Photography beginner - flying birds (1 Viewer)

[Manchu100]

Hello to all. I just wanna start off by saying how much I appreciate everyone on this site and all the information that everyone has . I am very excited about starting photography. And don’t really know much. But I guess you have to start somewhere.
I have a canon M – 50 mirrorless camera. And my lens is an EFS 55–250 mm . My question is, I’m not sure what my settings should be on my shutter speed or my iOS. In this picture I had my shutter speed set at 1/125 ,iOS was set at automatic.

 

[Stonefaction]

The faster the action, the faster the shutter speed you will need to successfully 'freeze' it. 1/125 is likely to be far too slow for most moving birds.
There are lots of video tutorials on YouTube that can explain things better than a brief comment on here can. Here's one that seems quite popular -

 

[Manchu100]

The faster the action, the faster the shutter speed you will need to successfully 'freeze' it. 1/125 is likely to be far too slow for most moving birds.
There are lots of video tutorials on YouTube that can explain things better than a brief comment on here can. Here's one that seems quite popular -

THANK YOU SO MUCH 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻! that video was extremely helpful .

 

[dixonlau]

I checked your attached photos, shutter speed of Pic #1 is in 1/800s, Pic #2 and #3 is in 1/1000s not in 1/125s. I can see all the photos able to freeze the motion just not in focus for Pic #2.

Pic #1 may need increase the shutter speed.

Also do keep in mind, the heatwave distortion will cause blurry image also esp when your subject is over water. Go out in early morning or late afternoon should have less distortion issue.

 

[Manchu100]

I checked your attached photos, shutter speed of Pic #1 is in 1/800s, Pic #2 and #3 is in 1/1000s not in 1/125s. I can see all the photos able to freeze the motion just not in focus for Pic #2.

Pic #1 may need increase the shutter speed.

Also do keep in mind, the heatwave distortion will cause blurry image also esp when your subject is over water. Go out in early morning or late afternoon should have less distortion issue.

Thank you very much for the feedback on the photos. I can us all the help I can get . 🙏🏻

 

[gsimonel]

What is your aperture setting? With a wide aperture (~f5 - f6), you get a great focus but a narrow depth of field. In the first photo for example, a slightly more narrow setting (~f12 - ~f16) might get a couple more ducks in focus. The trade off is that you'd need to reduce your shutter speed. But if your shutter speed is 1/1000, you might be able to bring it down to around 1/600 without sacrificing too much. Personally, I don't mind a little blurring of the wings in a photo of a bird in flight as long as the rest of the bird is in focus. Although I have to admit, the sharpness of the ducks' wings in your third photo is very impressive.

 

[mr_birdman]

I recently wrote a blog post about BIF, if you are interested, read it here. It's not exhaustive, but will give you some good pointers.
Enjoy the journey!

Blog post

 

[Mikbul]

Peregrine falcon tucked in, Canon 400mm L lens, 1/2500s shutter priority camera picked f/8.