Trogon Photo Tours

August 2020 - In this month's photography article I discuss photographing birds in flight using manual mode.  Most of the images are of Mississippi Kites that I have photographed in my neighborhood.

Mississippi Kite photographed August 2019, Fort Bend County.  Canon 5D4 500F4 1/3200 F5.6, iso 800, manual mode, handheld.  Most of the time I use full manual exposure if I am focusing on photographing birds in flight.  To get a starting metering point, I will generally point the camera at the sky in evaluative or pattern metering mode and take a reading with the meter at 0.  Then I will adjust based on the lighting conditions and the bird species that I'm photographing.  Of course I am typically photographing with the sun at my back.  If it's a sunny day and the sky is blue I will typically add a small amount of light to the photo, something from +0.3 to +1.0.  So in this example the sky may have been metering at 1/6400 F5.6, iso 800 and by adding one stop I reduced the exposure time to 1/3200.  On a cloudy day you typically have to add more - something like plus two stops. I had been photographing this kite in flight when it touched down on top of this perch. 

Here's a shot just taken a bit later with the same techs as the previous shot.  The bird on the left came and chased the perched bird from its perch. 

This shot was taken about 35 minutes after the previous two shots, it was getting towards sunset and the amount of light had dropped a lot.  If you are working in full manual this is something you have to be thinking about and monitoring a lot, whether the lighting has changed and how it affects what your exposure should be.  The settings for this shot were 5D4 500F4 1/1250 F5.6, iso 1250, manual exposure handheld.  In this example where it's almost sunset I find I usually have to add something like 1 to 2 stops compared to what the camera is metering against the sky.  At this time right before sunset the sky is usually a very light blue as opposed to an intense blue.  Compared to the previous images I both decreased my shutter speed and increased my iso. In this shot a juvenile kite is begging from the adult. 

These birds also hang around the telephone wires which run behind our back yard and I can photograph them there daily in the summer if I want to.  On sunny days I will sometimes shoot in aperture priority rather than manual mode but only if I expect I will just be photographing against the sky.  From my yard I am pointing the camera up so there's not really any chance I would photograph it against anything other than the sky.  The main reason for shooting in manual is to keep a consistent exposure on the bird as it moves from one background to another.  For example from the sky into an area where the background is dark green trees.  So for this shot the techs were 5D3 500F4 1/1600 F6.3, iso 800, Aperture priority, evaluative metering +0.3, handheld. The sun was very bright at this point so I didn't have to add much light. 

Here's another from my backyard, this time taken from a bedroom window on the 2nd floor to try and get more eye level with the birds.  Canon 5D4 500F4 1/1000 F5.6, iso 1250, Av mode, evaluative metering +1.0, handheld.  I added one stop of light to make up for the light blue sky right before sunset.

From the second story bedroom again.  At first I thought there would be still be little chance of photographing them against anything other than a blue sky (or possibly against the background of someone else's house in which case I would just bin the image anyway).  But there are some trees in one area and sure enough this bird flew into that area.  I was set up the same as the prior shot just moments before in aperture priority at +1.0 and just fired away.  The resulting techs on this shot were 5D4 500F4 1/100 F5.6, iso 1250, Av mode, evaluative metering +1.0, handheld.  This shows what can happen when you are set up in aperture priority (or any other automatic mode) with pattern metering and the bird changes from one background to another.  In this case my shutter speed went from 1/1000 to 1/100 which resulted in a blurry bird and the bird and whole image was overexposed against the green background.  The difference in exposure from the light sky background to the green tree background was over 3 stops.  If I had been shooting in manual mode I still may have been able to make a sharp, well exposed image against the green background.  One of the keys for this to work is the areas where you are shooting in full manual need to be in consistent light.  If the bird against the sky had been in sun and flew into a shaded area, then even in manual mode the bird would be badly underexposed in the shaded image.  But the bird flew into an area that was still in fading sunlight, just with a different background.  Therefore if I had been in manual at 1/1000 the exposure should have worked out.     

Here is the same image reprocessed a bit darker.  It turns out it's not a bad impressionistic type of blur shot, but that's certainly not what I was aiming for.  

So I went back to shooting manual when photographing from the upstairs bedroom window and this is one I took just a couple days ago.  The techs on this are 5D4 500F4 1/2000 F5.6, iso 1000, manual mode, handheld.  This is a juvenile.  One bird also flew into the area with the green tree background but one of the hazards of photographing from inside the house raised its specter.  My two year old was in the room distracting me and making a mess when a bird did a circuit through the area with trees in the background.  I was hopelessly distracted and didn't even get a shot off. 

Little Blue Heron, juvenile, Brazoria County, TX photographed May 2020.  Canon 1DX2, 500F4 1/2000 F6.3, iso 1000, manual exposure, handheld.  Again I metered off the light blue sky and added about one stop as it was getting late.  I think these juvenile Little Blues with the mix of blue and white in their wings are quite beautiful.  This isn't a great shot but it's good for comparison purposes. 

Here's the same bird six frames later as it banked to come into land.  Since I was in manual mode and I made no adjustments, the techs are exactly the same as the last photo.  Canon 1DX2, 500F4, 1/2000 F6.3, iso 1000, manual mode, handheld.  If I had been in aperture or another program mode the exposure shift from the blue sky would have probably been about 3 stops as in the kite example above.  Again I would have lost a lot of shutter speed and likely had an overexposed, blurry image.  You simply don't have time to make this large of an adjustment in seconds as the bird is flying from the blue sky background to the golden brown background.  Also the fact that the bird is in consistent light is important, that is the area in both shots is lit up by sun coming from my back which makes it possible to get a good image.  If the bird had flown into shade this wouldn't have worked (but that probably wouldn't have been a nice image anyway).  I quite like this top side view against the golden background. 

Here's a Roseate Spoonbill which I photographed just two minutes after the Little Blue Heron.  In between the shots I increased the exposure by 2/3 of a stop as it was getting later and the sun was fading as well as there were clouds that had rolled in.  Another reminder that while in full manual mode you need to be monitoring your exposure all the time.  The techs on this shot were 1DX2 500F4, 1/1250 F6.3, iso 1000, manual mode, handheld.  I quite like the soft light and mix of clouds and a bit of blue sky in the background. 

As a final review photographing birds in flight in full manual mode is definitely the way to go if you have two variables.  Those variables are the possibility of a changing background and consistent light on the background areas.  This is most often the case in open areas where it's most likely you would be doing bird in flight photography anyway.  One way to get your beginning metering reading is to pick the iso and F-stop you would like to use, I usually start out at about iso 800 and F6.3 or so.  Then meter off the sky with the sun at your back.  On a bright sunny day you can start out at even.  If it's an hour or two before sunset or after sunrise and you have sunny blue sky try adding one stop to start with.  If it's a cloudy day try adding two stops to begin with and adjust from there.  If this doesn't provide enough shutter speed either increase your iso or decrease your F-stop and meter the sky again.  Shooting in manual mode is a topic we cover hands on during many workshops if anyone wants to improve in this area.