Great Blue Heron In-flight

I really got lucky here. I pulled up to a local pond and as I walked towards the shoreline this GBH took off.

My camera was set to Av Mode and I did not have time to switch to Tv Mode. So, I just shot away and got these two.

Considering the situation, you still managed to capture the GBH in-flight nicely. Well done Paul.

#1 is really nice.

I have found my best in flight shots have all been in AV mode. Maybe I am lucky.

Wow, fantastic GBH in flight! Great timing and nice panning skill Paul.

Goes to show that even in Av mode you can still get good results. These are indeed good results Paul. Good lighting has given good colour to the image and the dof looks very good has there is very little motion blur on the bird, nice shots, well done.

Nice looking shots

Nice shots Paul. The firt with the raised wings looks good. I have been caught in that position where it just happened before i knew it. Your quick reaction created some very good in flight shots. Nice ones!

Wow...excellent in-flight shots. Very well done indeed.

Great shots Paul! You got very nice positions and detail there, and spot on exposure.

However, I'm confused with your statement about Av vs. Tv mode, and I can't undestand why would you ever shoot birds, especially in flight, in Tv mode??? Even more so when you have a lens that is at its sharpest wide open at f.5.6? For any kind of wildlife, my camera is pretty much only ever in Av or Manual.

If you read Art Morris you will find that he pretty much insists on Av mode for birds. So for those who think this is a mistake, I'd be very interested in hearing your reasons why you would want to shoot in Tv mode. I always want the fastest shutter speed I can get, whether I'm on a tripod or not - unless I want more DOF. Manual and Av are the only ways to control this. To me, none of this adds up to Tv, thus my confusion at the notion of Tv for this kind of photography, so please enlighten me.

= Ed =

Ed Rotberg wrote in post #2022916
Great shots Paul! You got very nice positions and detail there, and spot on exposure.

However, I'm confused with your statement about Av vs. Tv mode, and I can't undestand why would you ever shoot birds, especially in flight, in Tv mode??? Even more so when you have a lens that is at its sharpest wide open at f.5.6? For any kind of wildlife, my camera is pretty much only ever in Av or Manual.

If you read Art Morris you will find that he pretty much insists on Av mode for birds. So for those who think this is a mistake, I'd be very interested in hearing your reasons why you would want to shoot in Tv mode. I always want the fastest shutter speed I can get, whether I'm on a tripod or not - unless I want more DOF. Manual and Av are the only ways to control this. To me, none of this adds up to Tv, thus my confusion at the notion of Tv for this kind of photography, so please enlighten me.

= Ed =

Ed Tv Mode is shutter priority. It lets you chose the shutter speed. So, as you say, you always want the fastest shutter speed.

Well, Av mode does not let you choose the shutter speed. Av Mode is aperture priority. It allows you to chose the aperture and lets the camera choose the shutter speed.

If I had time, the proper set up for this inflight shot would have been Tv mode and I would have choosen a shutter speed of at least 1/1000 sec, although I probably could have gotten away with 1/800 sec. Auto focus set to AI Servo.

First of all, I know that Tv is shutter priority, and Av is Aperture priority. I've been using an SLR of one sort or another for over 30 years.

But Paul, don't you see that if you set your aperture to f/5.6 on your 400, then you will always have the fastest shutter speed available at that ISO. The same is not true for Tv mode. This is exactly why Art Morris recommends Av mode (as does every other pro wildlife photographer I've read, including a pro that shoots for National Geographic with whom I spent a week in Guyana).

Exactly! But you can be certain that you will have the fastest available shutter speed at a given ISO when you use Av and open the aperture all the way. This is not the case with Tv mode.

Tv mode, on the other hand, lets you maximize your DOF, not your shutter speed. Think about it. You are locking down to a specific shutter speed. You may think 1/1000 is fast enough, but if the bird makes a sudden move, or another bird appears in the scene and you have to move quickly, even 1/1000th may not be fast enough! You also run the risk, in very bright situations of losing your isolation from the background by gaining too much DOF as the lens stops down. Imagine shooting on a cloudy day, getting that heron in just the right position with a nice reflection and a beautifully blurred, dark background. Suddenly the sun pokes through the clouds, and your nice scene turns into an incredible one as the ray of sunlight hits the heron and gives you a perfect catchlight in the eye. You are so excited you start to shake. Not only is your 1/1000th too slow now, but you lost your isolation from your background as your lens stops down to f/13!!!!

I will disagree that the proper setup for that shot would be Tv. I contend that it would be Av. In fact You can find references from Art Morris, Moose Peterson, John Shaw and other pros that expound on this. There are probably more. But I have never seen a wildlife phtographer recommend Tv for birds. If you know of one, I'd love to hear about it.

= Ed =

Thanks Ed, I think I see your point. There is still something I am not clear on and perhaps you can help me.

When I took this shot:

Taken in Tv Mode ISO 400 f7.1 1/1250 sec

Airedale1 wrote in post #2023416
Thanks Ed, I think I see your point. There is still something I am not clear on and perhaps you can help me.

When I took this shot:

Taken in Tv Mode ISO 400 f7.1 1/1250 sec
I had some time to prepare. There were Mallards moving up river and they move very fast and beat their wings very fast. So, I set the camera to Tv Mode and set my shutter speed to 1/1250 sec to avoid wing blur and freeze the subject. It was overcast so I set the ISO to 400.

If I was in Av Mode with the aperture set to f5.6 wouldn't my ISO have to be even higher to get a 1/1250 sec shutter speed?

Nice shot, btw

Actually, if you were in Av set to f/5.6, your shutter speed would have been 2/3 stop faster assuming the ISO was the same! This is my point. You set to 1/1250 in Tv which is great. But if you were in Av at f/5.6, your shutter speed would have been set to 1/2000th. f/7.1 is 2/3 stop less light than f/5.6. So at f/5.6 and 1/1250, you would be getting 2/3 stop more light than at the same shutter speed and ISO, but at f/7.1. In Av mode, the camera would have compensated by increasing the shutter speed to 1/2000.

= Ed =

Thanks again Ed. I really appreciate your taking the time to explain it to me. i will do as you suggest and try Av mode for my in-flights.