[JAG]

Hi all,

We took our young son to the local Country Park to see the ducks and thought I'd take along my new 70-300 AF-S VR for a little play. Managed to practice shooting birds in flight for the very first time, coupled with panning, and not totally displeased with the results. Mind you the success rate was a single figure percentage It was easier when they maintained level flight, but that wasn't often!

Can anyone offer any advice or pointers to improve these type of shots? Any advise regarding using USM would be great also as I'm crap at it











Many thanks,

Ian

[ray]

Was the first one posing for you JAG hahaha nice shots...Ray

[john crossley]

Practice, Practice, Practice, and more Practice.
No 4 is probably the best.
Always try and focus on the eye, beak, head.
Oh and did I mention PRACTICE.

[Ken Hawk]

You have done very well there Ian, I tryed to get a few birds in flight at the weekend,
I never got 1 good one out of over 200 shots

You need to have plenty of light, so you can use a small f stop, more DOF.
Something about hypafocal distance so Rob says

Ken

[stepheno]

Nice shots. It would be interesting to know the exif you were using. If you were shooting at 300mm then you want a shutter speed of at least 1/300. I presume the VR will give you a stop or two and you can always up the ISO if need be. The other thing is to practice your panning technique, it's invaluable for birds.

I noticed one image is only about 47k in size, you can go up to 300k which should help the IQ. With regard to USM it's just about playing about with it and checking the preview. This one is with Amount 99, Radius 1.2 and Threshold 0. (oh and I put a small catch light in the eye HTH.

[JAG]

Originally Posted by john crossley

Practice, Practice, Practice, and more Practice.
No 4 is probably the best.
Always try and focus on the eye, beak, head.
Oh and did I mention PRACTICE.

Thanks John, I did try but by god it's difficult

[JAG]

Originally Posted by Ken Hawk

You have done very well there Ian, I tryed to get a few birds in flight at the weekend,
I never got 1 good one out of over 200 shots

You need to have plenty of light, so you can use a small f stop, more DOF.
Something about hypafocal distance so Rob says

Ken

Hi Ken,

How the devil are you? It's been a while. Got anymore of you superb u/w staff for us? Yeah, light wasn't great so was trying different methods. In the end I used the auto setting to try to get an idea of what the expected exposure should be. All part of the learning process. Lot less to think about underwater, well, was for me anyway

[JAG]

Originally Posted by stepheno

Nice shots. It would be interesting to know the exif you were using. If you were shooting at 300mm then you want a shutter speed of at least 1/300. I presume the VR will give you a stop or two and you can always up the ISO if need be. The other thing is to practice your panning technique, it's invaluable for birds.

I noticed one image is only about 47k in size, you can go up to 300k which should help the IQ. With regard to USM it's just about playing about with it and checking the preview. This one is with Amount 99, Radius 1.2 and Threshold 0. (oh and I put a small catch light in the eye HTH.

Thanks Stepheno. Exif details are:
1/500 sec
f/5.6
300mm
ISO 500
Auto Setting (this provided best results as I experimented with aperture and shutter settings, but these weren't much cop to be honest)

Thanks for the tip re focal length and shutter speed and thanks for the USM info. Did you use it on the whole image or select the bird only?

[Charlotte]

The last one is definitely my favourite, in fact a class apart from the others, for two reasons :

1) It has an uncluttered BG
2) You shot your subject at an interesting angle, one that has captured the goose's elegance + size/wingspan + the lovely pattern across its wings, back + tail feathers.

So, whilst the others are good for a first attempt, that last one is excellent!!

[Ali]

Birds in flight - not the easiest of subjects!
Nos 2, 4 and 5 are my favourites. It's a shame that bits gots chopped off of No.4 but I know that's far easier said than done!

Good shots, looking forward to seeing more.

[Dave]

Don't forget to post your best examples in here :- http://www.pixalo.com/community/shot...ots-21329.html