Black Headed Gull Help

[Mike Singh]

I had a practice yesterday at BIF photography. My arms are aching!
I adjusted my AF configuration settings to make the AF less twitchey and used a high ISO. The AF point is just where the beak meets the head.

My Camera setting are as follows:
Canon 5DMkiii, Lens 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM | Contemporary 015, IS 1
Focal Length 562.0mm
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure, Metering Mode Partial Metering
Tv, 1/1000 Av, 6.3, ISO 3200
Auto ISO Speed OFF


AF Mode AI Servo AF
AF Configuration Tool Case 4
Tracking sensitivity -2
Accel./decel. tracking 2
AF point auto switching 2
AF area select mode AF Point expansion:surround
Drive Mode High-speed continuous shooting

Processing:
Lightroom CC
Crop (30%), White and Black points, Exposure decreased, Increased contrast, Sharpened and Noise reduced
Local adjustments to eye (sharpen, highlights)
Bird: decreased highlights.

Are my exposure settings adequate?
Are my AF settings and confugurations adequate?

Mike

[John Whaley]

Mike - I like the pose and ha. Shutter speed is your friend when shooting BIF. Many very good wildlife photographers I am familiar with use 1/3200 as a starting place, especially when shooting handheld. 1/1000 is fairly slow for handheld BIF and I do see what could be camera shake in the image. Gulls are not especially fast flyers and 1/1600 or 1/2000 might work but 1/2500+ would be best. Low light makes bif images especially challenging.

[Mike Singh]

Thanks for your advice John. I will really have to wack up the ISO then!


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[Jonathan Ashton]

Mike I think it is a tad underexposed and I think the dark areas could be lifted a little. I tend to use Case 2 for most BIF shots, I agree with John regarding shutter speeds. I suggest you border on the overexposed rather than underexposed to minimise noise when using higher ISO.

[Mike Singh]

Mike I think it is a tad underexposed and I think the dark areas could be lifted a little. I tend to use Case 2 for most BIF shots, I agree with John regarding shutter speeds. I suggest you border on the overexposed rather than underexposed to minimise noise when using higher ISO.

Hi Jonathan
Thanks for your advice.