Reading mode: Light Dark

I finally managed to take one flying overhead bird

Go to last post
D

Daniella68313

Forum Pro
Messages
53,000
Reaction score
1
Location
San Jose USA, CA, US
Hello,

here is a shot i finaly manage to take of a bird flying right over my head. This was a chalange i tried with my film slr and never managed to do. I think it is the most difficult thing i done, at least for me it was.



in case that link does not work:

http://www.pbase.com/image/970201/original

Anyone have a suggestion or trick to do this type of shot? I found it is quite easy to take the bird from the side, but from directly over head, quite difficult due to the speed.

Someone suggested to keep the left eye open and to track the bird coming with it while keeping the right eye in the viewfinder. But how people focus at full zoom when a bird is constantly changins its distance, since the deep of fiels is so shallow and the bird is moving so fast and changing distance?

--Daniella
http://www.pbase.com/zylen
C7OO discussion group: http://www.homepet.com/cgi-bin/c700/UltraBoard.cgi

'The things you own will only endup owning you'
 
Nice job, it looks like the bird was watching you to make sure you took the picture of him LoL!--I am the Great I amMephy
 
Daniella3d said:
Hello,

here is a shot i finaly manage to take of a bird flying right over
my head. This was a chalange i tried with my film slr and never
managed to do. I think it is the most difficult thing i done, at
least for me it was.



in case that link does not work:

http://www.pbase.com/image/970201/original

Anyone have a suggestion or trick to do this type of shot? I found
it is quite easy to take the bird from the side, but from directly
over head, quite difficult due to the speed.

Someone suggested to keep the left eye open and to track the bird
coming with it while keeping the right eye in the viewfinder. But
how people focus at full zoom when a bird is constantly changins
its distance, since the deep of fiels is so shallow and the bird is
moving so fast and changing distance?

--
Daniella
http://www.pbase.com/zylen
C7OO discussion group:
http://www.homepet.com/cgi-bin/c700/UltraBoard.cgi

'The things you own will only endup owning you'
Click to expand...
Nicely done!--Bruce Miller2-1-0-0
 
Daniella68313 said:
Daniella3d wrote:

Anyone have a suggestion or trick to do this type of shot? I found
it is quite easy to take the bird from the side, but from directly
over head, quite difficult due to the speed.
Click to expand...
Very nice Daniella, looks like you should be giving us suggestions...
Daniella68313 said:
Someone suggested to keep the left eye open and to track the bird
coming with it while keeping the right eye in the viewfinder. But
how people focus at full zoom when a bird is constantly changins
its distance, since the deep of fiels is so shallow and the bird is
moving so fast and changing distance?
Click to expand...
Just a thought but would manual focus set to infinity work? I'll have to try that soon...Bob

-- http://www.pbase.com/mofongo 'In the 60's people dropped acid to make things weird. Today, things are weird and people take Prozac to make them normal.'
 
Hi Bob,

Definitly not...the bird was quite close and i used the full zoom, or almost full zoom, have to check that. So the deep of field is very small and that was my most difficult chalange...first getting the bird in frame and fallow it, then getting the right focus at the right place.

then way i did this one is to focus on a tree near by that i tought was at about the same distance the bird that was coming would be...than i was lucky to guessed right. I did the prefocus on that tree and left my finger on the shutter until the bird seemed at the right place...very lucky guess and i am sure there is better way to do this.
Bob S said:
Mofongo said:
Daniella3d wrote:

Anyone have a suggestion or trick to do this type of shot? I found
it is quite easy to take the bird from the side, but from directly
over head, quite difficult due to the speed.
Click to expand...
Very nice Daniella, looks like you should be giving us suggestions...
Mofongo said:
Someone suggested to keep the left eye open and to track the bird
coming with it while keeping the right eye in the viewfinder. But
how people focus at full zoom when a bird is constantly changins
its distance, since the deep of fiels is so shallow and the bird is
moving so fast and changing distance?
Click to expand...
Just a thought but would manual focus set to infinity work? I'll
have to try that soon...Bob

--
http://www.pbase.com/mofongo

'In the 60's people dropped acid to make things weird. Today,
things are weird and people take Prozac to make them normal.'
Click to expand...
--Daniella http://www.pbase.com/zylenC7OO discussion group: http://www.homepet.com/cgi-bin/c700/UltraBoard.cgi 'The things you own will only endup owning you'
 
Hi Forrest,

It was not easy. what I did is to focus on a tree near by that i tought was at about the same distance the bird that was coming would be when it would be right over my head...than i was lucky to guessed right. I did the prefocus on that tree and left my finger on the shutter until the bird seemed at the right place...very lucky guess and i am sure there is better way to do this.

I tried many attemps (about 50 shots) before i could get this shot in focus and nicely the bird was looking at me at the same time!
Forrest said:
I'm impressed! How did you get this shot?
Click to expand...
--Daniella http://www.pbase.com/zylenC7OO discussion group: http://www.homepet.com/cgi-bin/c700/UltraBoard.cgi 'The things you own will only endup owning you'
 
Daniella68313 said:
Daniella3d wrote:
Hi Bob,

Definitly not...the bird was quite close and i used the full zoom,
or almost full zoom, have to check that. So the deep of field is
very small and that was my most difficult chalange...first getting
the bird in frame and fallow it, then getting the right focus at
the right place.

then way i did this one is to focus on a tree near by that i tought
was at about the same distance the bird that was coming would
be...than i was lucky to guessed right. I did the prefocus on that
tree and left my finger on the shutter until the bird seemed at the
right place...very lucky guess and i am sure there is better way to
do this.
Click to expand...
I see, I'm more impressed the more I look at this shot! The detail and sharpness is amazing. Whatever your doing you're sure doing it right...Bob-- http://www.pbase.com/mofongo 'In the 60's people dropped acid to make things weird. Today, things are weird and people take Prozac to make them normal.'
 
I rarely comment on the photos here, but your gull photo is outstanding. It took you about 50 shots to get this one just right, which shows that a good photograph is often the result of hard work and patience.

Very good job! Now go enter this in some photo of the day contests. I'd be surprised if you didn't win a couple of them.

--Charles Booher http://www.boohers.com
 
Daniella,
This is truly an astounding shot!

Lori
Daniella3d said:
Hello,

here is a shot i finaly manage to take of a bird flying right over
my head. This was a chalange i tried with my film slr and never
managed to do. I think it is the most difficult thing i done, at
least for me it was.



in case that link does not work:

http://www.pbase.com/image/970201/original

Anyone have a suggestion or trick to do this type of shot? I found
it is quite easy to take the bird from the side, but from directly
over head, quite difficult due to the speed.

Someone suggested to keep the left eye open and to track the bird
coming with it while keeping the right eye in the viewfinder. But
how people focus at full zoom when a bird is constantly changins
its distance, since the deep of fiels is so shallow and the bird is
moving so fast and changing distance?

--
Daniella
http://www.pbase.com/zylen
C7OO discussion group:
http://www.homepet.com/cgi-bin/c700/UltraBoard.cgi

'The things you own will only endup owning you'
Click to expand...
 
thanks :) I can only do that because i am practicing a lot and i don't give up, i keep trying and trying until i get what i want. Anyone can do that :)

I was not at full zoom i just checked, i was at 377 but still the deep of field is quite shallow to use infinity setting. here are the setting according to camedia:

1/1000
F 4.0
ISO 100
377mm

I rescaled the photo to 1000 x 800 and cropped it a bit and i used a little bit of sharpening..not too much to make the sky noisy.

I also did a bit of level correction.
Bob S said:
Mofongo said:
Daniella3d wrote:
Hi Bob,

Definitly not...the bird was quite close and i used the full zoom,
or almost full zoom, have to check that. So the deep of field is
very small and that was my most difficult chalange...first getting
the bird in frame and fallow it, then getting the right focus at
the right place.

then way i did this one is to focus on a tree near by that i tought
was at about the same distance the bird that was coming would
be...than i was lucky to guessed right. I did the prefocus on that
tree and left my finger on the shutter until the bird seemed at the
right place...very lucky guess and i am sure there is better way to
do this.
Click to expand...
I see, I'm more impressed the more I look at this shot! The detail
and sharpness is amazing. Whatever your doing you're sure doing it
right...Bob
--
http://www.pbase.com/mofongo

'In the 60's people dropped acid to make things weird. Today,
things are weird and people take Prozac to make them normal.'
Click to expand...
--Daniella http://www.pbase.com/zylenC7OO discussion group: http://www.homepet.com/cgi-bin/c700/UltraBoard.cgi 'The things you own will only endup owning you'
 
thanks,

I have not thought about posting it in contest...where should i submit it?
Charles Booher said:
I rarely comment on the photos here, but your gull photo is
outstanding. It took you about 50 shots to get this one just
right, which shows that a good photograph is often the result of
hard work and patience.

Very good job! Now go enter this in some photo of the day
contests. I'd be surprised if you didn't win a couple of them.

--
Charles Booher

http://www.boohers.com
Click to expand...
--Daniella http://www.pbase.com/zylenC7OO discussion group: http://www.homepet.com/cgi-bin/c700/UltraBoard.cgi 'The things you own will only endup owning you'
 
Daniella68313 said:
Someone suggested to keep the left eye open and to track the bird
coming with it while keeping the right eye in the viewfinder. But
how people focus at full zoom when a bird is constantly changins
its distance, since the deep of fiels is so shallow and the bird is
moving so fast and changing distance?
Click to expand...
First, that's a great shot, congratulations!

I've spent a lot of time myself trying to track fast moving baseballs and cars at full zoom, and you're definitely right about the difficulty of trying to maintain focus, since the distance changes rapidly and there's not much depth of field to work with.

I would think with a gull flying overhead, you might actually be able to use the "fulltime autofocus" mode effectively, since there's nothing else in the frame to confuse it.

You'd still have to keep the gull right in the AF crosshairs and follow it around until it's in the right spot, but hey, if it were too easy, what would be the point? :)

Also, I usually use either the AEL "exposure lock" or M mode to minimize the amount of thinking it has to do when you pull (push) the trigger in these kind of situations.

Good luck and keep having fun with those "hard" shots!
--Cheers, Carey( http://www.pbase.com/ckriger )
 
great suggestion for the fulltime autofocus. I have a question about this, when you're using fulltime autofocus, do you still need to half press the shutter button? or you simply press it in one shot?

Exposure was not a problem because i used Manual mode with 1/1000 and F 4.0
CKriger said:
CKriger said:
Someone suggested to keep the left eye open and to track the bird
coming with it while keeping the right eye in the viewfinder. But
how people focus at full zoom when a bird is constantly changins
its distance, since the deep of fiels is so shallow and the bird is
moving so fast and changing distance?
Click to expand...
First, that's a great shot, congratulations!

I've spent a lot of time myself trying to track fast moving
baseballs and cars at full zoom, and you're definitely right about
the difficulty of trying to maintain focus, since the distance
changes rapidly and there's not much depth of field to work with.

I would think with a gull flying overhead, you might actually be
able to use the "fulltime autofocus" mode effectively, since
there's nothing else in the frame to confuse it.

You'd still have to keep the gull right in the AF crosshairs and
follow it around until it's in the right spot, but hey, if it were
too easy, what would be the point? :)

Also, I usually use either the AEL "exposure lock" or M mode to
minimize the amount of thinking it has to do when you pull (push)
the trigger in these kind of situations.

Good luck and keep having fun with those "hard" shots!

--
Cheers,
Carey

( http://www.pbase.com/ckriger )
Click to expand...
--Daniella http://www.pbase.com/zylenC7OO discussion group: http://www.homepet.com/cgi-bin/c700/UltraBoard.cgi 'The things you own will only endup owning you'
 
Hey great shot. Now we are getting to some good pics and good advice.--DomDP-NJC-2100UZ http://www.pbase.com/domdp 'The quality of your life is determined by how you feel at any given moment. How you feel is determined by how you interpret what is happening around you, not by the events themselves.' --Brian Tracy--
 
Daniella68313 said:
great suggestion for the fulltime autofocus. I have a question
about this, when you're using fulltime autofocus, do you still need
to half press the shutter button? or you simply press it in one
shot?
Click to expand...
Well, you're hit upon the downside of fulltime AF (at least on the C700), which is that it still "locks" when you half-press.

So to use it effectively when the subject's distance is changing, you basically have to do a full-press, in one motion.

Unfortunately, when you do this, the viewfinder kinda studders at the half-press point for a fraction of a second, and the shutter still doesn't fire for a while after that.

Depending on how close to "locked" it was when you hit the half-press point, this might be a second or so, which defeats the purpose.

These shortcomings really limit the effectiveness of fulltime AF, but in your case, if the bird's distance isn't changing too fast and you can manage to keep him solidly in the crosshairs, it might be just the trick.

As with most difficult situations involving the C700, it can probably do it, but you gotta practice practice practice and pray pray pray! (fortunately, neither of which cost anything).
--Cheers, Carey( http://www.pbase.com/ckriger )
 
i see...this is a bummer, so what's the use of this fulltime autofocus except for movies?

The problem is that the bird is moving VERY fast..not just hovering in place..those birds can be rocket in the sky..and when you're trying to take them flying over your head..the speed is even more noticible.

I will give it a try though...but one second lag is way to much..in one second the distance is already not the same. I could also try F8 to get more things in focus, but i wanted to use fast shutter speed of 1/1000 and i had to compromize for F4.0.

I'll try it next time and let you know how it turned out to be for me.
CKriger said:
CKriger said:
great suggestion for the fulltime autofocus. I have a question
about this, when you're using fulltime autofocus, do you still need
to half press the shutter button? or you simply press it in one
shot?
Click to expand...
Well, you're hit upon the downside of fulltime AF (at least on the
C700), which is that it still "locks" when you half-press.

So to use it effectively when the subject's distance is changing,
you basically have to do a full-press, in one motion.

Unfortunately, when you do this, the viewfinder kinda studders at
the half-press point for a fraction of a second, and the shutter
still doesn't fire for a while after that.

Depending on how close to "locked" it was when you hit the
half-press point, this might be a second or so, which defeats the
purpose.

These shortcomings really limit the effectiveness of fulltime AF,
but in your case, if the bird's distance isn't changing too fast
and you can manage to keep him solidly in the crosshairs, it might
be just the trick.

As with most difficult situations involving the C700, it can
probably do it, but you gotta practice practice practice and pray
pray pray! (fortunately, neither of which cost anything).

--
Cheers,
Carey

( http://www.pbase.com/ckriger )
Click to expand...
--Daniella http://www.pbase.com/zylenC7OO discussion group: http://www.homepet.com/cgi-bin/c700/UltraBoard.cgi 'The things you own will only endup owning you'
 
Hi Juli,

this was just plain luck :)

I screwed couple of others that i really liked the pose of the bird but they were all out of focus. My questions are mostly how to do a better focus on fast moving objects and constantly changing distance. That was my main chalange, because of the shallow deep of field at full zoom.

Surely some other people have tried this before, so i am hoping to get some good feedback and so far its been informative. Hmmm can't wait to go back there and try this or that :)
Juli Valley said:
What a great shot? And you are asking tips? ;-)
--
http://www.pbase.com/julivalley/galleries
21oo, B-3oo
3o4o
Juli
Click to expand...
--Daniella http://www.pbase.com/zylenC7OO discussion group: http://www.homepet.com/cgi-bin/c700/UltraBoard.cgi 'The things you own will only endup owning you'
 
I took a lot of shots of birds at the beach this summer with my D400Z, and experienced something you may want to be careful with as you track them overhead:



Practically blinded myself as the D400's viewfinder is optical. Probably not as bad with an EVF.

Thought it made for an interesting shot, though certainly NOT what I was going after.

Other shots including before/after touchup pairs:

http://odin.prohosting.com/inigom/beach/

Looking forward to returning next summer Uzi in hand.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Keyboard shortcuts

f
Forum
m
My threads
Mobile site
About
Editorial content
Cameras & Lenses
Community
All content, design, and layout are Copyright © 1998–2025 Digital Photography Review All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or part in any form or medium without specific written permission is prohibited.
When you use DPReview links to buy products, the site may earn a commission.
©GPS Media - Guides, Products, Services.
Back
Top