Tips and tricks for photographing birds in flight

If you’ve ever tried photographing flying birds, you’ve probably encountered some problems with motion blur, incorrect focus, exposure issues, etc.

At the Hunters of Light, the mission is to educate, motivate and inspire, so as the POTW (Photo of the week) is Birds in flight, I thought I’d put together a few hints and tips as well as ask a few photographers that have successfully photographed birds in flight with amazing results to provide their input. When you start applying these guidelines your hit rate is sure to improve.

Increase your Shutter Speed

For birds in flight, it’s is crucial to have a fast shutter speed if you want to make sure the head and eye of the bird is sharp.
If like me your hands shake and your technique is not perfect, that shutter speed might need to be at least 3200.
Typically, I would set my camera to manual mode and set the shutter speed to 1/2500 of a second on a 4/5/600mm lens.
I set the aperture to f/8 and the ISO to Auto because the constantly changing background (dark, light, water, sky, trees) would mean over or underexposure if your ISO is manually set.

Slow Shutter speeds for action. Wait, what?

So, I have just said crank up the shutter speed, but slower shutter speeds can create beautiful images filled with motion.
If a bird is hovering or you can pan with it as slightly slower shutter speed, you can get the face perfectly sharp, but the wingtips in motion.

Camera settings: 1/500 seconds, f/8, ISO 125, Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM.

Panning your lens with the birds as they fly will make the background blur and a slow shutter speed will allow the wings to blur.
Start with 1/15 of a second and then move to 1/30, 1/60, etc.

The Shutter speed will depend on how far away the birds are, how large the birds are, and how fast they beat their wings. It just takes a little experimentation, which is a good thing.

Sometimes you can let your hair down and create an amazing shot like the one below by Peter Houts

Always Be Ready

Another great habit to get into is always being ready.
Set your camera up in the parking lot and take a test exposure so if anything happens, you’ll have the general exposure set.

Shoot in Good Light

Try to shoot in good light, ideally the golden hour, one hour after sunrise or one hour before sunset. Admittedly, you will need to have a fairly new camera sensor and a lens that can provide a wide aperture to not have to battle too much with high ISO settings.

If you can, try to have the sun behind you so the bird will be nicely lit up, and there will be a minimum of shadows on the bird’s head. You will also have a better chance of getting a catchlight in its eyes.

If you are looking to push the image a little, try breaking all of the rules above and backlight the subject at dawn. If you are lucky the light behind the bird is perfect and you catch it just as it takes off.

Camera settings: 1/2000 seconds, f/6.3, ISO 400, Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS II USM. Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon EF 500mm f/4 L IS II USM, EF 1.4x III Extender

Find a Place to Practice

Try to find a place to practice your birds in flight technique, whether it’s doves in your garden or if you are lucky enough, a spot where Crested Terns catch fish like the one Georgina Steytler has.

By getting out as often as you can while you’re learning, you will build muscle memory, you’ll develop the skills of acquiring the bird in the viewfinder and keeping the bird in the frame as you pan with it as it flies.

Andrew Aveley’s top 3 tips:

1. When panning a bird in flight, keep the bird in the centre of the frame to be able to get the best use of your focus points so that you can get the shot and then crop for composition later
2. When waiting to capture a bird taking off, zoom out a little so you don’t cut off the wings or head when it does go
3. Always position yourself if you can with the wind from the back so the bird will fly/land towards you

Johan Greylings top 3 tips

1. Do not take photographs out of boredom! Remember that you’ll have to work through all those images. Rather spend the time to analyse the scene, study the behaviour of the animals and set up your camera to shoot the action or storieswhen it happens. Shoot in bursts to make sure you don’t run out of buffer and allows for quicker writing off the images to the memory card. Remember to buy Memory cards with a fast reading (and writing) speed so that you do not run out of buffer.
2. Bigger birds will normally fly away in the direction that they look. Move your focus point of the centre to say lower left or lower right to allow space for the bird to fly in.
3. If you lose focus on the bird in flight do not try and pick it up as the camera will continuously focus on infinity. Rather point the camera to the ground let it focus then find the bird lock focus and then fire away

I hope you enjoyed these hints and tips for improving your bird in flight photography.
By practising birds in flight photography techniques, you’ll be ready for any action, and thus more successful.

Inspiration:

Bird photographer of the year 2020
Top bird photographers in the world
20 Spectacular Bird Images, Winners Of Bird Photographer Of The Year 2020