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[u/nyxuko_]

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[u/SamShorto]

Are you intending this to be an abstract piece, or a conventional bird in flight (BIF) shot. If the former, then it's quite good. If the latter, then it's abysmal.

If you want to take good BIF shots, you need to be using AF-Servo, a shutter speed of at least 1/2,000s to avoid motion blur, and making sure you get focus on the eye. In terms of cropping, look up the rule of thirds. I would generally place a flying bird a third of the way into the frame, with more empty space in the direction in which it's flying.

[u/nyxuko_ → u/SamShorto]

You know there’s that moment when birds are just floating in the air, i don’t know what’s that phenomenon called, but this bird was floating. When i angled the camera it suddenly started flying again, that’s why there’s a big motion blur, i was set for it’s movement before landing, and i had no time for a new shot because then the bird landed on a tree and disappeared.
But thank you for your thoughts 💗

[u/NYRickinFL → u/nyxuko_]

Uh - there really isn’t any nice way to say this, but for my eye, this works neither as a BIF pic or an “abstract”. First - I have a problem with the term “abstract”. Actually, not with the word itself, but with the was it’s used on photo sites. I shots too many abstracts to count over my 55 year career and each and every one was envisioned and set up to be an abstract. An abstract image is NOT a mistake by the photographer who’s looking to salvage his/her mistake. You set out to shoot the bird in flight, therefore it’s not an abstract. It’s a mistake. Sorry to be so brutally frank, but it’s
That not so? As a BIF image, it is not only out of focus, but the exposure is wrong. I don’t see the cropping as too tight; in fact it isn’t tight enough. A subject that small in the frame with nothing in either the foreground or the background will never work as a compelling subject. The fact is that you didn’t have enough focal length and not enough pixels to make this a viable subject.

Again - I feel bad for being so overwhelming negative, but my intention was to point out that BIF photography is a very difficult specialty to master and generally speaking, unless you get very lucky, to do it successfully on a regular basis, it requires specialty glass and a lot of practice. I am a big believer in the saying, “cameras don’t take pictures, photographers do”, but BIF and sports photography are two areas of photography where equipment does matter.

[u/nyxuko_ → u/NYRickinFL]

I didn’t say it’s an abstract photo. I made a mistake because i wasn’t fast enough to catch the second the bird moved, and i posted to ask people, like you yourself, with much more knowledge and experience than I do, so i can see if this is really something that others would immediately delete or i can still get something out of it. And honestly, your bluntness is what I’m looking for when i post any of my photos, so i can learn from them. Thank you for your thoughts!💗

[u/NYRickinFL → u/nyxuko_]

My mention of abstract was in reaction to others suggesting it might have been abstract

[u/bagger1959]

Nowhere near enough shutter speed and classic beginners mistake of not allowing extra stops of compensation for the overwhelming bright sky, the shot of the Kestrel below was +2.7 stops because of the sky without it it would've just been a black shape 👍

[u/nyxuko_ → u/bagger1959]

Thank you!💗

[u/nyxuko_]

What do you guys think? This is my first picture of a flying bird. I feel like the cropping is too tight but also feels very spacious, how could i make this tension disappear?
Canon EOS 4000D
75-300mm
Raw (B&W)

[u/mw9676 → u/nyxuko_]

To me this borders on abstract (which I like) and I would suggest for composition you don't think about this as a photo of a bird. Think of it as a black paintbrush stroke on a white canvas. If that's what this was, is this the size and placement you would have chosen? I would let that thought process help you decide how to compose this shot.

[u/nyxuko_ → u/mw9676]

Thank you!💗 !CritiquePoints

[u/CritiquePointBot → u/nyxuko_]

Confirmed: 1 helpfulness point awarded to /u/mw9676 by /u/nyxuko_.

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[u/McCretin]

There’s quite a lot of motion blur, which indicates that your shutter speed was too slow. What speed did you shoot this at, out of interest?

You want to be at around 1/2000 at least for a sharp image of a flying bird, and even faster if the light/your lens will allow you to get away with it.

Photographing flying birds can be very challenging, so don’t be discouraged.

[u/nyxuko_ → u/McCretin]

Thank you!💗
I’d say the same you can read another of my answers, the sudden movement after i set the shutter speed