Everyone got amazing pictures today of the snowy owls here in Canada. Despite the challenges of photographing birds in flight -- the main one being getting tack sharp pictures -- we had a great day. When you learn the patterns of flight, adjust to the speed of the birds, and set the camera correctly, it's not as difficult as it seems. Plus, practice makes perfect. With lots of opportunities and a fast frame rate, you start scoring great action shots with wonderful wing formations. Here is a picture I took today, and the settings were 1/3200, f/11, 1000 ISO. I used my Canon 100-400mm lens, and the camera was firing at 14 frames per second. I underexposed by 1/3 with the exposure compensation to protect the fragile highlights from becoming overexposed.
3 Comments
Jan 29, 2017, 9:07:29 PM
Bob Vestal - Thanks very much for adding that extra bit of explanation. This technique makes total sense, but the need for separate shot of background has to be anticipated. Something for me to remember in a similar situation.
Jan 28, 2017, 9:31:16 AM
Jim - Bob, This is two separate shots. There was no way the camera could capture such detail in the very light sky and still provide a good exposure on the bird. Therefore, after I photographed the owl, I simply took a picture of the sky and put them together. This is exactly the sky that was behind the bird, but due to the limitations of dynamic range I couldn't capture it as I saw it with one frame.
Jan 27, 2017, 10:34:44 PM
Bob Vestal - These birds are so magnificent! I assume that the dark sky was pushing the meter to create a potential overexposure in this situation, hence -1/3 exposure compensation..