Birds in flight - Which focus?

WillyB

WillyB

Suspended / Banned
Messages
353
Name
William
Edit My Images
No
I have lately been trying my hand at the above but am struggling with mediocre to OK shots.

I am using continuous servo AF and also panning at the same time. I assume that panning should be done at the same time or just let CS do the work?

Any help would be appreciated>
 
As per ScotttheHat.

What is wrong with them? Out of focus ? Motion blur ? Underexposed ?
 
Last edited:
Well, I don't think the focus is spot on which is why I'm wondering should I be using panning as well as afc. It's probably my technique.
 
do you have vr on off also which vr mode do you have, just keep practicing the lens should be fine.
heres a recent one of mine.
SJB_4539.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hi Scott,

In regards to your post above, i see how the focus in on the face of the bird and the end of the wing is slightly out of focus. How would, if possible, you ensure the entire bird is in focus?

I admire your shot in the above post. Im a beginner myself and where i live there is alot of trees so alot of wildlife, i have noticed by the time i focus in on the bird while in air flying its out my field of view and i miss the shot. And when i do manage to take a shot of the bird its out of focus.

Im using a canon 550d and 55-250mm lens and most of the time at 250mm.

Any advice on getting a shot like yours above?

Edit: My first question, i just realised could it be not fast enough shutter speed that has caused that?
 
Last edited:
hi blade, yes a faster shutter speed would have frozen the wings, that shot was at 1/500th 2nd and as you get better you can lower the shutter speeds to give movement of the wings(gives more feeling to movement)
your lens and body should be ine for bifs it just practice.
heres a couple more bif shoots from me, seaguls are good for practice.
swift.jpg

eagleowlblur.jpg

DSC_4575.jpg

SB1_0762.jpg

and more below.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=299200
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=280511
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=277383
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=267273
 
Thanks Scott. Yes I do use VR in the 'normal' mode. Do you reckon continuous servo is the correct af to go for?
 
Practice practice practice, and careful choice of settings.

On my D90, which I believe uses the same focus engine as the D5000, using AF-C center point with dynamic area seems to deliver the goods - don't bother trying to use the 3D tracking, 11 focus points just does not cut it for this application.

It's also tempting to use continuous shooting as well, but there is a caveat with that. The D90, and I assume the D5000, only have release priority mode when continuous shooting. This means that the camera will fire regardless of whether anything is in focus or not. More often than not the camera will not reacquire and refocus on a moving object before the next shot is taken, so you end up with 1 in focus image, and 3 or 4 progressively out of focus images. If you're panning with the bird, and the bird is not changing it's distance to you much then continuous shooting should work, however it's when the bird is flying towards or away from you the problems happen.

Another thing to try would be setting the exposure lock button to AF-ON. When you do this the first thing you'll notice is that, shock horror, when you half press the shutter button the camera no longer focuses. However if you press the exposure lock button the camera will focus. By keeping this button pressed the camera will continuously focus, and you can happily press and release the shutter button as you please. Personally I find this technique uncomfortable as I'm mostly a left eye shooter, so I have either use may right eye, or risk sticking my thumb in my right eye. That said the number of keepers I got when using this method went up considerably.
 
Slaphead said:
Another thing to try would be setting the exposure lock button to AF-ON. When you do this the first thing you'll notice is that, shock horror, when you half press the shutter button the camera no longer focuses.



Thanks for the advice Slaphead. I am sure you are right about practicing. As Arnold Palmer once said when someone suggested he seemed to have a lot of luck, "It's funny you know, the more I practice, the luckier I get"

I actually do the above and use back button focusing and it definitely seems to have helped me.

Who knows, one day I may be able to post something decent on here! :lol:

Thanks also for the suggestion on the settings.
Click to expand...
 
Interesting post, went into the garden this evening to try some of the ideas, All birds went into hidding. They must have thought my camera a shot gun!
 
It's not your camera. It's you, I'm afraid :-) Birds can be very sceptical of human presence when they aren't expecting company. Even in your back garden, I'd get a hide that you can sit in and just poke out your lens. It may take a little while, but they'll come back. Another trick is to go into the hide with another person, and after a while, ask the other person to leave. Birds will be tricked into thinking there's no one in the hide. Works every time.
 
Thanks for the tip. Still think they are camera shy. I have been sat eating brakfast this morning watching a Black bird hop around for a good 10 minutes or so. Go and get the camera, think I will snap it through the patio doors so as not to disturb it, take the lens cap off and....... off he goes. Did make me laugh :-) I shall continue to try and keep in mind your points.
 
Don't forget, in nature a big eye is a threat. Butterflies/moths have big "eyes" on their opened wings to act as a deterrent to birds from earting them...big eyes.

Your camera lens is a "big eye" looking at them.

Birds (or anything erratic or uncalculated) in flight/movement - use as few focus points as possible. The maths the camera has to do to calculate the focussing is far more complicated the more focus points it has to do the sums for...which takes longer, so slows down the focus reaction time. We think of that as slow focussing.

Using just the 9 area focus tracking will halve the time compared to 51 area, you won't half notice the difference! You just have ot keep the focus point on your target better - or nearly so, the other close focus points will make up for your little waywardness, but asking all the lot to keep track for you takes up a lot more processor power.
 
As above. Someone also suggested practising on seagulls a while back, if you're anywhere near the coast. They're common, a fair size, fly fairly slowly and are usually quite bold.
 
MartynK said:
As above. Someone also suggested practising on seagulls a while back, if you're anywhere near the coast. They're common, a fair size, fly fairly slowly and are usually quite bold.
Click to expand...

That's a good suggestion. I have tried quite a few of them and haven't nailed it yet.
Am taking on board the advice so hopefully improvement will come. Who knows, might even be able to show a decent (boring)? seagull shot soon. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top