NikonGear'23
Images => Nature, Flora, Fauna & Landscapes => Topic started by: Kim Pilegaard on August 26, 2019, 22:46:00
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Pictures of the Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) from the shores of a small lake in North Zealand.
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Very nice, well captured.
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Awesome! Could you share technical details, gear used ?
Congrats!
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Beautiful. Well caught!
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Awesome! Could you share technical details, gear used ?
Congrats!
I used a D500 + 300mm f/4E PF ED VR + TC-14E II @ ISO1250 f/8 1/1000s.
Thanks for the nice comments.
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Wow that is really nicely captured, crisp and bright! Thanks ;)
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Stunning capture! Thank you for sharing, Kim!
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Awesome in flight captures. Thanks for sharing it!
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Brilliant captures, Kim!
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Beautiful creatures Kim
And you've captured them in flight with great skill.
My memory of Dragons on a warm sunny day is of almost incessant movement and unpredictable flightpaths.
So I would appreciate some pointers on
- how you approached the task,
- what you look out for in their behaviour to help make the results more reliable
etc
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Wonderful detail captured there Kim.
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Beautiful creatures Kim
And you've captured them in flight with great skill.
My memory of Dragons on a warm sunny day is of almost incessant movement and unpredictable flightpaths.
So I would appreciate some pointers on
- how you approached the task,
- what you look out for in their behaviour to help make the results more reliable
etc
Colin,
First of all you have to find a place with plenty of dragonflies - often near lakes - and a day with nice sunny weather. Late summer is a good time of the year. Some species are easier than others because they tend to hover a couple of seconds. the Migrant Hawker is a nice species in this respect and it is also relatively big.
The next challenge is to get the dragonfly into focus. Quite ofte the autofocus will hit some distant point on the other side of the lake. Therefore, I normally pre-focus on something in roughly the same distance as I expect the dragonfly to be (a few meters). Then you need a camera with a good autofocus system. I find that the D500 is excellent in this respect (probably also the D5 and D850). For these pictures I used AFC 25 point dynamic ares, but quite often, I use single point.
The shutter speed is important. For these pictures, I used 1/1000s. I tried to go up to 1/4000s, but that was not enough to get the wings sharp. Maybe, I should try with a high-speed flash, but it might end up with less interesting pictures?
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For these pictures, I used 1/1000s.
I tried to go up to 1/4000s, but that was not enough to get the wings sharp.
Can you clarify? Are you saying that moving to 1/4000s needed a wider aperture so you lost DOF, hence wings not sharp?
Otherwise I'd have assumed it would be easier to freeze the wing motion with a faster shutter speed??
Maybe, I should try with a high-speed flash, but it might end up with less interesting pictures?
Agreed
I'm sure automation is better than it used to be, but you can get some technically "clear" results with flash yet struggle to get a background illumination (levels, plus colour) that ties in with the subject.
I will have a go following your advice and approach so far, since I have most of the components you used (well, apart from a plentiful supply of dragons :( )
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Can you clarify? Are you saying that moving to 1/4000s needed a wider aperture so you lost DOF, hence wings not sharp?
Otherwise I'd have assumed it would be easier to freeze the wing motion with a faster shutter speed??
I kept f/8 and increased the shutter speed to 1/4000s ending up with ISO 5000. The higher shutter speed barely "froze" the wings and the resulting picture was not of very high quality.
I am looking forward to seeing the results of your efforts.
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Stunning shots Kim!