birds in flight?

[Christi V]

how do some of you guys such great pictures of birds in flight? having a Cannon, you can only use the "view' finder... the LED screen doesnt show up images except for the "preview'

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by Christi V

having a Cannon, you can only use the "view' finder... the LED screen doesnt show up images except for the "preview'

I dont know what this part of your post means. Ive tried, but I cant figure it out.

Most proper birding photography is done with VERY long lenses with large apertures at VERY high shutter speeds. Birds are deceptively fast.

You're looking at, at the very very least, a 400mm f/2.8 lens.

[BCampbell]

A good question. One way I like to do this kind of research is to find photos online and see what I can learn from them. You can do a lot worse than starting with a flickr search. We can get EXIF data for most shots on flickr to help, unless you're some kind of camera psychic.

So, here's one, and in the EXIF I see that this is a Canon 400D (not a high end camera!) taken at 186mm, f/7.1, 1/2000th. So, the photographer was actually pretty close, and there was probably a lot of light, a sunny day. The trick here is the shutter speed, that froze the action; the key is the ISO 400 setting. That's what allowed such a fast shutter at a moderate aperture. I can't see more lens info so I can't tell what lens it was taken with, but at f/7.1, even a cheap 18-200mm off-brand can be pretty sharp. And, looking at tags, I see it's a Sigma 150-500, a pretty good lens but not L glass. Also note this was taken in aperture priority, so the photographer chose f/7.1, hopefully for a reason (we always choose our settings for a good reason, right? Right?), probably for sharpness.

Okay, so this tells us a lot, right? You want some telephoto action, you want to shoot fast, you want a relatively high ISO to help shoot fast.

Okay, here's another and its EXIF. Now this was taken with a 1DMkIII -- not cheap stuff. I'll bet that helped. 1/1000th of a second is twice the time as the previous photo, and it shows -- look at the motion blur on the wingtips. That can be a creative decision, up to you, but it's good to know what speeds will stop what motion. And hey, this guy was nice enough to give us tons of info added here, so we know he used the Canon 100-400 (see a rough pattern), locked out at the far end, and wide open for that length at f/5.6 He also shot at ISO 400 -- I'll bet ISO 800 and 1/2000th would have worked fine and really frozen those wings, maybe he knew this and made this choice, or maybe he (like me) just picked a setting and ran with it for a while -- he's on shutter priority here, so he's dialing in that 1/1000th.

So, a couple good examples, there's lots more if you want to do some extra research. Now, this is mainly useful to know what gear people used, though as you can see you can guess at technique a little. If you want to know more about technique, that's a different story -- you'll want to study your subjects to know their habits, learn some panning, be anticipatory, etc. -- but this is a good start.

[Christi V]

I dont know what this part of your post means. Ive tried, but I cant figure it out.

.

ya have to look thru the eye thingie.. not the screen on the back of the camera.. i guess finding the subject in flight and panning??
thanks for the info...

[inkista]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

...You're looking at, at the very very least, a 400mm f/2.8 lens.

Uh, no. I use a 400/5.6. You don't need to blow $7k+ to shoot BiF (birds in flight). You will, however, probably need 400mm reach, and ideally you'd want a lens with AF-S/USM. Which is why shooting Canon can be very helpful in this instance, as both the EF 400 f/5.6L USM and the EF 100-400 f/4-5.6 IS USM are USM lenses and under $2k.

In terms of finding and tracking the bird, the easiest thing to do is simply shoot with both eyes open. The one that's not looking through the viewfinder can tell you where to point the lens to find the bird in the viewfinder. Simple as that.

Then it's "just" a matter of getting an autofocus lock. If you're going for larger birds, though, they tend not to dart about as much, so it's easier to lock onto them. Pelicans, cranes, seagulls, hawks, eagles are generally not that hard to focus on in time to get the shot. The hard part is getting close enough to fill the frame (hence the 400mm).

Passerines and hummingbirds are a whole other issue. [grin].

And, as everyone's saying, higher shutter speeds are required to freeze the action, so higher iso settings are likely to be what you want to use.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by Christi V

.

ya have to look thru the eye thingie.. not the screen on the back of the camera.. i guess finding the subject in flight and panning??
thanks for the info...

The live-view on dSLRs is essentially useful for two things: Product/macro work and landscapes. Anything moving is viewfinder only.