Last Flying Tree Swallow for now..
I will get a good one eventually.
Another where I obviously locked on near wing, head soft again.
Just posting to show this can be done. Tree swallows have amazing flight patterns which
is why I have decided to make it a goal. They are also numerous in the wetlands.
I was just shooting 1/2000 to keep iso down because I knew they would be small in the frame.
I did no better at 1/3200.
You need light for 1/5000 I think to have a chance.
I was shooting with an extender, the bare 300 is really good with the D500,
I cannot imagine a better combo so I will get closer and shoot bare next time.
D500, 1/2000, f5, 500mm (300 f2.8w/1.7), iso800
DSC_4677bp2.jpg
You are getting closer... These are so hard to get in flight. I would run noise reduction on bird and increase sharpening on head and shoulders if possible. Thanks for sharing the tough effort. Can't wait to see the final reward for all this practice. TFS
Thanks all for the comments.
I have sharp photos, quite a lot, just exiting the frame, entering the frame, bad pose, etc.
I posted the poses I am aiming for, these will be tough to get the way I want, but
there are a lot of swallows....
I also want to get them in good light. I look at photos of them in cool flight shots,
but they are glistening in bright 1/8000 light.
I want better than that.
Keep trying Dan, you are almost there. Don't have any advice to offer as this is way beyond my capabilities but I can't wait to see one that hits all the right notes.
I can't tell you how many hours I've spent (I won't say wasted) trying to capture these guys in flight. It's really tough, as you suggest. You're getting closer; keep at it.
This one is looking not too bad here..I like the flight pose and HA. The BG shows the bird well. Been there, tried that and failed. Not easy to get it tack sharp.
For me, this is the best pose of all. I think that the size of the crop here might be what is making the image look not as sharp as you would like (as opposed to be incorrectly focused ...) Can you please post a JPEG that represents the full frame original capture.
with love, artie
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Thanks, Artie, but this was a delete for me... I saved the cropped Jpeg but the original RAW is trashed.
I am retired now, take a lot of photos and only keep the RAW files if they are good. ( I do not keep very many!)
This was not a huge crop, at 100% the face is just not sharp, I was too close for f5 as the wing is 100% sharp, but the tail is almost
completely OOF.
I made it look as sharp as I can, I use TK panels for web sharpening which are excellent if you know
anything about Tony Kuypers photoshop plug-ins, they made it look as sharp as possible.
One more for Fun!!
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