400, Av mode, f8, (shutter speed takes care of itself), Al servo focus mode, center focus point selected, IS mode 2 (panning mode), lens distance setting at 6.5 meters, center-weighted metering.
A note on the metering. Some birds are significantly lighter or darker than the sky, and if they're large enough in the frame, center-weighted has worked well for me. I am ready at an instant's notice, however, to over or underexpose using the exposure compensation feature. With many gulls against a blue sky, you may find yourself using EC to underexpose a bit. Same with white pelicans, though brown pelicans may have you going the other direction.
Iso400 because IQ is quite nice still at 400 with the crop bodies, and because stopping down one stop to f8 and sometimes having to overexpose a stop or two to accurately expose a dark bird against a pale sky will both cost you some shutter speed, and I like my shutter speed for BIF to stay up around 1/500 or better. The better you get at using the IS panning mode and keeping your focus point steady on the portion of the bird you want sharp (usually the eye/head), the lower your shutter speed eventually can go, although it's nice sometimes to be able to freeze wingbeats.
I choose f8 because the 100-400L IS, while producing images of marketable sharpness wide open and at 400mm, is at its best for sharpness stopped down to f8.
Center focus point is simply the best all-around in the most situations. If I've got a bird coming in from the side from far enough away that I can see it coming, I'll quickly change focus point. If a bird is flying from left to right, say, I'll select the right-hand focus point, and so forth. Only takes a second to change.
Setting the lens distance at a minimum focus distance of 6.5 meters instead of 1.8 meters is supposed to help the lens acquire and track focus more quickly. I have never noticed a difference, but when in doubt, my policy is to do what the Canon owner's manual people recommend. They generally know their onions. It's pretty darn rare a person can track a BIF inside 20 feet, anyway, unless it's a hovering hummer or other such situation.
If you cup the lens from underneath, the muscles most taxed will be your left bicep and deltoid. I go handheld with BIF almost completely with that lens, but it is not heavy for me. Should you use the tripod/monopod? Maybe. Experiment to see which you like best.
No doubt others will chime in with useful advice, but that's how I do it. I'd also insert a note of caution to be patient with yourself. Not only is it a new lens that sounds like it'll be just a bit heavy for you at first, but you're tackling a challenging niche within avian photography (I believe avian shooting to be among the most challenging types of nature photography), so don't be too hard on yourself. Have a lot of fun with it.
Lastly, if you don't already have it, I would recommend you go to www.birdsasart.com and pick up Arthur Morris' CD "The Art of Bird Photography II." It's full of things about avian photography and BIF that you really will want to know.
Hope that helps, and enjoy your new lens. It's a good one.
Anyhow, I have learned to take my best guess on where I'll actually be pointing as I shoot, then orient my gear around that point. For me it helps if one of the tripod legs is pointed back at me so that I'm more or less straddling it. This works because as I shift my body and swing to follow a bird moving in either direction, I'm stepping into the clear areas on either side of that leg, giving more distance to move before hitting the next tripod leg. If instead I organize myself so that I am standing between two legs when I start out, I almost inevitably hit a leg no matter which way I move.
Does that make sense? I still have to keep track of the tripod leg between my feet, but I can do that by feel without taking my eye from the viewfinder, while legs on either side tend to get kicked.
This is the first that I've heard that autofocus is slowed when in aperture priority mode. Can you give a little more information (e.g. why, is it the same for all models, etc.)?
Thanks.
I'll just say that my life with panning a big/heavy lens got WAY better when I added the Wimberley Sidekick to my tripod head. It handles the weight of the lens entirely and enables you to track your subject t as if you were hand holding. So now I can focus on my focus point instead of being so aware of the pain and the wobbles in my noodly arms! Hard to track birds with that going on!
I've never heard before that Av reduces autofocus performance. Are you sure about this, Nate?
Another reason for shooting at f8 is that it gives you a little bit more DOF - a little room for error if the focus isn't spot on. This is particularly true if shooting with a faster lens, e.g. f2.8.
I have trouble hand-holding. It aggravates my tendinitis. I've often wondered if a shoulder stock is worthwhile.
I find for me personally that shooting a high shutter speed is one of the most important things to do to get sharp flight shots. I typically shoot iso 400 and either wide open or one stop below wide open so that I have the shutter speed to freeze the action. Given a choice between the shutter speed I want (generally around 1/2000 or above) and more depth of field, I almost always choose the faster shutter speed.
The Af works the same way in AV or manual mode. The main reason to shoot in manual mode is to get good exposures even when bgs are changing. There are many other reasons to shoot in manual mode. Shooting in manual mode is one thing that really improved my photography when I made the switch.
With the 1.6 crop factor cameras F8 is usually overkill and it comes at the price of losing shutter speed. F5.6 is generaly a good rule of thumb for BIF with a 1.6 crop camera. FOr 1.3 crop cameras my rule of thumb is F7.1 and it's F8 for full frame cameras.
I leave IS on all the time even when I have enough shutter speed not to need it. I think that the Af speed diference with it on vs off is unnoticable.
Needing lots of strength to shoot large lenses hand held is a myth. If you can hold the camera and lens up to your eye in shooting position for 10 seconds, that's all you need for successfull BIF shooting if you use proper techniques. The most important things for shooting hand held are to use the proper techniques, learn and practice the several difernt skills involved in shooting BIF, and learning to shoot efficiently. These are the things I teach people during my workshops.
Barbara,
If you invest some time learning the proper techniques, etc. I think you will be much more successfull with BIF shooting hand held than you will be using a tripod.
I've also started working a bit in manual mode when the lighting is consistent, and for exactly the reason that you and Morris have mentioned: As a bird passes through changing backgrounds, the automatic metering modes will produce different exposure values that have little to do with the actual proper exposure for the bird. Shooting manual was not something I was comfortable with as a beginning BIFer, and tho I'm by no means an expert now, I'm a lot more comfortable in manual mode and will be doing more and more shooting in it, thanks partly to the urging of people like you.