Great White Pelican

[Nitin Choudhary]

Nikon D3000
speed: 1/250s
aperture: f/5.6
300mm
ISO: 100

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice close up. The eye contact is nice. I liked the details on the beak and the colours. Where was this photographed? Thanks for sharing. Look forward to more.

[Nitin Choudhary]

thank you...
Can anyone brief me on how to take flying shots?
I always lag the sharpness and composition in that

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nitin,
How much crop is this? The eye contact is nice. The details in the pelican is good. Some more space at the bottom and left would have been better.

For flight: You have to notice from which direction the birds are flying and accordingly position yourself. Acquiring focus becomes easier if you prefocus your lens at the spot the bird is going to pass or land. That reduces the lens hunting for focus. After you acquire focus follow the bird and click where the background and eye contact is optimal.

Too often, I find photographers firing away even though the bird would have flown past the photographer. This happens because people acquire the focus late and when the bird has flown past the photographer, the photographer doesn't feel like giving up. :-)

Focus point: The central focus point is often the fastest in acquiring focus. So when you are trying to focus a bird in flight, it becomes easier to place the central AF point on the body of the bird and acquire focus and then allow other AF points to pick up the focus and click.

Shutter Speed: You need a fast shutter speed to freeze motion. The wing beats of a large bird is slower and you can use a relatively slower shutter speed vis-a-vis smaller birds.

You should also check the tutorial regarding sharpness. http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=268

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Dr. Kalpamoi Kakati]

Hi Sabyasachi,
Thanks for those excellent tips for bird in flight photography.Few points I want to ask to clarify my doubts -first,when you are shooting a bird against the clear sky where do you get the points to prefocus,
Second,what should be EC when shooting a bird against the clear sky,
third, what should be your AF modes,one shot,AI or AI servo,
Fourth,How to get Panning effect at such a fast shutter speed,
And of course most important question for me :)-which is the best lens for these kind of shots?

Regards
Kalpa

Nitin,
How much crop is this? The eye contact is nice. The details in the pelican is good. Some more space at the bottom and left would have been better.

For flight: You have to notice from which direction the birds are flying and accordingly position yourself. Acquiring focus becomes easier if you prefocus your lens at the spot the bird is going to pass or land. That reduces the lens hunting for focus. After you acquire focus follow the bird and click where the background and eye contact is optimal.

Too often, I find photographers firing away even though the bird would have flown past the photographer. This happens because people acquire the focus late and when the bird has flown past the photographer, the photographer doesn't feel like giving up. :-)

Focus point: The central focus point is often the fastest in acquiring focus. So when you are trying to focus a bird in flight, it becomes easier to place the central AF point on the body of the bird and acquire focus and then allow other AF points to pick up the focus and click.

Shutter Speed: You need a fast shutter speed to freeze motion. The wing beats of a large bird is slower and you can use a relatively slower shutter speed vis-a-vis smaller birds.

You should also check the tutorial regarding sharpness. http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=268

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Nitin Choudhary]

thank you Sabayasachi Sir... what does "crop" actually mean?

[Mrudul Godbole]

[QUOTE= what does "crop" actually mean?[/QUOTE]

If you cut (remove or eliminate) some part of the image and try to enlarge the main subject it is called 'Cropping'. If you post an image without removing any part as it is, then it is a 'Full Frame' image.

The proportion in which the image is cropped (10% or 50% of the original) can be known when the subject appears abnormally large in the frame even if a smaller focal length is used.

Also, when you crop a lot, the depth of field appears higher.

[Nitin Choudhary]

ok.. thank you.
and what is the crop factor in lenses?

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice details and colours.TFS

[Sabyasachi Patra]

1. Prefocus: Obviously you can't prefocus anywhere in the sky. If you know that a bird is going to land on a perch or going to fly infront of you, then you estimate the distance and manually focus in the area. Without any reference point, it would not be easy to prefocus.

2. Focus Assist: When you are trying to click a bird, just help the camera acquire focus quickly by turning the focus ring manually to bring in near focus. The AF will then immediately lock into it.

3. When you are shooting against the sky, the amount of positive exposure compensation you have to dial in depends upon how big the bird is in the frame. It can be +2/3 to +1 depending upon situation. If time permits, then you can give a quick glance at your histogram to know. When you have more experience, you can try to go manual by learning exposure theory. http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1970

4. Panning is for lower shutter speeds. If the bird is flying fast, then you can get panning effect in slightly higher shutter speeds.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

ok.. thank you.
and what is the crop factor in lenses?

There is no crop factor in lenses. It is about camera sensor.

For example: The Canon 1 Series cameras and Nikon D3 and D3x cameras have full frame sensor which is equal in size to the negatives that we used to use in the film days.

For Other cameras, the sensors are smaller and your same lens appears to have longer reach. The cameras with smaller sensors are known as crop cameras. So we call those 1.6 crop camera (Canon 50D, 7D etc). Nikon has their 1.5 crop cameras.

[Bibhav Behera]

Nice eye contact here Nitin. A still narrower aperture would have been great here. The whites look well in control and are not blown. Thanks for sharing.