Every chance I get when I'm in Africa, I try to get a shot of the lilac breasted roller in flight. It's considered one of the most beautiful birds in Africa -- if not THE most beautiful bird -- and in flight it's really something. They are extremely fast, though, and it's not easy getting a frame-filling sharp image. It takes lots of tries and a high frame per second rate. My standard shutter speed for small birds in flight is 1/3200 so I can freeze even the wing tips. This forces the ISO to be high in diffused light, but if the sun is out then you can get away with a lower ISO setting. For this picture, the ISO was 800 and the aperture was f/9. I use all the focus points when photographing birds in flight because it's hard to keep them in the center of the frame, and my rationale is that if they are off-center, the extended wings will activate focus points at the periphery of the frame and keep the bird in focus.
8 Comments
Aug 28, 2016, 11:00:31 AM
Jim - Thanks for your feedback, Terry. I'm glad you find this information helpful. I appreciate your compliment on my images, too.
Aug 28, 2016, 10:58:31 AM
Terry Stoa - Your photos you share are always fabulous, and your explanations help us understand your rationale.
Aug 27, 2016, 2:26:12 PM
Jim - Hi Bob, Thank you. No, I use manual exposure mode, select the shutter manually, select the aperture manually, and then choose auto ISO. This says that I'm willing to accept a higher ISO if necessary in order to get the shutter I want and the aperture I want.
Aug 27, 2016, 2:16:07 PM
Bob Turner - Great capture. Beautiful bird, we had many sightings of this bird a few years ago. Do you select the shutter speed in shutter priority
Aug 27, 2016, 12:57:45 PM
Rosemary Sheel - Perfect! And you don't need to replace the background! Blue and orange are opposite on the color wheel...aren't they?
Aug 27, 2016, 11:38:19 AM
Jim - Thank you very much, Winslow. I appreciate your compliment.
Aug 27, 2016, 11:37:06 AM
Jim - Thanks, Rosemary, and yes, you're right about the colors. More specifically, blue is complementary with yellow and cyan is complementary with red. So, orange is halfway between red and yellow; thus the complement to orange is halfway between cyan and blue.
Aug 27, 2016, 9:13:44 AM
Winslow Townson - Awesome frame......gorgeous!