Help on panning please

den

den

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Dennis
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Hi, i am slowly learning (after 6 months) how to use my 50D but at the moment i am strugling with my paning of birds in flight the majority of my wildlife shots have all been captive animals all be it a few non captive,...however i have spent a good few hours trying to capture a kestrel that i see regular not far from were i live and i always come back with a lot of wasted shots ,i am using my 100-400 is at iso 100/200 F5.6/8 A1 servo continous high speed is mode 2 and i am usually in a sitting position when i spot the bird, i am usually shooting at 300-400mm i know at that distance it will not be fantastically sharp but its a starting point for me ,i also have single point focousing ,i know that upping the iso i will get a faster shutter speed but there is something implanted in me that says keep your iso down ,and while i will switch between av/tv i tend to leave the iso always set at 100 , i also know and except that i am not going to get winning shots after a few months but i just want to get some basics in getting a good shot without it being luck more than judgement ,any help would be apreciated ,thanks
 
Do you have any example shots den? What sort of shutter speeds are you getting at ISO 100/200? How far away from the bird are you?

I'm surprised you've not got an answer, your post must of been missed
 
Hi. Ive only used panning for motorsports so what you want to do sounds tricky. Panning usually requires a slowish SS so a higher f no and low iso usually works. post some examples.
 
boyfalldown said:
I'd of though starting with a relatively large object like a car would be easier then a bird.
Click to expand...

Definately.

I've asked this question to other photographers i know in person and the best advice any of them can give when trying to photograph birds is a fast shutter speed and plenty of practice with tracking the subject/panning and also getting to grips with manual focus. In my own personal experience AF is always too slow to keep up with small, fast moving subjects.

Good luck :thumbs:
 
For birds in flight you need a different technique than motorsport.

Because you want to be freezing the motion the shutter speed absolutely has to go up - I would say aim for a minimum of 1/500th and ideally 1/1000th of a second.

Don't worry about upping the ISO - your 50D still produces very good images at ISO 800 and even 1600. In good light you should be able to use F8 1/800th ISO 400 (Or therabouts) and get good sharp shots.

Don't spray though - take a couple of shots at a time.
 
I have taken literaly hundreds of birds in flight and this is the only one i have kept (and i know its not great),its looking like my shutter speed and use of iso is part of me not getting the freezing (sharp shot) but i do strugle when panning , more practise i suppose....
puffin 19 by den9112, on Flickr Thanks to all for the replies.
 
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hard to believe at that iso you would get shutter speeds fast enough for BIF, you've got the right idea, keeping iso low, but you will need shutters speeds near 1600th for BIF to be sharp. suggest starting faster if you have the light to do so then slow down for panning blur if required
 
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