Off to have another shot at those pesky kites!!

[NicolaB]

I'm thinking about a return trip to Gigrin Farm to have another go at those kites...has anyone got any tips for getting those elusive sharp flight shots? This will be the first time I'll have been there since getting the D300, so am hoping that the superior tracking AF system will serve me well.

Previously I just stuck the camera on the fastest shutter speed it could cope with under the light conditions, adjusted the ISO accordingly, and hoped for the best. I was wondering if anyone else could advise on the methods they use? After reading Nicks thread I've now learnt that using the Bigma at 500mm is probably a bad idea!!

Thanks, and sorry for the recent barrage of questions

[NickCantle]

Well, I wouldn't rule out the use of the Bigma at full extension- it's still sharp at 500mm, but not as sharp as 400mm. If it were me going to Gigrin (I wish) I would be using AV mode, ISO 400 and seeing if my shutter speed would be 1/500 or faster. If so, I'd shoot like that. If not, I'd take my ISO up to 640, and so on until I could get the right speed.

If you're going for Kites in flight, will they be against bare sky or background? If the former, you'll not need to worry about taking your ISO up much higher than 400 and remember to dial in those couple of stops of exposure compensation! If the latter, just see how you get on

Good luck and I want to see some belters when you get back!

Nick

[NicolaB]

It's usually a mixture of sky and background. There are a lot of tall trees around the feeding site which make for a bit of a challenging background for the AF to track across. I like trying to get shots of the kites actually swooping to pick the food up off the ground as these can be really dramatic, but also very difficult to get right!

This is the best I've managed so far, although it could really have done with better light (the weather went wet and miserable as soon as we arrived - typical!), plus the quality has suffered through being at 500mm.




Luckily they usually hang around the site for a few hours so you get a lot of opportunities to experiment with settings.

[NickCantle]

That's a nice shot, and I wouldn't necessarily say that the image quality has suffered because it's at 500mm. If you are in dire need of one stop, you could always take it down to 400 and shoot wide open, which at 400mm is f/5.6 but that's just one to try. You mention the background being difficult to AF track across- have you tried just using one AF point? If you lock the single AF point on to the bird, then the background doesn't have to come into play

[NicolaB]

Thanks again, that's a good idea!

The shot I posted was taken with my old D60, which only had 5 AF points anyway so it was a bit like clay pigeon shooting trying to track the birds. I'm hoping that the D300 will give me a better chance of keeping the bird in focus by selecting a single point in dynamic area AF mode and hoping it hangs on to it, and I'm hoping it has a better chance of doing so with 51 AF points to choose from

[eeyore]

ive been to gigrin loads of times and got some great shots with my (less well specified) little bigma (170-500) - one even made it onto the front of a birdwatching magazine

the best advice i can give is that that i was given on my first trip there - rather than dotting about in a huge cloud of kites pick one bird and track it - this gives the af a better chance of locking on and allows you to pick an undisturbed background to shoot against, and rather than blasting away try to think about composition etc

Camera settings wise its difficult to give specific advice as i'm a canon user but generally I'd open the apperture up as far as it will go, set the ISO to 400 (or higher if you camera has good iso noise performance), and try to get a shutter speed of 1/250 or 1/500 or higher. Set the shooting mode to burst , and the AF to AF servo , light up all your focus points (unless you are shooting in a cloud of kites or against the trees in which case you want either the centre one or one to the left lit up)

get there early and stay in the hides until all the kites have left (and most of the bird watchers) you often get better shots towards the end when there are fewer kites arround.

and when things are less confused try picking a low flying bird (the buzzards ae easier for this than the kites as they are less maneuverable) and panning with it on a low (1/30 or so) shutter speed - if you do it right you'll get a shot with a blured background , a sharp body and wings showing some motion blur

also while you are at gigrin check out the bird feeder hides near the centre , and the pond hide (close herons frequently) above the feeding area.

if you are there for more than one day you could try something different by climbing the hill to the right of the feeding area before feeding time then photographing the cloud of kites from above (again motion blur is an option) you will also get opportunities on kites flying over you on their way into feed- if you do this make sure you are far enough away not to put off the birds from feeding or you will make yourself very unpopular.

and lastly a top tip if you are camping - if you camp at gigrin when it isnt busy they will let you camp on one of the caravan pitches which will enable you to run a power lead into the tent from the conector (you can buy leads with a connector on one end and a domestic adaptor strip on the other from most caravaning outlets, go outdoors etc) this is ideal for powering camera chargers, laptops etc , and also means that you can run an electric kettle for the morning brew up ( one year when i was their in january i ran a fan heater ! )

[NicolaB]

Thanks everyone, especially for that specific advice, Eeyore and Nick, exactly what I was after! I tested my camera up to ISO 1600 yesterday evening with very satisfying results, so I guess cranking that up is the way forward for those decent shutter speeds.

I'm going tomorrow, have booked a spot in the Gateway hide, the forecast is good, so fingers crossed I'll come back with a smile on my face rather than the usual pained frustrated look!

Thanks again!

Nic

[NickCantle]

Originally Posted by NicolaB

Thanks everyone, especially for that specific advice, Eeyore and Nick, exactly what I was after! I tested my camera up to ISO 1600 yesterday evening with very satisfying results, so I guess cranking that up is the way forward for those decent shutter speeds.

I'm going tomorrow, have booked a spot in the Gateway hide, the forecast is good, so fingers crossed I'll come back with a smile on my face rather than the usual pained frustrated look!

Thanks again!

Nic

Glad you're motivated again. Always a good mind to be in

One thing though, try not to rely on your ISO because using it at 1600 isn't half as good as using it at 400 or 640. If it really is too dark to use a lower ISO then fair enough, but I'd always use the ISO escape route as a last resort.

Good luck for tomorrow and looking forward to the Kites!

[NicolaB]

Thank you!

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by NickCantle

Glad you're motivated again. Always a good mind to be in

One thing though, try not to rely on your ISO because using it at 1600 isn't half as good as using it at 400 or 640. If it really is too dark to use a lower ISO then fair enough, but I'd always use the ISO escape route as a last resort.

Good luck for tomorrow and looking forward to the Kites!

true - for us lowly mortals who have canons - nikons new sensor technology as found in the D300 , D700 & D3 has very impressive low light / high iso / low noise performance - look at the gorrila shots andy rouse took at 3200 iso recently.

so much so that i am seriously considering swaping to nikon when my long lense needs replacing and buying a D700 or a D3 (though there is the "small" matter of a wedding first) and a D300 as a second body.

I think nicola can safely go to iso 800 though if light is good she may not need to - the difference between speeds over 1/500 is negligible when photographing slow flying birds.