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Help with fast flying birds
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Jun 4, 2015 11:57:55   #
lindystearns1
 
m working on capturing eagles, ospreys, etc by camera, of course. I find that often my ISO goes way too high and of course, I end of with too much noise. I also have a hard time to get the bird focused as sharply as I would like. The birds are off in a distance and I am frustrated. thanks.


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Jun 4, 2015 12:01:57   #
Didereaux Loc: Swamps of E TX
 
First you have to give some idea as to the camera you are using. A camera to catch birds in flight requires certain features. Then comes the lens. THEN someone might be able to give you some useful information.

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Jun 4, 2015 12:10:37   #
lindystearns1
 
Nikon D 750 and Nikkor 55-300 mm DX. I am wondering if the fact that the lens is a DX and my camera is a FX... it is causing problems

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Jun 4, 2015 12:20:03   #
islandboystan
 
I'm thinking that that is the problem. I was told that you can use a FX lens on a DX camera body but not your way. For people who are considering upgrading, if you purchase only FX lens and using a DX camera body, you could easily upgrade by going to a FX camera body. Its all good!

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Jun 4, 2015 12:23:20   #
Didereaux Loc: Swamps of E TX
 
lindystearns1 wrote:
Nikon D 750 and Nikkor 55-300 mm DX. I am wondering if the fact that the lens is a DX and my camera is a FX... it is causing problems


Nope. If it has it set your camera to AIservo (or Nikon eqivalent), set exp comp up at least +1(prob more). Set your exp meter to partial or spot. with auto focus on. get the bird centered, press and HOLD shutter. It aids greatly if you can pre-focus approx allowing the lens to more quickly grab the bird. Maybe someone who shoots Nikons can elaborate. We shoot Canons and that is pretty much our basic bird in flight set up. Also we use back button focus. Holding the BBF down while pressing the shutter on continuous.
a few BOF's we have taken can be viewed here. Not expert, most not great....but we do get some decent ones.
https://picasaweb.google.com/monte.phillips/BirdsInFlight











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Jun 4, 2015 12:27:56   #
Rongnongno Loc: FL
 
For a d750 the results are crappy.

This is likely due to over processing, resizing and high level of compression.

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Jun 4, 2015 12:31:35   #
jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ
 
The EXIF info is weird on the images you posted. I don't know what's going on there unless it's because you used your camera in a fully auto setting. If you did, I suggest you put your camera in A, aperture priority, set your aperture to f/5.6, set your ISO to ISO400 and try again. The first eagle image was ISO 5000. Your blue sky color is way off too. They are also way too underexposed. Try my way and post some here. Keep in mind, you have to get a little closer to your subject then someone with a 500mm lens.

lindystearns1 wrote:
m working on capturing eagles, ospreys, etc by camera, of course. I find that often my ISO goes way too high and of course, I end of with too much noise. I also have a hard time to get the bird focused as sharply as I would like. The birds are off in a distance and I am frustrated. thanks.

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Jun 4, 2015 12:32:42   #
lindystearns1
 
Thanks I will try that. Love your photos!

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Jun 4, 2015 12:34:04   #
lindystearns1
 
Thanks for your help. I am looking into getting a better lens.

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Jun 4, 2015 12:42:45   #
RRS Loc: Not sure
 
lindystearns1 wrote:
m working on capturing eagles, ospreys, etc by camera, of course. I find that often my ISO goes way too high and of course, I end of with too much noise. I also have a hard time to get the bird focused as sharply as I would like. The birds are off in a distance and I am frustrated. thanks.


Linda, with BIF you need to practice and practice some more! Your focus is not on and the exposure is off also. I don't know how long you have been doing photography or trying BIF but it does take some time. Are you shooting hand held or off a tripod? If shooting off a tripod I'd recommend looking into a gimbal head. How does the focus in any of your other shots, not BIF, compare to these? Your shutter speed will have to be up around 1/1250 for a minimum and better yet at about 1/2000. A 300mm lens is about as short as you would want to use and a fast 300mm would be a better choice but also more expensive too. A fast f/2.8 would allow you to use a 1.4 TC for better reach. When I first started doing BIF I was told to focus on the bird's eye. I thought they were crazy, I was having problems just finding the bird sometimes in the view finder. Guess what, they were right. There are excellent BIF photographers on "Flickr" that only shoot with a 200mm lens. They know their subjects flight patterns and are able to do wonders. Stick with it, it won't happen over night and try to have fun. It might help to seek out others doing the same thing. I was lucky and got a lot of first hand help along the way...Ron

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Jun 4, 2015 12:49:16   #
Didereaux Loc: Swamps of E TX
 
All of our BIF's are handheld. Tripods and monopods restrict you to much and you miss 75% of the opportunities. As someone said this is not a quickie thing to learn....lots of practice. Have no idea of where you are, but if you can find pigeons, gulls, sparrows, starlings grackles then practice on those...you can get closer, they don't leave the area.

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Jun 4, 2015 12:50:06   #
big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada
 
Didereaux wrote:
First you have to give some idea as to the camera you are using. A camera to catch birds in flight requires certain features. Then comes the lens. THEN someone might be able to give you some useful information.


It's all in the metadata; Note how Picasa took over the artist designation...
Artist: Picasa
Camera: Nikon D750
Lens: 300 mm
Digital Zoom: 1.53×
(Max aperture f/5.7)
Exposure: Auto exposure, Aperture-priority AE, 1/200 sec, f/29, ISO 5000, Compensation: -4/3
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Date: March 17, 2015 12:14:35PM (timezone not specified)
(2 months, 17 days, 21 hours, 33 minutes, 4 seconds ago, assuming image timezone of US Pacific)
File: 1,043 × 901 JPEG
354,486 bytes (346 kilobytes)
Color Encoding:
WARNING: Color space tagged as sRGB, without an embedded color profile. Windows and Mac browsers and apps treat the colors randomly.
Images for the web are most widely viewable when in the sRGB color space and with an embedded color profile. See my Introduction to Digital-Image Color Spaces for more information.

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Jun 4, 2015 16:23:56   #
jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ
 
lindystearns1 wrote:
Thanks I will try that. Love your photos!


Also, when you reply, it helps to click on the button that says "Quote Reply" so we know who you are responding to. In this case, we don't know who's photos you loved.

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Jun 4, 2015 17:43:01   #
RRS Loc: Not sure
 
Didereaux wrote:
All of our BIF's are handheld. Tripods and monopods restrict you to much and you miss 75% of the opportunities. As someone said this is not a quickie thing to learn....lots of practice. Have no idea of where you are, but if you can find pigeons, gulls, sparrows, starlings grackles then practice on those...you can get closer, they don't leave the area.


As you said, a lot depends on how close you can get to your subject. I do like hand held shooting humming birds and other small critters with a 70-200mm f2.8 and a 1.4 TC. When shooting long lenses (300mm f/2.8 through 600mm f4.0) many of us "old guys" need all the help that a tripod and gimbal provides. I do envy those that can or claim to hand hold 600mm f/4.0 all day...Ron

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Jun 4, 2015 22:32:33   #
lindystearns1
 
RRS wrote:
Linda, with BIF you need to practice and practice some more! Your focus is not on and the exposure is off also. I don't know how long you have been doing photography or trying BIF but it does take some time. Are you shooting hand held or off a tripod? If shooting off a tripod I'd recommend looking into a gimbal head. How does the focus in any of your other shots, not BIF, compare to these? Your shutter speed will have to be up around 1/1250 for a minimum and better yet at about 1/2000. A 300mm lens is about as short as you would want to use and a fast 300mm would be a better choice but also more expensive too. A fast f/2.8 would allow you to use a 1.4 TC for better reach. When I first started doing BIF I was told to focus on the bird's eye. I thought they were crazy, I was having problems just finding the bird sometimes in the view finder. Guess what, they were right. There are excellent BIF photographers on "Flickr" that only shoot with a 200mm lens. They know their subjects flight patterns and are able to do wonders. Stick with it, it won't happen over night and try to have fun. It might help to seek out others doing the same thing. I was lucky and got a lot of first hand help along the way...Ron
Linda, with BIF you need to practice and practice ... (show quote)


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