Posted by Andy Astbury on June 25, 2009 at 7:00 PM
I've always thought that Razors looked very regal birds - but perhaps not so much on final approach
The light was appallingly bright and there is a little popped highlight on the birds left shoulder.
The main problem though was focus tracking - the birds were landing on a small ledge just a couple meters above and left of me; but I was having to pick them up with the AF tracking quite some way out - this meant I had to turn the focus limiter off on the 200-400.
The lens was having to work really hard as the birds got under 6 meters but I was quite pleased with results overall.
I quite liked this one as he's about to disappear behind the the rocks.
D3
200-400 f4 @ 250mm
ISO 400
1/2000th @ f7.1 -0.3EV
51 point 3D tracking
AF lock-on LONG
Thanks for looking
Posted by Mike Andrews on June 26, 2009 at 1:58 AM
I've spent some time trying to get flight shots of these recently, so I sympathize with your comments. Did you have occasions when the camera/lens didn't even try to lock on? No hunting, in fact no recognition that I had even pressed the shutter release. This didn't happen every time, but quite regularly, and several other D3 users had the same problem. If you didn't get it, any chance of sharing the rest of your AF set up with us?
As for the shot, it's a cracker. Many of mine seemed to lose the eye in the black of the head.
Posted by Andy Astbury on June 26, 2009 at 4:30 AM
Hi Mike - funnily enough the D3 shot 6x 8Gb cards over that weekend and behaved itself very well all things considered.
For BiF I usually turn the Nikon AF track lock-on to OFF and shoot against a plain sky backdrop - every Nikon body I've had has given me the sense that the AF works at its most responsive that way.
However, the minute you have "stuff" in the background or foreground the track lock needs to turned on. otherwise the camera will throw focus onto something in either the background or foreground when it senses an area of higher contrast then the subject.
For this particular situation I sat with my back to the sun and with the specific intention of shooting birds landing on and around this small ledge up and to my left that was around 5 meters away.
Trying to pick the birds up close in was impossible as their closing speed was very high - so they had to be "locked onto" considerably further out - this is where half the problem lay because the focus limiter needed to be turned off in order to do that.
The other half the problem lay picking the right bird and finding where to begin the tracking.
I sat watching the birds for about an hour, trying various techniques, and eventually found that if I pre focused on a small spit of rock 25 meters in front of me that had three razors on it - that never moved all day! - then the AF seemed to do a pretty good job of tracking the birds all the way into my 'target box'.
Birds that came torward me over the left (landward) razor seemed to mostly veer off to my right and straight into the sun; ones that came over the right (seaward) razor disappeared over the top of the cliff to my left.
But those that came straight over the middle razor just came straight at me - most went straight over my head, but a few of them were coming into the ledge above me.
Whenever I spotted birds about 75 meters out, low and heading for the pre focus point I'd lift the rig and try and see which of these birds was heading for the middle "marker" (obviously they were blurred as they were way past the pre focus distance).
When you have a D3 set in 3d with continuous shooting mode you only have one sensor indicator showing.
As the birds became clearer in the view finder I'd place that sensor indicator over the chosen bird and as it came into crisp focus I'd depress the shutter button to activate the AF.
I must stress though that there's a split second before you hit the AF that you must start moving the camera - it's very much like shotgun shooting, there's a technique called move, mount, shoot which if you are used to it really does help with BiF shots.
The other little problem was that I'd already worked out that 250mm was as long as I could go to get birds landing in my target box big in the frame without risk of them being either too big or 'clipped' - they were quite small in the VF when I started the tracking.
It didn't work all the time - sometimes through camera error but mostly due to the numptie pressing the buttons!
But if you come back with a few good 'uns it's all worth while.
Ah Andy's corner shots .LOL How's that sun burn ?I know how hard these were and the various settings tried to get a half decent shot.Great BIF and a credit to you.
Exposing all there Andy, nice work and well handled in the light conditions. Just the right amount of light to pick out the all important eye. I do however find the boulder in the FG a little to much and feel it over powers the frame somewhat.
Brett
Posted by Andy Astbury on June 26, 2009 at 4:35 AM
I know what you mean Brett - but I quite like the "Ooops - Ker-splat" potential, if you know what I mean, perhaps I should have titled it like that
This is obviously a well thought out shot, and seeing your explaination confirms that. However, as difficult as it may have been achieving this, I just don't find this shot appealing. The pose looks odd and the OOF rocks distracting. Sorry pal
Do take comfort however, that (a) I'm no expert, and (b) not really a 'bird person'. Just my honest personal opinion. And lastly thanks for the in-depth explanation of how Nikon AF works as 6 months on I'm still scratching my head a lot of the time with my D300.
Posted by Andy Astbury on June 26, 2009 at 7:29 AM
Des - the D300 AF system doesn't perform in the same way as the D3 - yes I know it's supposedly the same system, but it just works different in the D3 (dare I say better ).
Good shot matey. I had some trouble myself keeping these birds in focus. The 200-400 didn't seem to react once I pressed the shutter. I did not experience this before. I have no problems keeping a bird in focus against a clear blue sky. But the troubles began when I tried to shoot birds with the sea as a background. Very strange.
Take away the orange oof area and its a better shot IMO Andy. Like the fresh view point.
Try disabling the shutter button for Autofocus and use only the AF-ON button also for flight shots use nine points. I may have missed Andys explanation apologies if repeating anything.
I like this. Bird sharp with blur to the wings. Regal bird looking so ungainly (not that I would know anything about that). Explanation of getting the shot goes way over my head (as would the bird have done probably).
Discussion
16 repliesThe light was appallingly bright and there is a little popped highlight on the birds left shoulder.
The main problem though was focus tracking - the birds were landing on a small ledge just a couple meters above and left of me; but I was having to pick them up with the AF tracking quite some way out - this meant I had to turn the focus limiter off on the 200-400.
The lens was having to work really hard as the birds got under 6 meters but I was quite pleased with results overall.
I quite liked this one as he's about to disappear behind the the rocks.
D3
200-400 f4 @ 250mm
ISO 400
1/2000th @ f7.1 -0.3EV
51 point 3D tracking
AF lock-on LONG
Thanks for looking
As for the shot, it's a cracker. Many of mine seemed to lose the eye in the black of the head.
For BiF I usually turn the Nikon AF track lock-on to OFF and shoot against a plain sky backdrop - every Nikon body I've had has given me the sense that the AF works at its most responsive that way.
However, the minute you have "stuff" in the background or foreground the track lock needs to turned on. otherwise the camera will throw focus onto something in either the background or foreground when it senses an area of higher contrast then the subject.
For this particular situation I sat with my back to the sun and with the specific intention of shooting birds landing on and around this small ledge up and to my left that was around 5 meters away.
Trying to pick the birds up close in was impossible as their closing speed was very high - so they had to be "locked onto" considerably further out - this is where half the problem lay because the focus limiter needed to be turned off in order to do that.
The other half the problem lay picking the right bird and finding where to begin the tracking.
I sat watching the birds for about an hour, trying various techniques, and eventually found that if I pre focused on a small spit of rock 25 meters in front of me that had three razors on it - that never moved all day! - then the AF seemed to do a pretty good job of tracking the birds all the way into my 'target box'.
Birds that came torward me over the left (landward) razor seemed to mostly veer off to my right and straight into the sun; ones that came over the right (seaward) razor disappeared over the top of the cliff to my left.
But those that came straight over the middle razor just came straight at me - most went straight over my head, but a few of them were coming into the ledge above me.
Whenever I spotted birds about 75 meters out, low and heading for the pre focus point I'd lift the rig and try and see which of these birds was heading for the middle "marker" (obviously they were blurred as they were way past the pre focus distance).
When you have a D3 set in 3d with continuous shooting mode you only have one sensor indicator showing.
As the birds became clearer in the view finder I'd place that sensor indicator over the chosen bird and as it came into crisp focus I'd depress the shutter button to activate the AF.
I must stress though that there's a split second before you hit the AF that you must start moving the camera - it's very much like shotgun shooting, there's a technique called move, mount, shoot which if you are used to it really does help with BiF shots.
The other little problem was that I'd already worked out that 250mm was as long as I could go to get birds landing in my target box big in the frame without risk of them being either too big or 'clipped' - they were quite small in the VF when I started the tracking.
It didn't work all the time - sometimes through camera error but mostly due to the numptie pressing the buttons!
But if you come back with a few good 'uns it's all worth while.
Hope this helps
Brett
Brett
Do take comfort however, that (a) I'm no expert, and (b) not really a 'bird person'. Just my honest personal opinion. And lastly thanks for the in-depth explanation of how Nikon AF works as 6 months on I'm still scratching my head a lot of the time with my D300.
Dave
Fran
Edwin Kats
Try disabling the shutter button for Autofocus and use only the AF-ON button also for flight shots use nine points. I may have missed Andys explanation apologies if repeating anything.
Major.