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Danny
Aloha from Honolulu,
Upgraded from a Canon 80D to an R5 to capture white terns in flight.
The R5 can take some mind-blowingly brilliant shots.
But...
But when the terns fly in and dance about above my head in the canopy, I get hundreds of well-composed blurry photos. Very frustrating.
I'm shooting TV with 1/1250 to 1/1600 shutter speed. Using the 70-200mm lens.
The problem is clearly the focusing. The R5 can't find something in the terns' plumage to focus on.
I've tried a variety of AF options, but no luck so far.
I'm attaching a typical (screenshot) of the type of photo that gets trashed!
Honestly, I think I did better under the canopy with the 80D.
Any thoughts would be gratefully received!
Cat
You have not really provided the specific settings you are using for focus and tracking, so I shall start with some general comments with the proviso that this is but one method.
In default mode, the camera will focus on the closest objects, which could well not be what you want. Also, if you are shooting with animal eye tracking, it is possible that in combination with that full matrix mode, the eye lock will fall on a shadow rather than a bird's head.
With that in mind, my personal approach is to do the following:
I use single point centre focus with eye tracking and servo mode. What I do is point to the part of the bird I want to get in focus and use Back Button Focus (thus taking the shutter button out of the process) to lock on the bird . From there face/eye tracking has a much better chance of locking on what you want - holding down the AF-On button will track dynamically with the point of focus. If I lose focus, I can reposition the focus point in the centre by pressing the SET button inside the main wheel.
The following images were taken with that methodology: in the first image, the eye of the Red Panda is barely visible between moving branches and leaves, while in the second, the conditions were very, very dim and lacking in dynamic range - and of course the Bell Bird was camouflaged to blend in.
I have other images to demonstrate this method, but don't have access right now to that computer.
@catsongs wrote:Aloha e Trevor,
Appreciate your comments. Great shots.
The R5 is more complex than the 80D, so my settings started with those of YT bird photographers who seemed to know what they are doing. So the camera is no longer in default mode.
I tried the back button method "everyone" raves about. As the terns I'm shooting are moving quickly over my head, having to use two fingers to set up to take the shot was a disaster. For me at least. So I undid the back button set up. I can't focus fast enough using my thumb, I can if I focus pressing halfway down.
I've set the camera to ANMALS, but disabled the eye locator. (Bear with me, the R5 is new to me.)
The multiple focus setting works GREAT when the terns are flying against a blue sky: I have single terns and groups of terns in shockingly wonderful focus. And at 1/1250 or 1/1600 they are frozen in time and you can see every strand in every feather!
I do have a handful of fabulous shots of the birds above my head. I'm trying to back-engineer how I got them. No luck so far.
...
And yet sometimes I get that NatGeo shot that makes your jaw drop -- only I can't seem to figure out what make that shot work when all the others didn't!
...
Mahalo nui loa!
aka Dr. Kirtland C. Peterson
I also went from EOS 80D to EOS R5 and it was a shock to me that I could not use the same settings in the EOS R5. I do not watch YT videos or make National Geographic photos.
But, I think I can help with the reverse engineering of photos previously made if you have the raw files.
exiftool https://exiftool.org/ can decode most of the Auto Focus settings of the EOS R5 and even list the coordinates of the focus points. It is a command line program that I use on macOS and Debian Linux. Many years ago I used it on Windows, but no longer do Windows. I have included an example image with example exiftool command line and example output. I am old and slow and did not get eye focus and did not get the image framed very well. The hawk was attacking his reflection in the window I was standing at in my house.
exiftool -s -G0:2 -ContinuousDrive -FocusMode -RecordMode -MeteringMode \ -FocusContinuous -AFAreaMode -NumAFPoints -ValidAFPoints -AFAreaWidths \ -AELockMeterModeAfterFocus -AFConfigTool -AFTrackingSensitivity \ -AFAccelDecelTracking -AFPointSwitching -AIServoFirstImage -AIServoSecondImage \ -OneShotAFRelease -AutoAFPointSelEOSiTRAF -LensDriveWhenAFImpossible \ -SelectAFAreaSelectionMode /Volumes/EOS_DIGITAL/DCIM/100CANON/IMG_9868.CR3 [MakerNotes:Camera] ContinuousDrive : Continuous, Low [MakerNotes:Camera] FocusMode : AI Servo AF [MakerNotes:Camera] RecordMode : CR3+JPEG [MakerNotes:Camera] MeteringMode : Evaluative [MakerNotes:Camera] FocusContinuous : Single [MakerNotes:Camera] AFAreaMode : Face + Tracking [MakerNotes:Camera] NumAFPoints : 1053 [MakerNotes:Camera] ValidAFPoints : 1 [MakerNotes:Camera] AFAreaWidths : 683 0 0 0 ... [MakerNotes:Camera] AELockMeterModeAfterFocus : Evaluative [MakerNotes:Camera] AFConfigTool : Case 1 [MakerNotes:Camera] AFTrackingSensitivity : 0 [MakerNotes:Camera] AFAccelDecelTracking : 0 [MakerNotes:Camera] AFPointSwitching : -1 [MakerNotes:Camera] AIServoFirstImage : Equal Priority [MakerNotes:Camera] AIServoSecondImage : Equal Priority [MakerNotes:Camera] OneShotAFRelease : Focus Priority [MakerNotes:Camera] AutoAFPointSelEOSiTRAF : Enable [MakerNotes:Camera] LensDriveWhenAFImpossible : Continue Focus Search [MakerNotes:Camera] SelectAFAreaSelectionMode : Single-point AF, Auto, Zone AF, AF Point Expansion (4 point), Spot AF, AF Point Expansion (8 point), [6], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14]
Aloha e John,
Love that photo! That's exactly what I'm dealing with, repeatedly as terns fight over territory, learn to fly, dash off to get more fish for their chicks, etc.
Folks are shocked when they see where I shoot — where I teach — and see you can almost touch the birds. The proximity is a blessing, and a curse!
I will be giving your reverse-engineering suggestion a try! WOW!
Hoping to get more shots like these (this is a screenshot I texted to a friend):
Truly appreciated!
As for easier shoots, this morning I was shooting a "grandmother talking with her granddaughter" for a writing project. The R5 worked like a charm: quickly finding eyeballs, grabbing a tight focus, and producing stellar shots. Hundreds of them!
Mahalo nui loa!
Cat
Aloha e Trevor,
LOL!
In Hawai'i, should a bird's business land on you, it's considered a blessing. I kid you not.
And we are VERY blessed where I teach.
As for aeronautical manoeuvres, thought this was a fun one! Screenshot:
Mahalo for your help!
Cheers!
Cat
Aloha e Trevor,
You inspired me to take a second look at the back buttons.
I set one for animal / eye, and one for animal / zone.
While the Zone didn't seem as good as a multiple point when I'm shooting a tern against a blue sky, I did get a number of great shots in the canopy. Screenshot:
Question —
I found the animal / eye settings frustrating.
Even with a mother tern sitting on an egg, the R5 had real difficulty finding the eye.
When it did: crisp!
What's your method for getting the focus to, say, target the bird's head so the eye locator has a better chance of (quickly) finding the eye (in conditions such as the tree canopy)?
Takk!
Cat
