setting question for....................

[hawksfan30]

fz-20 lumix. tomorrow i am going to a conservation outing in mich where there will be wild birds flying around inside the facility. knowing that it will be average or less lighting conditions, what would be the best settings for catching the birds in flight with stopping there takeoffs or taking pictures of them in mid air flight. i want to get shots that stop there actions dead, with no blur. i was thinking of 2 settings either aperture mode, iso of 400 bec of the lighting, or shutter mode, with at least a setting of 1/300 of a sec or better. any suggetions would be greatly appreciated thank you

[John_Reed]

fz-20 lumix. tomorrow i am going to a conservation outing in mich where there will be wild birds flying around inside the facility. knowing that it will be average or less lighting conditions, what would be the best settings for catching the birds in flight with stopping there takeoffs or taking pictures of them in mid air flight. i want to get shots that stop there actions dead, with no blur. i was thinking of 2 settings either aperture mode, iso of 400 bec of the lighting, or shutter mode, with at least a setting of 1/300 of a sec or better. any suggetions would be greatly appreciated thank youWhat does that mean? Under artificial lighting, or is the facility lit by the Sun? First of all, shooting birds in flight isn't easy for anyone to do; only a few have a good handle on it. (I've been lucky enough to bag a few, but I'm not the expert, for sure) If you want to capture birds flying with no blur, despite the fact that their wings are flapping, you won't be able to do that with shutter speeds slower than maybe 1/500 of a second, and even faster would be better. My advice would be (assuming you're under artificial light) to set the ISO at 400, the aperture at f2.8 in A mode, so you'll then get the fastest possible shutter speed. If that still isn't fast enough, bias the exposure negatively by as much as 1.0EV. Practice a lot, use burst mode, and just take a lot of shots; some may well turn out, so you'll be rewarded for your efforts. Good luck!

[hawksfan30]

thanks mr reed. it is indeed, under artificial light. from what you told me about catching birds in flight, it sounds as a rather difficult task. ill take your advice and use burst mode and take plenty of shots. one another question, what is the best burst mode, high , low, or infinity?

[John_Reed]

thanks mr reed. it is indeed, under artificial light. from what you told me about catching birds in flight, it sounds as a rather difficult task. ill take your advice and use burst mode and take plenty of shots. one another question, what is the best burst mode, high , low, or infinity?Shooting "Birds in Flight" is one reason why I sold my FZ10 and got the FZ15 instead of the FZ20; it has a slightly faster shooting rate in burst mode (4/sec instead of 3/sec) I forget what the low rate is; I never use it. The "infinity" mode shoots at about 2/sec, I think. You don't get much exposure to a bird flying by, so the faster the burst rate, the more luck you'll have. :)

[gary_hendricks]

fz-20 lumix. tomorrow i am going to a conservation outing in mich where there will be wild birds flying around inside the facility. knowing that it will be average or less lighting conditions, what would be the best settings for catching the birds in flight with stopping there takeoffs or taking pictures of them in mid air flight. i want to get shots that stop there actions dead, with no blur. i was thinking of 2 settings either aperture mode, iso of 400 bec of the lighting, or shutter mode, with at least a setting of 1/300 of a sec or better. any suggetions would be greatly appreciated thank you

I recokon you should use ISO 400, aperture at f2.8 and shutter priority mode.