First off ditto to all the rest of the posts exclaiming the beauty off your shots, I like them all. My question is: How did you get the bigma to get those moving shots so accurately in focus? I have a Bigma and I can't get a Mallard that sharp standing still! Do you mind sharing the lens settings? and/or any other tricks of your trade. Also what was the destiny of that snake? Jim
Jim,
Thanks. Here are the before and after shots of the Great Blue flying off with the snake:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=34059734
As to settings. I use TAv mode with AF-C and spot metering. I have Auto-ISO range set to 100-1600 and always check to see if the meter gives an ISO close to the ends of that range. For something like mallards that fly very fast, I try to press the shutter halfway briefly while following the subject as best I can to help obtain initial focus, and then start firing. For BIFs, I use 1/1000 or faster shutter speed and f/8 aperture with the Bigma, depending on the light. If there is less available light, then I'll drop down to f/6.7. There's no point in shooting slower than 1/1000 because then there will be motion blur. I don't use SR for these shots because of the fast shutter speeds. BIFs almost always require some adjustments during PP, so of course I shoot in raw. One thing I try to do where appropriate, and this was the case with the autumn mallards shot, is to increase the center gray point to darken the background somewhat. That helps separate the subject from its background. I also usually finish with a small amount of high-pixel radius unsharp mask. In this case it was 20% at 50 pixel radius. This adds some color contrast to the scene.
I get the highest hit rate for BIFs when I use a tripod. The Great Blue and the seagull shots were taken with a tripod. The mallard shot was handheld, so I didn't have great expectations for the shot when I took it. Luck prevailed, although I had the camera setup for BIFs while walking. To paraphrase an old saying, good images favor the prepared photographer.
More than anything else, practice, practice, practice. My practice with BIFs helped me get the Thunderbird shot which also was taken with the Bigma handheld. Of course, the Thunderbirds were easier to track than birds, so I was able to get this shot as well:
This one printed very nicely at 16x20" and we could read below the cockpit that this is Maj. T. Dyon Douglas, Lead Solo.
Good luck.
LPA
