Canada Geese

[stevehill]

Working on learning techniques to capture birds in flight with my new camera.
Cannon 7D, AI Servo, AF point expansion, Evaluative metering, 800 sec, F8.0 400mm, ISO 800,
Minor crop and vibrance increase

[Joel Eade]

Looks like you were able to track the birds well and you captured 2 interesting wing positions. You had the right idea with your exposure but you could probably use more shutter speed (in the range of 1/1600 to 1/3200) to really freeze the action and get good detail.

I would recommend (when possible) try to stick with one bird because it is very difficult to get good focus on a pair when one is closer than the other. Also, try to position yourself so the birds are flying parallell or slightly toward you rather than angling away...you will be much happier with the results.

You have nice kit for BIF...just keep shooting and you will soon have it mastered. This image shows you are off to a good start.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Steven,

Good advise from Joel a couple of things to add. First, the two are past you in the frame, hence a better position for the capture might have been a second earlier. Alway get a single sensor on the head area, pan, fire until they are past and look at the sequence for the best image. Also from a composition perspective many do not like overlapping subjects several pros say to keep the subjects from touching, lets see what others say.

Love the colors in water, very nice. The whites look hot and some clipping occurred on the right side of the histogram. Remember to always set the exposure for the brights and everything else will fall into place. Have you read of the zone system. True, there are many variation on this process and I am no subject matter expert but I read an article on it once that really helped. It simple stated to pick the spot with the greatest chance of lost detail, meter and shoot. Moreover, set the shutter to preserve detail in the bright areas first - or another version - keep histogram to the right without clipping. Overall the image has a good feel and is framed well - keep em coming.