How do you guys and gals get such good focus with flying birds?

ChrisGanz

Hello. I've got a d5000 and a sigma 50-500mm lens. What focus settings do you recommend to use while shooting moving wildlife? And do you use tripods for the birds flying around or just try to be steady as possible without the tripod?

Thanks,
Chris

Harryb

Hey Chris,

Good question that has come up a number of times.

As to using a tripod or not, it depends. If you're using a tripod I would recommend a gimbal head. It is much, much better for tracking than a ball head. If you are using a heavier lens it will lessen the possibility of camera shake. It is very effective when you're subjects are flying in a predictable pattern. Hand holding is more effective when your subject(s) are flying overhead or in unpredictable patterns.

You should experiment with your AF options on the D5000. I have found with my cameras (D3s, D4, and D800E) that the 3D auto area mode is very effective for locking on birds in flight against a clear background. When you don't have a clear BG you want to try out single point AF or dynamic area and see whic works better. I prefer singlepoint but I'm sure there are others who would disagree.

The key thing is experience. You have to go out and learn from your mistakes. You also need to study your subjects' behaviors. It is must easier to capture a BIF if you have some idea what they will be doing in the next few seconds.

NorthernFocus

Harry summed it up very well. I use the same focus modes in the same situations that he mentioned. Auto area is not reliable if the BG is busy.

The only thing I would add is that if you are used to shooting a shotgun or rifle, you may want to try a rifle stock type camera mount like a Bushhawk. That change increased my hit ratio probably ten to one.

The key thing as Harry said is practice. If you have a local spot with seagull or pidgeon activity, you can go there and get a lot of good practice under real conditions.

JohnDC

I second and third everything said so far. I'll add these suggestions to reduce other problems in photographing flying birds.
1. (Implied previously) Learn to smoothly pan with the bird flight--this reduces the motion of the bird relative to the camera, thereby reducing motion blur. If you can avoid it, don't use a stationary camera to photograph a moving bird.
2. Keep your shutter speed at or above 1/2000th no matter how high you need to boost your ISO.
3. Use manual exposure set to the reflectance of your target flying bird. This is especially necessary for white or black birds against a non-matching background. For example, use a white sign to set your exposure value for white birds. Then remember to adjust the exposure as the light changes.

NorthernFocus

John's #3 will save you a lot of heartache from blown whites/blacks. Unless you can predict a constant BG to the bird's flight. If the BG can change from green trees to bright sky, no way AE will do you justice.

Harryb

I would disagree about using manual exposure. I usually shoot with matrix metering, aperture priority and make EV adjustments based on the lighting. Setting the rear wheel to easy EV adjustments makes it fast and easy to make the necessary EV changes w/o taking your eye from the viewfinder. Once you get some experience with EV adjustments is fairly easy to make the right call.

NorthernFocus

Can't argue with your results, Harry. I'd never pull it off. I have enough trouble remembering to use my zoom lens while tracking a bird in flight much less changing exposure

mercphoto

First thought that came to my mind was is the auto-focus speed of the Sigma 50-500 fast enough to track a moving bird in flight in the first place?

Harryb

mercphoto wrote: »

First thought that came to my mind was is the auto-focus speed of the Sigma 50-500 fast enough to track a moving bird in flight in the first place?

I haven't used the 150-500 but when I started out I was getting flight shots with the D100 and the 80-400 so I think the 150-500 and the D5000 should be able to do it in good light.

davev

What kind of birds are you trying to photograph?

If you're trying larger, slower moving or maybe further away birds, all the suggestions above are good.
For smaller birds like Red Winged Black Birds, Cardinals, Swallows, all I can say is good luck.
I've never been able to get good shots of smaller birds. Their flight path is to erratic, add to that
the fact that most of them get in so close to you, that it seems that they're moving hundreds of MPH.

What kind of birds are you looking to shoot?

jwear

Well you have darn good advice here

Work with larger ,slower birds [if you can ] to start off with ,manual exposure after you get a lot of practice in and last --yell SLOW DOWN and fly this way it works sometimes bottom line every thing you read here and time in the field w/camera

JohnDC

NorthernFocus wrote: »

Can't argue with your results, Harry. I'd never pull it off. I have enough trouble remembering to use my zoom lens while tracking a bird in flight much less changing exposure

Sounds like Harry has flying fingers faster than a texting teenager. The proof is in his ultra-sharp, perfectly exposed BIFs. Like Northern Focus, I doubt if I could be that responsive and coordinated.

ChrisGanz

Wow thanks for all the replies! I need to get out there and practice but this will give me a great starting point. There are a bunch of pelicans by the beach and I'll give them a "shot."

Thanks again for your time.

Chris

Harryb

ChrisGanz wrote: »

Wow thanks for all the replies! I need to get out there and practice but this will give me a great starting point. There are a bunch of pelicans by the beach and I'll give them a "shot."

Thanks again for your time.

Chris

The pelicans sounds like a good idea. Make sure you ceck back in with us and let us know how you did.