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Camera settings for photographing a bird in flight and to get sharp eyes


9 years 3 weeks ago #433512 by Greg Friedman
Aside from having just killer luck, is there a trick to getting your in-flight birds eyes super sharp? 

Please share your camera settings that you use.  Thank you
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9 years 3 weeks ago #433538 by JeremyS
Very fast shutter speed. I'd say 1/600th+ but try for higher and a dynamic focus point, so the focus will follow the bird.
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9 years 3 weeks ago - 9 years 3 weeks ago #433539 by effron
Birds in flight (BIF) has become its own and separate genre. Here is a good site, google for many more............

mikeatkinson.net/Tutorial-4-Camera-Settings.htm
Why so serious?
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9 years 3 weeks ago #433541 by garyrhook
Fortunately, for birds in flight, your subject distance is quite far away. Therefore, you can open up your aperture as far as possible (although you still have to know how the lens performs there). Using the online DoF calculator for a full frame camera we find that at 300 mm, f/2.8 on a full-frame, with a subject at 100 ft, your DoF is over 5 ft. Plenty for a bird. That means you can get your shutter speed down to 1/1200 or even faster, which will help freeze motion.

Yes, birds-in-flight is its own subject area, but the principles of photographing moving objects apply to other areas as well.
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9 years 3 weeks ago #433666 by Joves
Personally I set my aperture to f/6 to f/10, and then bump up the ISO to get a decent shutter speed. The reason being is that my only birding lens is the older 80-400 VR AF version. I use the 3D tracking as well. Usually shooting at f/8, with an ISO of 800 in decent light gives you somewhere in the 1/4000 range. Then it is a matter of a smooth panning style. Something I can do kind of well on some days, and forget it on others.  
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9 years 3 days ago #436985 by Greg Friedman
 Well I think my shots are getting close.  Looks like practice will be what I need here.  BTW thanks everyone.
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9 years 2 days ago #437049 by Shadowfixer1
I do manual exposure with f-8.0, 1/1000 shutter and Auto ISO turned on. The focusing part is harder than the rest. A good system that tracks subjects is very helpful. Unfortunately my old screw drive 80-400 VR and D200 is not up to the task so I have to resort to manual zone focus for BIFs.
www.betterphoto.com/?ramshots
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9 years 2 days ago #437114 by Rudy Sosa
My father photographs birds all the time, it's a talent that he has worked on for years.  Everyone has given some great advice.  
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9 years 1 day ago #437216 by Alan Nunez
I know this may be very obvious to many but.....You are shooting with a mono pod, right?

I have many photographers struggle to get shots of fast moving subjects hand held and as soon as they get on a Monopod their life gets easier!!!

As for the settings there a multiple issues:

Sharpness from motion blur = Get your shutter speed up as high as possible but if you want a nice background motion blur you are going to need to come down a bit and get you panning perfect.

Focus sharpness = The right combination of long lens and open aperture. The more light you let in the faster you can make the shutter speed but he lower your Depth of field and the great the chance of missing the focus point

Grain/noise = If you push you ISO too high then you risk getting gain/noise which will make it harder for you to get really crisp sharpness. Keep you ISO as low you need to get the right shutter speed. Don't be tempted to crank it up just to gain extra shutter speed that you don't need.
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9 years 7 hours ago #437328 by stuartsbarbie
effron, thanks for the share. Great place for learning
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