In this post

An unexpected opportunity
Settings for birds in flight: conditions, gear, camera settings
Vantage point
Most common recurring mistake (mind set)

an unexpected opportunity

A few weeks ago at work, we discovered that a couple of green woodpeckers live in, or visit, the trees that we see from our offices. So, I have been bringing my camera and a telephoto lens almost every day … but without luck so far. It is not that I have not seen them, but they have not been in the right place to make a photograph, or they have flown away before I could get positioned.

Last Tuesday afternoon an unexpected opportunity realised, but it was not with woodpeckers. My window was ajar, and I heard some machinery running outside; and together with the noise of the machines, I heard the mewing of red kites. I looked out of my window and saw at least six of them flying. So I took my camera and went to see what was going on.

Farmers were cleaning a crop field across the road, with big mowers. When the grass is cut, rodents that live there get exposed, and (it seems) red kites already know it. There were over 20 of them, by no means affected by the presence of the mowers. They were actually following them, perhaps competing for the mice. So, I positioned myself, and spent a good hour trying to capture some images. Once the mowers finished, the red kites began to disappear.

I came back with over 400 images (due to the burst mode), from which I may keep no more than 10. From these, a few might make it to the public. Conditions were not great. The early afternoon light was harsh, and the field and surroundings were not very photogenic. But it was a great exercise, and it made me reflect on a mistake that I tend to forget and repeat.

In the following, I review my settings for capturing birds in flight, and discuss my most common mistake.

Settings for photographing birds in flight

Conditions

Let me start by saying that photographing birds in flight under blue skies is … well, not the best thing. You may get the sharpest image of a bird, but the image is just meh … boring. In the example above, I added a soft gradient to the sky to give it a bit of dynamic, but it does not make it a great image.

I might get thrilled by capturing something in fast movement, but … am I making a photo, or testing equipment and skills? If the purpose is to make a compelling image with a story, I should put the bird in a context. That may be more difficult, specially if the bird tends to fly high, but it is necessary.

As usually, softer and lower light from golden hour are much more appropriate, not only because of the nicer atmosphere, but also because it helps illuminating the bird from below. When shooting far from golden hour (as I did this time), one has to wait for those few moments in which the birds plumage is well lit. You may have to move to a better vantage point for it. Special weather conditions may also make for an interesting image, but it may demand more from the gear you use.

Gear

When it comes to birds, you generally want a telephoto lens with at least 400 mm focal length, and an aperture as wide as you can afford (and carry). I use a 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6 lens, but it is always set to 400 mm. It is the lens that I have, and I also use it for landscapes. But if it was just for the birds in flight, I would not need the zoom. Despite being an excellent lens, it may be on the dark side for more interesting moments, when the light is not so strong as in an early afternoon with blue sky. Bird/wildlife-oriented photographers often have lenses with wider aperture, which are generally heavier and more expensive.

Camera settings

In short: Aperture (A) priority with ISO-auto and minimum shutter speed is my go to camera mode.

It is important to understand how the camera works, and what is the purpose of each shooting mode. I hear sometines people saying that they always use manual mode because it gives them more control. This is based on the misconception that other modes are meant to assist people that do not understand the manual mode enough. But it is actually the opposite. People who understand how a camera works, only use manual mode when it is convenient.

Full Manual mode (controlling shutter-speed, aperture, and ISO) is only needed when taking several images that might be combined afterwards in post. Generally, one or more of these images involves an exposure that is not globally optimal, and if something would be left free to the camera to adjust, it would change it from image to image, making the postprocessing more complicated. This is the case for instance of panoramas, focus stacking, and exposure blending.

For any hand-held shot that is meant to be the full image, leaving something free for the camera to adjust is better. Cameras react faster than us, and optimise the exposure for the light conditions. This is specially important when shooting moving subjects.

In order to make clearer my case for the A-priority, let me go over the disadvantages of each mode when shooting birds in flight. Suppose that you use manual shutter-speed (SS) and aperture (A), with ISO auto. I do not even consider the possibility of manual ISO here, it does not make any sense. You set SS = 1/4000 sec to freeze the action, and aperture to the maximum (wide open). Your camera will be able to compensate for the lack of light by increasing the ISO. But if you turn quickly following the bird towards a very illuminated area, the camera might hit the lowest ISO and would have no other way to avoid over-exposing. If you did not react, and changed manually either of the other settings, your shot will be ruined, and you might have lost your only chance. Leaving something else free to the camera is therefore a much better choice. There is no advantage of having both SS and A fixed; only disadvantages.

Now, the decision of whether to fix A or use shutter priority (S-mode) may be more controversial. People often associate S mode with fast action, and for a good reason. You want to avoid motion blur, and more often than not there is not enough light. In that case the camera will tend to keep the aperture as open as possible, and play with the ISO to get the optimal digital exposure. But if you happen to have more light than enough, and the camera reaches base ISO, it will start reducing the aperture. Narrowing the aperture changes the aesthetic of your image as it increases the depth of field in focus. This might reveal distracting background. Closing the aperture might bring the lens-sensor combination to a regime where image sharpness is affected by diffraction. This happens earlier than many of us think with modern cameras (but this a subject for a discussion on its own).

I find A-priority with ISO-auto the best mode for almost any dynamic (hand-held) situation. By fixing the aperture, you determine the aesthetic of your image. A-priority has another parameter, which is called minimum shutter speed (min-SS). The camera will try to keep the base ISO, and change SS to optimise the exposure; but it will never go below the min-SS that has been set. If there is more than enough light, it makes the exposures even shorter. So, you never get over-exposed images. On the other hand, once the camera reaches the min-SS (longest allowed exposure) due to low light, it will increase the ISO to keep matching the best digital exposure. So, it is the most efficient method to guarantee optimal exposure while keeping the desired aesthetic, and avoiding motion blur. I like to have a quick access button to set my minimum shutter-speed depending on the type of photography that I am making. In situations where a dark subject is in front of a bright dominant background, or a bright subject is in front of a dominant dark background, the authomatic metering may not expose the subject correctly. However, this can be corrected using the exposure compensation wheel much more efficiently than if we were using manual SS and/or ISO. With the exposure compensation we tell the camera to lower or increase the exposure in a certain amount from the automatically estimated value. You may wonder what happens when there is so little light that your ISO is at the maximum of the camera and SS at the minimum, but your image is still dark. In that case, the camera will overrule the min-SS … but that might be already time to stop shooting with any mode.

For birds in flight, I generally use min-SS =1/4000 s , or perhaps a bit slower at 1/3200 s, with my telephoto lens at 400 mm with A = f/5.6 (wide open). Shooting rate is set to about 7 frames per second.

Vantage point

Camera settings are easy to memorise and repeat. A bit more difficult is to remember to move around to set yourself in the best location for taking the image. Remember Amsel Adams saying “A good photo is knowing where to stand“. My first example (the image above) is just a red kite. It is sharp; it is well lit, because I took care of positioning the bird with respect to the sun; but there is no environment. The following image seems more interesting to me.

Red kite with a not great but better than empty sky background

I waited for the bird to pass flying in front of a forest that was farther enough to be blurred. It is not a great background, but it gives a bit of an idea of a surrounding … and we believe it is not a stuffed bird on a blue screen. It is also properly lit from the side, and the bird has a bit of rim light that stands out against the background. I tend to like back lit subjects. But it does not work well with harsh midday light and fast moving birds. The red kites tend to look very dark when back lit in these conditions. Now, the following image (while not yet a great image) is my favorite of the set.

Photo from a vantage point creating the illusion of being above the clouds (7008 x 4672 pix | 5.1 µm). *f/5.6* | *1/4000 sec* | *400 mm* | *ISO 200*

For this last image, I stood with my back to the sun, and waited for a bird to fly towards me, descending. That allowed me to make it look as if we were at eye level, while I was pointing with my lens slightly upwards. The sky above was clear, and there were clouds in the horizon. As clouds generally have a soft look, having them out of focus did not make them feel too distant; and from my perspective, this arrangement makes us feel as if I photographed the bird from above the clouds.This is an example of how under identical conditions, the choice of vantage point and composition can make a difference. This last image is at least original. It creates an optical illusion. I did not crop it as I did with the others; there is a context. It is not about how much details you see in the bird at first sight; it is not an exhibition of lens sharpness. It is about a moment, and a composition that tells a story.

Most common recurring mistake (mind set)

During my hour shooting the kites, I started thinking about all the many times I have tried photographing birds in the past, just to come home with hundreds of disappointing images of a fuzzy smudge in the sky. I also remember the times I have succeeded. But, … what is the cause behind the different outcomes? Is there a pattern? Changes in the settings?

Interestingly, it has nothing to do with the camera, nor with the lens. It has always been about expectations, and my decision of when to take the image or not. And I feel this may happen to other photographers too. Because it goes back to our tendency to get carried away by the gear testing curiosity, by the enjoyment of how good our tools are, by ideal settings; and we forget what photography is about. I expect from my modern camera, with great autofocus, to capture full details of distant birds, from which I barely see the structure. Why am I taking the image then, when there is nothing to admire from my current view point? In general, the camera will not give you colours, nor details, that you do not see. I should try to avoid that gear fetishism, and remember to press the shutter only when I notice there is something to admire, where there is visible content.

As time passes and I try new things, I find myself again falling down the (gear testing) rabbit hole. To avoid or to get out of this, it may be enough taking a moment to recall what the purpose of going out with the camera was. When I manage, I arrive home happier with my photos, having less rubbish to delete, and a clear story to tell.

Thank you for reading!

BACK TO BLOG LIST

Photographing red kites