Bird Photography – Focus & Sharpening

aryanimagery — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:16:27 +0000

Once one of my Photography Instructor asked me a simple question, “Which one is better, a watch that is stopped or a watch that always runs 10 minutes late?” The answer is, always prefer the stopped watch as its gives correct time at least twice a day. In case focusing for a moving element I always remember the same. There are different types of birds in terms of their flying speed and size. The Egrets are medium sized (Though they have thin neck that makes it difficult to focus their eyes) and their quite slow. The falcons are extremely fast and some birds fly very infrequently. Some birds fly and stop in the air for sometime to see everything around and then proceed. Some birds do walks/runs very fast with the wings spread, like jungle foul.
Here are my technical options,
1. Use Predictive focus and follow the bird and on the decisive moment press the shutter. The disadvantage is you should know the bird’s behavior completely, otherwise the decisive moment will after the bird will go out of range. Good option for egrets and herons etc.
2. Focus to place where you know the bird will come or fly through. Wait for the bird to come and press the shutter at right time. Disadvantage you have to keep your eye fixed with viewfinder and even missing a second would be quite costly.
3. Let say the bird is flying 20 feet from where you are, focus approximately around 20 feet and wait for the bird to come. If you focus anywhere else the auto focus will take time to focus the bird. Let say the bird is now flying around 25 feet away, so your camera will hunt from 20 feet to 25 feet, so the chances of getting a sharp picture is more. But if you focus either nearby, say 5 feet or at infinity then the auto focus will take time for hunting. So there is high possibility of missing the moment. 4. Use your instinct and just click at the right time, no rule can describe this.
5. Get Closes to your subject as much as possible. Otherwise chances are there that you may loose the sharpness. Try to focus at eye and nose. Using, if light permits, narrower aperture helps. Most of the time to track down a bird in motion, I use f/9 or f/8. For other Animal, as there is a inch gap between eaye and nose, increasing the aperture helps in getting sharp picture
6. Use Predictive focus, for Canon camera AI Servo and AI Focus. AI Servo should be used when your subject is in motion continuously and AI Focus for subject that might not on move continuously. Also choose high brust rate.

Other points to remember,
1. Practice a lot, there is nothing that can replace a good practice.
2. While taking photograph hold your breath and concentrate.
3. Anticipate the move and action, if possible.

Exposure – Tonal Contrast

aryanimagery — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:58:21 +0000

Correct Exposure is combination of Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO and a creatively correct exposure is combination of all of above and the photographer’s creative mind. I believe there is nothing can be termed as bad or good light for any exposure, it should be appropriate light as well as exposure. Lighting depends on Seasons, Weather, and Time of the day. The essential qualities of light are direction, color and intensity. I have often realized that waiting for the perfect moment and animal behavior is often the difference between a good image and a great one. I like the term tonal contrast, which is nothing but the range of highlights and shadows. An Image with high level of tonal contrast, challenges me, if expose for highlight I loose the details in shadows; if I expose for shadows then I end up with brunt out Images.

Front Lit Subjects:

I always meter from the subject, preferably spot metering and compensate the exposure using 18% mid-grey rule. But Front lighting eradicates shadows, provides even illumination, and makes the exposure setting relatively easy for me. Overcast front lighting eliminates the tonal contrast problems that a sunny day creates in areas with lot of tonal variances. I would happily trigger the camera shutter with an evaluative meter in those kind situations. This kind of light helps us to take nice images of high contrast subject such as Zebra. In both the cases in don’t forget to garnish the Image with little bit of fill in flash.

Back lit Subjects:

Again I prefer spot metering, one of my favorite lighting conditions as these kind of lighting provides me a scope for representing the subject as graphical or atmospheric object depending upon exposure. I set the exposure for highlights to render the subject in silhouette, expose for shadow to create wonderful halo of light around the subject. I am very careful about metering when using telephoto lens in back lit conditions. Since telephoto lenses increase the image magnification of very bright background, the light meter sees this magnified brightness and suggests an exposure accordingly. May be taking exposure from a neutral area will help. For example, taking exposure from the bright sky to right or left of the sun might help if it’s outdoor. Yes, I can use flash if I don’t want to take silhouette but whenever I see the sun on the horizon, I couldn’t control myself to take a silhouette or halo.

Side lit subjects:

We need highlights and shadows to create illusion of three dimensionality in our two dimensional Images. Side lighting provides that as well as it emphasizes texture, and shows volume and depth. The Images never looks flat and dull, because of the tonal variances that are shadows, contrast and color (when subjects are bathed in a glorious illumination of early morning and late afternoon). Again I depend on Spot metering.

If the tonal variance is high, let say the light is falling on one side of the subject and the other is in shadow. I always expose for the highlights, I will swear by Spot metering. Then I will compensate the exposure using the golden rule of 18% mid grey although I will be careful not to lose any of the details on the highlighted area. Then pop required flash to illuminate the shadow area. If required, I will use raw processing tool to fill in light and recovery etc. Sometimes, its okay to lose some details if that is not very significant, let’s say I am composing an Image of a lion whose only an ear is which burring out. I would not expose for this as, I have discovered the rest of the Image. I will expose for the appropriately illuminated face and use fill in flash, if required.

Aryan Imagery

Bird Photography – Focus & Sharpening

Exposure – Tonal Contrast