Posted by Daniel Loomis on April 25, 2009 at 10:36 PM
Cattle Egret on the wing at Jefferson Island, New Iberia, La, 04-24-09
40D, 500mm f4, f5.6, 1/3200, ISO 200, cropped to about 1/3rd size
Posted by Wayne Rhodus on April 26, 2009 at 9:34 AM
Not much to say except this is very well done indeed Daniel. You caught this egret in some nearly perfect light, bright enough to support a fast shutter speed but not too overpowering as to challenge the highlights. Lovely!
Posted by Scott Bean on April 26, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Wow. How do you manage to get such sharp bird shots?
Posted by Daniel Loomis on April 26, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Scott - Dumb luck I guess! However, if I keep shooting handheld shots with the 500 f/4 I will soon have arms like the village smithy!
Seriously . . . I use the widest aperture and slowest ISO that will get me a shutter speed of 1000 or more and then use AI Servo for AF. It helps to set the AF slide switch on the lens to its farthest range to speed up target acquisition. Lots of birds flying by helps too! That way the odds are I will get a decent one now and then.
Spoonbills are the easiest as they are large and have good color contrast for the AF. Here is a shot I made with my lowly EF100-400mm of a Cattle Egret flying by. It is cropped about 50%.
40D, f5.6, 400mm, 1/5000s, ISO 400. I should have lowered ISO to 200!
Posted by Brad Mangas on April 26, 2009 at 11:06 PM
Discussion
4 replies40D, 500mm f4, f5.6, 1/3200, ISO 200, cropped to about 1/3rd size
Seriously . . . I use the widest aperture and slowest ISO that will get me a shutter speed of 1000 or more and then use AI Servo for AF. It helps to set the AF slide switch on the lens to its farthest range to speed up target acquisition. Lots of birds flying by helps too! That way the odds are I will get a decent one now and then.
Spoonbills are the easiest as they are large and have good color contrast for the AF. Here is a shot I made with my lowly EF100-400mm of a Cattle Egret flying by. It is cropped about 50%.
40D, f5.6, 400mm, 1/5000s, ISO 400. I should have lowered ISO to 200!