Another from my garden last week. Thanks for the critique on the previous one, and thanks Phil Shaw, I am working on a flash set up.
This image has had the feeder cropped from the RHS. I used the S/H tool slightly to remove some shadow, but was a bit luckier with the sun with this image.
1DS2, 800 sigma, manual at 5.6, and 1/1600, ISO 200, tripod, wimbereley, and doghouse hide.
Critique welcomed.
Best wishes
Phil
An excellent flight shot, I feel your technique is improving with this type of photograph.
Only nit is the background is a bit messy and distracting. If possible setup your feeders to encourage the birds to fly/hover against a more even background.
Also the image looks slightly soft. I suspect the focus point is probably not 100% on the bird but with manual focus setups it is just a case of keep trying until you nail a shot perfectly.
Its a frustrating business, this type of thing, but this shot must be great encouragment for you.
I tend to agree with Phil, that songbird flight photography is well suited to multiple flash. However, i think you could still conjour up a situation that will benifit the natural light method. Possibly shielding the bait/seed etc from certain directions, so the birds only have one obvious flight direction {and therefore more opportunities}, and the use of a reflecter {possibly incorperated into the bait holder} for filling in the harsh shadows that will obviously be present {due to the need for high light levels for a high shutter speed}. I also think that digital 400iso is very usable, and would give you that touch more flexability with dof or shutter.
This is pretty good Phil and a big improvement on your previous post. Using natural light I would use iso800 to give f8 and 1/3200. Provided I have the exposure spot on I find iso 800 to be pretty clean, what noise there is cleans up very well in Neatimage. This is with a 20D.
Why do you manually prefocus? I assumed the 1ds2 af would nail the focus if it was prefocussed at roughly the right distance. Doing some feeder work the other day I noticed the birds would often hover briefly (0.5 -1 second) before alighting on the feeder - isn't that enough time for AF?
I must have a go at this!
John
PS I see you are getting nicely settled in - lucky man!
Nice try Phil and you are certainly getting there, are manually focussing, I can't seem to find any reference in your post to mf?
Agree that the bg is a bit busy for this type of image, a clean complimentary bg seems to work best, some of the succesful examples I have seen involve getting the birds to fly a predetermined path and then prefocussing on that, then firing multiple bursts as they fly into range....
Frank Greenaway did a lot of this type of work using his self built high speed flash system, will quizz him next time I we meet up.
Thanks guys, for the very useful and interesting critique.
Perhaps I should clarify a couple of points.
I seem to be feeding most of the finches on the island! They are eating a huge amount of seed at my feeding stations in the garden, so I thought I would like to experiment with taking some in flight shots. I (stupidly) set up my hide near one of the feeders without a thought of the background , but at least taking in to account light direction and the bird's preferred route. I set up the camera and pre focused on a point about 6 inches from the feeder, setting speed, aperture and focus manually. Each time a bird approached the required flight path I squeezed the remote shutter release.
A bit hit and miss really, but I took about 6 half decent images from 100 shots, and the session lasted about an hour.
It's all a learning curve, but at least the curve is helped by input from others .
Best wishes
Phil
Posted by John Chapman on March 8, 2006 at 5:27 AM
Hi Philip
it is great fun this type of photography and being dig. it costs nothing. I agree with the comments which have been made.
John
Aberdeen
i{ll spare you my ignorance as to the techs as my efforts at such photography were pretty poor, but if you ever get to ecuador i{ll take you somewhere where you can try your newly learnt techniques out on humming birds.......
Discussion
10 repliesThis image has had the feeder cropped from the RHS. I used the S/H tool slightly to remove some shadow, but was a bit luckier with the sun with this image.
1DS2, 800 sigma, manual at 5.6, and 1/1600, ISO 200, tripod, wimbereley, and doghouse hide.
Critique welcomed.
Best wishes
Phil
Barrie
An excellent flight shot, I feel your technique is improving with this type of photograph.
Only nit is the background is a bit messy and distracting. If possible setup your feeders to encourage the birds to fly/hover against a more even background.
Also the image looks slightly soft. I suspect the focus point is probably not 100% on the bird but with manual focus setups it is just a case of keep trying until you nail a shot perfectly.
Good luck getting more shots.
cheers
Sean
Its a frustrating business, this type of thing, but this shot must be great encouragment for you.
I tend to agree with Phil, that songbird flight photography is well suited to multiple flash. However, i think you could still conjour up a situation that will benifit the natural light method. Possibly shielding the bait/seed etc from certain directions, so the birds only have one obvious flight direction {and therefore more opportunities}, and the use of a reflecter {possibly incorperated into the bait holder} for filling in the harsh shadows that will obviously be present {due to the need for high light levels for a high shutter speed}. I also think that digital 400iso is very usable, and would give you that touch more flexability with dof or shutter.
great result
Alan
Why do you manually prefocus? I assumed the 1ds2 af would nail the focus if it was prefocussed at roughly the right distance. Doing some feeder work the other day I noticed the birds would often hover briefly (0.5 -1 second) before alighting on the feeder - isn't that enough time for AF?
I must have a go at this!
John
PS I see you are getting nicely settled in - lucky man!
Agree that the bg is a bit busy for this type of image, a clean complimentary bg seems to work best, some of the succesful examples I have seen involve getting the birds to fly a predetermined path and then prefocussing on that, then firing multiple bursts as they fly into range....
Frank Greenaway did a lot of this type of work using his self built high speed flash system, will quizz him next time I we meet up.
Perhaps I should clarify a couple of points.
I seem to be feeding most of the finches on the island! They are eating a huge amount of seed at my feeding stations in the garden, so I thought I would like to experiment with taking some in flight shots. I (stupidly) set up my hide near one of the feeders without a thought of the background
A bit hit and miss really, but I took about 6 half decent images from 100 shots, and the session lasted about an hour.
It's all a learning curve, but at least the curve is helped by input from others
Best wishes
Phil
it is great fun this type of photography and being dig. it costs nothing. I agree with the comments which have been made.
John
Aberdeen
Tim
nice shot phillip,
i{ll spare you my ignorance as to the techs as my efforts at such photography were pretty poor, but if you ever get to ecuador i{ll take you somewhere where you can try your newly learnt techniques out on humming birds.......
mark.