BIF Raven

[Andrew Merwin]

Before I joined BPn, when a bird took off I never tried to photograph it. Now, I do. This raven is one of my best attempts so far. It is noisey & the focal point is in the near wing. Unfortunately, I was in single shot mode when he flew & IS was off. Also, it appears a wee bit soft to me. I would appreciate all suggestions on how to improve my BIF skills.

Mrk4, HH, ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/2500, +0.33 ev, 100-400@400

[John Chardine]

Hi Andrew- Well you have opened up a can or worms with birds in flight! It's a complex, deep subject. There are some superb birds in flight photographers on BPN and I'm not one of them!

I like the placement of the bird in this image and the OOF BG. Perhaps you could soften the OOF green bushes on the right a little. With birds in flight I do know that it's important to capture the bird coming towards you rather than away, and not necessarly directly towards. Flat is fine but you need a good head angle. Your Raven is looking away from you probably because it's flight angle is slightly away. If you could capture the bird coming towards you the head angles generally fall into place. Birds more or less look where they are flying.

You certainly had the shutter speed set correctly for birds in flight. With the 100-400, mine performed a lot better stopped down a little from wide open at 400mm. You may want to try this and compensate with a little higher ISO. The mark IV can handle it!

[Andrew Merwin]

Thanks John. Stopping down the 100-400 is a good idea & you make some very good points. Every time I take an image of a BIF the bird is flying away from me because, I suppose, it feels threatened & it is escaping from lil ole harmless me. :) I like walking around with my camera looking for images, especially in YNP where this was shot. I actually circled the raven to put the sun at my back to get better light. I will keep trying. Eventually, it will become second nature.

[John Chardine]

Andrew- I know what you mean about birds flying away rather than towards you. One trick you can use is a bit of biology- at least when they are landing or taking off they tend to fly into the wind to gain some advantage so if you can get up wind of them with the sun at your back you have it made!

[Andrew Merwin]

What a great idea. Thanks John. That means an east wind in the AM & a west wind in the PM. I suppose that is little enough to expect. ;)

[Lance Peters]

Hi Andrew - Johns advice is sound - also if the BG is changing you are best to work in manual mode - set the exposure for the correct exposure on the subject and then it will not matter what the BG is it will not change your exposure - were if you are in AV mode the BG will change you exposure values depending on what is back there.
Like the SS - Need to be up around that mark to really freeze the action - wings fully up or fully down are also the preferred positions. If you are just getting into BIF I would start with the largest birds possible - dont know if you have Pelicans in your area but they are good - Large Bird - Fly relatively slowly - great to practice on.
Looking forward to seeing more :)

[Andrew Merwin]

Thanks Lance. We have white pelicans here in SC MT. However, they are usually so far away that they are just white splotches in an image. They are quite shy & avoid humans. I will keep practicing. Thanks for the manual mode suggestion. It seems like sound advice based on experience.