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Chickadee & Titmouse
Jul 1, 2017 09:33:53   #
BamaTexan Loc: Deep in the heart of Texas
 
I am continuing to try to improve my small birds in flight photos. Any helpful suggestions will be greatly appreciated.



Chuck


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Jul 1, 2017 19:09:23   #
Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA
 
I'd say, you are improving very well!!!
Pat

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Jul 1, 2017 19:30:19   #
BamaTexan Loc: Deep in the heart of Texas
 
Jay Pat wrote:
I'd say, you are improving very well!!!
Pat


Thank you very much Pat!

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Jul 1, 2017 21:43:59   #
MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City
 
BamaTexan wrote:
I am continuing to try to improve my small birds in flight photos. Any helpful suggestions will be greatly appreciated.



Chuck


Definitely nice shots. I like the way the backgrounds are nicely blurred setting the birds off beautifully.

Maybe going to 1/2500 shutter speed and either f5.6 or f8 would have made the images a bit better. You shot at 1/2000 and f4. F5.6 or f8 would have given you a deeper dof and brought the entire bird into focus wing tip to wing tip. But then, the trade off would have been a less blurred background and that might not have isolated the bird from the background as well as with your settings.

I have been working on improving my own BIF images, and have been struggling with balancing one trade off with another. That blasted exposure triangle.

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Jul 1, 2017 22:36:39   #
BamaTexan Loc: Deep in the heart of Texas
 
MadMikeOne wrote:
Definitely nice shots. I like the way the backgrounds are nicely blurred setting the birds off beautifully.

Maybe going to 1/2500 shutter speed and either f5.6 or f8 would have made the images a bit better. You shot at 1/2000 and f4. F5.6 or f8 would have given you a deeper dof and brought the entire bird into focus wing tip to wing tip. But then, the trade off would have been a less blurred background and that might not have isolated the bird from the background as well as with your settings.

I have been working on improving my own BIF images, and have been struggling with balancing one trade off with another. That blasted exposure triangle.
Definitely nice shots. I like the way the backgrou... (show quote)


Thank you MadMikeOne. My biggest problem since I started this a couple of weeks ago is our weather, lots of fast moving clouds in the AM and when they finally clear out and I start to use settings such as you have suggested, here they come again. I will get there!


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Jul 2, 2017 05:09:29   #
MadMikeOne Loc: So. NJ Shore - a bit west of Atlantic City
 
BamaTexan wrote:
Thank you MadMikeOne. My biggest problem since I started this a couple of weeks ago is our weather, lots of fast moving clouds in the AM and when they finally clear out and I start to use settings such as you have suggested, here they come again. I will get there!



I have the exact same issue. Something I learned from Steve Perry, a member here, is to use Manual and set your ISO to auto. He has a Youtube video that explains it very well. Google "Steve Perry Youtube" to locate it. That has helped me to get more keepers. The biggest problem, though, is that I sometimes wind up with lots of noise due to a high ISO when those clouds darken the sky. It does give me more "keepers", though.

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Jul 2, 2017 06:28:25   #
raymondh Loc: Walker, MI
 

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Jul 2, 2017 07:57:33   #
BamaTexan Loc: Deep in the heart of Texas
 
MadMikeOne wrote:
I have the exact same issue. Something I learned from Steve Perry, a member here, is to use Manual and set your ISO to auto. He has a Youtube video that explains it very well. Google "Steve Perry Youtube" to locate it. That has helped me to get more keepers. The biggest problem, though, is that I sometimes wind up with lots of noise due to a high ISO when those clouds darken the sky. It does give me more "keepers", though.



Thanks again MadMikeOne, I will check out Steve's Youtube. Happy Fourth of July!


Chuck

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Jul 2, 2017 07:58:20   #
BamaTexan Loc: Deep in the heart of Texas
 
raymondh wrote:



Thank you very much raymondh!


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Jul 4, 2017 12:12:37   #
birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania
 
Pretty impressive! Care to share your techniques?

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Jul 4, 2017 14:04:51   #
BamaTexan Loc: Deep in the heart of Texas
 
[quote=birdpix]Pretty impressive! Care to share your techniques?[/quot


I use a box about 24" high and tape a cardboard "fence" around the top so the birdseed won't get knocked off. I have my camera on a tripod with IS turned off. I use shutter priority usually at 1/2000, auto ISO and white balance on daylight and I use my wired remote. I focus on the farthest edge of the top of the box which is approximately 20' from my position on my deck then turn AF off. There is a large oak tree above where the box is. The birdseed is placed on top of the box and I wait until the birds show up. They usually light on tree limbs above and I begin burst shooting as they begin their drop down to the seed. Of course I get many more misses than hits but I usually get 2 or 3 decent shots. If you have further questions, I will be happy to try to answer them. I shoot with a Canon 5d mkiii and either my Canon 300 f4 or Tamron 150-600. BTW, thanks for the compliment.

Chuck

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Jul 4, 2017 15:49:34   #
birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania
 
Chuck. I suspected that that is what you were doing as these little guys are too fast to track, focus and shoot. I was hoping you would give some detail as it would be instructive to a lot of photographers out there.

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Jul 4, 2017 18:53:27   #
BamaTexan Loc: Deep in the heart of Texas
 
birdpix wrote:
Chuck. I suspected that that is what you were doing as these little guys are too fast to track, focus and shoot. I was hoping you would give some detail as it would be instructive to a lot of photographers out there.



I failed to mention that I shoot in raw and use PSE 11 for PP.

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Jul 4, 2017 21:11:21   #
Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA
 
You have your setup working for you!!!
Pat

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Jul 4, 2017 21:14:22   #
BamaTexan Loc: Deep in the heart of Texas
 
Jay Pat wrote:
You have your setup working for you!!!
Pat



Thanks Pat, being retired and having the time to do this is very rewarding.

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