BIF practice and a few questions

[Singletracklovr]

Sunday I decided to go out and practice my bird in flight shooting.
Starting with Gulls, since they are somewhat large and slow when gliding.

I got lots of theses, HaHa


Every now and then I could get the shot but I was not consistent.



Moving on to something a little faster.

Magpie’s Even when I thought I had the camera focused the birds came out soft.



Now for a few question:
How do you analyze a photo to determine if the softness is do to focus, shutter speed, bad pan, DOF(f-stop)?
Does anyone know or have a recommended shutter speed chart for BIF?

Thanks for looking and please any advice is welcome.

[armando_m]

LOL

This only a "Me too" post, I would also love to see what the more experienced members have to say.

I have an extensive collection of photos similar to the first one

Personally I have problems keeping the focus spot on the bird (or moving object), I'm getting better with practice, but still it is only a small % of photos that come somewhat sharp, and even smaller for the really sharp ones.

Really hate it when the focus falls on the ski and everything goes really blurry, yesterday I had that situation, when I decided to left it on manual focus set at infinite, the birds I was targeting were gone LOL

[Eric D]

In my opinion the softness comes from the type of lens used and shutter speed. I always personally go for a shutter speed of 1/1250 sec or greater for fast flapping birds to freeze the wing motion. I also like an fstop around F8 or so...gets a better focus on large wing spans shots!

Birds that move real slow, like flying into the wind you can reduce you shutter speed since they are basically gliding with little movement.

my 2 cents..........

That last shot came out very nice!

[Singletracklovr]

Hi Armando, thank you for your comments.
I to tried manual focus (set to infinity) and gained a great respect for my cameras auto focus. haha Even thought it misses the tiny little subject I an trying to zero in on most of the time.

Hi Eric,
I really appreciate your advice. Thank you.
Most of these pictures were shot at f9, 1/2000, ISO 800
EXIF data is still attached to the photos.

So with these setting in mind the softness is probably a combination of lens quality and poor panning skills.

[CaraRose]

Hey, how'd you get one of my in flight shots for that first one

I really like that last shot. It doesn't look soft at all to me.

[Loupey]

Couple things. First of all...

I to tried manual focus (set to infinity) and gained a great respect for my cameras auto focus. haha Even thought it misses the tiny little subject I an trying to zero in on most of the time.

Don't do that

If you're going to manually focus (which I recommend for very small birds), it's a highly active affair and the focusing ring should be constantly rotating, shifting, drifting,...

As Eric mentioned, go fast for faster wings and smaller bodies. But 1/2000s is too fast IMO - even for hummingbird wings.

Keep your ISO as low as possible to keep noise to a minimum. This may mean you need to open up slightly.

Here's what I do with both my 300mm f/4 and 500mm f/4:

1) Close down 1 stop for the best compromise of light gathering capability and sharpness. So I step out of my truck with my aperture pegged at f/5.6.

2) Evaluate the lighting to determine the ISO. If it is sunny and midday, ISO 200 or 400. If it is morning or evening it is ISO 640 or 800 (occasionally 1600 just before sunset). If it is heavy overcast, I shoot something else - macros usually.

3) Based on f/5.6 and a fixed ISO, I find my usable shutter speed. It can be between 1/350s to 1/1500 but whatever it is, I set it manually and leave it.

4) Try to find a flight path or camp out in the midst of flying flock (like swallows) and focus like mad.

Because smaller birds tend to fly erratically, work your focus like a sine wave as you follow the bird - focusing from behind to in front of the bird and so on. Every time the plane of focus crosses the bird, you trip the shutter. Don't expect to actually follow the focus on a BIF.

Practice, practice, practice. Shoot nearly wide open to work on your accuracy. Shoot smaller faster birds so that the larger ones will be that much more easy.

[armando_m]

Great information and tips !

[Singletracklovr]

Thanks Loupey,
I really appreciate the detailed steps.
Hopefully as Spring moves forward I will be able to locate a flock to practice.
There aren't many migratory birds arriving yet.

[DHMN69]

Does the Nikon line have a feature similar to the Canon's AF-ON that helps with tracking focus?

[Singletracklovr]

Does the Nikon line have a feature similar to the Canon's AF-ON that helps with tracking focus?

The short answer is yes.

I have a more detailed discussion of the various modes of AF specific to nikon cameras in this thread if you would like to know more.

Preferred Nikon Focus Method for small fast moving objects