On a beautiful cloudy Saturday we took a lot of great pictures of birds of prey, with the assistance of a professional falconer.

Shooting birds in flight can be a real challenge. I took most of the pictures with my 200-400 zoom lens (EF 200-400mm 4L IS USM 1.4x). I used it on a full frame body. Although heavy, it was well suited for all situations we encountered that day.

When shooting flying birds I suggest the following settings:

  • The use of back focus
  • Shoot in full manual (set speed at 1600 or higher and lens wide open)
  • The use of centered focus points
  • Adapted AF settings for Canon (I use case 3)
    • Tracking sensitivity minus 2
    • Accel./decel. tracking plus 2
    • AF pt auto switching plus 2

I took this picture laying flat on the ground, effectively putting me at eye level with the bird. This creates a much more compelling image.