My first outing with 7D and 100-400mm

[shane jordan]

Ok guys, I am a professional wedding photographer. For my own personal shooting I have done macro and landscapes. Recently I picked up a 100-400mm just to get some more reach for wildlife. Now, I have always loved BIF shots, but have never really tried it. So I figured it would be a nice bonus to myself to sell off my 5D (let me know if you are interested) and purchase a 7D as my new backup camera.

I have never used the AI Servo focus on my previous cameras, I always stuck with the center dot for Weddings and Landscape work. Every once in a while I would change the focal point to be on the outside for certain shots but I have never relied on the camera picking the focal point. So this AI Servo is brand new to me, as is the servo. I get that you hold down the focus and it will track it....thats about the extent of my knowledge of this setup.

I am a avid hunter (you guys will probably hate me for hunting), so I have waiters and good camo. Today I went to a local pond with my camo and hid in some cat tails and called in a few ducks. Since it was in a city I think I called in some local tame birds. Anyway I took about 200 shots total. 20-30 of these were just messing around, and I would say half were ducks that already landed and the other half my attempt at BIF. Of these 100 or so BIF shots the ones fully zoomed and closer to me I would say I missed focus on 75% of them, of the 25% I would only call about 6 of these interesting to me. The rest were just boring or me hitting the shutter after they landed. I kept my iso at 400 - 1600 depending on the light. I wanted to make sure I had a decent shutter speed. I had the camera in AV mode and used f5.6 - 8

With that said here is the link to the 6 that I thought turned out ok.
http://shuttershane.com/birdtest/ (click on each image to see)

Here are things I had issues with:
* Tracking, man this is hard stuff. I am going at it hand held right now, but I think practice will help here
* Finding the birds in the frame (should I zoom out then quickly back in?)
* Focusing once I have the bird in the frame. Sometimes it seemed to never lock on. Is there anything I can do to help this?
* When I had multiple birds in the shot I was not sure if I should stick the locked focus on the bird or not
* Exposure, when a bird was in the air the exposure seemed to be about 2-3 stops. How do you guys determine your exposure for constant changes like this (bright air to dark pond or dark BG)

I also had a few questions about what setting for custom functions to choose (7d)
C.FN III-1:AI Servo tracking sensitivity - no idea
C.FN III-2: AI Servo 1st/2nd image priority - no idea
C.FN III-3: AI Servo AF tracking method - I am guessing I want Continuous AF track priority
C.FN III-4: Lens drive when AF impossible - I am guessing Focus search off (I think mine is on because a few times focus was searching hard until I went manual to fix)

Any tips would be appreciated. I am about to go through the forum and research to see what else I can find. My big hopes are going to my hunting lease this year and getting some of the hawks and interesting ducks photographed.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Hi Shane,
Maybe these two link will help with the BIF, one is bumping the focus technique by Jim Neiger and another is an introduction to flight photography by Alfred and Fabiola Forns.

bumping the focus
http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ead.php?t=1949

Introduction to Flight Photography
http://www.birdphotographers.net/ezi...icle.aspx?id=4

[Dave Blinder]

Shane - BIF are never easy! If you are trying to freeze a bird while it's flapping you're generally going to want to the shuttter to be over 1/1000s. For soaring and larger birds you can get away with much slower. I see motion blur in the majority of these. If you want to use Av mode, meter something of similar color in advance and then bump the ISO even more if needed. Alternatively, if you want a pleasing motion blur, I'd go under 1/100s.

Experience will help a lot with the panning. Definitely try to prefocus on an object at a similar focal distance. I have a 7D now also, but no idea what custom functions to use either!

- Dave

[shane jordan]

Shane - BIF are never easy! If you are trying to freeze a bird while it's flapping you're generally going to want to the shuttter to be over 1/1000s. For soaring and larger birds you can get away with much slower. I see motion blur in the majority of these. If you want to use Av mode, meter something of similar color in advance and then bump the ISO even more if needed. Alternatively, if you want a pleasing motion blur, I'd go under 1/100s.

Experience will help a lot with the panning. Definitely try to prefocus on an object at a similar focal distance. I have a 7D now also, but no idea what custom functions to use either!

- Dave

Thanks for that info Dave. I just want to be sure that this is user error on the focusing. When I get a new camera I am always paranoid of it having issues. I say this because I have had a few bad eggs in the past, and since this AI Servo is new to me I have no way of knowing if the issue is me or not.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Shane - A big warm welcome to the BPN Family.

Lots of info on the 7D in the gear forums.
http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=48419


BIF against changing BG'S - you will need to work in Manual mode and meter off the sky and set your exposure for the bird ( Meter off the sky at about 30 degrees and then add +1 stop via exposure compensation) so that when the BG changes it does not affect the exposure on your subject.

With a large zoom - zooming out then back in will certainly help you find the subject.

[shane jordan]

Thanks for the help guys. I really appreciate it, and the links helped a lot.

I should be getting my Lens Align here in a few days so I can find out if this lens is back or front focusing on the 7D. I have noticed that on my 5D MII I had to make a +12 adjustment, but I rather wait until I get a better tool to help me determine how bad my lens/body combo are.

[Jim Neiger]

Hi Shane - A big warm welcome to the BPN Family.

Lots of info on the 7D in the gear forums.
http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ad.php?t=48419


BIF against changing BG'S - you will need to work in Manual mode and meter off the sky and set your exposure for the bird ( Meter off the sky at about 30 degrees and then add +1 stop via exposure compensation) so that when the BG changes it does not affect the exposure on your subject.

With a large zoom - zooming out then back in will certainly help you find the subject.

Metering off the sky is not always reliable becuase the sky changes. You can have varing amounts of clouds of varying brightness. I select a constant that is almost always available in the environment. In Florida I use green vegetation. Alaska in the winter I used snow.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Shane Glad you are trying birds ... much less brutal than weddings !!! :)

Excellent advice above and can add a couple of things. Checked out you images and can suggest to try making an optimal exposure for evaluating. Will make things easier. For flight if you are pointing the camera to different bg (as the bird moves) do try to meter in manual if the bird is in the same light. With a dark bg you will over expose and light bg under expose.


Try getting a larger subject in frame and settings wise shoot wide open to maximize your shutter speed..... and give yourself a chance at sharpness by going to 1600 !!

Exposure wise these cropped factor cameras do not perform as well as the full sensors regarding noise so it is important to nail the exposure, any under exposure will introduce lots of noise !!

Keep snapping the shutter and post some images .... best way to learn !!!

............. btw when trying different settings (AF) change only one at the time and try for a while !!! Nothing can get more confusing than changing several at a time !!!