A couple picture of a tufted titmouse. This is a fast moving bird. I was never able to get focus lock before the bird moved on. The two shots here I had to pre-focus to get the bird in focus. Any suggestions on how to get better results with fast moving birds?

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Hey Robert,

I am newly into birding myself. It is quite an adventure for me because it is so incredibly difficult. Personally, I think you did a great job when you mention all of the factors involved.

As to what could possibly have been better? LOL, if you don't know where they are landing, it is hard to guess when you are pre-focusing. On the second shot though, it looks like you pre-focused on the board and not the bowl, so the bird is just slightly soft. Am I right?

James

Thanks James, It does look like I might of missed focus on the secound shot. When I have a camera in my hand I get about two seconds to get the shot. Without a camera the bird will just sit there.

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Hey Robert,

I am newly into birding myself. It is quite an adventure for me because it is so incredibly difficult. Personally, I think you did a great job when you mention all of the factors involved.

As to what could possibly have been better? LOL, if you don't know where they are landing, it is hard to guess when you are pre-focusing. On the second shot though, it looks like you pre-focused on the board and not the bowl, so the bird is just slightly soft. Am I right?

James

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HI Robert
There is a trade off between fast shutter speed to stop motion and depth of field to keep all of the bird in focus and speed of film "ISO from 100/ 1600" depending on your camera to not introduce noise and still have enough light.
That said I try to keep my ISO around 200/400 on my D2X which seems to need more light than my D100, enabling me to keep a little more DOF which keeps more of the bird in focus.Do you use manual setting or all automatic. If you are prefocusing try to imagine where the eye is in relation to his perch. If you can give him a perching place where he will want to land just prior to his feeding spot , where he can hop down to. Having good natural light also helps. Keep your shutter speed above 250 if possible, titmice and chickadee's and others have real quick darting movements and the speed helps eliminate that. What kind of camera/lens do you use, give us more info and we can help more .

thanks for sharing hope this helps Randall

Thanks for the helpful information. I used an Olympus E-510 with 70 - 300mm lens @ 190mm on the bowl shot.

A-P
Spot metering
F8
1/50 sec
IS1
ISO 400

Quote:

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HI Robert
There is a trade off between fast shutter speed to stop motion and depth of field to keep all of the bird in focus and speed of film "ISO from 100/ 1600" depending on your camera to not introduce noise and still have enough light.
That said I try to keep my ISO around 200/400 on my D2X which seems to need more light than my D100, enabling me to keep a little more DOF which keeps more of the bird in focus.Do you use manual setting or all automatic. If you are prefocusing try to imagine where the eye is in relation to his perch. If you can give him a perching place where he will want to land just prior to his feeding spot , where he can hop down to. Having good natural light also helps. Keep your shutter speed above 250 if possible, titmice and chickadee's and others have real quick darting movements and the speed helps eliminate that. What kind of camera/lens do you use, give us more info and we can help more .

thanks for sharing hope this helps Randall

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