tca2267 Loc: Florida

When trying to shoot birds "in flight" what are the best camera settings to use....

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

You will enjoy and learn from the Birds-in-Flight section of UHH:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-112-1.html

The first several pinned docs are info, and below those start the daily postings from fellow UHH members.

Drip Dry McFleye

Not trying to be a wise guy here but settings vary quite a bit with the size of bird (big birds fly more slowly) and the distance to the subject. It is much more difficult to pan with a small, fast bird that is close to the camera than a large slow bird that's out a ways. Panning to keep the bird in the focus point/points of the view finder is an essential skill. Most people have to practice to become good at it. Give yourself a break and start with big, slow flying birds like herons, geese, sea gulls, etc.

Some reading in the BIF forum, as Linda suggests, will yield a great deal of very useful information. After that it's all about getting out and doing it. BIF is pretty demanding. Unless you are some kind of prodigy you will get very familiar with the delete key on your camera.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

There is no one setting, but there are some general guidelines. Shooting BIF takes a lot of practice and patient and also a lot of getting to know your camera. Having a camera that takes multiple fast shots is best and a camera with a big buffer is a real plus. In general, set your aperture for f/5.6, this allows your shutter speed to be as high as possible. The variable is your ISO, having a camera that can shoot at a high ISO without creating a lot of noise is a real plus; in general, a full frame camera sensor allows for higher ISOs without as much noise. Read up on your camera and how it is rated for ISO and experiment. You will need to use a fairly high ISO in most cases, probably at least 1600, but again this varies from setting to setting and camera to camera. Having a really great telephoto lens is ideal, and this also depends on what type of bird and how far away. I use Nikon gear and photo birds with my Nikon D500, a camera designed for action. I use a Nikon 200-500 telephoto and most recently a Nikon 500mm PF telephoto. Both are great lenses for wildlife. Photographing wildlife can turn out to be expensive and if you don't have a quick and steady hand can also be frustrating. Read the E-book on photographing wildlife by Steve Perry, found online. This will help you get started in the right direction. Good luck.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

I agree. Watch Steve Perry's videos on this subject and also on autofocus and back button focus.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Depends on your camera, for Nikon I use GROUP AUTO FOCUS, continuous auto focus, 10 fps, aperture priority and I manually set my ISO so I am shooting at a minimum of 1/2000 sec. and a maximum of 1/4000 sec. You'll need 1/4000 sec. to get the tips of the wing frozen.

On my Sony a9, I diverge from the above to 20 fps, and for focusing I use, TRACKING FLEXIBLE SPOT.
And since I am not a adult baby, I use the regular shutter button for all of my exposures.

tcthome Loc: NJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69jcmNbqGrU

This vid is what you need.

Country Boy Loc: Beckley, WV

I agree, he is hard to beat!

WDCash Loc: Milford, Delaware, USA

When you are aiming your camera try keepi.g both eyes open. It takes some practice but you can have a wider field of vision and still see the auto focus marks in your view finder. For me, and Im no pro or expert, keeping both eyes open greatly improves my ability to get the bird into my viewf inder.

Theore you practice the easier it will become.

pahtspix

A most significant GURU on this subject is Steve Perry at http://www.backcountrygallery.com He's an absolutely incredible "teacher"!!!

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Curious as what this means, "And since I am not a adult baby, I use the regular shutter button for all of my exposures."

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

Fast, and what ever it takes to get there. I personally do not hesitate to go above above 1/4000, and usually start at 1/5000 depending on the subject. For the most part, you can start with a wide open aperture for whatever lens you are using. Only when you start getting to f/2.8 lenses do you start needing to be aware of DOF considerations. So, once you get your aperture and shutter speed set, your variable is ISO. Now days, the only adjustment I make is ISO for most applications. You can start to be more creative from there depending on what you are looking for.

Some will warn you about noise at higher ISOs, depending on your body. I recently started using Topaz Denise. You can fix a lot of noise issues with that program.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

OH forgive me. You are right, the phrase "adult baby" was way out of line. What I meant to say was
"time to put on your big boy pants". There, that's better don't you think.
And, did you like to image?

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

I think the image you posted, in someone else's thread BTW, was very good. I know you are an experienced shooter. I don't want to highjack this thread about back button versus shutter, but I will say there are good reasons to use both. For people who are new to shooting wildlife it's good to experiment and learn both and that way they know when to use the correct approach. Maybe you can post a new thread with your comments on the subject?