Photographing Bats in Galway - Advice?!

joeKel73

I've a load of bats flying in and out under a bridge beside me here in Galway. I had a go trying to photograph them mid-flight this evening but not with any decent results.... here's some cropped shots;







I'm using a Nikon D60 with the kit lens. The camera won't let me use faster than 1/200sec when using flash. It looks from those shots that I need much faster - so do I need a different flash?

If any of you in Galway want to give this a go too we could have a mini-expedition maybe tomorrow evening!

joeKel73

Ahh I just tried the Canon G10 there and it syncs with the flash at 1/4000 sec.... interesting....

magicbastarder

foto joe wrote: »

I'm using a Nikon D60 with the kit lens. The camera won't let me use faster than 1/200sec when using flash. It looks from those shots that I need much faster - so do I need a different flash?

no, it's a limitation with the camera, not the flash. any faster, and the shutter curtain will never be fully open and you won't get full flash coverage.

it's not a limiting issue, though, because the flash duration is so short the exposure is essentially the length of the flash burst, rather than the shutter speed. in the dark, the camera won't really record anything except what is lit by the flash itself.

Heebie

Does your flash auto-adjust it's throw along with the focus of the camera? (Maybe I should be asking if it's a proper Nikon flash similar to a Canon Speedlight would be for a Canon Camera.. and like my flash would be for my Pentax... designed to "talk to" the auto-focus and auto-exposures systems in the camera etc..)

If not.. that's probably something you should invest in if you're trying for that.

Alternately.. you can make sure you put your flash on it's longest throw.. find an object somewhere around the distance that the bats will be from you (obviously not exact since they'll be moving) adjust your focus & (manual) exposure to expose that object well at a fast enough shutter-speed to "stop" the bats [if that's what you're looking for].. then turn-off autofocus, and don't zoom in or out... just shoot.

I'd try & use a not-too-open aperature.. probably try to stay at 4-5.6 at the most open..higher if you can. (The deeper your depth-of-field is..the more likely the bats will be reasonably close to in-focus using this method.)

Experiment & have fun!

WheresMyCamera?

Loads of info here..........

Photographing Bats

honerbright

Which bridge was it? I've never seen a bat before, I'd love to see them/attempt to photograph them...

magicbastarder

foto joe wrote: »

Ahh I just tried the Canon G10 there and it syncs with the flash at 1/4000 sec.... interesting....

the G10 is not an SLR, so doesn't work in the same way as an SLR, but don't be fooled by the higher flash sync - you're not going to be shooting at 1/1000th of a sec in those conditions, and if you could, it'd be of little benefit.

joeKel73

Heebie wrote: »

Does your flash auto-adjust it's throw along with the focus of the camera? (Maybe I should be asking if it's a proper Nikon flash similar to a Canon Speedlight would be for a Canon Camera.. and like my flash would be for my Pentax... designed to "talk to" the auto-focus and auto-exposures systems in the camera etc..)

If not.. that's probably something you should invest in if you're trying for that.

No but in looking into this I found out that I can adjust the power of the flash on both the D60 and G10!

Heebie wrote: »

I'd try & use a not-too-open aperature.. probably try to stay at 4-5.6 at the most open..higher if you can. (The deeper your depth-of-field is..the more likely the bats will be reasonably close to in-focus using this method.)

Yeah I was playing around f8 but I might need to open it wider to let in more light. Results are very poor so far. So that'll mean a smaller depth of field around a focusing point which is guessed in the dark.... time to take lots of trial shots!

magicbastarder

i was out on a bat walk this evening, organised by the irish wildlife trust, on the dodder at the dropping well. we had been advised to bring torches, but it turns out this was a safety precaution for walking along the river in the dark, rather than for helping look for bats - in fact, we were warned that if we did need to use the torch, we must point it at the ground, and under no circumstances, to point them deliberately at the bat, as some of them are extremely sensitive to light - so based on that, i suspect that flash photography of them is extremely ill advised...

joeKel73

Oh.

Just looked into it and the main concerns seem to be photographing near their "roost"... I don't know where that is though, could well be under the bridge. So better end the project/challenge here.

WheresMyCamera? wrote: »

Loads of info here..........
Photographing Bats

I wasn't ready for that level of commitment! - "The key to my success is tremendous patience, years of experience working with bats and an ability to tame and train them. Many are trained to catch prey or visit fruit or flowers only on command...."

WheresMyCamera?

foto joe wrote: »

I'm using a Nikon D60 with the kit lens. The camera won't let me use faster than 1/200sec when using flash.

I'm just watching a strobist dvd where the guy is talking about sync speeds. He uses a Nikon D70s because it has a mechanical and CCD electronic shutter. Which means if he takes his flash off camera he can sync (using wireless systems or pc cords) at speeds up to 1/4000 sec.

Now I think the D60 has the same shutter system or at least it looks that way on dpreview so maybe if you have a way of firing your flash off camera you could get the faster shutter speeds you desire. Either way you could just give it a go and see if it works!

Also was watching some program on NatGeo Wild tonight where a photographer was photographing bats for some scientist. His setup looked like he had a tourch or large light source shining out onto a pond to attract insects to the lit area. Then to photograph the bats he had the camera set up looking and focusing on the lit area of the pond (where the insects would be) and a bank of 8 small flashes, like nikon sb-400's or that kind of size, firing in succession to freeze each of the bats movements.

Now I'm not saying you need to go out and buy 8 flashes but I'm sure you could use a tourch, shine it on the river near the bridge and use the flash you've already got off camera at the (hopefully) faster sync speed and maybe have more luck??