Kite in flight

[Harshad Barve]

Dear All
Working hard to learn BIF
here is another shot ,
I know bird is flying away from me but image looks sharp here , 3 initial frames got blurred ,
Most of BIF guys uses manual mode , How it helps in BIF and most importantly how to use it:o
Made with D700, 600mm, ISO 200, 1/1250, Tripod , F5.6 , A-priority
Pp wise , 60 % of original frame , levels , contrast , S/H , 0,8 blurr on BG
All suggations , critiques and comments are welcoe and much appreciated
Harshad

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Harshadbhai,
You did quite well on the capture for this fellow, I like the sharp wing details and the color rendition. You captured the bird just before a banking turn, I like the raised wing tips...:) a few points to consider...the subject is past the ideal point of capture, with loss of ideal head angle and eye contact, the details around the eye area is a little on the dark side and a tad soft...I would recommend for your next one to start panning and acquired the target to lock on before he passes you, and to increase your ISO factor to get more shutter speed. The background is super, I like it because it showcases your subject quite well...:D Not bad for you second BIF image...just keep on practicing...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Harshad Barve]

Gusbhai
Thanks a ton , will try to implement all suggations , going to visit lake tomorrow morning ,
BIF is not that easy for sure:p;):cool:

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Harshad, welcome to flight photography!

You got the sharpness and nice colors here. To get good flight shots best is to try to capture the bird before it is parallel to the sensor so you can get nice eye contact and head angle. Also best wing position is either full down or full up for most birds. Raptors look amazing when they bank so you can see all the wonderful top-of-the wing plumage.

A few technical points

ISO 200 is too low for flight shots, stick to at least ISO 400, try to keep the shutter speed above 1/1600sec as raptors fly and change direction rapidly, no amount of sharpening can correct a photo that has motion blur. With FF you can easily go to ISO 1600 and get nice flight shots.

Try to track the bird a bit early, usually camera needs one or to frames to get up to speed with the bird, so try to anticipate action and start tracking earlier than you intend to shoot.

I personally find tracking hand hold much easier than tripod and Wimberley head, often the head does not move/pan fast enough plus it is hard to keep the bird centered in the frame as there is some friction in the tilt mechanism. I prefer Hand hold for flight shots, 600mm is not an ideal HH lens therefore it would not be my flight lens. The best flight lens would be 500 which is lighter and easier to manage HH or even with a monopod which has a lot more freedom. I have had good success with 200-400 and 1.4X TC as well. In short, tracking is very sensitive to your HH technique and ability to keep the lens steady and aimed fixed on a moving subject and it takes lots and lots of practice. Any shake, vibration or departure of bird from focus points will result in soft/oof shots.

Hope this helps a little bit

Arash

[Harshad Barve]

Hey Arash
Thanks a ton for detailed explanation , As on today I dont have 400/5.6 or 200-400, or 500 , so will have to deal will 600mm , will give it a try

hope to show few more shots soon

[arash_hazeghi]

Hey Arash
Thanks a ton for detailed explanation , As on today I dont have 400/5.6 or 200-400, or 500 , so will have to deal will 600mm , will give it a try

hope to show few more shots soon

Try your 600 with a monopod as well, it's a very heavy lens and it takes time to master for flight shot, on the plus side you will get sharp shots with its excellent optical quality.

[Lance Peters]

Hi - Great advice above - with the D700 I would be using ISO 800 as a starting point - my D3 is set to 800 pretty much as standard, also worth looking at the 51 point 3D tracking does work well in some circumstanes but takes some getting used to.
its just practise,practise,practise.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Harshad

Working on a tripod with high magnification is not easy but with practice will be no trouble. I will hand hold even a 600 if I had to example shooting from a boat or grabbing a quick image as I get out of the truck ... but for most I keep the lens in a tripod. Can track as good as I can a 400 5.6 !!!!

Manual exposure wise it is simple .... if the bird is in the same light but going through different bg some light others dark .. your exposure will be different. Overexposed with the dark and under exposed with light bg ... bird will be in same light !!! Best to set the exposure for the bird manually so you don't have to worry, the bg will vary at times but the bird will always be well exposed.

[Katie Rupp]

The bg is just beautiful and your Kite has good details...thanks for posting, I benefitted from the advice given.