# A new take on BIF



## Chisox2335 (Apr 15, 2014)

Bats in flight!

Not a great example, but I'd love to see what other people have been able to get.
Canon 70D
Canon 100-400
340MM
1/400th
ISO1600


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## ahab1372 (Apr 15, 2014)

yeah that is not going to be easy - they are small and fast and AF will have a hard time focusing in low light. I'm also curious what others have got


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## Chisox2335 (Apr 15, 2014)

ahab1372 said:


> yeah that is not going to be easy - they are small and fast and AF will have a hard time focusing in low light. I'm also curious what others have got



The one I was trying to get was flying so erratically it was very difficult to even get this picture. I suppose a 400mm f2.8 on a 1dx might do the trick.


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## ahab1372 (Apr 15, 2014)

Chisox2335 said:


> ahab1372 said:
> 
> 
> > yeah that is not going to be easy - they are small and fast and AF will have a hard time focusing in low light. I'm also curious what others have got
> ...


If you can't keep them in the viewfinder, a 1DX won't help either 
One way to get them into a more predictable flight pattern is (sometimes) to throw a small stone high up in the air when they are near. If they pick up the echo of the stone, they might follow the stone as it falls back to the ground. You still gotta be quick though


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## Click (Apr 15, 2014)

ahab1372 said:


> One way to get them into a more predictable flight pattern is (sometimes) to throw a small stone high up in the air when they are near. If they pick up the echo of the stone, they might follow the stone as it falls back to the ground. You still gotta be quick though



That's a cool trick. Thanks, I'll try it.


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## Valvebounce (Apr 16, 2014)

Hi Chisox.
Interesting idea for a thread, but I think I'll stick to birds for a while, at least until I can get a nice picture of a bird! 

Cheers Graham.


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## 2n10 (Apr 24, 2014)

I agree interesting thread. 

Good idea ahab.


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## Jeffbridge (May 20, 2014)

That is beautiful! Excellent Shot!!!


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## jrista (Jun 12, 2014)

Congrats on getting the shot. Couldn't have been easy. I've seen Bat in Flight shots in video before, but usually they are well lit with artificial lighting.


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## Menace (Jun 12, 2014)

Click said:


> ahab1372 said:
> 
> 
> > One way to get them into a more predictable flight pattern is (sometimes) to throw a small stone high up in the air when they are near. If they pick up the echo of the stone, they might follow the stone as it falls back to the ground. You still gotta be quick though
> ...



+1

Get a friend to throw the stone so you have more time to take the shot.


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## Hillsilly (Jun 12, 2014)

One of my better attempts. Taken with a 1Ds Mkii, ISO 400, with a 135/2 lens and flash. My camera isn't ideal for this. It focuses fine, but struggles with noise at higher ISOs.


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## Menace (Jun 12, 2014)

Hillsilly said:


> One of my better attempts. Taken with a 1Ds Mkii, ISO 400, with a 135/2 lens and flash. My camera isn't ideal for this. It focuses fine, but struggles with noise at higher ISOs.



Lovely


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## 2n10 (Jun 12, 2014)

Excellent shot.


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## Click (Jun 12, 2014)

Very nice shot.


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## Chisox2335 (Jun 13, 2014)

Very cool shot


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## AcutancePhotography (Jun 13, 2014)

Another good place to get pictures of bats is by water. Bats skim long ponds to drink, If you have such a pond (natural or artificial) in your area that allows good bat access, that might be a good place to wait. 

You guys are lucky to have bats in your area. Sadly, in my area bats are becoming a rairity. :'(


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## jrista (Jun 14, 2014)

Hillsilly said:


> One of my better attempts. Taken with a 1Ds Mkii, ISO 400, with a 135/2 lens and flash. My camera isn't ideal for this. It focuses fine, but struggles with noise at higher ISOs.



Hmm. Forgive me...because my analytical mind just has to make sure here...but...why does the bat have a close, dark, sharply refined "drop" shadow? Isn't it the sky behind it...at....a very, very, very great distance that wouldn't actually allow a sharply defined shadow so close to the creature.......if it allowed a shadow to show up at all..................?


...I just hate to say it....but...without a VERY good explanation of the shadow....I'm calling bull! :


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## Hillsilly (Jun 14, 2014)

It was shot at 1/160s with rear shutter curtain synch. The rear drop shadow is the movement of the flying fox before the flash kicked in. But that's the sort of problems I'm trying to work around. If I shoot at faster speeds, I can avoid this, but then I lose detail in the sky and if I shoot faster that 1/250s then I'm also stuck with HSS, and the bats are too far away for this to work effectively with the gear that I have. To counter that, I can increase ISO and decrease flash power, but increasing ISO results in more noise. Its hard to get the balance right.


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## jrista (Jun 14, 2014)

Hillsilly said:


> It was shot at 1/160s with rear shutter curtain synch. The rear drop shadow is the movement of the flying fox before the flash kicked in. But that's the sort of problems I'm trying to work around. If I shoot at faster speeds, I can avoid this, but then I lose detail in the sky and if I shoot faster that 1/250s then I'm also stuck with HSS, and the bats are too far away for this to work effectively with the gear that I have. To counter that, I can increase ISO and decrease flash power, but increasing ISO results in more noise. Its hard to get the balance right.



Hmm. I guess that's a plausible explanation. Based on the actual offset of the shadow, it was moving at a vector of about 120° then...as the shadow is not directly behind, it's offset to a about a -35° angle. That seems a little odd...but, eh. 

I think you could crank the ISO up more. The 1Ds II isn't that bad...it's certainly better than the 7D, despite being older, and the 7D is pretty good up to ISO 800. Also, that is indeed how clear and sharp the bats are after the flash, then that means they are easy to mask. With masking, you could clean the background noise right up! You might even want to look into PixInsight, which has some of the most advanced multi-scale noise reduction tools around, but Photoshop or LR could certainly do it as well, I mean you could completely obliterate the noise once you have the bat masked. If that's the real problem, and that shadow really is caused by flash lag with rear-curtain, then I think you could crank ISO by at least a stop, if not two, and use two stops faster shutter speed.


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## IslanderMV (Jun 14, 2014)

Here is my contribution to bats in flight. Caught this cutie near a small pond at around sunset. His flight was so fast and erratic it was very difficult to track.

60D - 100-400mm, at 190 mm, ISO 125, f5.6, 1/1000 (shutter priority)


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## Valvebounce (Jun 14, 2014)

Hi Islander. 
I have watched bats in flight and concluded they would be impossible to track, if you only think it was difficult your technique must be several orders of magnitude better than mine! Congrats on this shot, getting one in frame must be very rewarding indeed.

Cheers Graham.



IslanderMV said:


> Here is my contribution to bats in flight. Caught this cutie near a small pond at around sunset. His flight was so fast and erratic it was very difficult to track.
> 
> 60D - 100-400mm, at 190 mm, ISO 125, f5.6, 1/1000 (shutter priority)


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## Hillsilly (Jun 14, 2014)

jrista said:


> Based on the actual offset of the shadow, it was moving at a vector of about 120° then...as the shadow is not directly behind, it's offset to a about a -35° angle. That seems a little odd...but, eh.


And then, of course, you have camera shake, wings flapping etc etc. Another one without any shadows...


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## skinkfoot (Jun 14, 2014)

Lucky to get some daytime shots.







Canon 5dmkiii with EF 400mm f5.6. <iframe src="https://www.flickr.com/photos/skinkfoot/8731274829/player/" width="75" height="75" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe>


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## AcutancePhotography (Jun 17, 2014)

I jus gotta say that these are some awesome bat shots. 

You guys might want to contact Bat World and see if they would be interested in some of these fantastic shots.


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## Chisox2335 (Jun 21, 2014)

Awesome shots everyone. Glad to see the thread getting some new pictures.


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