Action shots

[HybridHaylee]

I need some help i am a total beginner here

Right so here it goes, my main subjects for photography are animals, i.e birds of prey in action shots. I have been fiddling around with my Sony A350 and cant seem to figure out the right settings.

I am trying to capture shots like these,

http://michaelfairchild.com/landscap...n%20flight.jpg

and well am failing miserably lol

its seems as i higher my shutter speed the picture gets dark, so then i higher my ISO setting and it gets a bit grainier. i can get the right balance.

Any advice

[Nike]

hi,

wildlife photography needs a lot of patience and dedication. You have to wait for good light situations (best, in my opinion is morning and evening light) etc. - it can take a lot of time.

You can try to chose a more open aperture when increasing the shutter speed, that the pictures don't get too dark, but also that has it s limits - depending on the lens. For birds you often need really fast tele lenses, exspecially if the light is not perfect. Unfortunatley, these aren't quite cheap. Personally, I wouldn't use any iso settings higher than 400.

What lens are you using? And what aperture settings? Can you show some examples (with exif data) where you failed miserably? That might help to help you

Another tip - experiment and practice in zoos. It's much easier to start with, because the distance is smaller, the birds are used to people, and you spend less time with waitng and more time with shooting, which will certainly help for any wildlife projects you might have in your mind.

[HybridHaylee]

well i have a standard DT 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 & DT 55-200mm f/4-5.6 Zoom Lenses

what lense would you recommend?

will find some pictures for you if i havent already deleted them

thanks for the reply

[Grumbledook]

birding typically uses a 300 or 400mm upwards lenses from what i have read about it

what focus mode are you using? need to use one of the servo modes that will focus track moving objects

aim for the eyes and shoot off a few frames at a time

doing a search for birding photography or just bird photography should get you more in depth info (google not the forum)

[Nike]

yep, 300 - 600 is what many bird photographers are using - but you need a really large budget for these - and they're heavy.

However, birds of prey aren't that small. If you aren't going for wildlife, where you usually have to keep quite a distance (depending on the kind of bird of prey you want to photograph, but usually they're quite sensitive), your 55-200 will be long enough. I've just checked my bird photos and saw I took most of them with an 105 mm 1:2,8 lens and a 180 mm 1:2,8 - but they were all taken in a zoo from rather small distance, or from birds like seagulls that let you come very close, too, or from falcons etc. that are living in villages and don't mind people too much, exspecially when you're taking your time, get to know what places they occur often, watch, and wait.

Since your 55-200 not a very fast lens (fast zoom lenses with 1: 2,8 are very expensive in that range, too, unfotunatley) you depend on good light situations. The lowest shutterspeed I'd use is 1/250-1/500.

And regarding the focus - what Grumbledook said - that's an advantage, but it can also work without that. Personally, I often use manual focus, especially in situations when you have time to wait for the bird to start off or when you're waiting for the bird to occur at a specific place (they are, when you've watched them for a while, quite predictable.) For me, bird photography or wildlife in general is much about studying and watching the animals, get to know their habits etc. In zoos that's much easier, because the terrain is much much smaller, but I think it's a good start for further projects and a good place to experiment with your settings.

It might take a long time til you come to good results, but I think that's part of the game

And you said you deleted your photos? I'd not do that, exspecially when they are "failures" - I always keep these to check what went wrong with which settings - in my opinion that's one of the really big advantages of digital cams - that all the data is stored makes it so much easier to learn from mistakes

[HybridHaylee]

i went out yesterday and took some action shots.. this is what i came up with
setting ranged from iso 800 - 3200 due to fading light and 1/200 shutter speed

any advice would really be appreicated .. i need a new lense really dont i.







its also pot luck i got some i set it on continuous shooting and snapped like crazy until the bird stopped moving lol

[ukanfoff]

if iso is an issue ,u can always shoot on brighter days.

[HybridHaylee]

i wish i could lower the setting but clouds seem to like liverpool at the moment lol

what focas option should i use for fast moving targets?

[Grumbledook]

a faster lens would help a bit though I think you do need to use a faster shutter speed than ¹/200 tho

not done much birding myself though, if I see useful guides I'll come back and link them

[HybridHaylee]

i went out again i manage to get better pictures the lighting was better which ment i could use a faster shutter speed and lower iso

here are the results








settings were 1/400 shutter speed and 400 iso but i think i should of used a lower one as it flushed out the colour in the photo.

what setting should i have my focas on as its i need it to track the target better?

[ukanfoff]

the next batch came out better but i think u could have bump the iso a lil bit more, like 800. like especially the one before the bird gets the meat from the glove, there could have been way less blur. what setting are u using? av,tv, manual?

[HybridHaylee]

i used to use auto but recently started using manual i have more successful shots