Manual exposure at fliers

I shoot birds almost always in manual exposure now, particularly fliers whose BG's brightness differs largely from the subject's.

For this Cattle Egret, I took some test shots from far off while the bird was still on the ground, checked my histogram, and adjusted the EVs in M mode until the histogram is near the right end of the scale.

Then I set down to business, approached the bird with my camera ready, until it got spooked and flew off. The 1DM2's AI servo lock (center point expanded to 7 points) held on from take off till the bird was already flying away. Got 17 shots, all in good focus, with the subject well exposed against varying BG as it flew.

Here's one of the pics in the burst - 1DM2 + 400 5.6L, 1/1600, f/8, ISO 250, hand held, manual exposure. The 8.5 fps helped me get the frame with the ideal wing position.

Excellent, Romy! And thanks for the background information.

Wow, great shots, thanks for the tips.

Incredible shot, again.

Hmmm, didn't know you could enable a select few AF points like that. Certainly sounds like that and the 8.5 fps would make life a bit easier. Would love a 1D mkII then again I'd love a 300-800 tele-zoom too lol.

WOW!
I haven't had much luck with AI Servo or AI Focus... need to practice more. Looks like you've got the hang of it.
So when you're shooting 8.5fps, the AI Servo actually adjusts between frames so you can just lean on the shutter and pan with the subject (catching a glimpse every once in a while)?

Fantastic capture!

Thanks everybody for the comments.

Mitcon, the CF 17 of the 1dm2 allows me to select a single focus point, and expand the focus area to 7 points (CF 17-1) or 13 points (17-2) around the selected one.

As I understand it, the selected point will try to get a focus lock, and if for some reason it can't, the other points in the expanded area will try to take over.

Romy

AFAIK, you're right - the camera will continuously AF duting AI servo as long as you half-press the shutter, and after some data points are generated, it would even predict where the subject is in the next shots.

On my 20D and 350D, the 3rd and succeeding frames in the burst are normally more accurate, as long as I do my job of keeping the bead on the bird.

On the 1DM2, AF is accurate from the first focus lock. All I have to do is keep my aim and pan smoothly, "catching a glimpse" of the flier through the VF. Because the mirror actually moves very fast, it doesn't obstruct my vision at all.

Romy

The exposure is dead on. Beautiful detail in this beautiful bird. Excellent work.

Thanks, Gary...

Right Romy (excellent again as always btw) let me get this straight because i`m new with my mkII N , when you say you get a reading you mean that from far away...
1. you meter for the colour of the bird by half pressing the shutter and whatever your reading is you dial in to the manual mode?
2. Do you use spot metering for that?
3. What about if your subject changes (different amount of light) and requires different expossure?
4. Any advice highly appreciated.

OMG that's an awesome shot

Great shot Romy. I love the detail of the underwing feathers.

dv2004 wrote:
Right Romy (excellent again as always btw) let me get this straight because i`m new with my mkII N , when you say you get a reading you mean that from far away...
1. you meter for the colour of the bird by half pressing the shutter and whatever your reading is you dial in to the manual mode?
2. Do you use spot metering for that?
3. What about if your subject changes (different amount of light) and requires different expossure?
4. Any advice highly appreciated.

Hi Dimitri,

There are several ways on how to meter the subject - you can spot meter with the 1DM2N and long lens if the bird is large enough in the frame, or you can meter off another thing with the same tonality as the subject. Others want to be more accurate, and use incident spot meters (eg Sekonic, etc.).

For the initial test shot, I just used my experience on white birds on backgrounds like grass in this case, under that lighting . Proper exposure of the bird is about -2/3 to -1 stop from evaluative metering, so I dial a Tv which is fast enough to stop the action, and Av/ISO that are optimum for the subject at that time, referring to the needle in the meter while half-pressing at the bird.

Then I take a test shot, review the histogram and adjust the EVs until the graph is very near the right end of the scale. After this, I'm ready for action and just worry about panning.

When shooting fliers, I make it a point to have the sun behind my back. I normally stop shooting when the bird has passed the line connecting me to its flight path perpendicularly. Birds that are flying away are not so nice to look at, unless it's a rare species. Under this shooting situation, the subject is always constantly lit, and manual exposure works beautifully.

Romy