live birds

csgrafix · May 12, 2010

Just had a question on the first pic about settings to capture the bird in flight without blured wings. It was getting late and was overcast, I was shooting through a window with canon 7d 28-135mm kit lens. I think I had lens open as much as possible, bumped the iso up to 1250 and added +3 exposure comp to get a higher shutter speed.
lol, does that sound crazy or what ?
Just need to know if i`m headed in the right direction here.
First two through glass window, second two hanging out of window ..sortof.

1.

2. This one was one of thoes walking by saw the bird ran for camera and took quick shot. Sorry for the tarp.

3.

4.

Ryan L · May 12, 2010

well, I am on my phone so it's hard to tell. But you get a BIG +1 from me for posting live birds vs the dead ones posted lately!

csgrafix · May 12, 2010

Ryan L said:
well, I am on my phone so it's hard to tell. But you get a BIG +1 from me for posting live birds vs the dead ones posted lately!

Yeaa ! LOL Hence the tittle

benlonghair · May 12, 2010

In short, with the amount of light you had, you don't.

There's a bit in Understand Exposure that would explain it...

"For example if you were photographing a bronco rider at a distance of ten to twenty feet with a wide angle or normal lens, you'd have to have a shutter speed of at least 1/500 sec. to freeze the action. If you were at a distance of one hundred feet with a wide angle or normal lens his size and motion would diminish considerably, so a shutter speed of 1/125 sec. would be sufficient. If you were at a distance of fifty feet and using the frame-filling power of a 200mm telephoto lens, 1/500 sec. would be necessary (just as if you were ten feet from the action). Finally you would need a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec. if the bronco rider was moving parallel to you and filled the frame either through your lens choice or your ability to move close." (Understanding Exposure, Bryan Peterson, p. 76)

Basically the bigger the subject is relative to the frame the faster your shutter needs to be to stop motion.

Sbuxo · May 12, 2010

lmao I came to comment on the epic title, too.

csgrafix · May 12, 2010

1/640 was the shutter speed of the first image. I didn't continue with a higher iso, I guess a faster lens would have been good for a situation like that.

benlonghair · May 12, 2010

csgrafix said:
1/640 was the shutter speed of the first image. I didn't continue with a higher iso, I guess a faster lens would have been good for a situation like that.

Faster lens, higher ISO, external light. Those would be your three options.

myfotoguy · May 12, 2010

Yeah, a faster lens, and maybe even more light.

I don't know what is required to stop flapping wings of a bird, but I'll bet it's a lot faster than we realize. 1/640 stops a lot of action, but it doesn't look like that was near enough.

You could search Flikr for samples and check the settings to see what kinds of shutter speeds others are using, or maybe even the nature/animal gallery on this forum.

If you have a speedlight with high speed sync, depending on distance to subject, that might help some too.

I like how in the first shot you captured the bird just as it landed on the edge of the roof (or is it just taking off?). Great timing. I actually like the blur of the wings, as it sows the action, and I think adds to the shot.

The last one has great timing too, as the bird is poking its head out of the door, feet planted ready to make its next move.

csgrafix · May 12, 2010

Thanks for the input. Heres a few more thought worth posting.

5.

6.
Thought this looked cool with closed wings

7.
Theres two of them, they've been working hard for the past few days.

Hope its not too much for one thread.
Cheers ...or rather chirps !

benlonghair · May 12, 2010

You might want to consider scaling your images for posting. Generally, I stay at 1024 pixels on the long side. Huge images (even ones that shrink) kill my browser here at work, and I'm sure others would agree.