Birds in flight: I am hoping for some opinions on a Few BIF pics I am submitting. Although personally quite pleased with them as they are the results of my first serious attempt at BIF...

prcb1949 Loc: Ex Zimbabwe - Now UK

I am hoping for some opinions on a Few BIF pics I am submitting. Although personally quite pleased with them as they are the results of my first serious attempt at BIF and still fall short in my opinion. The settings I used were as follows.
1) 1/1000sec, F10, ISO 250.
2) 1/1250sec, f5, ISO 250

The light was low owing to a fully overcast sky.

(Download)

srodday Loc: Mass

For new BIF, these are good. To improve, I suggest the following

Up the ISO to get faster shutter speed. Much too slow

Composition wise, for the first, have the bird flu parallel or preferably towards you. Much more inviting. For the second, try and watch the background. I find the dark and then bright splitting of the bird distracting.

Suzanne

prcb1949 Loc: Ex Zimbabwe - Now UK

srodday wrote:

For new BIF, these are good. To improve, I suggest the following

Up the ISO to get faster shutter speed. Much too slow

Composition wise, for the first, have the bird flu parallel or preferably towards you. Much more inviting. For the second, try and watch the background. I find the dark and then bright splitting of the bird distracting.

Suzanne

Thanks Suzanne! With regard to ISO, in what sort of range would you recommend?

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

I like #2. The background looks great to me. Many bird pictures are against either plain sky or water. Yours is more structured and interesting. I also like the processing and the 8x10ish crop.

Rashid Abdu Loc: Ohio

Nice shots. Maybe a little soft, due to the relatively slow shutter speed.

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

Looks like part of the bird in second photo is a bit blown out. Not sure if it’s your post processing. Looking at it on my iPhone so not quite sure though. If it is, try to watch your exposure, use your histogram as a guide.

prcb1949 Loc: Ex Zimbabwe - Now UK

Robertl594 wrote:

Looks like part of the bird in second photo is a bit blown out. Not sure if it’s your post processing. Looking at it on my iPhone so not quite sure though. If it is, try to watch your exposure, use your histogram as a guide.

Thanks Robert I appreciate your input!

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

I think you will find that 90% of the time using your lens wide open will provide sufficient DOF to get the bird in focus. That will give you the opportunity to up your shutter speed up to get sharper images. As others have said, these might be a bit soft due to either camera shake or subject movement. I like to shoot at 1/3200 of higher. Flying birds are tough subjects. Expect a lot of failures, but when you get “the” shot, you will know it and the rewards are pretty awesome.

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

prcb1949 wrote:

Thanks Robert I appreciate your input!

Thank you. I will always be constructive and kind. The way I like to be treated. Always happy to help.

Larryshuman

In shooting white birds you should be using exposure compensation at a -.7. I shoot Egrets, Caspian Tern and Bald Eagles at a exposure compensation setting of -0.7. It looks rather dark on your display but back in post processing is were you see the benefit.

prcb1949 Loc: Ex Zimbabwe - Now UK

Nalu wrote:

I think you will find that 90% of the time using your lens wide open will provide sufficient DOF to get the bird in focus. That will give you the opportunity to up your shutter speed up to get sharper images. As others have said, these might be a bit soft due to either camera shake or subject movement. I like to shoot at 1/3200 of higher. Flying birds are tough subjects. Expect a lot of failures, but when you get “the” shot, you will know it and the rewards are pretty awesome.

Cheers Nalu thanks for the advise, and encouragement!

prcb1949 Loc: Ex Zimbabwe - Now UK

Larryshuman wrote:

In shooting white birds you should be using exposure compensation at a -.7. I shoot Egrets, Caspian Tern and Bald Eagles at a exposure compensation setting of -0.7. It looks rather dark on your display but back in post processing is were you see the benefit.

Thanks Larry I need to get ontop of the exposure Triange - bit by bit. At least I am off Auto and using a D3300 I had at one stage considered getting rid of but now glad I did not!

prcb1949 Loc: Ex Zimbabwe - Now UK

Rashid Abdu wrote:

Nice shots. Maybe a little soft, due to the relatively slow shutter speed.

OK Rashid Im looking forward to getting out again to try out all this advise !

jim quist Loc: Missouri

I have a 500 f4 lens I use for birds. I generally shoot wide open, its a habit I formed when photographing sports so the subject would stand out from the background. So I usually default to this. When I photographed small birds at f4 I wasn't happy with the results, I was getting a lot of out of focus shots. So I moved the aperture to f11 and that resolved the problem for me.

You might try sliding your highlight slider to the left, it will tone down the whites which seem a little bright.

prcb1949 Loc: Ex Zimbabwe - Now UK

jim quist wrote:

I have a 500 f4 lens I use for birds. I generally... (show quote)

Ok Thanks - really appreciate the input from all of you!