Barn Swallow in Flight

[Toan Huynh]

I like to take photos of bird in flight. The barn swallows are the hardest thing to capture for me, they are speed demons. This one was taken in Sydney, in an afternoon.




Canon EOS 550D, Canon EF-S 55-250 at 96mm, ISO 400, f/6.3, 1/1000 sec.
I was using panning technique.
This image is heavily cropped in LR, I could not fill the frame with the hold bird because it was flying toooooooo fast

[Doug West]

Toan...you did pretty good on a few things...

1. The background works for me cause there's nothing calling for my attention.
2. You have the bird in a pretty good position in the frame (maybe crop a little off the right, but that's minor).
3. The wing position is excellent.

The one thing that needs an improvement is your exposure. The swallow is way underexposed. The next time
you're out, try with an exposure compensation of at least +1 (this one probably needed at least a +2). Your
meter is getting fooled by the bright background (or in other cases the sky).


Doug

[Toan Huynh]

Thanks for your comment Doug.

Next time I will try to increase exposure compensation, or just shot the bird with the sun behind me.
I have many other photos of swallows with right exposure. However in most of them the bird does not show a good position or just out of focus. They are too fast for my skill and gear. It is mostly about trying and hope for luck

[Bob Miller]

Toan....Good advice given for exposure. When shooting birds in flight esp the swallows I try to have a shutter speed of at least 1/1600 sec. ...You might have to raise your iso and then use noise reduction software like Noise ninja or Define 2.0 from Nik software. Other things to keep in mind are shooting in bright overcast conditions makes exposure easier and wind can be your friend if you are able to catch these speed demons flying against the wind slowing them down. Good luck ! shooting birds in flight is lots of fun but requires lots of practice. I hope to see more of your work. TFS

[Toan Huynh]

Toan....Good advice given for exposure. When shooting birds in flight esp the swallows I try to have a shutter speed of at least 1/1600 sec. ...You might have to raise your iso and then use noise reduction software like Noise ninja or Define 2.0 from Nik software. Other things to keep in mind are shooting in bright overcast conditions makes exposure easier and wind can be your friend if you are able to catch these speed demons flying against the wind slowing them down. Good luck ! shooting birds in flight is lots of fun but requires lots of practice. I hope to see more of your work. TFS

Thanks Bob.
Are those softwares free?
I could see the swallows fly against the wind and tried to capture them. I fell because my lens was too slow to focus before the bird change its direction. But I will try again next time :D