While I need to be mindful of metering, after a number of BIF sessions with Wide Area Large and a lot of shots in focus, I was blown away. The AF was picking up the bird well, I was amazed.
This was also the longest I have spent in one spot, close to 90 minutes, which gave me a good sense for which animals were doing what and some of the patterns.
Wide area large (WAL) on the Nikon Z6
This was the first time I tried using WAL for an extended period, and I was impressed. My expectations were set that Wide Area Small (WAS) was the better bet for bird in flight photography. I examined the results from seven bursts with WAL and two with WAS.
The light conditions were bright, backlit, with misty rain that was enough to really mislead the AF a few times, but overall the light was magic, and even with the haze and droplets between the lens and the subject it was refreshing to be shooting in relatively bright light for a change.
From five of the WAL bursts I got an in-focus rate of 59%, and the two bursts of WAS I got 69% rate. This is by no means scientific as the two WAS bursts were towards the end when my technique and discipline had improved.
I eliminated two of the WAL bursts that had 25% in focus rate due to user error in one, and a very busy background on the other.
I can see why WAS is generally the way to go, but that WAL is worth using if the background is not too busy.
Mindset: Track – Acquire Focus – Shoot
I started to shift my mindset to Track / Acquire / Shoot: tracking to allow the camera time to acquire focus and then shoot, a process that takes a second or so. It’s part of the technique that I need to work on.
Focus between shots
Reviewing the shots there were a number where focus slipped for a frame but was sharp either side.
Conclusions, things to change
- Focus limiter – work on a technique to change it if needed
- Metering – I was in spot metering the entire time, which is almost hopeless for BIF shots
- Shutter speed – on a couple of occasions outside of the bursts above I was in a slow shutter speed. If used intentionally it could be quite effective.
Shortcuts to consider on the camera:
- change metering – on the i menu
- change AF speed – on the i menu
- need a dedicated BIF setting on the camera, U2 or U3 could be repurposed for this
Sample images – screencaptured and unedited jpg files
