arbitrage wrote:
Thanks for bringing this over here also Mark. I think a lot of people will/should benefit from this info. This is what getting good images is all about...not $10,000 lenses
As promised in the original thread.......Voted TOTW
Geoff,
You are very kind and thank you. I hope some people can benefit from this. BIF shooting is so rewarding partially because it's so challenging.
of the more difficult things with IFs is keeping your backgrounds good. It you are careful about that before you start shooting it will be to your benefit. I'll also try to stop firing once the subject moves passed the good background.
I forgot where else I was going with this I may come back later and add to it
Thank you, and thanks for adding your input. This is the kind of response I was hoping to get. My intention was for this to become an on-going thread where expert BIF shooters such as yourself could share their techniques and advice.
Mark
Feb 21, 2014 at 07:42 AM
Herb Houghton Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
Very nice set Mark. It's very informative too. I like the pelicans best. I have enjoyed the same experience numerous times just south of there in Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo. I've been using the same cab drivers for 15 yrs down there, just get their cell phone number and you have a guide for life at the location. Nice informative post Mark and on Tim's comment on overzealous bursting: I know it well, to the point where I've had buffer overload holding me back from shooting and watching an eagle whiz by close whereas all my previous shots writing in buffer were all too much crop. TFS
Christian H wrote:
Baited shots are always easier to get, but I vote yes on getting close as opposed to using long glass. Experienced wildlife photographers can get surprisingly close to their subjects with 300-500 mm lenses. Longer glass makes sense if you have limited mobility - can't/won't/not allowed to leave the vehicle or parking lot - or if you must have good background separation with small f-stops. But for most shooting situations +/- 400 mm works great: long enough to get you some reach but not so long as to keep you from conveying any sort of intimacy. Plus, the ease of handholding in this focal range....Show more →
Hi Christian,
Thanks for your response. Although I don't bait birds myself I do take advantage of situations where baiting occurs. Fishing areas, Outdoor dolphin shows, bird feeders in nature preserves and back yards are all examples of baiting where good opportunities can be found that cause no harm to the birds. As you mention, it's about getting close to the birds without disturbing their natural environment. I'm glad you brought this up because baiting and encroachment on the birds' territory is always a sensitive issue. If your presence is causing stress for the bird or if their habits change because you have done then it's not a good idea to be doing what you are doing.
Target proximity does allow shorter lenses to be used and lighter lenses are a huge advantage for BIF. Smaller birds are very difficult to capture with lenses over 400mm.
arbitrage wrote:
Although everything Tim says is worth its weight in gold...I had to single out this paragraph as I just spent this morning driving myself crazy as I deleted 5000 images that were absolutely stupid to even take but that is what happens when you get new toys
Wasted frames is certainly a reality when shooting BIF. With that said I don't get too careful when blasting away at 10fps because I have found that sometimes what I think may be a mediocre shot in the field actually turns out to be quite spectacular when viewed on a full size monitor. This usually happens with certain beautiful lighting in the morning or evening (delicious hour). I can think of a time when I was panning a shot in burst mode and the camera ended up pointed directly into the sun creating a silhouette of the bird and I accidentally made a really stunning image. Tim is right though, most often you just get excited and shoot a lot of wasted frames.
acjd wrote:
Sorry, I put this post in the wrong forum. It was meant for this thread. Confusing.
Mark
Thank you very much for taking the time to write this and tell your story. Well done and I really like the Pelican.
You wrote: Please share your ideas and techniques that allow you to “get the shot”. . One question. There was a day when all cameras were manual mode. I learned using a camera without a meter (yes, I am really old). Back in the day you learned sunny 16 or you didn't get a picture. Or you were rich and bought a meter.
In any case, times change and these new fangled cameras are really computers. So why not take advantage of that? Regardless of the color of the bird, why not just leave it on AV or TV, using spot metering, and single point with minimal expansion as noted by Tim?
The whole point of spot metering is to meter only on your subject, let the background be whatever. So why not take advantage of that little computer in the camera? Yes, you need to be able to track the bird, as Tim noted, but that just takes time to learn.
edit. Oops. When I mentioned Tim, I meant what he wrote on the Canon thread. So confusing Oops ...Show more →
Sorry for the double post Acjd, and thanks for your comment and question.
You are correct in that the new cameras are computers and have all the technology to make things easier. The problem is that spot metering doesn't really work well with BIF shooting. Some of the spot always ends up grabbing the light levels of the background and then the exposure is blown. That's why manual is still the way to go as the exposure level on the bird remains fairly constant while the background may vary wildly from sky to ground etc.
Herb Houghton wrote:
Very nice set Mark. It's very informative too. I like the pelicans best. I have enjoyed the same experience numerous times just south of there in Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo. I've been using the same cab drivers for 15 yrs down there, just get their cell phone number and you have a guide for life at the location. Nice informative post Mark and on Tim's comment on overzealous bursting: I know it well, to the point where I've had buffer overload holding me back from shooting and watching an eagle whiz by close whereas all my previous shots writing in buffer were all too much crop. TFS...Show more →
Thanks Herb, and funny you do exactly the same thing with the cabbys on your trips. Also, I know too well about missing shots because of a full buffer. That's not a fun moment to see the bird fly by right in front of you and you can't take a shot
