Free Preview: How to Photograph Birds in Flight with Melissa Groo
Enjoy this video preview of content from the self-paced online course How to Photograph Birds in Flight with Melissa Groo.
-[Melissa] I’m shooting at f/8, because I’ve got the teleconverter on. So I at aperture f/8 and ISO 1600. And my shutter speed is 1/2500th. Again, shutter speed is always the thing that I’m first thinking of. And trying to really freeze those birds in motion.
So on my Nikon I’ve chosen Group Area focus mode. It’s five different points that are gonna be able to grab that bird. And I think it’s gonna be better than just my Single Point focus right now. We’re working off of blue sky so that there’s nothing that can grab those other focus points. So this is one of those rare times when I will move off of Single Point focus. So we’ve got an Osprey hovering right here. It’s a bit behind us. So its flying into the wind and its kind of gone past the point at which we’re interested in photographing it.
We’re looking for anything this way. So the sun is shining on the bird and it’s flying towards us. So we’re gonna hang out here, sort of see if anything comes our way or if this Osprey loops back and starts fishing in this area again. Okay, I see an Osprey out there. It’s a little bit far but I’m gonna try to get some shots. It’s hovering in place and because the wind is so strong, it’s able to do that really easily. And that’s the great thing about photographing birds in flight when there’s a strong wind. Oh, it’s diving. It’s flying back this way now but I don’t think it has a fish. So maybe it’ll be hunting right here. We’ve got it right here.
It’s much closer. It’s against the blue sky and I’ve got five points enabled which are grabbing focus very, very easily. We’ve got such a great contrast with the sky. And I’m just tracking it, just following it the whole time with my lens and I keep bumping the focus even without pressing the shutter because I’m just trying to have my focus keep up with it. And wow, it’s really coming like, oh just did the shake. It’s right almost over us.
End of transcriptSo on my Nikon I’ve chosen Group Area focus mode. It’s five different points that are gonna be able to grab that bird. And I think it’s gonna be better than just my Single Point focus right now. We’re working off of blue sky so that there’s nothing that can grab those other focus points. So this is one of those rare times when I will move off of Single Point focus. So we’ve got an Osprey hovering right here. It’s a bit behind us. So its flying into the wind and its kind of gone past the point at which we’re interested in photographing it.
We’re looking for anything this way. So the sun is shining on the bird and it’s flying towards us. So we’re gonna hang out here, sort of see if anything comes our way or if this Osprey loops back and starts fishing in this area again. Okay, I see an Osprey out there. It’s a little bit far but I’m gonna try to get some shots. It’s hovering in place and because the wind is so strong, it’s able to do that really easily. And that’s the great thing about photographing birds in flight when there’s a strong wind. Oh, it’s diving. It’s flying back this way now but I don’t think it has a fish. So maybe it’ll be hunting right here. We’ve got it right here.
It’s much closer. It’s against the blue sky and I’ve got five points enabled which are grabbing focus very, very easily. We’ve got such a great contrast with the sky. And I’m just tracking it, just following it the whole time with my lens and I keep bumping the focus even without pressing the shutter because I’m just trying to have my focus keep up with it. And wow, it’s really coming like, oh just did the shake. It’s right almost over us.
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