Birds in Flight Photography: Techniques, Tips and Tricks

so it's still national lockdown here in the uk and i'm having to film this from the comfort of my armchair i've always wanted to start a video like the famous youtubers do you know with the one question i'm often asked opening so let's give it a go now one question i'm often asked is phil why are you so annoying and i always give my wife the same reply tanya i don't know what you mean but i do know there are some simple steps you can take to capture stunning burning flight photos so let's take a look [Music] so [Music] hello i'm phil gower from phil gal bird photography now capturing a great burning flight image can be one of the most satisfying feelings in photography and my hope is this video will help you have that feeling more often so birds in flight or bith photography my techniques tips and tricks but where do we start well there's no better place to start than the six s's and the first s stands for settings now i covered my camera settings for biff photography in my last video and it's well worth checking this video out and here's a link above in the video i'll talk about the key settings for the sony a7r4 but the advice is applicable to any modern camera system in summary for biff photography i use continuous drive mode with the highest possible frame rate this improves my chances of capturing a perfect wing position i also use continuous focus mode because the bird is continuously moving and back button focus for greater focus control i use the wide zone expand flexible spot and flexible spot focus areas without tracking a sony af develops and the bird eye tracking becomes more reliable i'm sure i'll start using the tracking modes the rule of thumb for me at the moment is to use the smallest of these focus areas that does the job in hand invariably i use the zone focus area for most of my best shots at the moment as i said all of these settings are covered in the previous video but i have a couple of other bits of advice for you if you know roughly the range at which the bird will be flying it pays to use your lens focus limiter accordingly this will prevent your lens hunting throughout the focus range which can actually help you focus on the bird more quickly anything to get the killer shot you could also help the af system by pre-focusing on an object like a tree or a bush close to where you think you'll get the flight shot this will help the lens snap onto the bird without focus hunting you'll know from my previous video i'm an advocate of shooting manual with auto iso for birds in flight in this mode the camera sets the iso and i have precise control over both the aperture and the shutter speed settings now this is perfect for flight photography in terms of shutter speed this obviously needs to be fast enough to deal with motion blur i typically set this between 1 12 50th for large flying birds and one 3200 for fast more agile birds this range will cover most flight scenarios now i may need to up the shutter speed for really fast birds such as herondines like swallows and swifts particularly if they are flying close and that's a good point to remember the closer the flying bird the higher the shutter speed you'll need it's also worth noting that while faster shutter speeds can result in higher keeper rates it also means higher isos with more grain so it's always a trade-off i sometimes shoot at lower shutter speeds if there's not enough light and unfortunately that happens a lot here in the uk if you're good at panning you can get some acceptable results with slower shutter speeds especially if you're happy to have some motion blur at the wingtips now the feeling of speed this portrays can be really powerful in a flight image in terms of f-stops using high shutter speeds means you need to shoot with wide open apertures i often shoot birds in flight at f4 on my 600 millimeter for example although f4 provides a shallow depth of field it's usually spot on if the subject is a small bird or a large bird some distance away now in these scenarios if the eye is in focus which is a must-rule bird photography the rest of the bird will be in acceptable focus f4 also provides excellent background blur or bokeh and can make even busy backgrounds more attractive in the image but what if the bird is flying close or your subject is a large bird with a large wingspan in these instances to get the eye and the rest of the bird an acceptable focus you may need to stop down the aperture to say f6 or even to f8 so for birds in flight my aperture is set between f4 and f8 to increase the reach of my gear i often use the 1.4 times teleconverter with my sony fe 600 this makes the widest aperture 5.6 now this combination with the added reach and the greater depth of field provided by f6 has worked really well and i'd certainly recommend it for birds in flight photography using manual mode with auto iso means i can change shutter speed and aperture very quickly in the field without taking my eye away from the viewfinder such an important skill for birds in flight photography and talking about skill onto the second s skill [Music] skill is often overlooked but in my view it's probably the most vital component of successful flight photography what skill am i talking about well it's hand-eye coordination the hand-eye coordination needed to raise the camera to your eye and find the fast flying bird in the viewfinder and in an instant not to mention the skill of tracking the bird across the scene keeping it in the viewfinder keeping the focus there on it at the same time trying to create the perfect composition it's not just skill but high skill i never underestimate just how difficult this can be in my experience the best biff photographers are the ones who can get on the bird fast giving the auto focus system a much better chance of acquiring focus before the bird has disappeared into the sunset but there's good news in the old adage practice makes perfect like most skills it can be acquired and improved with the right amount of practice you might recall a famous story about the golfer gary player that has no doubt become exaggerated over the years now player was practicing at a greenside bunker when a man with a large hat walked by player chipped the ball out of the bunker onto the green and straight into the hole the man with a large hat bet gary player fifty dollars he couldn't do it again player repeated the shot with the same result the man with a large hat said i wish i was as lucky as that at golf and player retorted the harder i practice the luckier i get so practice practice and practice some more there are plenty of places like local parks and lakes you can practice on common large and slow flying birds like crows gulls and ducks now i started my working life as a teacher of physical education i learned early on that great skill is built from a solid base so think about the best stance and grip for birds in flight shots let's just pop outside and examine that in a bit more detail okay you join me in my front garden um on this cold uh winter's afternoon or certainly cold for us softly southerners now let's talk about grip now obviously don't want to teach granny to suck eggs here but essentially my grip pretty standard so one finger on the shutter release that's the index finger and my thumb on the back button for focus and in terms of holding the lens just one hand underneath the barrel so i get into that position and pretty much i use this every time i take a shot so this is the grip one thing i will point out that these telephoto lenses have function buttons on the barrel and about a year ago i covered this lens or actually it was a canon lens in this lens co and forgot about these buttons and every now and again my focus wouldn't work because i was pressing the uh focus hold button on the barrel so just be aware if you cover your buttons make sure you don't touch them inadvertently and let's talk about stance so for flight photography and these large lenses you know you can easily become unbalanced so a good idea to have your feet at least shoulder width apart so let's go back a bit at least shoulder width apart and if i'm facing this way to shoot at that sort of 90 degree angle i put one foot forward and pretty much every time i raise the camera and i swivel the hips to trap the bird so again bird raise the camera swivel the hips trap the bird and that's pretty you know what it is a solid grip a solid stance and you'll take some great pictures and really get that ingrained so you do the same thing every time okay let's go back in once you have a solid grip and stance work on raising the camera to your eye and locating a flying bird in the viewfinder focusing and shooting use the same technique over and over again until it becomes ingrained and as quick as it can be one tip if you struggle to find the bird in the viewfinder it might help to keep both eyes open one eye looking through the viewfinder and the other locked onto the bird this can help and once you've mastered this skill you'll find it easier to move to using just the one eye through the viewfinder give it a go if it helps for me birds in flight photography is much more about your skill than your equipment so onto the third s study [Music] plenty of study is important read books and magazines use the internet and bird citing apps and develop a network of burning friends to help you find great subjects and great locations study birds to understand their habits and their behaviors and where you're likely to find them you'll find birds at and around food sources drinking roosting courtship displaying and nesting sites find these sites and you'll be presented with many opportunities for great flight images but please observe the rules and regulations around photographing birds in and around their nests the welfare of buzz always comes first most birds exhibit certain behaviors before they take off they might stretch their wings shake their feathers call out lighten up by having a poo or simply rocking forward learn to recognize these behaviors for the species you encounter learn to anticipate takeoff take off shots are interesting in themselves but the sooner you can get on a bird in flight the better the fourth s is for setup set up for success when you've found a great location set yourself up for great biff shots think about the sun and the wind and find the best place to position yourself ideally position yourself with the sun to your back for well-lit flight shots the golden hours provide the best lighting for flight shots with the sun low in the sky also don't be afraid to experiment with backlit subjects light glowing through the feathers can be superb but of course don't overdo it remember that birds like to take off into the wind for added lift if you have the wind at your back you might get some great head on flight shots and if you want great sidearm panning shots have the sun to your back and the wind coming from the side try to position yourself so you have an interesting yet clean background preferably not the sky or clouds although it's easy on the autofocus with these backgrounds you can't be a flight shot with a clean background with wonderful voca try your best to shoot at eye level to the bird you'll be rewarded with far more interesting engaging and compelling shots [Music] you might need to find high ground for this avoid taking too many underside or sky shots where possible just not so interesting in my view i always try to be ready for flight shots if i'm walking about birding i have my camera ready and set to f4 and one two thousandth of a second you typically have more time to adjust your settings for a perch bird shot than you do a flight shot hand hold the camera where possible remember flight photography is high skill tripods can impede the skill in my view so that brings us to the fifth and penultima s style always think about the style of flight image you want to take ahead of the photo session do you want a close detailed head-on shot or do you want a sideways panning shot or would a wider environmental shot be better i have to say there are some great environmental flight shots to be had and i use this style every now and again but my usual style involves closer shooting with the bird filling the frame albeit through a crop in post-processing when i compose a shot i use the rule of thirds the bird filling two thirds of the frame with the eye on the line between the middle and outer third giving the bird a third to fly into this seems to work really well for me i would say my best shots are with the bird either head on or flying directly past birds flying away or our shots don't normally make for great images but there can be exceptions to this rule now pay attention to wing position in your flight shots my preference is for extended wings at the top to the side or all the way down i always far on continuous shooting drive mode with the highest frame rate to guarantee at least one perfect wing position from a sequence of shots okay so on to the sixth and final s which is story [Music] i have hundreds of bird and flight images in my portfolio and i'll leave a link below just in case you want to take a look most of these shots are technically sound the eyes in focus exposure is fine depth of field allowing for enough of the bird to be in focus and motion blur eliminated other than maybe at the wingtips perhaps but when i look back critically i realize many of these images could have been more dramatic and compelling by telling more of a story in the image by capturing additional behaviors for example hunting displaying courting eating fighting calling nesting feeding and many more common bird behaviors here are some examples of the types of image i mean [Music] do flight coupled with additional behaviors tells more of a meaningful story and makes image far more attractive and compelling so that's it for another video i hope you enjoyed it um if you enjoyed it and would like to see more then please like comment and subscribe i look forward to join you in the next video stay safe and bye for now [Music] uh [Music] so so [Music] you

Channel: Phil Gower Bird Photography

Views: 70,705

Keywords: Bird Photography for Beginners, Birds in Flight Photography, BIF Photography, Sony A7R4, Canon 5DSR, Wildlife Photography, Nature Photography, Bird Photography, Wildlife Photography Tips, Bird Photography Tips, Bird Photography Settings, Photographing birds in flight, Wildlife photography for beginners, wildlife photography equipment, wildlife photographer

Id: EtXNE5LDdLI

Length: 21min 16sec (1276 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021