Trogon Photo Tours

August 2015 - This month's newsletter discusses depth of field and some composition issues when photographing multiple birds or animals at the same time.  It includes mostly images from Texas workshops and a private tour we led to Peru. 

Gambel's Quail photographed May 2009, Pond at Elephant Head, Arizona.  Canon 1DMkIII, 500F4 lens 1/1250 F11, iso 640, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  This is an older image from a previous Arizona workshop that illustrates some of the concepts well.  When photographing multiple birds that are close to you I think most people underestimate how much you have to stop down to get them both sharp.  This image is just cropped a little bit so the quail were pretty close.  I stopped down 3 stops here which may seem like a lot but with just 2 stops both of them might not have been sharp.  I had plenty of light to work with as I was still able to get 1/1250 of a second even after stopping down that much, I needed some speed to stop the action as well.  Lastly since I was shooting at a setup with the background a long distance away there was no penalty for stopping down, I didn't bring anything distracting into play by using the extra depth of field.  So by stopping down that much I had a lot to gain - getting both birds sharp and nothing to lose as I still had plenty of shutter speed and a clean background.  In terms of composition I cropped some from the left and top, I had cut the bottom bird exactly as it is in the original frame.  But this may well be how I would have cropped it anyway as when I get parts of a bird I will often crop it to just the head and shoulders.  

Harris's Hawks (juveniles) photographed November 2014 at Santa Clara Ranch, TX.  Canon 5D3 500F4 lens, 1/125 F8, iso 1600.  Here is another example of 2 birds in the frame together.  In this case they are farther away but they are bigger birds.  This is also cropped just a little bit.  Here I only stopped down 2 stops because it was a different situation.  In this case the light was very low, I was only getting 1/125 at F8, if I stopped down even more I am at 1/60 which is pretty slow even on a tripod. I could always ramp up the iso to 3200 but that would decrease the image quality.  Also the background is fairly busy so the more I stop down the more I bring it into play in terms of it being in focus.  I actually went down to 1/60, F11 after this shot and made some sharp images but this was the best as they were both in focus and the background is less distracting here.  In terms of composition I put them slightly off center with the left bird's head toward the upper left hand corner.  

Green Jays photographed March 2015, Santa Clara Ranch, TX.  Canon 5D3 300F4 1/2000 F7.1, iso 1600.  Of course one way to gain more depth of field is to use a smaller lens which is what I did in this case.  I stopped down almost 2 stops here but with the smaller lens I increased my depth of field greatly.  I was keeping my shutter speed up because I was also trying to catch them taking off and landing.  Not much to say about composition on this one except to add that photos of 3 subjects often work well.

Great Grebes photographed February 2015 at Pantanas de Villa, Peru.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1.4x 1/2000 F11, iso 800, handheld.  Here is another example with multiple birds, the juvenile on the left and the adult on the right are in good focus but the juvenile in the middle is not as sharp.  This image is also cropped a fair bit.  The fact that the middle bird is a bit behind the other birds and has it's head tucked down minimizes the fact that it's not as sharp.  If it were in front it would be much more of a problem. These birds are about the size of our Western Grebes. 

Sandhill and Whooping Cranes photographed March 2015, Lamar, TX.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1/1250 F6.3, iso 1600, aperture priority with evalautive metering at -0.3, handheld from vehicle window.  Here is an example of what you usually want to avoid when working with 2 birds, having the front bird out of focus and the back bird in focus.  I was focused on the larger Whooping Crane when a Sandhill stepped in front of him.  I should have immediately stopped down more or focused on the Sandhill but I just took the shot.  It's a pity because with both birds in focus calling it would have been a really compelling shot, even with the Sandhill in focus and the Whooping Crane slightly out of focus I think it would have been excellent.  Of course the partial bird on the left would need to be removed but that is doable. This location is the only one that I know of where you can get these 2 species together on their wintering grounds.  We have access to both blinds and shooting from our vehicles at this spot. 

Whooping Cranes photographed March 2014, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, TX.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1/2500 F6.3, iso 800, handheld from boat.  Contrast this image with the previous one, in this shot the bird in front is in focus and the focus fades out towards the back.  For me this is a successful shot, I like the effect of both the in focus head and out of focus head peering at me.  This is partially a matter of taste in composition as I'm sure there will be photographers out there who would have preferred that both birds be sharp.  I did have enough light here to stop down more if I had chosen to do so.  

Inca Terns photographed February 2015, Pucusana, Peru.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1/1600 F10, iso 800, handheld from boat.  When photographing large numbers of birds with a long lens you need quite a bit of depth of field to get most or all of them in focus.  In this case I was lucky as the birds were not very close and since they were on a flattish rock wall they were reasonably close to being in the same focal plane.  

Whimbrel with Marbled Godwits photographed February 2010 at Shoalwater Bay, WA.  Canon 1DMKIII 500F4 1.4x 1/125 at F22, iso 400, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley head.  This is a good example of how little depth of field you have to work with when working with a long lens.  I focused on the lone Whimbrel here.  This is a very different situation than the previous Inca Tern shot as I am shooting down at a big flock of birds with a lot of depth to it so they are not close to being in the same plane.  The Whimbrel is in good focus here but the only godwits that are in focus are the ones very close to the same plane that the Whimbrel is in.  When shooting a large flock like this the image can still work reasonably well with the front birds out of focus if you are shooting down on them and include a lot of layers of birds in the shot.  

Some general guidelines to keep in mind when working with more than one bird are if you are photographing 2 or more birds fairly close to you try to stop down at least 2 stops to get both sharp.  If it's impossible to get both birds sharp or all birds sharp try to get the one closest to you sharp as if the front bird is out of focus it can often ruin the whole image.  These are just guidelines and as shown by these images your settings will change based on other variables such as background, amount of ambient light available, your objectives for the photo and your personal compositional taste and style.