My first attempts at a bird picture

Took my 70-300 lens - set it on 1/1000 & auto A - later on 1/2000 and F8 and let the camera choose the ISO (which may have been a mistake). I ended up taking 167 pictures and I think I've got around 30 or so I like. Is that normal?

What do you think of these ? They are crops from the original.

Alan

I get a lot of "outtakes" as well when shooting birds.... So I think your ratio is certainly not abnormal.

But I'm just a beginner at this as well so hey what do I know! 😅

Perhaps f/5.6 would be better than f/8 for getting more light, but of course focus is also more critical then.

A shutter speed of 1/1000 or 1/2000 can really freeze the motion but did you also try 1/500 for a bit more light and lower ISO? To see what the effect of that is on the image and motion?

Anyway, just my 2 cents!

Thanks for the feedback.

I did try 1/500 the other day, but the birds moved too fast and were not in focus properly.

Alan

For the first trial, excelent ! May be a bit of PP to get more light.

In my (now rather long experience) 1/1000 sec is a good choice. leave the 70-300mm at 6.3 at 300mm to get more light.

get the remmendations of Morris for BIF posted a few months ago. Bird recognition is ok if light and contrast are good. Using simple AFC, big single point or zone 3*3 is better when light conditions are not good.

With training and experience with the T5 you can expect 50% tack sharp keepers (same than my XH2).

Try to find what is the best method for you (eye recognition or simple AFC), the best settings in terms of ergonomics and results.

Bird recognition makes life easier and more comfortable, but is in no way compulsory when conditions for its use are not good.

Bon courage !

Bob

baobob wrote:

For the first trial, excelent ! May be a bit of PP to get more light.

In my (now rather long experience) 1/1000 sec is a good choice. leave the 70-300mm at 6.3 at 300mm to get more light.

get the remmendations of Morris for BIF posted a few months ago. Bird recognition is ok if light and contrast are good. Using simple AFC, big single point or zone 3*3 is better when light conditions are not good.

With training and experience with the T5 you can expect 50% tack sharp keepers (same than my XH2).

Try to find what is the best method for you (eye recognition or simple AFC), the best settings in terms of ergonomics and results.

Bird recognition makes life easier and more comfortable, but is in no way compulsory when conditions for its use are not good.

Bon courage !

Bob

Thanks Bob. Yours are good - and gives me something to aim for.

I did have it set to a 3 x 3 grid with bird recognition, not eye focus. It seemed to work about 80% of the time (there were some OOF birds, not sure why), so I will probably carry on doing that.

I had it on AF-C with focus priority and used the CL setting using Electronic Shutter.

A lot of what I discarded were just duplicates of the best in the group. And I haven't finished going through to find 'interesting' shots - although I do like the one of the bird with the mouldy bread.

Alan

Interesting comments ! So the machine works fine, you just have to observe birds to get their habits, the way they take off and land, etc ...

For the first trial your results are excellent. I always shoot quite a lot and the final arte keeper is at best 1/10 usually quite lower, especiallyfor seagulls and their erratic fly.

best

Bob

Thanks Bob.

Here's one more I like - once again, a crop with a bit of adjustment to the light.

Alan

If you get 30/167 that you like and keep, then that is a very good keeper rate.

I think I've ended up with 5 that I would print off and another 20 or so that would be good in a slide slide show.

That X-T5 is amazing. I would not have thought it would be that good.

Alan

30 out of 167 is a great start Alan.  I usually shoot aperture priority setting the ISO to a value that will result in shutter speeds that are sufficient.  There are a lot of approaches to exposure for flight images.  You need to find one you like.

Morris

Alan Sh wrote:

I think I've ended up with 5 that I would print off and another 20 or so that would be good in a slide slide show.

That X-T5 is amazing. I would not have thought it would be that good.

Alan

It's more about what you do correctly than the camera though a good camera dose help

Morris

These is my birds in flight setup for the X-H2s and other Fuji cameras that have subject recognition:

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1772910/0

Have fun,

Morris

Thank you. I used slightly different settings, but I will try some of your ideas next time.

I had release priority set to Focus. It seemed to work OK most of the time.

I had IS mode set to continuous. The battery lasts for ages and I didn't want to miss anything.

My biggest mistake was having Image display set to 1.5 seconds. Every time I took my finger off the shutter, I got the last image - and lost the bird.

Not sure what my tracking sensitivity is set to. I've got to find that in the menu

Alan

Alan Sh wrote:

Thank you. I used slightly different settings, but I will try some of your ideas next time.

I had release priority set to Focus. It seemed to work OK most of the time.

I had IS mode set to continuous. The battery lasts for ages and I didn't want to miss anything.

My biggest mistake was having Image display set to 1.5 seconds. Every time I took my finger off the shutter, I got the last image - and lost the bird.

I think most folks turn the image review off completely. It wastes battery power and just gets in the way, IMO. I have my front custom button assigned for playback if I ever need to take a quick peek at previous shots while looking through the EVF.

Not sure what my tracking sensitivity is set to. I've got to find that in the menu

Alan