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Category: Animals, Pets, & Wildlife Photography

Photography Question 

liz read
 

Shooting Verrrry Fast Flying Birds/Swallows


Masses of swallows and swifts congregate around a large lake in our local park. They skim, swirl, swoop, dive at devastatingly fast speeds. What shutter speed should I set? For now, my setup is as follows ... and the few birds I have captured in frame are a blur!

1) I use 200 ISO because I hate noise! 2) I focus on a portion of the lake (depress shutter halfway). 3) I then depress the shutter fully each time ,I think (-: I've got a bird in frame ... this part I accept as being tricky ... but I don't care how many I take as long as I can EVENTUALLY get something.


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May 12, 2004

 

Bob Cammarata
  These guys are very quick! Your shutter speed should be 1/500 sec. if they are flying toward you, and even faster to freeze them going sideways. You can also try panning with them, which will permit the use of slower shutter speeds.


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May 12, 2004

 

liz read
  Bob, thanks. I will gear up the shutter speed - I do most from the side so will experiment. Panning with these speed freaks would be like trying to "pan" a jet fighter at a fly-by :-) Thanks again.


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May 12, 2004

 
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