How to Freeze Bats on a Cave

[Kinjo]

I took this picture a few days ago but at that time didn't have a thought to freeze the circling bats. Looking at it now.. I should have tried, higher ISO, different shutter speeds and should have more results to choose from.

As the title suggested, I'm wondering what would you do if you were to achieve the same exposure as the pictures taken below, but with the bats more focused and freezes in motion?





Canon Kiss X4
Handheld
Shutter speed value 1/90 s
Aperture value f/3.4
ISO 500
Metering mode Pattern
Flash did not fire
Focal length 18 mm

[NeonSD]

I think you pretty much answered yourself. To freeze any subject requires a higher shutter speed. So I would of played around at 1/125 or 1/200 and adjusted iso/aperature to allow for the same level of exposure. Those are cool shots though, dunno how comfortable I would of been sitting in a sea of swimming bats in a cave.

Cheers!

Neon

[Krusty79]

I gotta give you credit for going down there - I probably would have been too creeped out. I hope you had a hat! I see you shot at f/3.4 and ISO 500, so there is not too much more you could have done. Bumping up the ISO should give you a little faster shutter speed, which should help, because unfortunately, it's hard to tell those flying objects are bats. Those are some very tough lighting conditions, though, so I don't see much else you could have done.

[ki_user]

On the 1st one I'm nor sure I'd want to see the bats frozen, I think it works really well showing the motion. The second one I think would have helped, I'm a bit worried about the guys face sticking out of the rock bottom right

[Kinjo]

oh yea i just noticed theres a face in there... forehead, eyes, nose, a bat like mouth? creepy lol there is a thousand years mummy on the next room btw.

[S_Sanyal]

All I can say is that what you have posted here makes for a fantastic abstract, I think the lighting and mood make it more suitable for the blurred bats rather than a "documentation" type image which would again fit into a lot of cliches

That said, you are a very brave person to have guts to go in and come out of wherever you shot this !