Flying Bird Photography Techniques. Capture amazing images of birds in flight using these simple and effective techniques. Watch the video now to see how to photograph flying birds – https://www.firstmanphotography.com/tutorials/birds-in-flight
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Check out my good friend, and awesome nature photographer, Lyle McCalmont who gets me into all the right spots to shoot birds in flight. Thanks for letting me use your images again.
https://www.instagram.com/lylemc/
Other Videos – https://www.firstmanphotography.com/reviews/canon-400mm-f5-6l-review
Wildlife photography is an extremely popular area of photography Capturing birds in flight is one of the most challenging and rewarding shots to capture in all of photography especially when there is often no second chance.
In this video we going have a look at:
The gear you will need
Discuss the settings that will produce the most consistent results
Go through a couple of techniques for actually shooting the shot.
Gear
Any modern DSLR will be good enough for capturing birds in flight. Many photographers talk about the extra reach a cropped sensor camera gives but I really would not worry about this. This is not the limiting factor in capturing great shots. It is much better to choose a camera with great auto focus system.
A good long lens is a must for wildlife photography. These lenses can get expensive but the combination of length, quality and auto focus speed are what really matter. Cheaper kit style long lenses like a Cnon 70-300 often just will not focus quickly enough to capture a bird in flight no matter what camera you put it on.
Something like the Canon 400mm f5.6L is ideal and won’t break the bank entirely. Check out my review of this here – https://www.firstmanphotography.com/reviews/canon-400mm-f5-6l-review
IS is not massively important because we use such a fast shutter speed that will freeze the action but a lens with lateral IS can really help tracking your subject.
You may also want a tripod or mono pod to assist if your gear starts to get heavy.
Settings
Once you have the gear we need to think about the settings we’re going to use.
The first thing to set is the Focus mode.
Continuous auto focus is where you need to be. They have different names on different cameras but it want Ai servo on a Canon or afc on nikon. Where one shot focus locks in on the subject this will continue to adjust focus every time the subject moves in relation to your camera. This is what you want when tracking the bird.
You will need to keep the bird over your focus point. I use the centre focus point but this is personal taste. If your camera supports it, try using the five centre focus points or just try it on auto.
Next is our main camera mode. You can use shutter priority mode but we should start as we mean to go on so flick the camera into manual. This may sound scary but once you have practiced a bit the settings are simple and make a lot of sense.
Firstly shutter speed should be set at least 1/1000 second. This will ensure the bird is frozen and sharp. You can increase your chances of getting a sharp shot by stopping down to increase your depth of field. Use around f/7.1 or f/8 if lighting conditions are reasonable. You then need to use ISO to balance your exposure depending on your light. Many long lenses have max apertures ranging from f/4 to f/6.3 so you can expect to be using ISO settings of up to ISO 1250, especially if you stop down. To keep your image clean I would resist going beyond 1250.
Technique
I am a big fan of hand-holding and it’s where I get the most positive results. It is also why I love the 400mm f5.6L because it’s not too heavy and I can handhold it all day meaning I can more mobile. The technique I use is to plant my feet and then twist at the hips. See the video.
So that’s the basics, and probably the easy bit. You then need to go out and start finding our feathered friends. They are not always too keen to fly nicely in front of your lens so when the opportunity comes, don’t miss.
Original source
21 responses to “How to capture birds in flight – Wildlife Photography Tutorial”
Lots of help. Thank you !! And a new subscriber for you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for making this tutorial, I just started taking photos of wildlife and I hope to take tons of photos of birds in flight, this helped a lot!
Really enjoyed the video and great to see someone actually giving the correct settings and advice, thank you
Great vid. Just try to balance the sound a bit more out in the future 🙂
explained everything easy and simple
Nice tips, but i really wanted to see you shooting birds. Maybe like a vlog so i can understand the experience better.
great video. thank you. any opinion on trying to photograph BIF w an olympus micro 4/3rds system?
Thanks I am learning by renting a Canon 7d markii w/ a 100-400 lens. Is the 400 fixed lens a little lighter weight? This came w/ a tripod leg and that makes it a little heavier I think but not sure how to remove it since i am renting it for a week. ha I love bids and wildlife photos so that's why I am trying this one.
Big Adam the Bear. Thanks for the video. very useful sir.
Thank you for your suggestions.
ISO 1000 as a maximum? I am not sure that will be high enough when there is not a lot of sunlight
in the river behind you is there any fishes .
Very informative. Thanks!
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Good tutorial. One point I would make regards aperture. Most quality lenses are sharp wide open or close to wide open and depth of field is not that critical for BIF. Just focus on the eye. You need all the light you can get so I often shut down the lens by only 1/3 – 2/3 stop which gives me more light through the lens and the ability to optimize shutter speed and ISO.
Very good video thank you for sharing your knowledge. I am just beginning to take an interest in wildlife photography and was shooting in aperture mode and I have quickly realised I have the wrong equipment ) normally landscape photography) I use a Nikon D810 and the best lens I have is a 70-200mm f2.8 and use it with a 1.7tc although I do notice image quality is reduced using the TC. I wondered if you knew of a decent lens for Nikon (or compatible) that again wont break the bank that I could capture some quality images of birds in flight. Many thanks
Great video. Not sure that IS is necessary when shooting at 1/1000th and higher however. It can degrade image quality a bit. Personally, I use IS only for low light conditions, and am shooting below 1/1000th sec (usually around 1/100th or so). Never when using a tripod either.
The biggest problem beginners face is getting the bird framed in the view finder. The way you demonstrated in the video will not work for 90% of the people especially with a 1.4 TC. I do believe it works for you, may be you are one of those flying target shooter who can fire without using a gun sight at least you look like one. The way it should be done is to establish a point on top of the camera with the tip of the lens like using a gun sight. Denise in the Art Morris B&H video demonstrated this pretty well. Another point is that I would be shocked to find that you even fill 1/4 of the frame with a 400mm as most birds don't let you get that close. May be it is where you live that spoiled you but where we live most birds don't get closer than 100ft when they are in flight. Please understand they have a choice of the flight paths and they often choose to not fly towards you. Remember they have great sight even when you are wearing camo. In my experience for BIF, the minimum is a 1.4x TC, preferably with a crop body or you will end up having to heavily crop all your photos to a point it is unusable. I have no idea how you were able to get that close, it has to be the place you live, not saying your are bragging. Another point is a full frame is only good when it is a super high resolution, like the D810, 5DSR, 5DMark IV or A7Rii otherwise the bird is just too small without enough detail. A crop camera with high frame rate would be the better choice for BIF is something like the D500, 7DMark ii. I do like your point about rotating the hips to steady the pan so your video provides good value. Great work.
Excellent presentation. It has helped me out alot. thanks
Straightforward instruction on the basics of bird photography. A refreshing change many thanks…from a beginner