joelaoxford

super - Thank you! Very helpful!

joelaoxford

I really can't thank all of you enough. The fact that you would take your own time to assist me (or any other stranger) is really amazing. I cannot express how thankful I am. I will put these suggestions into practice during my next session...hopefully in a few weeks. Thank you,
Joe

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

Are you aware that there is a special section on UHH for people who shoot BIF's? It is at: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-112-1.html There is a lot of help there and people who know a great deal about the subject.

You haven't stated here whether you shot hand held or on a tripod.

This is not a DOF or shutter speed issue but rather a camera movement issue. Look at the water droplets behind the bird's tail. They are horizontally elongated. Tracking motion when shooting birds in flight must be smooth and steady. Proper technique is different whether you are handholding or tripod mounted and you can find tutorials on the BIF/BOW section. The other factor is that at 600mm camera motion is greatly exaggerated and it is quite difficult to keep the subject dead steady in the middle of the frame.

Learn proper panning technique and practice it and you will improve.

WayneW Loc: South Carolina

Besides what has been said, dark bird, dark background (mostly). Hard to plan an image like this, with the water reflections so mixed up.

Bram boy Loc: Vancouver Island B.C. Canada

it may be too far away, if it were fully extended you could have used another two or 300 mm on your lens , crop the hay out and make it bigger ,it looks steady but may be just a bit short on power to get more detail

Bram boy Loc: Vancouver Island B.C. Canada

just set your focus to spot and forget about . i havent changed from that in years, and i take a lot of bird pic , sitting in trees or eagles in flight, all others , with no problems,
.

brokeweb Loc: Philadelphia

Wildlife Photography takes a lot of practice to get those NatGeo shots. It does not matter what settings or how good your gear is. It takes practice and knowledge of your subject. Enough that you can anticipate the movements of your subject. Personally, I think your shot is very good. I especially like the comerant's reflection on the water.

Well? I take that back. You need shoot at an absurdly fast shutter which means you will need to bump up your ISO as much as your comfortable with. You need to determine the subject's wing span and us the appropriate aperture setting. If your using autofocus, set your focus point on a specific location of your viewfinder the aim it on the bird's head and shoot in bursts as many shots that you camera's memory will allow. I mean. your shooting digital so who cares how many shots you take?

Additionally, Any lens over 200mm, I like primes. You looking for distance right? Most likely your camera will be on a tripod or monopod if your going for that distance and at f4.5 or 5.6 youl'e need stabilization. So why would you need the extra focal length?

joelaoxford

Thank you ....and everyone else....the feedback has been invaluable. I'm looking to get out again, to try the suggestions, soon.

brokeweb Loc: Philadelphia

You know? After looking at your full-sized image, all you really need is some minor, local editing on the Cormorant's head, and crop it down a little to get rid of the extra water. You'll have a framer.

rs

Thomas902 Loc: Washington DC

Apaflo makes good points especially avoiding the 1.3 crop mode which in essences makes your optics a 35mm equivalent of 1200mm... As such a shutter speed of 1/1600 is a tad slow... think about 1/2500 minimum in this scenario... Can be easily done using auto ISO with a top limit of 3200... Also the sooner you graduate to shooting RAW the better... The D7200 buffer can handle 18 14bit RAW images so burst mode can be accommodated (unlike the lame buffer on the D7100 which choked after a one second burst).

That said the Sigma 150-600s (both Contemporary and Sport) are generally known to be rather poor at tracking birds in flight (I'm only the messenger here, research this if in doubt)... Thus you'll want to achieve early acquisition and keep the target centered so the 7200 cross type sensors play into the mix... btw, the 7200's Expeed 4 image processor is superb at BIF (same as processor as used in the D810) The challenge here is likely Sigma's slow AF... The good news is once you graduate to a long fast prime you'll be well ahead of the game.

Food for thought: A golden rule for effective BIF... Avoid back-lighting (as in this image)... always have the sun at your back or better yet at a slightly quartering angle to provide for bias relief i.e. perceived depth... Easy way to remember this is to always have your shadow in front of you... Back-lighting will likely always exceed the dynamic range of your sensor especially if only capturing .jpg's

All in all? Lovely compositional elements... beautiful colour harmonies... excellent use of the "decisive moment" with the wings at their full down stroke...

Thank you for sharing your waterfowl artistry joelaoxford... Truly impressive composition...
You indeed have a gift for the artistic aspects of your craft...

joelaoxford

thanks again to all....one more question....I see the suggestions regarding spot focus......what about metering....spot? matrix? trial & error? I'm thinking if I use spot & the spot is on a dark area of the subject, could the rest be over-exposed?...thank you in advance.

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

For photographers just starting out I recommend using a cluster of focus points at the center of the viewfinder if your camera supports that. I don't recommend single point as it can be difficult to keep that point on target until you have developed the skills needed for panning with BIFs.

Manual exposure is my usual choice but matrix metering will work also if you remember to compensate for white or dark birds. My usual manual settings are 1/2000, f/8 ISO 800 in bright sun with the ISO dropping to 400 for white birds.

I could do an entire dissertation on metering for birds but will leave this as a good place to start. PM me if you have any more questions. Please see my sticky posts on these subjects on the BIF/ BOW forum page.

Thomas902 Loc: Washington DC

joelaoxford in regard to your query on focus settings for BIF on the Nikon D7200 I can share my experiences with this camera. Since it has 52 focus points (sensors) spread across the frame with 15 being cross type which can deal effectively with contrast edges in either a vertical and horizontal alignment there are ample choices to choose from... That said through much trail & error I've ultimately migrated to AF-C (Continuous) using a 9-point cluster... I programed the OK button to reset the center focus point (cluster) in the middle of the frame unless I'm shooting sports in portrait mode... then I leave a 9-point cluster centered in the upper portion of the frame where the player's eyes typically are.

Under Custom Settings I configure AutoFocus [A1] Focus to AF-C (continuous) with [focus] rather than the default [release] mode... If the bird isn't in focus I don't want to be able to release the shutter... Any image that isn't in perfect focus has zero commercial worth/value. Does this mean sometimes I might miss a decisive moment? Yes but again if it isn't perfect it's a reject.

Again in the Custom Settings AutoFocus [A3] Focus Tracking with Lock On I go with the default value of [3] Normal.

joelaoxford possibly one of the most important settings for any action photography is to configure your camera into Back-Button Focus Mode where you decouple the shutter release buttom from the Focus Function... this is sooooo important when your target (bird) flies between high contrast foliage etc. Here you simply release the AF-ON buttom (which is the AE-L/AF-L Button on the D7200) and press again when the bird emerges from the clutter. I use this technique when shooting soccer also...

To activate this Chose Custom Settings [F] Controls; [F5] (Assign AE-L/AF-L button) and now your shutter button is decoupled from AutoFocus... It only releases the shutter and will not mess with focus...

Patience here... Everyone hates this at first but after several weeks of practice you'll never go back... Virtually all the commercial shooters I collaborate with use Back-Button Focus... You'll never likely master BIF without this...

Ok, as for exposure settings? After thousands of hours with many bodies (including the D7200) seldom would I trust the camera's metering system to meet my client's expectation... I'm manual all the way here... provided you're in constant illumination (which is often the case with BIF). That said if the sun is dancing in and out of cloud cover then I will turn on Auto ISO with a minimum shutter speed germane for the current scenario... Usually 1/2000 a second (but lower for shorting focal lengths and higher for longer focal lengths)

birdpix and I are pretty much on the same page here... except I have no problem pushing ISO up to 1600 (or higher) in Auto ISO on the D7200 which btw has the second highest dynamic range of all sensors tested by DXOmark... the real issue here is noise... but post processing with a tenured touch can effectively handle this...

The most tenured advice I can provide on exposure here is to learn/master reading your histograms... Only then will you get your head around how your sensor is dealing with the current ambient.... If you're clipping either to the left (shadows) or right (highlights) you'll not get a full suite of pixel data... meaning either your pointing into the sun or shooting a high contrast scene that is beyond you sensor at your current ISO... There is no easy answer here... nor is there a quick fix... Every sensor is different and so is nearly every scene you're shooting in... Learn to read/understand/trust your histograms and the world is your oyster...

Also keep in mind that a polar bear in a snowstorm and/or black cat on a pile of coal can be effectively rendered but typically by textural contrast not by means luminance a.k.a. exposure... There are no insurmountable problems only intriguing challenges... Keep a beginners mind and you'll do exceptionally well...

Hope this helps or is at least food for thought...
Enjoy your journey...

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

agreement. LaCie 12big 96TB 12-Bay Thunderbolt 3 RAID Array (12 x 8TB)

We are indeed in agreement. I am a Canon shooter so I can't help with the Nikon settings.

I realize you are a new user so I am looking forward to seeing some of your work. Come visit us on the BIF/BOW forum at http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-112-1.html

joelaoxford

Thanks again to all of you. I didn't knw what to expect when I originally posted this. The feedback has been great.

Joe