Birds in Flight Photography-Getting Consistent Exposures

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@tdunster2011 3 ай бұрын

The cameras today are so good that anyone capable of turning the camera on and pointing it in the general direction of a flying bird is going to get good results. To get great results I think the most important thing is exposure / white balance, and being very smooth panning or being able to stop the motion of the camera completely as the bird enters the frame. Love the Spoonbill photo - wonderful colours and the determination on the birds face is well captured.

@pascaldarantiere9823 5 ай бұрын

Hello RON, have followed you from the beginning and once again you have convinced me, I am doing 80% of the BIF with priority to speed, I am going to test your concept completely manually. Hello from France and Thanks

@christophercarlimages9003 7 ай бұрын

Excellent video of the Spoonbill showing the difference in exposures when the camera light meter uses the whole frame to determine exposure. Informative video. I think it's a big split between complete manual and auto ISO. You make a great case for full manual.

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. Ron

@Kellysher 5 ай бұрын

Ron, I’m a long time viewer. I appreciate the channel and your sense of humor! I’ve been shooting birds and wildlife for about 3 years. I shoot manual with auto iso. In my mind Birds and BIF are 2 different things! To be honest, I’ve not focused much on BIF intentionally. When I get a good flight shot it’s more a happy accident. I have 1 button on my R5 programmed as an emergency, fast action button. In the beginning there is so much to learn. I think that I’m finally at the point that I would like to focus some outings on BIF intentionally. I can’t wait to try this out. I would kill to get a kingfisher diving! But to be honest they aren’t that easy to find and photography, let alone find and try to catch the dive! Just 2 years to retirement and really looking forward to having more time in the field!

@whistlingwingsphotography 5 ай бұрын

I wish you great luck in your new adventure into BIF photography. If you want some great belted kingfisher photography opportunities I offer a tour for them each winter here in Sebastian Florida. You can contact me at Ron@whistlingwingsphotography.com.

@itaylorm 3 ай бұрын

I ordered the R3 hot shoe cover based upon other people saying it would help. It fits well and is pretty solidly on there. If you are looking for an alternative

@mikehenry2116 7 ай бұрын

Excellent video Ron, You have really opened my eyes to to move away from auto ISO in manual mode for BIF. Thanks

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful! Thanks so much for watching and providing your thoughts here. It is much appreciated.

@ScottRitchie-bw9ls 7 ай бұрын

Spot on with that Ron. I use total manual. And try to set for the light on the subject. I started in the 1980's with a Canon FtB. It had a internal light meter And I was taught to measure exposure from the light on my hand, and then open 1 stop (being a white fella, it would close down a stop to create 19% grey, open 1 stop to compensate). It worked great. At that time, with slide film (Kodachrome 64), a stop underexposed was good for saturatyion. Now we go a stop overexposed. Histogram to the right. So I do a test shot that inclides white and range of mid tones and darks. Make sure the whites are blown. Fast shutterspeed. Low apperture. And I'm ready to go!

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

Great to hear your back story on setting exposure. It brings back similar memories for me when shooting slides. Those were the days! Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment.

@ScottRitchie-bw9ls 7 ай бұрын

@@whistlingwingsphotography you are welcome!

@PeterUnstead Ай бұрын

Hey Ron loved this and will give it a go! How do you select a correct exposure for the bird? Of the triangle which do you prioritise for most shots? Shutter speed then iso and finally aperture as I assume the birds can be some distance. Would be great to see a video in the field and your planning of the shot

@thelensmanphotography 7 ай бұрын

Full manual is the only way to go! Good video Ron.

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

Thanks so much for your feedback. Much appreciated.

@kennethmills5470 Ай бұрын

Nothing is always

@ptvfr800 6 ай бұрын

great video thanks, it felt like a lightbulb moment! I am convinced and converted, I have so far been using manual with auto iso but now I am going to try choosing my iso..

@rodrigoshariff 7 ай бұрын

Great video Ron, I agree that shooting full manual is the way to go for BIF; it also helps with post processing multiple images in a sequence. I really love shooting BIF so I might have join the club :)

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

Thanks so much for your comment. I agree about post processing efficiency gains. Would love to have you join the "I Shoot BIF" club. Cheers, Ron

@cguerrieri4866 6 ай бұрын

Great instruction and explanation as to why. Any chance of a follow up on how to nail the correct exposure? As a beginner, I can’t just look and determine,,,, iso 100, 1/2000, f???? Any suggestions would be appreciated

@stephendouglas4545 6 ай бұрын

I shoot the R5 in manual with auto ISO. If I was shooting one animal I could maybe do the full manual exposure thing. But I'm looking at a variety of birds in flight and often the birds vary in contrast to the background or have portions of their body with varying brightness plus the varying background. I do this and have had a high degree of success: I use evaluative metering. I use Ron's 3-back button focusing and all his menu settings. If you hold the 'set' button and turn the main dial it will change the exposure compensation, being the ISO in manual mode. It doesn't take long, with practice, to know what compensation you need for, say, a mostly white bird, in bright sunlight, or the same bird before sunrise or when the sun is behind a cloud, or the same conditions with a mostly neutral or dark bird. I'm not shooting a bird with a bright background AND a natural background as Ron says--that it is flying all around and everything is constantly changing--if I was then I would do exactly as he says. I'm seeing my bird coming and not shooting until it crosses my predetermined background so all I need to know is the brightness of the bird and the light that is on it. It doesn't have to be perfect because of post editing. Just don't blow out the brights if that is important to you. So if I am dialed for a mostly white merganser in bright sunlight crossing my green-mountain background then I'm over 1 stop below. Here comes a bald eagle with only a white head. Do I care about the white head or the details of the body feathers? I know the answer based on what I've captured in the past. If I want the whole bird as balanced as possible, meaning I want the white head and feathers, and the sun is still shining, I don't change anything with the compensation and I bring up the shadows of the eagle in post. If the merganser goes by and the sun goes away, and here comes my eagle, I bring up my compensation to near neutral because I know my metering will balance it out. To the degree that the light is dark or bright I compensate a third or two and adjust in post. Here comes a Canadian goose, very similar in brightness overall to my green background so it doesn't matter what the light on the bird is, I center the metering and shoot. The sun comes out and suddenly a dark blue kingfisher with a white stripped neck and some white on it's wings lands close to me. If the background is bright, such as a sandy beach, I already know when I bring my camera up that the metering is going to be a 1/2 stop away from the white of the bird's white spots. If the back ground is the green mountain then I know that the metering will be similar to the bird's blue coloring. As I bring the camera up I'm depressing the set button and clicking the main dial two clicks in the direction I need for exposure and forgetting about it and going to focus. I know the bird is going to fly any second so I start shooting with zone * depressed. Again, with a little practice and muscle memory it just becomes natural. I nail almost all my shots as far as exposure goes, it the focus that I usually miss.

@sallyannveach 4 ай бұрын

I have watched most of your videos and I really appreciate how you explain everything. I just got an R7 and 100-500 canon and set up according to what you said with fast action for birding. Since I am new to mirrorless, after a couple months, now I am wondering if you have any suggestions on my issue. There are quite a few time where I am right on the bird in the open and the camera will not auto focus. I move the camera down and put it back on the bird and still no luck. I focus on the branch it is on then move over to the bird and still no luck. I have it on off for eye detection but all the other settings are what you describe. I would appreciate any suggestions.

@shotsbyscott6243 7 ай бұрын

Great video Ron! I share this advice all the time to my students and people I meet at the parks. I am not sure the last time I used one of the priority modes! I do experiment with Auto ISO at times when the light conditions are constantly changing.

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

Hey, thanks for watching and adding your input. Great to hear from you on this topic.

@bengazzara1324 7 ай бұрын

I have set my R7 to FV. Then shutter speed, aperture are fixed values, I set my ISO to AUTO between 100 to 6400 and then I let my control on exposure that I can change to more or less with the wheel on the go before any situation. I have never had any issues with this setup.

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

Glad you have found a set up/methodology that works for you. In the end, that is all that matters.

@pascaldarantiere9823 7 ай бұрын

Hello Ron, je regarde tes vidéos depuis que j ai mon R5 et je suis fan de BIF. J ai un R5 ET R6M2 couplé au 400 DO V2 avec le 1.4x v3 et 2x v3. Personnellement j utilise la priorité a la vitesse qui me permet de la choisir suivant la rapidité de l oiseau et ensuite tout le reste manuel, jamais d iso auto. Bonjour de France

@johnjuby6184 7 ай бұрын

Ron. Thanks. But, I don't quite get the manual exposure thing. My mind says if I do that, I am then, after the manual exposure, expecting the bird to fly all around but limited to a flat piece of paper, one plane. I can't keep resetting manual exposure. I use animal eye auto focus. Once I set that, I am good for where ever flight goes front to rear, at least, hopefully, long enough. I am Canon R6 MKII. I shoot manual, high shutter speed. My AF On button is eye focus and the other rear button is set to spot.

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

I think you are confusing exposure with auto focus. The light on the bird does not necessarily change with the distance of the bird from you, where the focus plane definitely will change. Setting your exposure manually does not affect your ability or need to change focus on the bird at it flies closer or further away from you. Once you have your manual exposure set for a bird in the general light you are shooting it in you don't have to change the exposure again unless the light changes (e.g., sunny to cloudy). It is important to understand that what your camera focuses on is not what your cameras meter is setting your exposure for. Whether you have your cameras metering set to Evaluative, Center-weighted, Partial, or Spot the meter will very rarely be accurate for a bird in flight. The meter will always be picking up some amount of overall scene brightness and that brightness may or may not be the same as your bird. Most often it is not the same. I hope this helps.

@davidmag479 7 ай бұрын

Interesting guidance Ron. As a sports shooter I occasionally have to shoot in soccer stadiums with bright sunlit backgrounds in one part of the backdrop and shadows in another. Its a nightmare to expose correctly as the camera reacts to the dramatic changes in lighting conditions within a few yards. Will give this a go with the R3 to see how it handles it.

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

I can imagine the issues with shooting in stadiums. Let me know how it goes. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.

@wernerkleinenbrands9504 7 ай бұрын

Another question Ron. I shoot my R3 in manual mode and auto Iso. I see the advantage of full manual mode especially with different backgrounds. But is needs time to find the right exposure (find neutral grey, set speed, aperture, Iso and exposure compensation due to the brightness of the bird). In constant light situation you can do that but what about cloudy days with different light in some seconds? How do you act then?

@wernerkleinenbrands9504 5 ай бұрын

@@stephendouglas4545 In do the same! 🙂

@jo-anneouellette366 7 ай бұрын

My question is how the exposure is set on the bird to begin with. Is this done while shooting the BIF? Sometimes I only get one chance to shoot the BIF then it is gone, never to be seen again. So setting the exposure while shooting is nearly impossible for me. Agree with manual shooting of BIF, just confused about when the ‘setting the correct exposure on the bird’ part occurs.

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

Generally, if I am after a specific target, and thus know what brightness that bird is, I set my initial exposure off of something in the surrounding environment that is similar in brightness. I have never had a situation where I could not find something to set my initial exposure off of. If I don't know what bird might come along, and thus I have no idea of what brightness it will be, I set my exposure for something in the middle, like a medium brown bird would be. I again use the grass or bushes or something of middle brightness, in the light I hope to capture my bird, to set this exposure. Then when a bird comes flying along if it something other then medium brown I use the main dial on my camera to quickly change the ISO. Either higher for a black bird or lower for a white bird. The overall brightness of the light will dictate how much you have to move the ISO for these different colored birds. Less for low light, more if full sun. This quick adjustment of ISO using the main dial can be done very quickly by paying attention to the number of clicks with each click representing 1/3 of a stop of light. With practice it becomes second nature and can be done while actually shooting the bird as it flies around. With todays dynamic range you don't have to be perfect with your exposure, just close enough to be able to tweak it in post processing. How is this different from Auto ISO? Well, with Auto ISO it is the cameras meter that is making the call on how much the ISO should be change and it is never based on the brightness of the bird, but instead on the brightness of the overall scene for the most part. When I change the ISO with the main dial I am doing it based on the brightness of the bird. Hope this helps.

@wernerkleinenbrands9504 7 ай бұрын

Great Video again Ron. But what about changing open aperture in manual mode if you use a 100-500? f 7.1 at the beginning is not the answer! I shoot R3 and in the menu "Custom Function Setting Items" there is the point "Same expo. for new aperture". Do you use the Iso-setting here?

@tomnutley7539 6 ай бұрын

That's a really good point, i think I will allow ISO to vary as thats the one which will least affect the 'artistic' intent.

@photobirder75 7 ай бұрын

I certainly understand the concept of full manual, but the logistics seem difficult to implement. Perhaps there's something I'm not understanding, but birds aren't posing for me prior to take off so I can get an exposure reading off them. I usually see a bird in flight with barely enough time to get my camera to my eye, so for me manual with Auto ISO makes sense. And yes, with the R5 and the control ring on the 100-500 I can quickly adjust the ISO for the bird. I guess what your saying works if you can get the exposure on a bird and that's the only bird you're photographing, but what happens when you're photographing an egret and a cormorant flys by? Or you're shooting ducks: the exposure on a bufflehead is going to be different than an exposure on a mallard. Perhaps you could give a practical demonstration of how you do this. Also, there are three parameters that go into a proper exposure: ISO, SS, and f-stop. It would be a rare situation where you can dial in all three ideally, so which of these are you sacrificing to get a proper exposure. I would want a fast shutter speed, an aperture to give a pleasing background, and with today's cameras and noise reduction software, the ISO really doesn't matter. Again, I may be missing something, so a practical demonstration might help. Thank you. Enjoy your videos.

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

Thanks so much for your comment. When it comes to setting your exposure ahead of time, there is almost always something in the environment around you that will be about the same brightness as the subject you are looking to photograph. I set my exposure off of such elements in the environment. Setting your exposure parameters for birds in flight generally means prioritizing SS as mentioned in the video. Aperture for the background comes next for me if I can do so. All depends on the lens I am using. An f 2.8 or 4, yes, f/9 not really. So f/9 stays at 9. ISO can still matter depending on the camera, but ISO is what I generally change along with tweaking the SS if I have good light and can move SS and stay on the fast end of things. Depending on what type of image I am trying to make I may be working with all three parameters for a specific shooting scenario. Changing exposure from bright birds to dark birds very quickly is done by what I call the halve and double method. If you are set for a bright bird and a dark bird is coming at you, just halve your ISO or SS setting (if you have shutter speed to spare). If you are set for a dark bird and a white bird comes along just double your current setting of whatever parameter you want to change. It can be done in an instant. No different than dialing in a different Expo Comp for different birds based on their brightness. I have a whole series of videos on Photographing Birds in Flight on my Channel. I cover all of this through the series. Here is the video on Exposure: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJ6we2WJnJiVnas. Cheers, Ron

@stephendouglas4545 6 ай бұрын

@RogerZoul 7 ай бұрын

I use manual mode with auto ISO and then use the exposure compensation dial on the R5. Set the aperture and shutter speed, then slide the "dial" (with the thumb) on exposure compensation wheel as needed. My way, I have to react with the bird, Your way, you have to guess right before hand. However, your way, the exposure on the bird can change too. So, it's never going to be perfect, but the point is to get close enough to have enough room to adjust the exposure afterwards. I don't find changing ISO to be any different to changing exposure comp. I think letting autoISO be in total control causes me to lose too many shots, but by just adjusting the exposure comp dial in the right direction (exp comp up against a brighter background, exp comp down against a darker background). You guys talking getting the exposure right for the bird confound me as you never really get it right (I've never heard anyone say how they get it right). I don't think anyone ever gets it right all the time, just close enough not to ruin the shot. That dial on the R5 makes things easier, IMO. I love BIF too.

@whistlingwingsphotography 7 ай бұрын

Hey, whatever works for you is always the best. Whatever allows you to maximize your keeper rate that is what you should do. I disagree a bit on the dynamics of changing ISO and changing Exp Comp being the same. I think you end up doing a lot more moving the wheel trying to keep exposure comp dialed in versus using ISO changes on the fly when and only when the bird goes way off axis to the light. With Auto ISO in play you are having to make changes every time the bird transitions to a different scene brightness, which can happen very quickly where as transitions to off axis light happens much more gradually in most situations. Anyway, these are the type of conversations that spurred me to do this video. Cheers, Ron