Bird in flight

[JPS]

Hi all,
I have been reading the 'birds in flight or motion' thread, I've not mastered things yet, but I've made a start. Just thought I would share my 1st attempt of a bird in flight and thank all those who willingly shared their tips.
C&C welcome.

[beckyhumphries]

Hi John

Lovely picture, your timing seems perfect. The only thing that I personally think might have made it even better is if the seagull's head was in the light rather than in shadow. It looks nice and sharp on the birds body; what shutter speed did you have to use to achieve this picture?

Thanks, Rebecca

[JPS]

Hi Rebecca,
Many thanks, I must be honest and say I needed to do quite a bit of PP to get it to look like this. The camera was set to F16, 1/500, ISO100, Focal length 300mm.
This setting gave me a rather dark picture, but as I shot in Raw I managed to pull things back a bit to get a reasonable picture. As I said, this is a 1st for me; trying to capture a bird in motion, so I still have a lot to learn. The main thing is I enjoyed trying different settings to see what worked and what didn’t. Hopefully next time thing might be better.

With regard the shadow, I agree it would have been better without it; how would you have dealt with this: re-positioned at the time of shooting or is there a good PP technique I could use.
Any help you can offer will be most appreciated.

[kdoc856]

John,

Congrats on a very nice shot. Personally, I've only done a bit of this myself and others here are quite expert. I did note your low ISO and relatively narrow aperture generating a fairly slow shutter speed, and was surprised how sharp your were able to get this. The better of my own attempts occurred when I used an ISO/aperture combo that let me use about 1/1000 sec shutter. I'm curious what our resident experts would think. If this is your first attempt, I'm looking forward to more of your work.

Kevin

[JPS]

Kevin,
Many thanks for your kind comments.

I'm sure my settings were totally inappropriate, so am hoping the members, who are expert in this kind of shot can advise me on how to move forward.

What I can say is without this site and its continuing encouragement I would never have attempted this kind of picture in the first place, so many thanks to you all.

[kdoc856]

PS:

I watched the Murray/Federer final earlier. Very happy for Andy. The Brits are having a remarkably successful Olympics. (I hope this isn't too political for our site- it is only every 4 years)

[JPS]

PS:

I watched the Murray/Federer final earlier. Very happy for Andy. The Brits are having a remarkably successful Olympics. (I hope this isn't too political for our site- it is only every 4 years)

I for one am very proud of team GB; in fact I admire all the athletes from all nations. That must be politically correct.

[TheArcane]

It is certainly an excellent first attempt. I like the color, and the position the frame is frozen on. Though there was nothing you could have done to fix it, it would have been nice for the face of the bird to not be in shadow. Because it is, it makes it appear less in focus than it actually is. At first glance it appears the focus point is on the feet, though a closer look makes it look like both the face and the feet are in focus. Nice shot regardless though, and definitely a good starting point.

[Bobobird]

Nice try and there is only one way to go now - UP...

Start with 1/1250 or faster, iso200, f8 or larger. At the max zoom and objects at some distance you will always get the whole bird in focus so there is no need to really worry about aperture. The objects background would normally be further behind so will blur out anyway.

What you do need is light and fast shutter speeds especially for flight shots.

[JPS]

It is certainly an excellent first attempt. I like the color, and the position the frame is frozen on. Though there was nothing you could have done to fix it, it would have been nice for the face of the bird to not be in shadow. Because it is, it makes it appear less in focus than it actually is. At first glance it appears the focus point is on the feet, though a closer look makes it look like both the face and the feet are in focus. Nice shot regardless though, and definitely a good starting point.

Hi Joshua,
You are of course correct, it does appear the feet are more in focus that the birds face. . I had been reading the 'bird in motion' thread and the next day went out to our local estuary in the hope of shooting some boats, then I saw the birds and thought, I know how to do this I've read about it I forgot in my excitement that practice, not just reading makes the picture; lesson learnt. More practice I think.
Many thanks for your kind feedback.

[JPS]

Nice try and there is only one way to go now - UP...

Start with 1/1250 or faster, iso200, f8 or larger. At the max zoom and objects at some distance you will always get the whole bird in focus so there is no need to really worry about aperture. The objects background would normally be further behind so will blur out anyway.What you do need is light and fast shutter speeds especially for flight shots.

Hi Bobo,
Thanks for the settings. I will certainly be out again this coming weekend, I've got the bug (or Bird, if you like) for this type of shot. As Arnold Schwarzenegger would say "I'll be back".
Many thanks for your help.

[botspur]

Hi John, for a first attempt very well done. I'm sure taking on board some of the excellent tips posted above you will get better. I wait to see the next set of images.