Barn Owl photography shock!

[KentYeti]

The Kestrel was great. And as for the Barn Owl, well I think they are one of the most beautiful creatures in existence.

Thanks so much for sharing that with us.

Cheers,

Bryan

[KentYeti]

Originally Posted by tceditor

Thanks for your comments. I'm very pleased you enjoyed it.

We're planning to do the same again in the next few days (weather permitting) with the Barn Owl, as I feel I haven't perfected the shot. She's a little too soft at the moment. Any tips you can share re settings would be appreciated. It's very difficult to focus on something so fast as I'm sure you can appreciate.

Love your pictures on your website Jeff, so any advice welcome.

Regards
Paul

I got some good close ups of a Barn Owl at the British Wildlife centre. In bright sunshine with a darkish background that was in shadow. Using my 300mm lens at minimum focus distance. That got the Owl very clear with an almost black background. Here's one of them, a five month old female. Kent Yeti's Bird Photos

Getting a good focus on a very close up fast moving bird is not easy! I've done a few shoots at Wildlife Centres recently and messed up big time on many shots.

I tried for 1/1600th sec when I could and adjusted everything around that. Pushing my ISO to the limit to try and get some depth of field. My Nikon D7000 will go to ISO 2000 OK in good sunlight if I am going to use almost the full frame of the shot, although I like to use 1250 max for safety.

When the bird was going to repeat the same flight I tried to shoot from more side on so I could pan on the bird and get a focus lock before firing the shutter. I did end up with some good stuff. Plus some rubbish! Others were having real focus problems trying to get head on shots. The bird just arrived too fast for their focus systems.

Pre focussing can also help. Again if a series of the same flight is planned. Get someone to stick their hand up at the point an earlier flight has told you the bird will pass and focus on that for the next few similar flights.

I'm quite new to this Paul and on a massive learning curve, but hope the above help.

Cheers,

Bryan

[tceditor]

Originally Posted by KentYeti

I got some good close ups of a Barn Owl at the British Wildlife centre. In bright sunshine with a darkish background that was in shadow. Using my 300mm lens at minimum focus distance. That got the Owl very clear with an almost black background. Here's one of them, a five month old female. Kent Yeti's Bird Photos

Getting a good focus on a very close up fast moving bird is not easy! I've done a few shoots at Wildlife Centres recently and messed up big time on many shots.

I tried for 1/1600th sec when I could and adjusted everything around that. Pushing my ISO to the limit to try and get some depth of field. My Nikon D7000 will go to ISO 2000 OK in good sunlight if I am going to use almost the full frame of the shot, although I like to use 1250 max for safety.

When the bird was going to repeat the same flight I tried to shoot from more side on so I could pan on the bird and get a focus lock before firing the shutter. I did end up with some good stuff. Plus some rubbish! Others were having real focus problems trying to get head on shots. The bird just arrived too fast for their focus systems.

Pre focussing can also help. Again if a series of the same flight is planned. Get someone to stick their hand up at the point an earlier flight has told you the bird will pass and focus on that for the next few similar flights.

I'm quite new to this Paul and on a massive learning curve, but hope the above help.

Cheers,

Bryan

Thanks for your time to reply. That's all good advice and I understand every point you made. I actually pre-focused as much as I could by making someone put their hand in front of the lens, so that worked to a certain extent.

ISO is a funny one as my Canon can reach 6400ISO and I can actually take out noise in 'Camera Raw' on the Mac. I shot some football images recently in a stadium at 5000ISO and managed to withdraw all the noise which was great.

I think I might try the side on shots next time to get it sharp, so good tip there.

So thanks Bryan, hope to keep in touch.

Paul