Photographing birds in flight is possibly the most challenging area of bird photography. The incredible work of Steven Dalton represents the pinnacle of what can be achieved with the right sort of 'high-tech' equipment. Dalton's, now quite old, image of the Swallow drinking at his garden pond must surely rate as one of the greatest bird photographs ever. But what can the average birder hope to capture with less sophisticated gear... well you'll be surprised. I hope these images coupled with the notes will inspire you to try for yourself.
But remember, don't set your aims too high to start with - its best to
practice on larger subjects: gulls, herons, geese and swans. All these
families tend to fly slower than smaller birds and you don't have to get
so close. They are, therefore, easier to follow through the camera as
you won't have to pan as fast and, of course, you don't need to
concentrate on one bird as flocks of geese, ducks or waders in flight
make great images anyway.
Gulls, like the Aldborough Ivory Gull (second picture), are a good starting point; a few left over slices of bread or fish offal (if you have any!) are all you need to bring them in and being white they do not present the same exposure problems as darker birds when photographed against the sky.
It is better to take flight shots either early or later in the day when the sun is lower and the underside of your subject is not in shadow, the best conditions are if the subject is over water, sand or better still snow, as this will act as a reflector, illuminating the underside of the bird nicely. I prefer, if possible, to have some sort of background other than all sky. Sometimes I add this in with Photoshop after, but that's a whole new subject.
Exposure is the biggest problem, but modern cameras have made this a whole lot easier. I tend to use evaluative metering; this is accurate most of the time but another technique is to take a manual reading from a similarly lit subject and set the camera to this. Auto bracketing can be used but the problem is that it always seems that the best-posed shot is one of the wrongly exposed ones, but if it works for you stick with it.
In the old days before auto focus the trick was to set the focus and
follow the subject until it came into focus, then shoot, not always
satisfactory, but it did yield results. Now modern servo A/F and
predictive A/F make this side so much easier. If you can select the
focusing point so much the better. I usually set the central point only
and avoid using eye following A/F as this often gets itself in a muddle.
As with all aspects of photography 'depth of field' is important and
will govern how much of the bird is sharply focused, small apertures
(big numbers - f16 etc) will give better dof but the penalty is slower
shutter speeds, so it is wise to make sure that the shutter speed is
above 1/250th of a second or more, in order to freeze the action.
Long lenses are better for bird photography - 300mm to 500mm being
essential if you wish to capture a wide range of images.
Now Canon and Nikon make image-stabilized lenses. Hand holding the
camera is also less likely to present camera shake problems. This means
that you can use slower shutter speeds, which in turn gives the
opportunity to get images with some movement that can add 'life' to the
shot, this can work well with flocks of birds such as geese, duck or
waders, giving an ethereal atmosphere to the image. Most of the time
though it is best to use faster shutter speeds of 1/250th of a sec or
greater, so it may mean loading with 200 or 400 asa film, or resetting
the asa (gain) on digital cameras.
If not image-stabilized then a loosened
off 'ball and socket' head on your monopod or tripod will help keep the
camera steady, and take the weight off your arms. This is important, as
prolonged holding of the camera at eye-level will make your arm muscles
tired and more prone to shake.
I am not that familiar with digiscoping with digital still or video
cameras, but I am sure that with some practice of panning it is very
possible to get good flight shots also. I use Canon D60 digital and
Canon EOS-3 SLR bodies for my images. When using digital cameras
exposure is not such a great problem as so much can be done to correct
the images afterwards using image software programs.
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