Photographing birds in flight

That's my theme for this weekend. I'm going to go out and try to photograph birds in flight. I would like to ask from the pro's or people that have experience what sort of set up are you using to photograph birds in flight? Let me give a couple scenarios:

1. Day time plenty of light
- how are you getting them near you, or are you just following them?
- what lens, camera settings are you using?
- is it ok to us bird feed to draw them in?

2. Getting darker and low light
- what lens are you using?
- are you using flash and if so have you had any luck with those flash extenders?

Any additional tips would be great. Thanks in advance for the help.

Well, that's a tome's worth of info, so here's a little reading....
www.photomigrations.com/articles/0503100.htm
www.evergladesphotosociety.org/articles/flightpart01.html
www.vividlight.com/Articles/2303.htm

I want a 400mm lens, that will get really close to the action. But that lens is big pain on my budget.

effie,

I got my first paid wedding coming up. What f/stop should I use, and should I shoot in Manual?

I want the pictures to come back perfect.

MLKstudios wrote: effie,

I got my first paid wedding coming up. What f/stop should I use, and should I shoot in Manual?

I want the pictures to come back perfect.

What the heck does this comment have to do with Birds in Flight?

It ends with a wink. Was commenting on effron's "tome" remark.

eta Bd, this is your area of expertise. Nothing else to add?

MLKstudios wrote: It ends with a wink. Was commenting on effron's "tome" remark.

eta Bd, this is your area of expertise. Nothing else to add?

Stop derailing threads please.

Thanks Scotty.

I have been giving these a lot of thought because I don't want to give a "flip" or incorrect answer. Bird flight paths can be unpredictable so I generally back off the zoom a bit and give myself a little "breathing room: for crops (too many cut off body parts lying around).
I use the faster shutter speed available under the light conditions and change metering to match the shy conditions. Shooting a dark bird against a bright but overcast sky can be a killer (no fill flash here) so I tend to use spot metering. If the sky is nice and blue and the gift of clouds is offered, I will switch metering.
Patience and observing flight patterns is important to getting multiple shots. I have been studying a family of Bald Eagles for the past six years to try to determine any indicators as to when they will take off (love those shots and use burst mode). Depending on the time of day and the tide (and the particular bird), I can generally predict the direction they will take but not WHEN they will fly. I thought I had discovered a "body language" clue but it turns out that motion means a poop, not a take-off
Anyway, patience, a steady hand, decent zoom lens and practice will get your shots,

I only get small birds in my back garden but they are way to fast to catch in flight, I am lucky if they stay on the feeder for more than a few seconds, once I am driving again there is a bird of prey centre about 5 miles down the road so I will try my luck there and report back, probably need to invest in a 400 mm lens myself but that wont be until I return to work next year.

Baydream wrote: Thanks Scotty.

I have been giving these a lot of thought because I don't want to give a "flip" or incorrect answer. Bird flight paths can be unpredictable so I generally back off the zoom a bit and give myself a little "breathing room: for crops (too many cut off body parts lying around).
I use the faster shutter speed available under the light conditions and change metering to match the shy conditions. Shooting a dark bird against a bright but overcast sky can be a killer (no fill flash here) so I tend to use spot metering. If the sky is nice and blue and the gift of clouds is offered, I will switch metering.
Patience and observing flight patterns is important to getting multiple shots. I have been studying a family of Bald Eagles for the past six years to try to determine any indicators as to when they will take off (love those shots and use burst mode). Depending on the time of day and the tide (and the particular bird), I can generally predict the direction they will take but not WHEN they will fly. I thought I had discovered a "body language" clue but it turns out that motion means a poop, not a take-off
Anyway, patience, a steady hand, decent zoom lens and practice will get your shots,

Better answer!

MLKstudios wrote:

Baydream wrote: Thanks Scotty.

I have been giving these a lot of thought because I don't want to give a "flip" or incorrect answer. Bird flight paths can be unpredictable so I generally back off the zoom a bit and give myself a little "breathing room: for crops (too many cut off body parts lying around).
I use the faster shutter speed available under the light conditions and change metering to match the shy conditions. Shooting a dark bird against a bright but overcast sky can be a killer (no fill flash here) so I tend to use spot metering. If the sky is nice and blue and the gift of clouds is offered, I will switch metering.
Patience and observing flight patterns is important to getting multiple shots. I have been studying a family of Bald Eagles for the past six years to try to determine any indicators as to when they will take off (love those shots and use burst mode). Depending on the time of day and the tide (and the particular bird), I can generally predict the direction they will take but not WHEN they will fly. I thought I had discovered a "body language" clue but it turns out that motion means a poop, not a take-off
Anyway, patience, a steady hand, decent zoom lens and practice will get your shots,

Better answer!

Stop patronizing, Matthew. You had nothing to add. As I said, I THOUGHT about my response before firing off some flippant .,unrelated, or Googled-response.remark.

It was a better answer, Bd. Lighten up.

eta You should have used "telephoto" not "zoom". A zoom lens can be all wide angle.

I didn't get that from Google either.

Now that I have a good understanding of auto focus lock, I might try this myself. Will the camera's auto focus track a bird in flight also as you follow the bird with your camera?

Likely it will be at infinity. Just set the lens there.

If it's closer, you'll need to focus. Then you can use the camera's high-tech feature of track focus.



Follow focus was once a skill we had to learn. Before AF and new tech.

You might also want to look into Back Button Focus (most cameras have this option). It makes focus and shoot a two step process.

I haven't tried to photograph birds in flight, but have done some panning and I mostly use manual cameras. I think it takes some practice. Maybe if you find you're using manual rather than auto focus you could practice on something else, cars going by or something - I used to practice w/out film in the camera to get the hang of it. Haven't used the technique a lot though.

Scotty and John, plenty of people get threads off topic, happens all the time on here; as moderators I think there needs to be some objectivity as you guys don't seem to getting on everybody about it when threads go OT. And a dry, sarcastic sense of humor tends to get lost or misinterpreted on message boards, I'm not sure it comes across as intended. You guys sometimes seem to not realize that something wasn't meant to be taken literally.