Birds In Flight

Before we start please remember you are talking to a newbie(ish). I've only been doing this a few years and 98% of shots are on auto.

I have a Panasonic Lumix FZ38. I'm trying to get away from sports mode and capture a bird in flight.

I've read a bit on the internet and when I changed to F8 thingymijig and upped to 800 thingymabob (it's all technical you know lol) the birds came out a blur. I messed around and got some picture that was passable for a bird in flight.

What should I be looking for. To freeze the bird, or to freeze the birds body with a very small amount of wing movement?

I understand if you are reading this rolling your eyes thinking, sod trying to explain that..... I don't think I'd want to explain to me either

It depends on the bird really. I've seen shots of an eagle owl coming in to land. frozen in picture with his eyes fixed on you and wingtips touching the ground. That's probably a fast shutter speed. Tiny birds like humming birds, you will probably not freeze the wings. Sometimes you want a little motion, sometimes you don't. Go for what you can get. When you get something you like, develop it. Can you get manual exposure on your camera?

I have a thing in manual that's called intelligent exposure. Off - Low - Standard - High.

er............................................ ok

I thought so.

This is my camera if it heps in any way...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpxHpj4ww1A

As Grumpy says - it depends on the bird and also your own personal preference.

For small garden birds hovering next to a feeder you may want to use a shuuter speed which is fast enough to set a sharp head but slow enough to get some motion blurr on the wings.

Small birds 'in flight' - not hovering but actually flying accross the sky is a different kettle of fish altogether as you need to think about panning and also the ability of the tracking / autofocus of the camera. Big birds in flight is easier but the same applies.

Looking at your camera......

http://www.trustedreviews.com/Panaso...s-table_Page-4

......It has a setting called 'Tracking AF'. Without being familiar with the model I'd suspect this is like 'AI Servo' in that the camera will try to keep focus on a moving subject whilst you squeeze the shutter button. Also your Image Stabilisation would be better turned off for flying birds.

I'd use Aperture Mode on your camera. You set the aperture and the camera then picks the shutter speed. You can affect the speed by controlling ISO. To attain higher shutter speeds you may have to crank the ISO right up especially if the light is low. This might mean you get some image noise but that's better than an out of focus shot.

Sometimes poor light means having to use your maximum aperture which in your case is f2.8 zoomed in and f4.4 zoomed out. This will give you a shallow depth of focus and a nice out of focus background and whilst this is generally what people like to see with a bird on a twig that very shallow dof doesn't give you much margin for error on a moving target.

Switching to a smaller aperture like f8 will certainly increase dof so if you happen to miss the target and shoot the birds legs rather than it's head - you might get away with it. Using smaller apertures obviously comes at a cost though as to get the same exposure you will need a longer shutter speed. If this speed is too slow then increase your ISO.

Metering - I would switch to spot metering for tracking birds in flight.

Give it a bash anyway and post your results as it's much easier to see what is / isn't working so well.

Nice one Phil. Thanks for your time. I got a couple of wood pigeons on manual about an hour ago.
I'll try the Aperture Mode and what you've said.

I'm only going for the wood pigeons and doves to start with as they are nice and big.

Thanks again.

Dave

Been out there for an hour. One sparrow that I missed

It's getting very windy out there. I'll try again asap.

Just seen you 'midge mahem' shot - you must be doing something right !

I'll post that one on a new thread and explain how I done it.