D7000 autofocus (1 Viewer)

[Misenus]

I'm pretty new to bird photography, and I'm having a technique issue I'm hoping someone can help me with.

Here's my equipment and settings:

D7000 w/ 300mm f/4 + 1.4 TC
AF-C, spot metering, center weighted

My problem is this: when I'm shooting a bird in profile at a close distance, and it fills most of the frame, I have trouble focusing on the bird's eye. At ten feet away at f/5.6, DOF is such that having my focus point in the center often means that the bird's eye (in one of the upper corners of the frame) is out of focus. I can move the focus point with the arrow buttons, but it moves in fixed increments and doesn't go all the way to the edges of the frame (also, it's slow and awkward).

Should I be using dynamic AF in these situations? 3D? Even then, how can I reliably get the bird's head in focus and still keep the entire bird in the frame?

 

[opticoholic]

Hello. I will try to help you, but first let me say that there is more than 1 way to set up a camera and have success with bird photography, so take my advice as one possible approach that works for me.

For perched or stationary birds, I use AF-S. I only use AF-C for birds that are in flight or jumping around nervously. AF-S will allow you to lock the focus on the eye with a half-press of the shutter button, then reframe the image before releasing the shutter. If you're 10 feet away from a wild bird, you're doing well! But at that distance the depth of field will be extremely shallow and so I understand that you may have trouble keeping the whole bird in focus. Giving priority to getting the eye sharp makes sense to me; I usually focus on the eye first if I can. But if I have time, I'll refocus on other parts of the bird in case that helps get more of the bird in focus. OR even better, try stopping down to f/8 if the light allows, increasing the ISO otherwise. A monopod will help.

Although unrelated to the problem you described, I would suggest being very careful about using spot-metering. I know some folks swear by it, but if you meter on a spot that is a little too dark or light, it will be very easy to over- or under-expose, and you might not know until you take time to review the image. My own method is to generally stay in Aperture priority mode with center-weighted or matrix metering. I try to constantly be aware of changing light conditions, and take test images often of the setting in front of me before the bird appears, where I hope the bird will appear, and I look carefully at the shutter speed and the historgram if I take a test shot, and possibly adjust the ISO or exposure compensation. But again, there's more than 1 way to cook an egg... I know a lot of professional photographers will shoot in Manual mode and use spot-metering with great success.

Hope this helps.
Dave

 

[Misenus]

Dave, thanks for the advice. I'll play around with AF-S and see if I can get the result I want. I seem to remember trying to lock exposure and reframe the image, but shooting hand-held, just the slight motion of reorienting the lens caused the eye to go out of focus again.

Best,
Patrick

 

[mpe]

Instead of AF-S you should consider re-programming your AE-L button to engage auto focus (AF-ON functionality). Then you can stay in AF-C and still have full control on when your camera is focusing.

In AF-S it easy to miss the shot as the camera shutter is normally locked until you achieve focus. That increases shutter lag as the camera need to engage AF system and check focus.

By using AF-C and AF-ON you don't need to think about focusing modes and having to switch between AF-C/AF-S.

Detaching focusing from shutter release is the technique that most wildlife (and action) photographers use. Thats why there is so much fuzz about lack of AF-ON dedicated button on some cameras.