Went out yesterday to photograph the USS New York. On the way there I spotted some seagulls, ?, flying around in circles so I decided to give BIF a try Didn't have my 300mm with me but I did have my 70-200mm f/2.8 non IS and 1.4x TC. OMG! It was so tough to follow the birds around. Even with a shutter speed of 1/8000 and high burst I had a very very hard time getting a decent shot. Must have taken over 30 photos and only 3 were decent. This was the most interesting shot out of the 3 Think I'll go back and practice with my 300mm f/4 and 1.4x TC next time
Congrats on your success. That first shot is a nice BIF example. After about 25,000 more frames BIF won't seem so hard Besides, 3 good shots out of 30 is more than some of us get. It's like golf - that one good shot out of a whole day on the course makes it worth it.
mark fadely wrote:
Congrats on your success. That first shot is a nice BIF example. After about 25,000 more frames BIF won't seem so hard Besides, 3 good shots out of 30 is more than some of us get. It's like golf - that one good shot out of a whole day on the course makes it worth it.
That looks pretty good. Chris. The bird was caught well and there is another point of interest in the composition that you might wish to explore to its full potential sometime in the future.....an unfurled flag etc.
Seagulls also make excellent BIF photography practice targets because they are generally plentiful in many parts of the Continent, they do not shun humans and have relatively easy flight pattern.
A few suggestions:
(1) 300 f/4 bare (i.e., no TCs) makes a very good BIF lens.
(2) Generally speaking, shutter speed 1000-2000/sec is sufficient. If you wanna portray wing tip blur, then dial in a value closer to 1000/sec.
(3) Shoot at no faster than 3 FPS. Very carefully observe/maintain focus while tracking and firing.
(4) Avoid at all costs shooting common birds (like seagulls) against vacant sky.
Any nicely diffused/blurred background is better than no background. Obviously, if you chance upon an uncommon bird, you'd fire at it whatever the background might be.
As an example, here is a shot I took yesterday. Although the bird's head is shaded, I felt it had merit to it because of the appealing background.
Thanks Peter and GREAt shot! I tried to get some blurred building as a background but those shots I totally missed the bird. I'm definitely going back with my 300 next time. Set to IS #2 and fire away I'll also preset my high burst to 3 not 8 200mm with 1.4x TC was still pretty short and the birds weren't too far away, at least I thought so Thanks again for the tips!
PetKal wrote:
That looks pretty good. Chris. The bird was caught well and there is another point of interest in the composition that you might wish to explore to its full potential sometime in the future.....an unfurled flag etc.
Seagulls also make excellent BIF photography practice targets because they are generally plentiful in many parts of the Continent, they do not shun humans and have relatively easy flight pattern.
A few suggestions:
(1) 300 f/4 bare (i.e., no TCs) makes a very good BIF lens.
(2) Generally speaking, shutter speed 1000-2000/sec is sufficient. If you wanna portray wing tip blur, then dial in a value closer to 1000/sec.
(3) Shoot at no faster than 3 FPS. Very carefully observe/maintain focus while tracking and firing.
(4) Avoid at all costs shooting common birds (like seagulls) against vacant sky.
Any nicely diffused/blurred background is better than no background. Obviously, if you chance upon an uncommon bird, you'd fire at it whatever the background might be.
As an example, here is a shot I took yesterday. Although the bird's head is shaded, I felt it had merit to it because of the appealing background....Show more →
Thank you, Chris, glad you like it.
I think it is good to experiment and find your own ways when it comes to framing, background, exposure etc. For example, this is a bit of an extreme framing attempt, however, those things often work differently on different viewers.....this is just to give ya some different ideas.
PetKal wrote:
Thank you, Chris, glad you like it.
I think it is good to experiment and find your own ways when it comes to framing, background, exposure etc. For example, this is a bit of an extreme framing attempt, however, those things often work differently on different viewers.....this is just to give ya some different ideas.
Didn't have my 300mm with me but I did have my 70-200mm f/2.8 non IS and 1.4x TC. OMG! It was so tough to follow the birds around. Even with a shutter speed of 1/8000 and high burst I had a very very hard time getting a decent shot. Must have taken over 30 photos and only 3 were decent. This was the most interesting shot out of the 3 
I'll keep practicing 
I tried to get some blurred building as a background but those shots I totally missed the bird. I'm definitely going back with my 300 next time. Set to IS #2 and fire away