Birds In Flight... My Way

[jprzybyla]

Let's begin with my camera setup. I always walk around with my camera set to Manual with a shutter speed of 1/2000 and a aperture of F/5.6. I have the camera set to Auto ISO (letting the camera choose the ISO needed). I use autofocus mode AF-A, with Nikon cameras this mode uses Single Focus when a subject is stationary and switches to Continuous Focus when a subject is moving. Is it perfect... NO, but it is almost perfect. I always have these settings on the camera because I can quickly pick up a bird in flight where as for perched bird I have time to quickly change the shutter speed.

For exposure I always use Nikon's Matrix Metering, it evaluates the whole scene in the viewfinder and computes an exposure. Now here is where it gets tricky. In most instances because the bird is not filling the viewfinder/image the camera is going to be biased to exposing for the background (Sky or vegatation). So you have to tell the camera how to expose the image. I use and have my index finger on the +/- EV button and my thumb on the wheel controlling the settings. Clockwise is adding exposure and counter clockwise is subtracting exposure.

For bright backgrounds and birds brighter than the background (white) you need to underexpose or the camera will clip the whites on the bird. It varies from -1/3 to as much as -2 depending on how bright the sun is. Here is a Great Egret I captured at -1 EV.



For bright backgrounds and dark birds (brown, black etc.) you need to overexpose to keep the shadows on the bird from blocking and the bird becoming a dark blob full of noise. Most times it is between +1 to +2 depending on the light. Here is a Double Crested Cormorant that was captured at +1 EV.



For bright backgrounds and mid-tone birds most times the camera can do a good job without any corrections. Here is a Great Blue Heron captured without and correction to the camera exposure.



This next image is a special case. If it had not been overcast I could have captured it without correction, the background was mid-tone and the bird was basically mid-tone (light brown). The image as shown was captured at +1 EV to make up for the dark overcast and to reduce noise (exposed to the right). The ISO for this image was 3200 (Christina take note). It is a Limpkin gliding over the marsh.



Find out what works best and change exposure to suite the conditions.

[chauncey]

Arguing with to over your technique would accomplish nothing than expose my inadequacies for
those are superior images.

[NorthernFocus]

Excellent writeup explaining the why's and wherefore's, Joe. And great set of supporting images. You must think quicker than me to be able to make the EV adjustment on the fly. I've toyed with auto ISO in a few situations and nearly always end up regretting it.

Nor have I had any luck with the auto AF setting. I can see it working fine with shots that have sky as BG. But in situations like the GBH and limpkin above where there are other elements with the same general tonal values as the bird, do you find the AF sometimes jumping off of the bird and onto other elements of the scene?

I'd love to be able to do shoot as you describe and produce comparable results.

[jprzybyla]

Arguing with to over your technique would accomplish nothing than expose my inadequacies for
those are superior images.

Thanks Chauncey, very much appreciated.

[jprzybyla]

Excellent writeup explaining the why's and wherefore's, Joe. And great set of supporting images. You must think quicker than me to be able to make the EV adjustment on the fly. I've toyed with auto ISO in a few situations and nearly always end up regretting it.

Nor have I had any luck with the auto AF setting. I can see it working fine with shots that have sky as BG. But in situations like the GBH and limpkin above where there are other elements with the same general tonal values as the bird, do you find the AF sometimes jumping off of the bird and onto other elements of the scene?

I'd love to be able to do shoot as you describe and produce comparable results.

Hi Dan, thank you for viewing and commenting. I use a technique that Jim Nieger (Flight School Photography) teaches in his workshops. It is bump focusing. The technique works this way. When you see a bird in the distance you find it in the viewfinder and bump the focusing button to focus on it. Do not hold the button down to lock focus, focus and release. Follow the bird in the viewfinder as long as it generally stays in focus, if it goes way out of focus bump it again. Only when you are ready to shoot do you initiate and lock focus while you capture the images. This way if the focusing point strays off the bird while you are tracking it the camera will not focus on the background. He recommends using only the center focus point against very busy backgrounds or close varied backgrounds. He recommends using the center focus point plus the surrounding ones for smooth sky or water backgrounds. Since changing my technique to this it sure has made things easier.

Changing exposure of the fly is easy once you become accustom to it. A bird in flight brighter than the background needs to be underexposed or else the whites will clip ( I always expose for the whites even in Ospreys and Eagles.). A bird darker than the background needs to be over exposed. Mid tones no changes. I learned this technique of evaluating exposure from Arthur Morris's (Birds As Art) digital ebook... Digital Basics.

Hoping this helps to explain things.

[Shadowman]

Nice captures.

[bnnrcn]

Thanks Joe, very good lesson with supporting images

[Otavio]

Hello, Joe. Very nice post, with informative approach. If I am not wrong, you once said that you use F/8 for big birds. Have you reconsider it?

Personally, I think F/5.6, as revealed here, is enough as for DoF issue. The only problem with F/5.6 is that, in budget zoom lenses (my case), that means the glass is wide open (when @300mm), and this is not the sharpest point of the lens. I usually use mine at least 1/3 F-stop beyond the wide open aperture value.

Great thread and great images! Cheers,

[NorthernFocus]

...Hoping this helps to explain things.

It does indeed. Thanks, Joe. I'll bet it would work even BETTER on the NEW D810!!!

[kaneohebud]

Great tutorial, Joe. Your results prove it works.

I copied it in a Word document and will keep it as a handy reference when I head your way in late NOV/early DEC. Many thanks!

[Suzan J]

Thanks Joe, for the clearly written explanation of your technique. Your BIF photos are a true inspiration to me.

[John 2]

That's a bit of generous sharing Joe and I've learned a lot. Thanks. Never bothered with auto ISO before and I've lost a lot of shots because the shutter speed has dropped without my noticing.

[jprzybyla]

Hello, Joe. Very nice post, with informative approach. If I am not wrong, you once said that you use F/8 for big birds. Have you reconsider it?

Personally, I think F/5.6, as revealed here, is enough as for DoF issue. The only problem with F/5.6 is that, in budget zoom lenses (my case), that means the glass is wide open (when @300mm), and this is not the sharpest point of the lens. I usually use mine at least 1/3 F-stop beyond the wide open aperture value.

Great thread and great images! Cheers,

Hello Otavio, you are correct I used to always use F/8, but I looked at images by better bird photographers than I and noticed they were shooting with the aperture wide open. Also I am going out earlier in the morning and there is not as much light so F/5.6 helps out.

All the information that wide open is not as sharp as one or two stops less is from laboratory tests. It is true but in real life field conditions you will not notice it. We are not shooting targets in the field.

[jprzybyla]

Great tutorial, Joe. Your results prove it works.

I copied it in a Word document and will keep it as a handy reference when I head your way in late NOV/early DEC. Many thanks!

Thanks Bud, I hope we can hook up then.

[jprzybyla]

Thanks Joe, for the clearly written explanation of your technique. Your BIF photos are a true inspiration to me.

Thanks Suzan, very much appreciated.

[Brownbear]

All stunningly beautiful! Thank you for sharing. I intend to try the bump focusing technique.

I often use auto iso for birds in flight and I do like it but I usually set it at lower max. levels after a few test shots. Thank you for teaching me that. I do have a couple of shots that needed and iso of 3200 that turned out very well, but I also have one shot shot of a black bird photographed at an iso of 800, that is exposed to the right (as far as possible without clipping the highlights) that shows lots of noise in the bird and the sky. So I'm still finding my way around auto iso.

[jprzybyla]

That's a bit of generous sharing Joe and I've learned a lot. Thanks. Never bothered with auto ISO before and I've lost a lot of shots because the shutter speed has dropped without my noticing.

Hello John, I have always used auto ISO because my thinking is that in bird photography shutter speed and aperture are the two most important components. I want to control them so I let the camera choose the ISO it needs for the shutter speed and aperture I have selected. Thank you for viewing and commenting.

[jprzybyla]

All stunningly beautiful! Thank you for sharing. I intend to try the bump focusing technique.

I often use auto iso for birds in flight and I do like it but I usually set it at lower max. levels after a few test shots. Thank you for teaching me that. I do have a couple of shots that needed and iso of 3200 that turned out very well, but I also have one shot shot of a black bird photographed at an iso of 800, that is exposed to the right (as far as possible without clipping the highlights) that shows lots of noise in the bird and the sky. So I'm still finding my way around auto iso.

Hello Christina, thank you for viewing and commenting. Most likely your black bird at ISO 800 that is full of noise was a image that exceeded the dynamic range of the sensor. Wrong time of day, much too bright a sky and too dark a bird. Impossible conditions. As long as the conditions for the image do not exceed the dynamic range of the camera, while there may be some noise it can be handled in post processing provided the image is sharp and in focus.

[Brownbear]

Hello Joe,

I didn't know that the dynamic range of the sensor factored into the equation, and this is very helpful for me to know! I've been thoroughly puzzled as to why the high iso's work sometimes, and sometimes not. I'm truly delighted that I shared my black bird/iso dilemma with you.!

Thank you!

Hello Christina, thank you for viewing and commenting. Most likely your black bird at ISO 800 that is full of noise was a image that exceeded the dynamic range of the sensor. Wrong time of day, much too bright a sky and too dark a bird. Impossible conditions. As long as the conditions for the image do not exceed the dynamic range of the camera, while there may be some noise it can be handled in post processing provided the image is sharp and in focus.

[NorthernFocus]

...All the information that wide open is not as sharp as one or two stops less is from laboratory tests. It is true but in real life field conditions you will not notice it. We are not shooting targets in the field.

Amen to that. It is easy to get wrapped up in the technical aspect of things and lose one's way. First and foremost ss and f-stop should be set to achieve the desired result. If one artificially forces a tighter aperture to hit the "sweet spot" of the lens, the minute improvement can be offset by 1) loss of sharpness due to slower ss 2) loss of detail due to noise at higher ISO 3) busier BG due to increased DOF

One can easily ruin an otherwise fine image in an attempt to gain a miniscule improvement in lens performance that likely isn't noticeable anyway. Shooting architecture or something more akin to lab targets may be different.