Photographing Birds In Flight - Tutorial

I have published a tutorial on photographing birds in flight which I hope will be of use to any bird photographers who are struggling with this technically very difficult genre. Currently, it covers camera settings (mainly for the 1D Mark IV), manual exposure, equipment and hand-holding technique, all in some depth.

I'd like to expand it over time, so if you have any wisdom you'd care to share, add it here and I will work it in to a future update.

All feedback is welcome!

Great read! Birds in flight is something I want to work on.

Paxonator wrote in post #12783823
Great read! Birds in flight is something I want to work on.

Thanks! I will be adding in some guidance on the use of IS/VR in a future update

Good job on the tutorial John! I read through it all! I am already using pretty much all your techniques, so it served as a good review for me to confirm I've got it right .

Wallace River wrote in post #12784663
Good job on the tutorial John! I read through it all! I am already using pretty much all your techniques, so it served as a good review for me to confirm I've got it right .

Thanks Wallace I'm not claiming to always get it all right myself but it's good to hear that what works for me is also working for you

(If you have any tips of your own you'd care to share, please do so and then we can all benefit)

I really want to thank you for this.
It just so happens that lately I've been struggling with BIF and I'm trying to figure out why my keeper rate is so bad.

Your tutorial gives some valuable insights.

Thanks again for taking the time and effort to share this.

cheers

Stevie 202 wrote in post #12784984
I really want to thank you for this.
It just so happens that lately I've been struggling with BIF and I'm trying to figure out why my keeper rate is so bad.

You're welcome, Stevie! I hope it helps you iron out a few wrinkles. If you have questions, just ask away and I will help if I can.

This is arguably the toughest (technically) genre of photography so it can take a while to click.

Thanks John.

Been doing it for a little over a year now.

Of course my first inclination was to blame my equipment (slow AF etc....) but I've been down that road with my guitar playing and I realize that good technique is really the key (although good equipment sure helps!)

After reading your tutorial I suspect my problems might be (among others)

1. The focusing ring problem; I didn't realize it but I tend to grab it inadvertantly. I need to keep my hand away from there.

2. Shutter speed; I've been shooting at around 1/800. I see now that's too slow.

3. Pay attention to DOF!

4. Poor stance / Breathing

Can't wait to get out there and try again!

Cheers

Awesome read, thank you for taking your time to put this together.

Stevie, I agree, technique is key. It took me ages to realise I was knocking the focus off by a fraction with the focusing ring... grrr.

1/800th sec may work for you when you have nailed the other aspects of your technique but I think the best approach is to rule it out as a problem for now, by aiming for 1/2,000th sec. Then you can ease back on the shutter speed and find your own personal minimum shutter speed threshold afterwards, once you know you are tacking well and are not having problems with exposure and focus acquisition.

You're welcome, impact! I hope it helps you out

Nice writeup John!

I totally agree with you on how so many people limit themselves to lower ISO. Big mistake!

I have switched to shooting manual mode in the past months instead of Av mode in the past and it really makes a huge difference in the exposure consistencies. Now I need to figure out a good starting exposure settings for snow and cloudy condition where there's no objects with midtones that I can setup my exposure.

Just like you mentioned in your article, I tend to expose my subjects to the right, but sometimes for pure white subjects, I may expose to the left to retain some of the feather details and avoid blownout whites.

Finally, I used to shoot with just center point only for total control like you said, but I think with recent cameras like the 7D, the multi-point AF is quite capable of tracking BIF's with lots of keepers if the focus is locked on initially (via center point).

Again great writeup!

Nice write up!

Glad to hear single AF point with expansion works well with the MkIV.
I have relied on this AF set up with the 1D classic, and MkII with excellent results for years, but the keeper rate for BIF dropped significantly using this method with the MkIII, leaving us scratching our heads and starting from scratch with settings.

Thanks Raymond! High ISOs on the 7D and 1 Series are nothing to fear, for sure. For snow, on the Mark IV, I start with 1 1/3rd over-exposure and tweak from there... the 7D metering is very different though so maybe start with 1 stop over...

Hi CyberDeneSystems - I was a happy Mark III owner - my camera did not have any gremlins and I loved it - but the Mark IV is night and day better at initial focus acquisition and tracking a moving subject. It's also better at tracking a drab subject against a drab background. I did write a brief Mark III settings guide but by now, you probably have it all worked out.

Great writeup, John! I have been using almost everything you said for BIF, except for expansion points on a MKIIN. I willl have to try that.