So i was also trying to photograph Black and Brahminy kites the last couple of days and i shoot from my apartment balcony and the background is full of trees and a lot of vertical and horizontal lines, harsh reflections etc. Generally a tough test for any AF system. I noticed something similar when using 3D tracking, i.e. the camera instantly picks the background and its quite hard to acquire focus or even when it acquires the initial focus, it quickly gets distracted and the box goes all over the place. But guess what, try wide area-L and it works like a charm and i have never had such a success rate shooting in busy backgrounds with any other DSLRs i have used (D500/850/D4).
Wide area-L is my most used and favorite AF area mode now for incoming or diving birds but what i figured is, with brahminy kites which are similar to bald eagles, they have white heads and yellow eyes so the camera easily tracks the eyes and track them tenaciously whereas with black kites that are generally very dull brown colored birds with dark eyes, it is difficult for the eye af to work so most of the time, even when the bird fills the frame, the camera was trying to focus somewhere near the head/ eyes which is pretty good. Now on the flip side, the focus is sharp starting from the bird's eyes to all the way back to the tail but there are some frames where the beak is a bit soft. What i did today was to try the same wide area L mode with a small tweak. I have programmed my lens fn button with an RSF override to turn off subject detection. When a bird approaches, i track the bird using wide area-L with subject on and the moment the bird fills the frame , i press the lens-fn button to temporarily disable subject detection. When i do this, the wide area L seems to work based on close subject priority (just like the group AF), bingo now the beak and the eyes are in focus. This approach works best for me when i am shooting birds against a busy background.
Nikon's update that will allow customizing the box sizes will be a major update in my opinion for these type of use cases.
suteetat wrote:
Finally got out to try Z9 AF a bit. Now about 120 km away from where I live, there is a big flocks of black kites who are taking winter vacation here from the Himalayas annually for the next few months so it is quite convenient
Big disclaimer, I dont do bif very often and I am not very good at it but these black kites are relatively easy. All shot with 600/4e FL, FTZ ii, the first two picture was without TC. The first shot is cropped a bit, second shot was without cropping. The last 2 shots were with TC14e iii, no cropping. All wide opened.
[quote/]
I am horrible at following a bird. On D6, I had better luck with customized group focus where I have one straight line across the AF area for smaller faster birds and big focus area for bigger birds. I tried L- wide focus area today as well but had problem with keeping the bird in the focus area the whole time so using auto area AF seems to give me better result.
I definitely will try your suggestion next time I go out to shoot birds.
So i was also trying to photograph Black and Brahminy kites the last couple of days and i shoot from my apartment balcony and the background is full of trees and a lot of vertical and horizontal lines, harsh reflections etc. Generally a tough test for any AF system. I noticed something similar when using 3D tracking, i.e. the camera instantly picks the background and its quite hard to acquire focus or even when it acquires the initial focus, it quickly gets distracted and the box goes all over the place. But guess what, try wide area-L and it works like a charm and i have never had such a success rate shooting in busy backgrounds with any other DSLRs i have used (D500/850/D4).
Wide area-L is my most used and favorite AF area mode now for incoming or diving birds but what i figured is, with brahminy kites which are similar to bald eagles, they have white heads and yellow eyes so the camera easily tracks the eyes and track them tenaciously whereas with black kites that are generally very dull brown colored birds with dark eyes, it is difficult for the eye af to work so most of the time, even when the bird fills the frame, the camera was trying to focus somewhere near the head/ eyes which is pretty good. Now on the flip side, the focus is sharp starting from the bird's eyes to all the way back to the tail but there are some frames where the beak is a bit soft. What i did today was to try the same wide area L mode with a small tweak. I have programmed my lens fn button with an RSF override to turn off subject detection. When a bird approaches, i track the bird using wide area-L with subject on and the moment the bird fills the frame , i press the lens-fn button to temporarily disable subject detection. When i do this, the wide area L seems to work based on close subject priority (just like the group AF), bingo now the beak and the eyes are in focus. This approach works best for me when i am shooting birds against a busy background.
Nikon's update that will allow customizing the box sizes will be a major update in my opinion for these type of use cases.
suteetat wrote:
Finally got out to try Z9 AF a bit. Now about 120 km away from where I live, there is a big flocks of black kites who are taking winter vacation here from the Himalayas annually for the next few months so it is quite convenient
Big disclaimer, I dont do bif very often and I am not very good at it but these black kites are relatively easy. All shot with 600/4e FL, FTZ ii, the first two picture was without TC. The first shot is cropped a bit, second shot was without cropping. The last 2 shots were with TC14e iii, no cropping. All wide opened.
I am horrible at following a bird. On D6, I had better luck with customized group focus where I have one straight line across the AF area for smaller faster birds and big focus area for bigger birds. I tried L- wide focus area today as well but had problem with keeping the bird in the focus area the whole time so using auto area AF seems to give me better result.
I definitely will try your suggestion next time I go out to shoot birds.
So i was also trying to photograph Black and Brahminy kites the last couple of days and i shoot from my apartment balcony and the background is full of trees and a lot of vertical and horizontal lines, harsh reflections etc. Generally a tough test for any AF system. I noticed something similar when using 3D tracking, i.e. the camera instantly picks the background and its quite hard to acquire focus or even when it acquires the initial focus, it quickly gets distracted and the box goes all over the place. But guess what, try wide area-L and it works like a charm and i have never had such a success rate shooting in busy backgrounds with any other DSLRs i have used (D500/850/D4).
Wide area-L is my most used and favorite AF area mode now for incoming or diving birds but what i figured is, with brahminy kites which are similar to bald eagles, they have white heads and yellow eyes so the camera easily tracks the eyes and track them tenaciously whereas with black kites that are generally very dull brown colored birds with dark eyes, it is difficult for the eye af to work so most of the time, even when the bird fills the frame, the camera was trying to focus somewhere near the head/ eyes which is pretty good. Now on the flip side, the focus is sharp starting from the bird's eyes to all the way back to the tail but there are some frames where the beak is a bit soft. What i did today was to try the same wide area L mode with a small tweak. I have programmed my lens fn button with an RSF override to turn off subject detection. When a bird approaches, i track the bird using wide area-L with subject on and the moment the bird fills the frame , i press the lens-fn button to temporarily disable subject detection. When i do this, the wide area L seems to work based on close subject priority (just like the group AF), bingo now the beak and the eyes are in focus. This approach works best for me when i am shooting birds against a busy background.
Nikon's update that will allow customizing the box sizes will be a major update in my opinion for these type of use cases.
suteetat wrote:
Finally got out to try Z9 AF a bit. Now about 120 km away from where I live, there is a big flocks of black kites who are taking winter vacation here from the Himalayas annually for the next few months so it is quite convenient
Big disclaimer, I dont do bif very often and I am not very good at it but these black kites are relatively easy. All shot with 600/4e FL, FTZ ii, the first two picture was without TC. The first shot is cropped a bit, second shot was without cropping. The last 2 shots were with TC14e iii, no cropping. All wide opened.
Dec 30, 2021 at 09:05 AM
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