Can anyone help please - I have seen alot of fantastic, clear images of a bee in flight on this site. So today I thought I would challenge myself to have a go. I thought water splashes were difficult but after my attempts today I know that a bee in flight is even harder !!. I have tried using a flash,using Al focus and al servo on my Canon 5d mkII but everytime the bee is not quite in focus. Any tips gratefully received
You could try series shooting. Focus and then take as many shots as your camera will let you, as quickly as it can.
It is a trial and error job but it is worth it. You will end up taking hundreds of shots to get that one special one but that is the beauty of digital photography.
Good luck and have fun.
I was shooting in a bright location with a lot of flowers and bees. So I was able to get a good, but not great photo, by using the flowers as a focal point and catching the bee just as it was taking off. I wanted it facing me, but we were with family and they were demanding my attention. I thought I can always come back, but never did get another perfect storm of flowers, light and bees at this location.
I second what Joseph says. I've captured a few bee shots, and they've all been luck from multiple shooting. It can also be a compromise between shutter speed and aperture. A fast shutter speed is essential to catch them, but a narrow aperture increases your depth of field meaning that focus isn't quite as critical. But of course a narrow aperture means slower shutter speed! Good luck!
Like others have said patience is the key, I usually find a bee and follow it in the viewfinder focusing all the time I usually get a pretty good success rate especially if the bee has been feeding for a while as they seem to get slower :D
I got lucky with this one...I was trying to catch him on the blooms and I had continuous shooting on but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this on my computer!
I put the camera in AI Servo mode, selected only one focus point, then got a lock on the bee and let the camera maintain the focus on him. I was hand holding the 200mm, though, so I still got a bit of blur. Not as crisp as I'd have liked, but that's the general technique that I've found to work best for subjects like bees that tend to move around a lot.
You'll want a lot of DOF, so close down your aperture (higher f number) but not so high that you get too much motion blur, because bees are fast!
Looking at the info on pics you like is a good way to learn. For example in Lyn's pic above, the shutter is at 1/2000 which will really freeze the action, but the aperture is at f/3.2 which is REALLY shallow for capturing an unpredictable subject. Ron's is at f/9 so all of his flowers are pretty much in focus, but the late light required a shutter of 1/60 and so his bee has some motion blur. Paul shot in bright light, and his values are really good: f/8 so a fair bit of DOF to compensate for where the bee will appear, but still a nice blurred background in the distance, and the 1/400 froze the action nicely with just the hint of motion at the ends of the wings. Hope that helps!
I took a lot of photos and got only a few usable ones.This is a reverse macro, so my exif will look weird. The shutter speed of 1/320 is correct though.
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It is a trial and error job but it is worth it. You will end up taking hundreds of shots to get that one special one but that is the beauty of digital photography.
Good luck and have fun.
I put the camera in AI Servo mode, selected only one focus point, then got a lock on the bee and let the camera maintain the focus on him. I was hand holding the 200mm, though, so I still got a bit of blur. Not as crisp as I'd have liked, but that's the general technique that I've found to work best for subjects like bees that tend to move around a lot.
Looking at the info on pics you like is a good way to learn. For example in Lyn's pic above, the shutter is at 1/2000 which will really freeze the action, but the aperture is at f/3.2 which is REALLY shallow for capturing an unpredictable subject. Ron's is at f/9 so all of his flowers are pretty much in focus, but the late light required a shutter of 1/60 and so his bee has some motion blur. Paul shot in bright light, and his values are really good: f/8 so a fair bit of DOF to compensate for where the bee will appear, but still a nice blurred background in the distance, and the 1/400 froze the action nicely with just the hint of motion at the ends of the wings. Hope that helps!