More bird flight photos – Port of Brisbane

[Dennis]

Hello,

Well, I’m enjoying some sunny days and good night’s sleep with my new found passion of bird photography! No cold nights shivering, or fighting to stay awake, although the auto guiding problems take on a new meaning and complexity when applied to birds in flight!

All with the Canon 400mm F5.6 lens at the Port of Brisbane Visitor Centre. Mostly taken under somewhat changeable sky conditions, varying from clear blue to thin, high, clouds. A few ahem, operator errors regarding camera settings left me with some processing challenges.

Cheers

Dennis

[jjjnettie]

I can't fault the first image. Everything is good about it.
The Ibis is good and the sea eagle too.
A great set of pics.

[RB]

Agreed, a lovely set of images Dennis.
Number 5 was quite interesting revealing some of the wing structure underneath the feathers.

[AlexN]

1 and 5 are incredible!!!

The sea eagle seems sharp from wing-tip to wing-tip... Thats one area I'm having trouble with at the moment.. shallow DOF.. Im assuming that was stopped down to around F/6.3 ~ F/8?

Stunners Dennis...

[Dennis]

Thanks Jeanette – as I squeezed the shutter release on the (1st photo) Gull Billed Tern I sensed that if everything worked, I would have a good shot. These shots just would not be possible without auto focus!


Thanks RB – yes, we were surprised at the black wingtips and had fleetingly glimpsed the red strips previously, so it was quite nice to get a reasonable photo to better see the detail.


Thanks Alex – these were all taken at 1/1600 wide open at F5.6 at ISO400. The Osprey (#5) was quite some distance away so the photo is only a relatively small crop of the full frame so I guess that’s why the DOF is good. The main difficulty in this above the wing shot was keeping the bird in the frame as I was free falling out of the micro light! LOL!:whistle:

You should see the size of my back and arms now, hauling all this glass around and pointing it upwards!:lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[AlexN]

im considering a 300mm 2.8... Im in construction work and im still thinking about hittin the gym

[Dennis]

LOL! I’ve ordered a Jobu Jr 2 Compact Gimbal Head (http://www.jobu-design.com/catalog/item/2588354/4163794.htm)from the Canadian manufacturer – it can double up for our spotting ‘scope too! Any additional gadget that helps optimise your set up, to produce more keepers, is good!:thumbsup:

Cheers

Dennis

[Matty P]

A lovely series of images Dennis, number 1 is my favourite. A perfect shot.

Very well done.

[Dennis]

Thanks Matt - #1 is my favourite too; the bird just flew straight into the lens and stayed on the AF sensor for just long enough – a very cooperative subject!

Cheers

Dennis

[Matty P]

:thumbsup:

I've never attempted to image birds in flight myself but my hat goes off to you and others that have tried and got some pretty amazing one of a kind images. It must be extremely tough trying to get a bird into FOV then try to focus and snap a pic all in under a second. :eyepop:

I'm interested in how you do it. :)

Do you pick a subject, follow it and hope for the best?

[AlexN]

Thats what I do, I see a bird in flight or taking off/coming in to land, attempt to center it, let auto-focus do its thing. and snap as many pics as I can in the process.

Birds are one of the only subjects that never make the photographer think "Gee I wish I had a shorter lens..." I've imaged birds at 700mm using my 500mm + 1.4TC and have still wished I could get a bit closer in...

The 400mm that Dennis is using is a sensational bird/wild-life lens, and usually overlooked as people assume due to its low (relative) price, that it wont perform like the more costly L lenses... they are disgustingly accurate on auto-focus, lightning fast when focus limited and not bulky enough for it to ever be excluded from your camera bag...

I bet Dennis, like myself, wishes it and the 70-200 would merge together and become a 600mm f/4 :)

[Dennis]

Hi Matt

In terms of birds in flight photos, I’ve literally just dipped my toe in the water, so its early days for me yet! The success that I’ve enjoyed so far can more or less be attributed to modern DSLR technology and excellent Canon L series lenses.

In terms of what part the photographer plays, I guess that being in the right place, at the right time, where there are birds to photograph along with having an understanding of their behaviour, are some of the skills I am now developing.

For example, the Port of Brisbane Visitor Centre’s bird hide is an excellent place and if you arrive at low tide, then as the tide comes in, the waders are forced up onto higher ground, offering more opportunities for photography.

I’ve also noted that (wild) birds are more active in the early morning (breakfast time for them) and late afternoon (snacks before bedtime) whereas around mid day, they seem to rest up.

So, I’ll observe a bird’s behaviour and then try to get a bead on it and let auto focus and continuous shooting do their work, hopefully ending up with something that CS3 can then work with.

I’ve often gone out with pre-conceived ideas of what I want to shoot and how to shoot it, only to come away with something quite different, so you also have to be quick and flexible to respond to any opportunity.

As I said, its early days for me and I’ve dialled the following settings into a Custom User setting so at the twist of a dial, I’m ready to go:

Canon 40D + Canon 400mm F5.6L lens
1/1600 sec exposure
F5.6 aperture
ISO400
Low speed continuous shooting (3.5 frames per second)
The Lord’s Prayer!

Understanding bird habitats, their behaviour, the lighting, your equipment and optimal settings are very important, but being out for a few hours at a time and having some good fortune are also just as important.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Oh, I should also add that I also practice on birds in our back garden, so I can understand the (bad) effects of too slow a shutter speed, poor lighting, shallow depth of field, etc. Don’t learn this stuff out in the field – do it at home where you can download the photos onto your computer immediately and learn from your mistakes.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

Hey Alex,

Did I forget to mention that it’s not the 400mm F5.6 that I have, but the 400mm F2.8 stopped down to F5.6. Just kidding!

I did fit the x1.4TC and x2 TC on the 400mm and the atmospheric affects degraded the images too much, although I did only have my lightweight carbon fibre tripod and a ball head – not the ideal combo for these obscenely long focal lengths at F8 and F11 respectively.

I just cannot imagine holding (or owning!) a 500mm or 600mm F4 piece of glass – they are simply in a different league!

Cheers

Dennis

[Matty P]

Thanks Dennis,

It is definitely a future project for me, when I upgrade to a better lens. I still only have the standard 18-55mm Canon lens that came with my DSLR when I bought it. Although being very limited to what you can do with it and my only lens, I think it is time for an upgrade.

Like you have said, understanding the birds behaviour and utilising your equipment being ready to adjust and adapt is a must.

I'm really looking forward to more of your work Dennis. :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Jeanette posted some excellent photos of some Ibis in flight just recently, using a non-L Canon lens and in my book, they were very good indeed for a very challenging subject.

I have enjoyed some success previously with our older Pentax *ist DS and the 55-200mm kit lens, although the success rate was well down compared to our new set up.:(

A telephoto lens of 200mm plus is almost essential for bird in flight photos, but where the L lenses seem to give a distinct advantage is, as Alex mentioned, their quality when wide open and the resulting speed of auto focus.

I also think that flying birds find the off-white L lenses very attractive and so try to fly down the barrel so to speak, another L lens advantage!:whistle::whistle:

Cheers

Dennis

[Matty P]

They might also like the red stripe. ;) :P :)

[Dennis]

LOL! Now there’s someone who knows his L lenses!:rofl:

Cheers

Dennis

[Matty P]

I wish I had one though. :sadeyes:














:lol:

[AlexN]

Matty.. Once you get L glass you have to understand... You wont want anything in your collection of lenses BUT L glass... It can detract greatly from the amount of money you can throw at astronomy... :D

I bought 1, I was hooked, now have 4 and I'm broke.

[Dennis]

I thought I had better explain why I chose these manually selected settings, as they are not random!

They come from the “Sunny F16 rule (http://www.bwps.org/res/tips/sunny_16/)” from my days of 35mm film photography. The rule is that on a bright sunny day, with your aperture set to F16, the correct shutter speed for a medium tone scene is the reciprocal of the film speed. A black cat in a coal cellar or a polar bear in snow are not medium tone scenes!

So, in my case, we have the following:

F16 at 400ASA gives 1/400 sec – this is the Sunny F16 rule which is the equivalent of:
F11 at 400ASA at 1/800 sec
F8 at 400ASA at 1/1600 sec
F5.6 at 400ASA at 1/3200 sec

So as we open up the lens aperture, we need to use the next faster shutter speed to compensate.

You will note that instead of using 1/3200 at F5.6, I have used 1/1600 to let in one more stop of light for early morning, late evening, side lit birds, etc. and to “expose to the right of the histogram”

Looking at the Histogram seems to confirm that this is a good setting for the conditions I tend to shoot under, although I can easily alter the shutter speed if the lighting conditions change. Here is a nice write up on exposure (http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understandexposure.shtml).

Cheers

Dennis

Useful links:
http://www.bwps.org/res/tips/sunny_16/
http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understandexposure.shtml

[Dennis]

Hey Alex

I very much look forward to meeting your L glass, whoops!, I mean meeting with you at the Qld Astrofest!:whistle:;):lol:

Cheers

Dennis

[iceman]

Brilliant shots, Dennis! The 4th one would've been fantastic if the water had been smooth to allow reflections!

I hope you can get out under the cold dark sky again soon :)

[Dennis]

Thanks Mike! LOL! Over the last couple of months I have needed to keep reminding myself that this is an astronomy forum, with sub-forums for secondary interests and not a bird photography forum! I mainly blame Alex, Jeanette and Ving for leading me astray!:whistle:

Although I must say, you have to shoulder some responsibility as your photos from a trip to the zoo some while ago certainly contributed to my current malaise!:lol:

Not to mention RB’s contribution….:whistle::whistle:

Cheers

Dennis

[jjjnettie]

Dennis, It's not only not an L lens, it's not even a Canon. I'm using a Sigma 70-300mm lens. While it's cheap it's not so nasty in my opinion.
According the comparative reviews that you gave me the link to, this lens is very good up to 200mm, but CA increases after that and is a big problem when used at 300mm.
I've not thought to use a tripod for my birds in flight. The images I took are all hand held. Maybe I should do my pics a favour and mount the camera.

[Dennis]

Hi Jeanette,

Generally, a tripod is a very good idea. I have found that using one with either a lightly clamped ball and socket head, or a gimbal head such as the Jobu Design unit, really helps minimise the shakes and makes the session less tiring. I ended up purchasing a light weight carbon fibre Giottos tripod, weight 1.6 kgs, as I kept on leaving our heavier one at home due to the sheer bulk and weight.

I have a couple of ball heads – one (heavy model) from Slik and a lightweight model from Velbon. The Velbon one is more suited to bird flight as I can back off the locking knob a tad, which puts a small amount of drag on the ball allowing me to smoothly follow the bird in flight. The Slik one isn’t as smooth; it tends to grab a little.

The Jobu Gimbal head has the advantage that it was designed for the purpose and you can let go of the lens/camera and it remains parked, whereas the ball and socket will flop over due to the imbalance.

When I am out for a couple of hours at a location, it is so much more comfortable to have the camera mounted on a tripod rather than have it in hand. This really does reduce fatigue, makes the outing more enjoyable as you can still rubber neck the skies and terrain and if you spot something, just grab the camera and swing it around on the tripod head.

Narelle is usually there too, using bino’s or a spotting scope, so we have extra eyes. We also take one of those walk stools so we can sit down for short rests, and we usually take a flask of tea and some sandwiches to keep hydrated and maintain energy levels.

Cheers

Dennis

[Dennis]

I should also add that in my 30 years of photography, mainly recording day trips, outings, holidays and hobbies rather than serious stuff, I have used non Canon, non L lenses such as Pentax, Tamron and Sigma and they have all served me well – I still have them!

I think that the current family of modern lenses from folks such as Sigma, do provide superior image quality as I understand that their designs are optimised by computer aided design software and they use modern materials, manufacturing methods and testing procedures.

So, although we do joke and banter about the L lenses here on IIS, they really are not absolutely necessary unless you are into examining every single pixel or need the waterproofing, heavy metal or have to use them wide open.

Cheers

Dennis

[RB]

Just a quick question Dennis, how come you're using a 3.5 fps rate?
How does the 40D perform at full speed (6.5 fps)?
Wouldn't it help using the higher frame rate or are you trying to minimise vibration?

[AlexN]

Too true... I couldnt bring my self to sell my some of my sigmas/tokina lenses.... Its sad to say but I still have a canon 35-80 kit lens from an EOS 3000 film camera... It should be in the bin with the noises it makes during focusing,

[Dennis]

Hi Andrew

Thanks for the question. I’m still building up my knowledge of the 40D and its operations – it is effectively my 1st camera with a motor drive capability.

When I first tried the low speed, I noticed that when panning to keep the bird in frame, occasionally, the camera would stop shooting as I suspect the buffer was full, so it had to wait to complete writing data to the CF card. I currently use Sandisk 4G III cards although I am aware that you can get faster cards.

Also, I’m a bit nervous about the potential hammering the system will take if the mirror flips up and down at 6.5 fps to allow for AF follow focus?:scared:

Cheers

Dennis