- Thread starter MrTanner
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Good first BIF. You did a good job not blowing the whites. If there is more room on the left, crop so that the pelican has some "room" to look and move into.
Can you share your settings......shutter speed, f stop, ISO, etc. ? It appears focus in on the wing tip closet to the camera. What focusing mode did you use?
Can you share your settings......shutter speed, f stop, ISO, etc. ? It appears focus in on the wing tip closet to the camera. What focusing mode did you use?
MrTanner
New member
Thanks. That’s the feed back I need.
D7500, 200-500 f5.6. 720 mm, f5.6, iso 1000, 1/8000. D9 focus.
so I leaned some lesions from this image. First, check all the camera settings. Without knowing, I had exposure bracketing enabled, not what I wanted. I wanted to shoot in manual with auto ISO, but was defeated but the exposure bracketing. Next, I’ve learned that the 200-500 is too clumsy to track birds in flight. I just received a 500 pf that I hope will be better.
so each attempt is a learning experience
D7500, 200-500 f5.6. 720 mm, f5.6, iso 1000, 1/8000. D9 focus.
so I leaned some lesions from this image. First, check all the camera settings. Without knowing, I had exposure bracketing enabled, not what I wanted. I wanted to shoot in manual with auto ISO, but was defeated but the exposure bracketing. Next, I’ve learned that the 200-500 is too clumsy to track birds in flight. I just received a 500 pf that I hope will be better.
so each attempt is a learning experience
Also, dial back on shutter speed. 1/3200 should be more that enough with large birds. Once you have more experience you can probably bring that down another stop in shutter speed as well.
Quite a good first image. Practice makes perfect, so you can only get better at it from here.
I, too, used a D7500 and 200-500mm lens for a while. As you say, the lens focuses slowly so it may be a struggle to lock focus initially on a fast-moving bird or animal. Once locked on, it's not too bad at holding the focus.
With any of the different AF-C focus modes on the camera it will tend to focus on the closest element under the focus point, in this image it was the wingtip of the near-side wing. I'm willing to bet that the center focus point (the one that takes priority with a D9 setting) was not on the bird's eye or head. Dynamic 9 will focus on the bird as long as any part of the bird is covered or touched by one of the 9 focus points. Ideally we all strive to focus on the bird's eye, but in this case it may well be impossible to position the focus grouping that precisely, so you get a wingtip instead of the eye. Depending on the scenario, with the D7500 it may sometimes be better to use single-point AF-C and try to keep that point on the eye - or at least the head - as the bird flies.
Like you, I also switched from the 200-500mm to the 500mm PF lens. That lens certainly grabs focus faster, and just as important, the fact that it's so much lighter makes it more manoeuvrable to track, and potentially be more successful at keeping the focus point on the eye as you track the bird.
It's also easier when the bird is farther away when DOF is more friendly and forgiving on where the camera focused. All the images shot in this burst sequence were accurately focused.
I, too, used a D7500 and 200-500mm lens for a while. As you say, the lens focuses slowly so it may be a struggle to lock focus initially on a fast-moving bird or animal. Once locked on, it's not too bad at holding the focus.
With any of the different AF-C focus modes on the camera it will tend to focus on the closest element under the focus point, in this image it was the wingtip of the near-side wing. I'm willing to bet that the center focus point (the one that takes priority with a D9 setting) was not on the bird's eye or head. Dynamic 9 will focus on the bird as long as any part of the bird is covered or touched by one of the 9 focus points. Ideally we all strive to focus on the bird's eye, but in this case it may well be impossible to position the focus grouping that precisely, so you get a wingtip instead of the eye. Depending on the scenario, with the D7500 it may sometimes be better to use single-point AF-C and try to keep that point on the eye - or at least the head - as the bird flies.
Like you, I also switched from the 200-500mm to the 500mm PF lens. That lens certainly grabs focus faster, and just as important, the fact that it's so much lighter makes it more manoeuvrable to track, and potentially be more successful at keeping the focus point on the eye as you track the bird.
It's also easier when the bird is farther away when DOF is more friendly and forgiving on where the camera focused. All the images shot in this burst sequence were accurately focused.
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