Bird photography technique

[Rimwalker]

Hello,

I bought a 400mm 5.6 for wildlife photography, and have found eagles, hawks, and ospreys as the most reliable subjects in my area. My body is a 40D.

That combination has proven very sharp on stationary targets, but birds in flight tend to be slightly soft. My shutter speed is normally around 1/1000 of a second, so I'm guessing it's my tracking technique; not keeping the center point exactly on top of the bird.

This is why I imagine the densely-packed points of a 1D would be great, but are there any settings or techniques that will help me maintain sharp focus on a moving target?

Thanks for any advise.

[davebreal]

First of all, expecting the majority of flight shots of erratic birds to be in focus is expecting far too much of current DSLRs. Servo focus will attempt to predict/track movement however it will still go in and out of focus plenty. The only solution is to practice and take as many action shots as possible. Expect to delete the majority of them too.

1/1000s is often good enough for medium/large birds in flight, but even aiming for 1/1600s or 1/2000s might be a bit safer to avoid motion blur when possible. Stepping down to f/7.1 or f/8 when you can will help to give more flattering DOF for outstretched bills, appendages, and feathers .

Brighter lighting should help the contrast based Autofocus of our cameras lock on faster and more accurately as well. Practice and experience with panning should help your flight shots come along as well. I don't even have that many difficult flight shots, just my 2 cents.

happy hunting!
Dave

[canonloader]

I started shooting eagles with a 30D and now use a 1D MkIIN with a 400/4.5. In between, I've had two 40D's and a 1D Classic, a Bigma, a 300/4 and various teleconverters.

Bottom line is, the 1D MkIIN with the 400/5.6, when you have good sunlight, get's me more keepers than any other combo I have used, except the 1D Classic. The Classic AF is even better than the MkIIN, my theory being that the much smaller files of the old 1D allowed more processing power to be used for AF instead of writing big files. The Classic files are just too small for printing though.

But, you need good light. So far, I have found, that in most every day situations, the 40D AF is just as good as the MkIIN, even in cluttered situations. Sounds like sacrilege, but that's my experience.

For me, I knew I was going to specialize in flying eagles. We have a large population here to practice on. So I practiced my hand holding technique. I practiced on sea gulls, passing cars, vultures, hawks, everything that moved. It took about 2 days to kind of lock in the muscle memory for following the bird in flight. Eagles are easy, they are big.

But better to get a decent tripod and use a grip action ballhead or a Wimberly or Jobu type head if your in the open standing there shooting eagles. I shoot from a boat in summer though, and it's strictly hand held, sitting in a bouncing boat and contorting around to follow them. I'm still getting some OK shots. You need to practice. Make every shoot a practice. :)

[Rimwalker]

Thanks for the advice guys, it sounds like it comes down to practice and an understanding of the low percentage of keepers.

I use servo, and between f5.6 and f8, but I was curious if there were any other settings to consider, I know on the 1D mkIII I use at work you can choose how quickly servo jumps onto other subjects, and has assist points.

Well, back to practicing, or possibly stealing my work camera. Thanks again.

[canonloader]

The MkIIN has adjustable sensitivity and I have it set to Slower. Seems to work better, less wandering of the AF when there are trees behind. Try using the 400/5.6 at f/5.6. At the distance eagles will be, you'll have plenty of DOF, and the 400 is very sharp wide open. This will keep your shutter speed up.

Where do you live? Do you have lot's of bright sunlight? Once your over 1/2000 sec, try ISO 200. And your using Av Mode and AI Servo, right? Also, shoot in RAW and high speed burst. If you shoot only at 3 frames a second, every frame will show the wings in the same position. 6fps is almost as bad, so unless you want the wings in the same place in every frame, bang off 3-4 shots and lift the finger for a heartbeat, then another 3-4 shots. This will catch the wings in different positions. ;)

Here are my old 40D custiom functions. I used these to give the most AF control to the camera in AI Servo. Try these. If you have other non focus settings, that's OK, but make sure these CF's are set this way.

C. Fn I Exposure : #5 set to 1, all others set to 0.

C. Fn II Image : all set to 0

C. Fn III Auto focus/Drive : All set to 0 except #5, which is 2

C. Fn IV : Operation/Others : All set to 0

[Rimwalker]

Thanks Mitch, I'll check my custom settings and give yours a try.
I do shoot AV and AI Servo, high speed burst, but I'm ashamed to admit I don't shoot raw all the time.

I'm not exclusively shooting eagles - there are also hawks and osprey where I am, which is Truckee (near Lake Tahoe), generally shooting in high alpine meadows and lakes. We have 300+ days of sunshine a year up here, so odds are I'm shooting wildlife under blue skies.

I haven't gotten out for wildlife in the morning (also somewhat shameful), and in the afternoon the birds here seem to be active fishing and hunting between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., so bright light, if a bit harsh.

[canonloader]

I use to live in Reno, so I know you have good light. You should be able to use ISO 200 most of the time then. Use it when you can, it's much better than ISO 400. :)

[blkdogak]

Thanks for this thread. I've just started trying to shoot some Sandhill cranes and I'm deleting more than I'm keeping. I know I really need better glass and I did get some okay ones that were pretty close. Got some good tips here.

[Tom Reichner]

I use servo, and between f5.6 and f8, but I was curious if there were any other settings to consider

Yes, there is one other setting that is important to me. Make sure to set the drive mode in the fastest continuous setting. Then when you are tracking a bird, once you press the shutter button down, keep it down for several frames. Rip off a fast 4 or 5 frames as you follow the bird. This will teach you follow thru, which is extremely important in increasing the amount of keepers you get.
Follow thru will help you immeasurably in developing the hand-eye coordination you need to track birds in flight.

[davebreal]

Thanks for this thread. I've just started trying to shoot some Sandhill cranes and I'm deleting more than I'm keeping. I know I really need better glass and I did get some okay ones that were pretty close. Got some good tips here.

Although I own the 500mm f/4 IS, I'd have to say I've been envious of MANY shots taken with the 400mm f/5.6L. If you think your lens is lacking, you obviously have not seen shots from the master ;)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinyfishy/

90% of his flight shots are with that lens, I think he uses the 70-200 2.8 IS on a few brief occasionas.

[Rimwalker]

Davebreal, I think you've got blkdogak and me, the original poster confused. I'm the one with the 400 5.6, and have absolutely no complaints about the lens - it's the nicest I've ever owned or used.

Tom, I'm definitely firing in bursts while tracking, the problem I'm running into in reviewing the burst is the bird isn't always in the same part of the frame, ie under the focus point, so they are softer, but like it's been said here, that's just a matter of practice.

Thanks again to everybody for your advice, I'm having a blast with bird photography.