Home Forums Gear Photography Capturing Birds in Flight with AF

During the workshops I run or even just out in the field, one of the most common complaints or frustrations I hear is capturing sharp images of birds in flight. I have a few tips that may help your success rate for birds in flight. First and foremost, understand your equipment has limitations. AF systems will struggle in low light and/or low contrast. AF will struggle as well as lens sharpness for birds that are at a great distance away. If the subject appears as a small spot, you may not be giving your camera and lens the best opportunity to achieve what you want it to do.

Setting up the best AF mode is important. Using continuous AF or servo AF is the way to go. Most commonly the problem I hear about is when someone is using single AF and single spot selection. I use one of the zone systems of the camera’s AF selection. On my Canon bodies I can choose from a zone to the left, right or center. I choose the center zone and then narrow it down to the spots in that zone, typically around 9 spots. When using my Nikon system, I chose one of the area focusing, typically the “Auto” setting will keep the focusing more towards the middle area and works best.

I also recommend checking your exposure settings before the action starts, do a few test shots. If the lighting is fairly even, I can use Shutter Priority or even Aperture Priority. If the background is in different light or has a lot of objects that could throw off the AF, I know that will also throw off the metering system, so I use Manual Exposure. If I am going to handhold, I want to get a shutter speed of at least twice the focal length of the lens to stop action, i.e. for a 600mm lens, I want about 1/1250th of a second. I prefer to shoot panning subjects with either a tripod with a gimbal head or monopod. I have found that when shooting birds in flight the VC, Vibration Compensation, seems to help even at slightly faster shutter speeds. For stationary birds while on a tripod I will turn it off. For 2 years now I have been using just the Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD lens as my wildlife lens and have had great results for both stationary and birds in flight. Learning the gear helps to increase the success rate greatly.

With all the movements of birds and wildlife, now is a great time to get that Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD lens, especially with the $80 instant savings through April 30, 2016! Time to give Mark or Joel a call up at Camera Land and get your gear ordered, make sure you let them know you are a member of the Campfire for the best pricing as always.

All images were made using the Tamron SP 150-600mm Di VC USD lens.

Have you noticed better tracking with 9 point vs 21 point AF

I haven't tried the 21 point, but I should. Have you found it to be good? I have always had good luck with the 9 so sort of stuck with it.

Point and shoot camera out the window of a truck at 30 mph