Mercer on Memorial Day morning - My first BIF - Need C&C

[garykohs]

These are with a Canon 7D and Canon 300/4 IS - hand held.

I saw the same ducks I saw last week.




Then my first real BIF opportunity. Are these good or not?







A squirrel:





More BIF:















I'd appreciate anyone telling me which of these BIF shots are good, and why. I've just never done this before.

They were all shot in single point with multi-point expansion and AI Servo.

[Blue Moon]

Originally Posted by garykohs

These are with a Canon 7D and Canon 300/4 IS - hand held.

I'd appreciate anyone telling me which of these BIF shots are good, and why. I've just never done this before.

They were all shot in single point with multi-point expansion and AI Servo.

Gary since no one else has responded yet to your post let me first say congratulations on your first BIF images. You’ve ventured into an area of wildlife photography that provides perhaps the greatest challenge to the nature photographer. When you move from shooting static targets to ones in motion the challenge of capturing a great shot dramatically increase.

Regarding your question, which is a good BIF and why, if you ask a dozen people you’re likely to get many different answers. In my experience I’ve found that shooting BIF is difficult, and shooting BIF of white flying targets is extremely difficult. Personally I believe that shooting white birds, especially in harsh overhead light, is perhaps the most difficult BIF image to properly capture. Take heart that for your first outing, your handheld BIF shots are very respectable.

As far as the subject of your first BIF shots, while big white birds such as the Great Egret are great for filling your frame when shooting with short glass and providing a larger target to practice tracking, there is a reason why I refer to white birds as flying sun reflectors. It is very rare to see a BIF image of a white bird shot in harsh sunlight that’s not blown out. More often than not they are seriously blown out. Skilled Photoshop shooters usually attempt to pull the blown highlights out in post but the results are often not pleasant if you critique with an honest eye. The good news is that Fiona & Finn Facebook rarely catch the mistakes that nature shooters often labor over in post while they attempt to salvage an otherwise great shot.

If you study the EXIF on outstanding white BIF images, they are nearly always captured by the most experienced BIF shooters and you’ll usually find they aggressively use Exposure Compensation in an effort to keep the whites from being blown out. Your Canon bodies both provide +/-3.0 EC, so take advantage of this world class feature next time you’re afield. Also consider yourself fortunate because many of us shoot with ancient gear limited to +/-2.0 EC.

Besides choosing to shoot in less aggressive light and learning to master EC, also make good use of the outstanding ISO performance that your gear provides. Both limiting EC and bumping up ISO are key components to successful BIF photography. While light conditions should always dictate all settings for the experienced shooter, often a good starting point is to set your ISO to match the focal length of your glass, this is especially important when attempting to handhold. Depending on available light, start with say ISO 320 in decent light and bump up to ISO 640 as light starts to diminish. Your gear has a much better range than most in regard to ISO so don’t be afraid to use much higher ISO settings when you shoot at dawn or twilight. The suggested ISO range is just a common starting point so please don’t limit yourself and mistakenly take my suggestions as gospel.

One last point to strive for is to always nail your focus point. I nearly always aim at the nearest eye and verify in post. When you review your images in post, don’t waste time on shots where you were close but missed your target. They will always look soft at best. Use your camera provided software to check your focus points in post. In Canon’s DPP I believe that ALT L usually will allow you to view your focus points. They can also be controlled under the View tab.

Again great job on your first BIF captures. Enjoy your BIF journey.

[slickshooter]

Good job on your first BIF's Gary
When shooting bifs try to get your shutterspeed to at least a 1000/sec.
1250-1600/sec
is best.Lowering your iso will decrease your shutterspeed resulting in blurry shots.Keeping this in mind try to keep your iso at 400 or above and use evaluative or centerweighted metering,(spot usually is too hard to keep the sensor on the subject).Aperature priority mode does best for bifs also.Watch your exposure control and shutterspeeds and have fun.

[preames]

On the BIFs, I really like the light filtering through the wings. As others have said, just be sure to keep you shutter speed up. I usually shoot birds at 400 to 800iso with my 7D, allowing me to keep the shutter speed above 1/640 (shooting with a 300 with a 1.4 TC) in morning light conditions. A little noise at the higher iso's is more visually acceptable than a slightly oof shot. You can even go as high as 1600iso, but you will definitely need NR software to have a really presentable shot. I notice from the exif data on your shots that it appears you are using "auto iso" (as you iso moves around quite a lot amongst your shots) - my experience with my 7D is that the intermediate iso setting tend to be noisier than the the full steps (100, 200, 400, 800, etc.), so I like to just set it as high as I think I will need for the given light conditions.

You might also try Highlight Tone Priority with the 7D. It will help to preserve some of the details of an all white bird that is in direct sunlight.

The first shot of the duck is a great capture. I think that may be the friendliest looking duck I have ever seen!

[Tim T]

Congrat's on your first BIF shots. You did well. Love the first relection shot. Like others have said, watch your exposure on the whites. It's always tough to get clean backgrounds but that is a goal as well. I agree with keeping the shutter speed up but don't hesitate to play around with slower speeds to blur the wings. Sometimes it can make a more interesting action shot than frozen wings.

So how do you like the 7D compared to the Mark IV?

[Glassman]

Congrats on your BIF's. I would agree to keep your shutter speed at least 500, I do not hesitate to shoot at 800 iso, keep the sun at your back when possible and you will do great. On white birds, I underexpose it 1/3 of a stop at least.

[garykohs]

Thanks to every for the comments. I appreciate your time.

Next time I'll be more prepared to shoot a bird. I wasn't really planning on that. Now I will be and, thanks to you, I'll know what to do.

Geryl, you're right in that the white wings were completely blown on the shots with the top of the wings facing the camera. So I'll try underexposing. Is Highlight Tone Priority a good idea when shooting raw? I know Dynamic Range Optomization is very effective on my Sony but it really only works with jpegs and really just results in underexposing the raw files slightly. I would assume the same is true of HTP in Canon. Is that right?

As for the 1D4 vs. the 7D, the primary advantage of the 1D4 is in very high ISO shooting. I'm mostly a sports shooter and the 1D4 is very good at 12,800, about the same as the 7D at 5,000. [I have just never seen a difference at the "in between" ISOs by the way. The 7D is noticeably better at 5,000 than at 6,400.] The 1D4 effortlessly tracks action that requires a bit more effort with the 7D.

I was shooting with the 7D both because I haven't much since I got the 1D4 and because I wanted the greater "reach" of the 1.6 crop since a 300mm lens is less than optimal for wildlife shooting. Most of these shots are heavily cropped and it's nice to have the 18MP to work with.

[jfoureyes]

Heck these look great to me! A lot better than anything I've ever got when I try this kind of stuff!