I would love to see a video or even a full write up tutorial how to capture a good picture of birds in flight. Can anyone please help ??
Thanks.
Posted by Buck Ward on September 22, 2011 at 10:23 AM
Hello Hussein
Jim Neiger does field workshops on birds in flight called "Flight School" I don't know if he has any videos or tutorials but if you do a serch for him, you may be able to find something.
I think you might get more responses if you posted this query in the Bird Photography discussion forum rather than the NPN Member Lounge.
Oops. I came across your post in All Topics and it said it was in the Lounge, but when I posted my response it said it was in Bird Photography, so kindly disgregard the second part of my reply above.
Posted by John Cubit on September 22, 2011 at 3:26 PM
Here is a summary of tips I received from experts as I learned to photograph birds in flight. Email me if you would like a longer version in a Word file.
8 point quick summary: (1) Use manual exposure set for the target birds, not the background; (2) Boost your ISO to obtain a shutter speed above 1/2000th; (3) find the continuous autofocus mode for your camera that best tracks moving objects; (4) use a focus-area setting wider than “spot”; (5) set shooting mode to “multiple” or “continuous”; (6) learn how to get close to the birds; (7) learn to pan smoothly following the bird movement; (8) experiment and practice, practice, practice. Example of an ideal setting for overall sharpness: manual exposure, 1/2500th @ f/8, continuous focus, wide field focus area, and multi-shot.
Posted by Nate Chappell on September 25, 2011 at 1:39 PM
Hi Hussain,
John has given you some good advice, I'll add a few more points.
1) If you don't know how to make a manual exposure properly you could start out using aperture priority. I agree that generally for birds in flight manual is the best but many photographers also use aperture and until you learn how to use manual I would use that.
2) I prefer using only the center autofocus point or the center autofocus point with a few assist points activated near the center AF point.
3) For Canon (I see that you are using Canon) use AI-Servo as your AF mode.
4) Try to acquire focus on the bird when it is flying towards you when the bird is still at a distance, the closer it gets to you the harder it will be to acquire the focus. Try to retain focus as the bird flies toward you by holding the shutter button half way down and fire in bursts as the bird gets closer to you, if you are loosing focus bump the shutter, that is release the shutter and try to refocus. I prefer to use the back of the camera for focusing rather than the shutter button. You have to adjust some settings in your custom functions to do this.
5) For many larger birds shutter speeds of 1/1000 and above are fine, ideally you might have a shutter speed above 1/2000 as John suggested but you have to weigh that against increasing your iso which creates more noise.
6) I generally start out at an apeture about 1 stop down from wide open, for example if you are using a Canon 500F4.5, then I would use F6.3 or so as a starting point for my aperture.
7) I prefer shooting handheld rather than using a tripod for flight photography but it's also possible to get good results using a tripod. Shooting handheld I find gives you more freedom to track the birds as they fly.
8) Practice and practice some more. Good luck and send me an email if you have more questions.
Discussion
3 repliesThanks.
Jim Neiger does field workshops on birds in flight called "Flight School" I don't know if he has any videos or tutorials but if you do a serch for him, you may be able to find something.
I think you might get more responses if you posted this query in the Bird Photography discussion forum rather than the NPN Member Lounge.
Oops. I came across your post in All Topics and it said it was in the Lounge, but when I posted my response it said it was in Bird Photography, so kindly disgregard the second part of my reply above.
8 point quick summary: (1) Use manual exposure set for the target birds, not the background; (2) Boost your ISO to obtain a shutter speed above 1/2000th; (3) find the continuous autofocus mode for your camera that best tracks moving objects; (4) use a focus-area setting wider than “spot”; (5) set shooting mode to “multiple” or “continuous”; (6) learn how to get close to the birds; (7) learn to pan smoothly following the bird movement; (8) experiment and practice, practice, practice. Example of an ideal setting for overall sharpness: manual exposure, 1/2500th @ f/8, continuous focus, wide field focus area, and multi-shot.
John has given you some good advice, I'll add a few more points.
1) If you don't know how to make a manual exposure properly you could start out using aperture priority. I agree that generally for birds in flight manual is the best but many photographers also use aperture and until you learn how to use manual I would use that.
2) I prefer using only the center autofocus point or the center autofocus point with a few assist points activated near the center AF point.
3) For Canon (I see that you are using Canon) use AI-Servo as your AF mode.
4) Try to acquire focus on the bird when it is flying towards you when the bird is still at a distance, the closer it gets to you the harder it will be to acquire the focus. Try to retain focus as the bird flies toward you by holding the shutter button half way down and fire in bursts as the bird gets closer to you, if you are loosing focus bump the shutter, that is release the shutter and try to refocus. I prefer to use the back of the camera for focusing rather than the shutter button. You have to adjust some settings in your custom functions to do this.
5) For many larger birds shutter speeds of 1/1000 and above are fine, ideally you might have a shutter speed above 1/2000 as John suggested but you have to weigh that against increasing your iso which creates more noise.
6) I generally start out at an apeture about 1 stop down from wide open, for example if you are using a Canon 500F4.5, then I would use F6.3 or so as a starting point for my aperture.
7) I prefer shooting handheld rather than using a tripod for flight photography but it's also possible to get good results using a tripod. Shooting handheld I find gives you more freedom to track the birds as they fly.
8) Practice and practice some more. Good luck and send me an email if you have more questions.