Posted by Paul Rycraft on August 3, 2007 at 5:35 PM
I had set myself a little challenge to try and get a dragonfly in flight, mainly because that's all I see in my lunchhour. Anyway after an hour today and over 60 shots this is about the best I have managed so far.
D200
handheld
70-200 VR @190
f4.5 Aperture priority
1/800
IS0 200.
Image cropped to about 70%
Its a good effort, take a little time out, hawkers will very often hover in the same spot, that is when to get them in flight, they are certainly not easy..... perhaps up the ISO?
Posted by Paul Rycraft on August 4, 2007 at 4:49 PM
Cheers Phil.
It's taken me long enough to realise it's better to stay and wait and watch a while,than continually crash around.
Hopefully get a chance next week to try with higher ISO, but my D200 does seem horribly noisy at 400.
Posted by Malcolm Muir on August 5, 2007 at 12:03 PM
Hi Paul
I also use the D200 and tend to use up to ISO 800 for insect work, unless the light is spectacularly good, which has been rare in Scotland this summer. There can be a bit of noise, but I find it acceptable and certainly preferable to shutter blur or low dof. I use the Neatimage plug in in PS and find it works very well on background noise.
Hi Paul,
1/800s is certainly fast enough to capture a sharp image of a hawker when it pauses to hover, especially with an image stabilised lens. You may need to up the ISO just to ensure you can stop down a little and still maintain shutter speed, although I have shot acceptably sharp images as slow as 1/250s.
The key is to spend a little time watching them patrol and try to anticipate when they will begin to hover. Pick an area of the river where you can ensure the available light is falling on the subject and where there is vegetation for them to hunt in and around.
Lunchtime may not be the ideal time as the sun is high and the hawkers are at their most active but a little patience and you'll soon be rewarded and the frustration is strangely addictive.
I tried this in the past, so I can imagine this being a tough challenge. There is only a bit of sharpness missing in hawkers front body and head for it to be a great photo.
Discussion
5 repliesD200
handheld
70-200 VR @190
f4.5 Aperture priority
1/800
IS0 200.
Image cropped to about 70%
Cheers
Its a good effort, take a little time out, hawkers will very often hover in the same spot, that is when to get them in flight, they are certainly not easy..... perhaps up the ISO?
It's taken me long enough to realise it's better to stay and wait and watch a while,than continually crash around.
Hopefully get a chance next week to try with higher ISO, but my D200 does seem horribly noisy at 400.
I also use the D200 and tend to use up to ISO 800 for insect work, unless the light is spectacularly good, which has been rare in Scotland this summer. There can be a bit of noise, but I find it acceptable and certainly preferable to shutter blur or low dof. I use the Neatimage plug in in PS and find it works very well on background noise.
Malcolm
1/800s is certainly fast enough to capture a sharp image of a hawker when it pauses to hover, especially with an image stabilised lens. You may need to up the ISO just to ensure you can stop down a little and still maintain shutter speed, although I have shot acceptably sharp images as slow as 1/250s.
The key is to spend a little time watching them patrol and try to anticipate when they will begin to hover. Pick an area of the river where you can ensure the available light is falling on the subject and where there is vegetation for them to hunt in and around.
Lunchtime may not be the ideal time as the sun is high and the hawkers are at their most active but a little patience and you'll soon be rewarded and the frustration is strangely addictive.
Cheers,
Marko