Still frustrated! arghhhhhhhh

[SARtech]

What is it with me and small flying things?!?! I just can not get a non muddy, sharp, colorful shot of anything in the air. Seems like I have to shoot everything with 800 ISO so I can use a fast enough speed, but then they look grainy :mad2: :cryin:
Well, at LEAST I managed to get 2 shots with the damn bird IN the frame this time. lol
Tell me once again how I should not give up.

Getting pretty good with still birds though.

[CaraRose]

I really like that second one. The composure is really nice!

[SARtech]

Thanks CR!

[A.M.D.A.]

Well, you picked one of the most difficult birds there are, for BIFs. I think they're quite nice, #2 has an interesting shooting angle.

#4 is great, and would look even better if with a ittle colour saturation boost, in addition to noise reduction. Very nice shot!

It may also enhance appearance if you add a frame / border.

[scott-devon]

Yep Alex is right, you sure picked a fast bird to try BIF with.


I think you did great, sure better than I can manage. That last still shot is fantastic.

[Frog]

I doubt I could even get a vulture in flight, let alone a swallow. I tried to imagine it once while watching them and thought better of it.

[Loupey]

ISO 800 will give you that (noise and frustration).

IMO noise is a nature photographer's arch enemy. Better to have shallow DOF and slow shutter speeds over noise in most cases.

What shutter speed are your trying to maintain by using ISO 800? I've had relatively good results going as slow as 1/500s for swallows.

Use knowledge of weather, feeding habits, and understanding flight characteristics to use slower shutter speeds (and lower ISO's). In other words, you don't always have to shoot them when they are flying pedal-to-the-floor fast.


They do fly slower and sometimes land too

[SARtech]

Thanks Loupey. 500th?? I was affraid to go under 1200.

Hey, know any ways I could make a living out of this. Looks like I may have just lost my full time job. How come there are no full-time nature photographer jobs listed on the internet?
(I'm joking of course. Not about loosing my job though.)

[mn shutterbug]

Actually, if you can pan perfectly with the bird, much lower shutter speeds are possible.

Sorry to hear about your job. I hope it all works out.

[AgingEyes]

According to some experts, noisy trumps blurry. Many will rather have a noisy photo than a blurry one. I think they are right. Especially these days, the high ISO performance of the digital cameras are getting better and better. There should not be a very strong reason why one should still shoot with nothing else but low ISOs. And then there's noise reduction software. The way I see it, all these shouldn't make noise much of a concern at all. On the other hand, if your subject is blurry when it should not be, your photo is a failure essentially.

Especially for BIF, most of the time you need fast shutter speeds. The smaller, faster the birds are, the higher the shutter speeds you want to use. Unless you have very bright sunlight, you most likely will be shooting with higher ISOs. In fact, these days, some do not shoot birds with ISO lower than 400. But, if your objective is to produce a blurry image, the artistic kind that has everything in the photo blurred, you intentionally use a lower shutter speed like 1/30s. Also, you likely will use a lower shutter speed if you do not want to freeze the wing movement or want to pan to have a blurred background (with the bird stays sharp).

Again, according to the experts, the best condition to shoot BIF is when the sun is behind you and the wind is coming behind you. I think it is easy to understand the purpose of having the sun behind you. As for the wind, it is because the wind can slow the birds down when they fly towards you. One of the easiest way to shoot swallows in flight is to stay near their nests, sun and wind behind you, take photos of them flying around the nest or coming back to the nest. Free flight of the swallows are more difficult to shoot because they can change direction instantly and that makes tracking them difficult (not to mention their smaller size is not helping here). With the nest, you know where they're going...at least some of the time And you are closer to them.

IMO, many BIF shots are landing shots. Good thing about landing is the birds have to slow down and also they likely have their wings and tails spread out, legs/talons to the front. This could give you some very good pose that make great images.

Shooting small birds taking off I think is the most difficult for the reason that the whole process is pretty much invisible to our eyes.

I think most of the time when we see the birds flying, they are just like us walking. They "run" when they are chasing other birds or their preys. And that is fast !

Shooting swallows in flight is frustrating, but it is also satisfying when you nail a good one That's why I am still trying :blush2:

[Canon_Bob]

Aging Eyes hit it pretty well. Birds always try to take off and land "into the wind". Light and wind behind you are the optimal conditions. Most of us won't even bother trying flight shots if the conditions aren't right for them. To me, I also work for all the same details that I go for in the static shots as well (head angle, catchlight, wing position, etc.)...but I'm kind of anal like that. I keep promising to do a BIF tutorial, but I haven't finished it yet. I promise, I'll do one.

[SARtech]

Thanks everyone for the tips.

I am on the job hunt, so wish me luck. I have never been let go from a job in my life. This situation is all new to me. I am hanging on to the feeling that I will find more rewarding employment very soon! I am hoping for something more in line with actually helping folks stay safe and be rewarded psycologically. (Of course better pay would not be turned down) I already have 2 good positions applied for.

Kristine Quandee ----------> super hyped

[Daruba]

Nice captures, well done :thumbsup: