birds in flight

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I'd never go up to IS0 1600. Max I go up to is 800, and usually thats not needed because if you're shooting BIF then you're generally shooting against a sunny/lighter background, so will get the shutter speed that way. I also have it on Av mode, therefore the shutterspeeds sort themselves out and you just change the aperture (and the ISO accordingly)
 
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scottthehat said:
you want fast shutterspeeds for bif, also the skys are not always bright here in the uk, but its better to have sharp noisey shots then blurry one.
Click to expand...

You can still get fast shutter speeds of BIF without going to ISO 1600 imo. I never go up to 1600 unless I want a record shot. I'm picky about noise levels in images and would rather go without if it means a having a noisy image.

ISO 320, S/speed 1/1000th, f7.1

3877102081_72e08982d0.jpg


And the gull was taken on a very dull and windy day

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Exposure 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture f/5.6
ISO Speed 400


And I remember this like it was yesterday, a miserable day, went for kingfishers and it was so overcast it was very very dull indeed. Then it proceeded to rain.

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Exposure 0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture f/5.6
ISO Speed 500
 
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if you have auto iso set upto 1600, and it needs it you can use it, if it doesnt need it it wont use it.
if it only need iso 200 with a shutter speed of 1000/sec f8 so be it.
as mark is asking its best to cover all angles and let him work it out after abit of practice, also iso 1600 on a good day with good light will have hardly no noise.
 
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Love the eagle and the geese out of the three. Going with (eagle) falconers next weekend to clear some vermin so will take on board your settings. They're on a disused airfield so will hope to get some low shots as well as some portraits. If I'm feeling brave/stupid - I might even get them to fly "at me" to the falconer behind for some head on shots. Must remember not to wear my furry hat. :-)
 
squizza said:
You can still get fast shutter speeds of BIF without going to ISO 1600 imo. I never go up to 1600 unless I want a record shot. I'm picky about noise levels in images and would rather go without if it means a having a noisy image.

ISO 320, S/speed 1/1000th, f7.1

3877102081_72e08982d0.jpg


What lens please?
Click to expand...
 
squizza said:
I'd never go up to IS0 1600. Max I go up to is 800, and usually thats not needed because if you're shooting BIF then you're generally shooting against a sunny/lighter background, so will get the shutter speed that way.
Click to expand...

The OP is using a D300 Sarah, I let mine go up to ISO3200 no problem.

I use 1/1000, f7.1 and single point focus (although try a3 Dynamic 9 or 21), a5 Short or Normal, AF-C and use the rear AF-ON button for focusing, a5 AF OFF (this stops the shutter release focusing)
 
I have a lensesforhire 300 f4 arriving Friday so hope to get some practice in before Sunday. On my D5000 I'll try settings aound 1/500-1/1000 but it's the focus I'm more concerned about - if I go singlepoint AF and try and follow the heads as they do a "fly-by" will that suffice? :thinking:
 
RubyX4 said:
I have a lensesforhire 300 f4 arriving Friday so hope to get some practice in before Sunday. On my D5000 I'll try settings aound 1/500-1/1000 but it's the focus I'm more concerned about - if I go singlepoint AF and try and follow the heads as they do a "fly-by" will that suffice? :thinking:
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i should be fine have an apature of about f8, also depending on weather conditons you miht need to use spot metering instead of multi.
heres some from me.
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=299200
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/...and stuff/birds of prey/peregrinefalcon80.jpg
http://i727.photobucket.com/albums/ww272/scottthehat/animals and stuff/birds of prey/SJB17694.jpg
 
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I personally spend a lot of time taking flight shots and love it, I use a Nikon D40 and a sigma 18-200, I usually only bother doing proper flight photography when the sun is out, although I will shoot in cloudy conditions from time to time, I always shoot on Manual, I set my ISO to 400 but don’t be afraid to go up to 800 if the light is bad, and my aperture to f/6.3 as this is the lowest for my lens, but if I could I would turn it down lower I would to get the sharpest pictures possible, this also makes your pictures brighter allowing you to set you shutter speed higher hopefully freezing the motion of the bird, setting my Camera up like this usually allows me to shoot between 1/800 and 1/1250 depending on how intense the light is and what bird I am photographing.
Another very important fact, is your panning technique, if you can’t track the bird in the air, then you will struggle photographing it in the air, watch the birds in the air and try to pre-empt what direction they will go in, over time you technique will improve and you will find you own ways that are probably better than others have told you about.

I hope that this help...

These are a few of the picture that I have taken using this setup, I hope that you like them...

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Action Gulls... by Lee Harrisons Nature Photography, on Flickr

___________________________________________________________________________
these were the only shots that I could get the image code for as my laptop had recently broken but please feel free to take a look at my flickr site, for more of my work...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeharrisonsnaturephotography/
 
Aperture Priority.
Iso 400 - 800 dependant on what shutter speed you can achieve
51 point dynamic af area
focus tracking with lock on set to long.
Continous shooting set to ch.
i also have my AFC priority set to release and focus, this allows me to shoot even if the bird isn't in focus at first but the focus lock will come if i keep the shutter pressed.
AF activation off use your thumb on the af-on button to focus as you hold down the shutter to take the shots

None of the above will guarantee good shots until you learn to pan smoothly. This will come with practice though, so don't give up if your first few hundred attempts are poor.
I used to practice on the local gulls getting the wife to throw bread for them.
Good luck
 
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as the above says, photographing gulls is very good prectise + very good fun, worth a try on a sunny day
 
Some cracking shots here.
Lee those Gulls are amazingly sharp!
I took some Herring Gulls in flight last night, have a thread in the 'Birds' section and wish I had seen this thread first. There is much I need to do to improve, but when conditions are favourable I will have another go using this information as my base.
Cheers!
 
Practise does seem to be as important as settings.
Although I have had a previous attempt I went out into the sunshine yesterday to get shots of ducks in flight.
Pretty miserable results, but when I saw the images in DPP I could locate the focus point.
Not a single shot had the focus point where I had intended it so it's back out there is soon as possible.
 
Have a look round the local beaches, you might find some flight ponds/estury area where birds are always going to and from the beach. Place yourself in between and at the right time of day you get plenty of opportunity for practice.
 
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