تصوير الطيور المحلقة أجهزة جيدة مع تدريب وخبرة .. مجلة فن التصوير اللبنانية _ ع٩

Photographing flying birds is good equipment with training and experience

The peculiarities of photography within the field of flying birds, include the basic principles of photography in general ... from choosing the appropriate equipment to mastering the methods of proper focus in all conditions, to the appropriate exposure. Each of these points has its own characteristics in order to obtain a better picture of flying birds.

Photography of flying birds in the air is the hardest test of the camera's competence, and complete familiarity with camera settings is the only starting point because photography in this field combines many dilemmas related to style. Shutter speeds must be large because the subject is constantly moving and often changes its direction, as well. It takes long lenses usually, as long as you want the bird to appear large in the frame, and most importantly, we need very fast reactions, because the moment of capturing the best picture passes quickly, which wastes us the opportunity to seize it, in the event of wasting time with preparation issues or the presence of Lenses that are unable to respond to the required speed and accuracy.

As with the case of hunting bush animals, we can also obtain opportunities for success with flying birds by anticipating the corridor that the bird will take. The best opportunities can also be obtained by choosing a very windy day, when the birds are flying against the wind, which contributes to slowing down their movement. The necessary issues for better hunting for ringed birds, and obtaining the best photographic images for them, can be summarized in three chapters: the type of equipment required, the method of focusing, and the exposure ratio.

Hardware selection

Because the right moment to take a picture of a flying bird is rare. First, we must have the appropriate photographic equipment in our hands, and from here we find that the viewfinder camera is not suitable in general because obtaining the accurate frame is an essential issue, and so is the reverse reaction camera (Reflex Cameras). The one, is the most convenient. It should be used here that distinguished lens with a line of sight and revised images.

This camera includes the standard 35-flag model. Viewfinder accessories with a prismatic-prism lens are also available for some film-capture SLR cameras, but their size makes them more difficult than a 35 mm SLR.

lenses

And since the birds flying individually usually require remote photography, so the matter requires lenses with a large focal length, and although it is very natural to try to fill the frame with the bird, but going too far with adopting a large focal length is not a good idea, as the longer the lens length, the easier it will be. Dealing with it, and its maximum aperture is small, so it is not easy to chase a fast-flying bird with a 600 mm lens, for example, although the movement of encircling it helps to fix it by hand, as it will magnify the images 12 times more than what a normal lens does.

Which means that the slightest vibration of the wrist will lead to the bird coming out of the fire. In addition, the focus ring in lenses like this will travel a great distance, which makes making changes a hassle. The maximum aperture of the lens may be as small as F / 8, and large shutter speeds will not be possible at that time, except by adopting a large speed, which leads to the appearance of some dripping or blurring, so the matter requires more precision, and perhaps the circumstances contributed to obtaining distinguished results with the lens 600 is a flag, but photographers usually prefer working with a less powerful lens, like a 300mm lens, over a 35mm camera, for example.

To get a sharp image, although it is somewhat small, the printing stage here can play its role in producing a better image, and this is possible even with transparencies, especially if the image is to be printed in a magazine or book.

other devices

Whatever the focal length used, the non-glare focus screen remains the best and easiest. Because clear center screens are dangerous, because no matter how far away the bird is, it will appear sharp in the center of the frame and the focus may have to be done very quickly to get more accuracy for the selection of films that can be chosen based on the accuracy of the analysis or speed. But not on Monday
Together, the films that give the most accurate image are the slowest ones - for example, Kodachrome 25 - while the high-speed films have a rougher appearance and more dots, and because low-power lenses with reasonable focal lengths often have wider apertures than those found in lenses with ultra-long focal lengths, so it is possible Using slower films and less pixelation even at higher shutter speeds.

Finally, in the field of devices, the role of the operating engine should not be neglected in the field of photography of flying birds, because the speed of the camera equipped with this engine doubles the number of shots that can be obtained, which increases the odds of success. At a time when the fastest manual operation gives an average of two frames per second, it can The playback engine gives about five frames per second.

Focus style

The focus is also a difficult problem, as with the presence of the bird in the air, as is the case with regard to keeping the bird within the frame, where there are no special tricks for that, we find that the focus is absent from the guide points, and the distance is always subject to change during the pursuit of the flying bird and there are very few periods The bird will be flying at a fixed distance within the field of view. The most effective shots in such a field are taken when the flight time is deflected towards the photographer.
Here it takes intuition and quick reaction... The best results can be obtained if the correct inclusion of the bird in the frame is achieved, with the correct focus being achieved, and there are three methods for focusing the flying birds focally. Choosing the best one depends on individual capabilities and skill level.

Focus with tracking

This first method is based on the most clear focus while trying to keep the bird in focus throughout its presence in the field of view, although this is very difficult, despite the possibility of the bird flying in a straight line within the context expected by us, but we have to know the rate of its progress by analogy with The ratio of turning the focus ring at the correct speed, as it is possible for the bird to fall behind or exceed the rate of speed, then we have to know the method of compensation for that, and here we can adopt a special arrangement, which is the Novaflex system, in which the normal focus ring is replaced by a pistol grip, It operates by means of a propeller, and the lens is equipped with its focus at infinity and when pressed, we move the lens towards a closer focus, and this method is intended to make fine focus adjustments more accessible to continuous refocusing.

This method is undoubtedly the usual method of focusing. It is based on moving the focus ring back and forth. Move around the approximate focus point in wide circles at first, gradually narrowing before reaching the desired exact point. This is the fastest and approved method by everyone, and with its application at the level of flying birds, we can get the image accurately focused for several times - within a few seconds. Here, no attempt should be made to keep the bird in focus all the time, because after each shot, the lens will deliberately move away from focus to begin with. again.

Fixed focus

It is the third and last method.. In order to achieve several shots with accurate focus, we have to focus on the advancing bird roughly and press the shutter button when the bird is rushing to enter the frame - in other words, when the bird's head appears from the side of the frame, we can take the picture in order to compensate for the delay in Shutter action.

exposure

It is not easy to do the correct exposure directly with the flying birds, especially since the image of the bird is often small in the middle of the sky, so the exposure must be prepared depending on the bird itself, but reading the meter through the lens must be affected by the sky background to some extent. From here it becomes better to use a manual photometer. To obtain greater accuracy, and in the event that this is not available, as it is necessary to rely on the internal counter of the camera, the following law can be used to amend the matter.

* In a bright sky with some clouds, we have to increase the exposure two stops higher than the TTL reading.

* In a dark, stormy or cloudy sky, the reading of the (TTL) itself must be adopted without increasing or decreasing, but in the event that the clouds are very dark, the exposure must be reduced by one stop.

* In a bright blue sky near the horizon, we need to increase the exposure one stop higher than the TTL reading.

* A dark blue sky directly overhead, we need to lower the exposure one stop below the TTL reading.