Macaw in Flight
Bird show at Whipsnade Zoo
Bird show at Whipsnade Zoo
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Jul, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
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This photograph was part of a happy day for me, a visit with family to ZSL Whipsnade Zoo produced many great up close encounters that you would not get normally (that is unless you could travel off to some far of exotic land) their bird show was great with an open air ampitheatre and plenty of different species to try and get a good shot of.Time
I took the photograph of the Macaw at about 4pm at a bird flight show.Lighting
The issue I experienced with this photo, was that it had been hard and harsh sunlight all day, even at about 4pm the sun was still a bit too much for the camera to take a good shot (lots of shadowing and lots of highlight hotspots,) about 100 ISO (which is good it helps produce less graining and noise in the image) and running close to 1000 shutter speed at times (which was also good as I was hoping for a freeze frame shot, the wings are still a bit blurred but lends well to the overall movement) the light in places was too much and too bright so some shots were not that great, this one worked nicely, opting to take this image with a 75-300mm lens dropped the f stop naturally and allowed for a bit of play, but not much, a Neutral Density Filter may have helped in this sittuation as I was looking to retain the low f stop to allow a nice blurring of the background for a cleaner image but that would have lost the light level too much and would force a slower shutter speed to retain the light. if I had used to fast a shutter speed, that would have also lost the light, so it is a mix somewhere in the middle.Equipment
I used a Canon 100d, Canon EF 75-300mm lens hend held to be able to track the birds in flight easily , a tripod would unfortunately be a bit un-suitable in this sittuation. a monopod may have helped to make the shot easier.Inspiration
I look at lots of images for inspiration, but a bird in flight is something a bit tricky to get pulled of nicely, and I have been wanting chances to try this for a while on something other than birds of prey that I usualy get to photo.Editing
If I remember, I cropped the image by a small amount to enable a better framing of the subject, the original image was a little one sided.In my camera bag
I normaly run around with a backpack, with a Canon 1000d (the colour registration for the Canon 1000d is very nice and natural) I also use a Canon 100d, and a variety of lenses, Canon EFS 10-18mm f 4.5-5.6 IS STM, Canon EF 28mm f 2.8 (1987), Canon EF 35mm f 2 (1990), Canon EF 50mm f1.8, Canon EFS 18-55mm f 3.5-5.6 IS STM (Kit Lens), Canon EF 55-200mm f 4.5-5.6 USM II, Canon EF75-300mm f 4-5.6 MkII I always try and keep only Canon products as much as possible, simply because Canon is designed for use with Canon for the best results, such as one would assume for Nikon with Nikon products.Feedback
Visit a Zoo, it helps you get close to the animals, and especially to the more exotic species, take a long lens, a monopod could have done well, and may have helped in this instance, a Neutral Density filter could have also helped on such a bright day. on a darker day a flash could be used to help freeze the subject and brighten the image, but when animals are involved they can be distracted and frightened by a flash, also, flashes when used incorrectly can permenantly do damage to the eyes of animals and small children, so be careful. secondary to this, flashes are sometimes too harsh to get the lighting you may be looking for and colour correction has to be spot on in the camera for it to look great. A fast moving bird... so you will need a fast shutter speed to avoid lots of blur from the beating wings (sometimes a little blur can show the empasis of movement in the subject so don't be put off if it is not a pure frozen shot) the downside however, is you need plenty of light, so a bright day will be needed or your image may look a bit dark and lose you some colour. if this happens, you can always bump up the ISO a little, but if you bump the ISO be prepared for a little additional noise in the image. If the light allows it, stick you camera into TV, Telemetry Value, in other words Shutter Speed priority, and set to about 1000th of a second or quicker, this should help get a fairly blur free image. but the background blur/focus can vary with this because the Aperture or f stop will be compensating up and down in value to keep the shutter at 1000th of a second and this will effect the depth of field. A long lens, makes it harder to track a bird in flight and keep up with it, but it throws the background out of focus, more so than a shorter lens and provides a nice effect to seperate the image from the background, also helping to create interest in different depths in the image. A low f stop will allow greater blur in the background, as a low f stop creates a shallower depth of field, that being said, a larger f stop would make focusing issues easier to deal with when tracking the bird in flight and is more forgiving due to the larger depth of field, downside is that this higher f stop, makes a smaller iris opening in the lens much smaller, and can reduce the brightness of the image and will make the depth of field larger and wider, again this can make your background less blurred and a bit sharper and not sepreate the subject from the background as much. The specific circumstances on the day lighting and weather conditions will normally dictate how you approach the shot, it is very difficult to say that one way is perfect, for one day it could be, on another day with the same subject it would not be. Experiment and have a try and see what best suits you. For fast moving birds I have found a 200mm lens more suitable than a 300mm lens as a fast moving birds moving towards you is easier to get focus lock, by the time a 300mm gets focus lock the bird is normally too close in frame and the lens can not focus long the subject that close to get a good shot, but a 200mm can. it is more forgiving this circumstance. For birds moving sideways you can still get away with a 300mm. On that day I used the following. High Shutter Speed about 1000th of a second. (to try and freeze the subject) Low ISO at 100 f 5 for the aperture (lowest I could get with a long zoom lens, to alow plenty of light in to help blur the background) Long Lens Canon EF 75-300mm at about 205mm odd. (to get a nice close image to help shift the background out of focus) Manual white balance on spot metering. (to allow correct colour claibration for the day, and the spot mettering to help measure the light from the subject rather than the whole image) AI Focusing.
