Birds of a Feather

[Colin Southern]

I had a bit of time between sets today so I thought I'd shoot a few BIF.

Hope you all enjoy.

Most shot at 200mm and heavily cropped - need a 200 - 400mm + 1.4x

[Shadowman]

Nice series. Tracking would be more difficult with your proposed setup.

[Colin Southern]

Nice series. Tracking would be more difficult with your proposed setup.

Thanks.

Yes - a bit more hit and miss, but better IQ when a "hit".

[Donald]

Impressive, Colin. Given that they're heavy crops, we're really seeing the quality of the lens (and the sharpening skills) in terms of the detail in them.

[Colin Southern]

Impressive, Colin. Given that they're heavy crops, we're really seeing the quality of the lens (and the sharpening skills) in terms of the detail in them.

Thanks Donald -- I had to tweak some of my usual sharpening numbers due to the heavier cropping.

[jprzybyla]

Hello Colin, welcome to my world... the birds. These images plus the EXIF data provide an opportunity to study and learn. Beautiful gulls shown with the professionalism I have come to expect from your photography. Looking at the EXIF data I noticed that the metering mode was Multi-Segment, is that the same as Nikon's Matrix Mode?

[Colin Southern]

Hello Colin, welcome to my world... the birds. These images plus the EXIF data provide an opportunity to study and learn. Beautiful gulls shown with the professionalism I have come to expect from your photography. Looking at the EXIF data I noticed that the metering mode was Multi-Segment, is that the same as Nikon's Matrix Mode?

Thanks Joe,

It was in what Canon call "Evaluative" mode, which I believe is the same as Nikon's Matrix mode. If the light is coming from the right direction then there's no need for anything fancy when it comes to metering. About the only "trick" I use is to use a negative EC of -2/3 to saturate the sky a bit and raise the shutterspeed a bit (all shot at 100 ISO off memory, but at F2.8 - so fairly high shutterspeeds).

[jprzybyla]

Thanks Colin. I set the EV to -2/3 or -1 here in Florida to keep areas of white on birds from clipping and loosing detail. The only way I have found in the bright summer light to control it. What are your thoughts on that?

[Brownbear]

Beautiful images. Thanks for sharing (nice to see some of your BIF)

[FrankMi]

I would love to capture BIF as gracefully as these Colin. I need to spend more time getting out and working at it though as I'm not yet ready to blame my equipment! LOL!

[NorthernFocus]

OK, now you're just showing off. "Oh I'm a bit bored, think I'll go out and try my hand at a bit of birds in flight photography. Ho hum..."

The first four are really nice. The first and fourth are my favorites as the feathers on back of wings tend to be more interesting than those beneath. You're flaunting convention a bit with some of your crop choices.

[Wavelength]

Excellent shots

[jamn4ex]

These shots all share exquisite feather detail. Leaving a high bench mark for everyone else.

[Digital]

Colin, amazing photographs.


Bruce

[Colin Southern]

Thanks Colin. I set the EV to -2/3 or -1 here in Florida to keep areas of white on birds from clipping and loosing detail. The only way I have found in the bright summer light to control it. What are your thoughts on that?

Hi Joe,

If you're shooting RAW then it probably doesn't make a lot of difference. At the time I'm shooting slightly under-exposed, so the sky looks nice and pretty much zero chance of clipping, but in PP I'm generally increasing the exposure by anything up to 1.5 stops. Because it's a RAW capture and shot at base ISO my dynamic range is huge - and because the gulls are fundamentally white and the lens is F2.8 I get high shutterspeeds and little noise - so focusing is really my only concern - and with a 1D X doing the focusing it's all "a bit to easy" to be honest. On the other hand if someone was photographing darker bird - with a slower lens - on a darker day - with a less lethal AF system - then it would get a lot harder and compromises would need to be make.

Probably the best advice I can give is keep the light behind you & shoot wide open at the highest shutterspeed you can that doesn't involve going to too high an ISO (especially if your lens is a bit on the short size like mind) (because a short lens means more aggressive cropping which means the AF has to have been deathly accurate, plus it'll show the noise more).

[Colin Southern]

Beautiful images. Thanks for sharing (nice to see some of your BIF)

Thanks Christina,

I don't shoot them very often - all I tend to see is gulls, gulls, and more gulls around here!

[Colin Southern]

I would love to capture BIF as gracefully as these Colin. I need to spend more time getting out and working at it though as I'm not yet ready to blame my equipment! LOL!

It's definitely an area of photography that can push things to the limit as it often requires long focal lengths - good AF performance - fast glass - and then if the bird is dark or it's a dark day then it just makes it harder. Definitely a lot of "spray and pray"!

[Colin Southern]

OK, now you're just showing off. "Oh I'm a bit bored, think I'll go out and try my hand at a bit of birds in flight photography. Ho hum..."

The first four are really nice. The first and fourth are my favorites as the feathers on back of wings tend to be more interesting than those beneath. You're flaunting convention a bit with some of your crop choices.

It actually came about when I got an eMail at 5pm saying shots were needed of some departing fishing boats with a new colour scheme -- and they're leaving at 6pm! Gear was already packed so I raced down to a well-known vantage point (same one where I shot my "in search of santa" shot) and setup. First boat did in fact leave at 6pm but the next two were tide limited and had to wait until about 7pm to leave - so I ended up with an hour to kill (somewhat hot, glary, and boring!)

I don't do a lot of BIF, but at the end of the day - like like any shooting - it's all starts with the right foundations, and I'm at a stage where most of those are pretty instinctive now (I know wide-open isn't going to cause DoF issues at that distance - I know it's going to need a high shutter-speed - I know it's going to need SERVO AF etc). Hardest part was locking on the initial AF because I had a really busy background in many cases.

With regards to cropping, I was going to make them all square just for consistency, but the one 2:3 image is actually 100% un-cropped! The AF didn't quite nail the focus 100%, but got it close enough that a little sharpening and down-sampling did the job.

[Colin Southern]

Excellent shots

Thanks Nandakumar!

These shots all share exquisite feather detail. Leaving a high bench mark for everyone else.

Thanks James! The new process in ACR makes it easy to control highlight and shadow detail nicely. I haven't liked the new version process until now, but for BIF it's been great.

Colin, amazing photographs.


Bruce

Thanks Bruce!

[FlyingSquirrel]

Very nice shots! Sorry to hijack the thread but...I have not done very much with BIF in the past and what I have done is not great. However, I went out today with the new 500 f4 IS II and had a go at some hawks and such. As expected, it was very challenging, partially because of the narrow angle of view in the 500 (x1.6 crop sensor) and partially because the hawk kept banking and moving erratically. Most shots were flops, a few were surprisingly good and decently sharp. Would have liked the bird to be closer, but some have it about 1/4 of the frame so not too bad. With more practice I suspect I will master it. I tried the 500+1.4tc...a flying bird through a 700mm x 1.6 crop is not easy to get in the viewfinder!!! When I did, the AF struggled to the point of being useless, but I guess the light was a bit low.

Will edit some and post up sometime soon.

Excellent work on these!