Photography of bats in flight.

Hallo folks,

I'm looking to take pictures of bats in flight and am wandering

through the wilderness at the moment as to what is the best set up to

achieve this. The camera I'll be using is an F90x (N90 as I believe

it's called in the States). I have a Nikon SB28 flash and was

thinking of joining this up to a couple of Metz Flashes and having

the whole thing fired by a shutter beam.

The questions are are these flashes the best for the job and what

are the specific cables required to connect them all? Also would a

300mm lens be suitable or would you suggest something else?

I was also looking at the Woods CC-594 shutter beam. Right choice

or not?

I'd appreciate any answers to these questions and any other useful

advice.

Thanks a lot. Dave Anderson

How close will you be able to get your light sources to the bats in flight?

Hallo Art,

Thanks for your response. I'm hoping to get the light sources to within 10 feet. Possibly as close as 5 or 6 feet. But I'd like to have a system that could compensate for a greater distance if the situation arises.

Looking forward to your comments.

All the best Dave Anderson.

I've never shot a bat flight, though I've witnessed that famous nightly occurrence at Carlsbad Caverns, in NM...a sight never to be forgotten. As for the mechanics of lighting, that's a tough call, but that you can get that close is encouraging. When you mentioned a 300mm lens, I was thinkingthat you may be too far away, as many people don't realizethe limited range of most strobes, especially at night. As Irecall, the first bats were in flight while there was stillsome light, and the flight took "forever," as there were literally millions of them. By the time the last of them came out, it was nearly totally dark. Surely, your lights will have some affect up to about 40 feet with a fast film, but as to how to manage the shoot and positioning, I must pass. I hope some real bat maven will jump in and help you.

Hi Dave,

 

You should check out Rollin's website http://www.natuurfotografie.be ; he's specialized in bats-in-flight photography (among others) and he should have some interesting information on his site that might interest you!

 

cheers,

luc

I�m preparing for a similar project myself (not with bats but the techniques are the same) and I�m finding the focal length of the lens to be the least of my problems. These problems can be solved however, otherwise I wouldn�t still be working on it!

My neighbourhood bats have a wingspan of about 20cm (8") so if we could start with an image of about twice as wide as this, say 27x40 cm (approximately 11"x16"). At this magnification with a 300mm lens, which I find a reasonable choice, and at say f8, the depth of field will be about 2.5cm (about an inch) or roughly double this value at f16, so the timing of the flash must be very precisely controlled. I tried to find information on the Woods CC-594 but was unsuccessful. However, if I assume that this device is designed to trigger the camera (as opposed to the flash) we run into a further problem. The delay between triggering the camera and the opening of the shutter is quite significant. The Canon EOS RT was designed specifically to reduce this delay to a minimum and Canon specify 8ms in the data sheet for this special mode and the delay for the "normal" mode is given as 40ms. I don�t have any data for newer cameras or for any Nikon products but if we assume about 30ms for the F90 we won�t be too far away (I guess). I would estimate that the bats next door fly at about 5m/s when circling, and during a period of 30ms they will have therefore travelled a distance of about 15cm (6"). This means that you would need to focus/compose at a position 15 cm after the beam. Bearing in mind that all these values are estimates, that bats fly at what ever speed they wish and that the depth of field we have to play with is only about 2.5 cm, I wouldn�t expect to get many sharp pictures. Although I have an RT and may use it for this project I will be triggering the flash directly from the beam. That way I will have much more control over where the subject appears in the frame.

Usually we regard a flash exposure to be quick enough to stop anything that moves. Normally this assumption is true but in this case we have to be a little careful. Jeremy Stein has performed flash duration measurements for the Canon 430EZ flash, which can probably be regarded as a fairly typical unit (these can be found on Toomas Tamm�s home page)

http://www.chem.helsinki.fi/~toomas/photo/flash-discharge/regular.html

The full power flash duration is about 2ms (depending on how we interpret the curves). During this flash exposure, the bat will have travelled a further 10mm!! (about 4/10"). If the bat is flying directly into the camera it may be possible to get a few usable images but if it is crossing the field of view this will be impossible. We would need to considerably reduce the power output of the unit in order to obtain shorter flashes and sharp images. The optimum power level depends on the angle at which it is flying through the frame and exactly how fast. Shorter flashes mean less power and therefore either wider apertures, which result in a smaller depth of field, or a closer flash to subject distance, which may cause the bats to take another route. This can be helped by using multiple flashes as you suggest, and/or the addition of tele-extenders to increase the reach of the flash.

One further point. If the bat triggers the flash with it�s nose it will appear further back in the picture than if it triggers it with a wing. This will be important if it is flying into the camera because it will affect where you set the limited depth of field with respect to the beam.

I hope that the above information is accurate and is of use to you. I would be more than happy to hear from anyone who disagrees with my estimates - especially if it makes my life easier!

Pick your location carefully! Bats (at least the ones in Arizona) will abandon their roost if people use a flash in it. It is a serious problem here. So take the pictures away from the roost.

 

A GREAT place for many bats is around water.

 

You will definately need a shutter beam. And ideally you want to near a source of food or drink for the bats.

cattle tanks or other water are great areas for bats (and other wildlife) that don't threaten bat roosts.

 

Try a search for Merlin Tuttle, any links the that bat expert may explain his photography.

 

I played with night photography when I lived in western US and got a few underexposed reflecting coyote eyes and barely-lit bat blurs - you are in for a real challenge.

 

Have you talked to local biology grad school at a university? Might give locations and 'guides' willing to show you some areas or even collaborate.

Have you considered a brighter lighting situation to attract bugs and using that to lure in the bats into your target zone? That might increase the likelihood that the bats will enter the area.

I have done that. I may also upload some later day one sample if

I manage to do that here on photo.net.

 

In my case (only one place for flight shots so far) the bats - small

ones - were flying over a 2 meters (7 feet) wide creek (or stream

or whatever it should be called) close to a lake. They (not many,

maybe only 5-10) were flying on the creek trying to catch night

butterflies and other insects.

 

Since the place where they exactly flew was unpredictable and varied

I studied for a while which "track" they had chosen. Then I set

the camera (EOS-3) with flash on it on a tripod in the creek so that

the tripod head was 1-2 feet above water. I focused at 1-1.5 meters

(3-5 feet) with the lens and measured the flash with a flash meter.

Some stick (monopod in my case) was helpful as a focusing target and

I also tied my flash meter in it so I could position the meter easily

in the same place over the water.

 

The lens focal length was around 35 to 70mm. Quite often I used

a 50/1.8 lens. I also used a Canon Angle Finder C. It helps if you

can look from above at the viewfinder so you don't get your butt

wet... Optically fast lens helps also a lot to prefocus in the

correct spot. You are very fast short of hands so assistant would

be helpful.

 

Since I wanted to make environmental bat pictures (I don't like

animal portraits so much in general and not black backgrounds

either) I wanted to have some light on the background as well.

I have some cheap flashes with built in slave trigger devices.

I put one or two of those on a light (=cheap) tripod to

illuminate the background bushes etc.

 

I measure all light levels with a flash meter. For some reason I

have found out that I need to overexpose the bats about 1 stop

even if the same meter gives "perfect" results in normal flash

photography (e.g. portraits).

 

The on-camera flash is set at about 1/4-1/8 power to get the flash

duration short enough. I used an old Canon 299T flash (which has

only full and 1/16 manual power settings but I foooled the autosensor

to get the output I wanted) which is a normal higher-end flash.

Next time I will have 550EX(s) or similar(s) which will make my

life a bit easier. The aperture with ISO100 slide film is around

f5.6-f8 so more power wouldn't hurt at all.

 

The background flash(es) are small ones which flash always at

full power (GN 20 metric at ISO100) and the length of the pulse

is quite long I quess but so far I haven't seen motion blur

(caused by slow background flash).

 

Hit rate? Don't ask... I have spent 3-10 rolls per night (about 6

nights so far) and usually there is only one or few "close enough"

technically. I didn't use any triggering devices, only a

flashlight/"headlight" and finger on the camera release. I tried

also to trigger two camera bodies with one set of flashes but

since there was two trigger delays in series

(in this case, used 50E as the second body) it was too slow.

 

Setting up the system takes about one hour (yes, for some reason)

so you do yourself a favour if you plan and test the devices

well beforehand.

 

Unless you are lucky, skillful, use good triggering devices or the

place is well suited for photography (thus you know where they will

fly exactly) don't expect too much success. Of course if there

are more than 10 bats flying around (like it was in my case) things

will be easier.

 

So this is a poor mans solution. If you have more money to spend

get powerful and fast flashes and a digital camera (at least to check

the flashes and exposure). dSLR is good also if you think throwing

10 rolls of developed slidefilm is waste of money or nature

resources.

 

Happy hunting.

 

Vesa

I just talked to someone not long ago about photographing bats.

<p>

Here are some helpful (hopefully) links on photo.net:

<br><a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001s9c">http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001s9c</a>

<br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001o1p">http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001o1p</a>

Dave,

 

I make a living picturing bats, and I have some years experience including making flight pictures.

 

In the previous posts there as a lot of valuable information. Stepan Pylyp is right when he says you have to consider the delay of the whole system. However, when you connect the beam to the flash the delay is normally very short, in the neighbourhood of 1 ms.

The choice of your flash is important but I see you have good material. The Nikon SB28 is perfectly capable of "freezing" the bats motion, if you set it in M- mode on 1/8th power. This gives a flash duration time of 1/2500 s. That should be enough. Metz flashes are also a good choice, if you can shorten the flash times. The 45CT 3 or 4 are very cheap now and capable of giving very short bursts of light.

All these flashes work with the very normal and cheap flash cables with those small round contacts. They cost 1$ or so.

 

I don't know anything about Woods' systems. They look allright but too expensive for me and someone made a system that fulfilled my requirements better. It is a two-beam system, so you can make a cross or whatever to make sure the bat is in the middle of the image when the flash goes off. Also, one neam has to be crossed before the other one, so my film is nit filled with the bats' backs (make sure you connect the beams in the right order, or you only have the backs !!!)

 

If your system works on the flashes that means that your shutter of your F90x must be open all the time, at least till a bat has passed the beam. So, you must work in a very dark environment. Robert Kennedy stated that you have to choose your location very carefully. He is right, most bats are quiet easily disturbed. When you know a good roost ( let's say a cave) you better work very slowly. You first set your equipment (or dummy equipment) and see how the bats react. Then, you make your pictures for only one or two hours and you DO NOT enter the roost at the same time. This will be too much for the animals. Also, AVOID making pictures in the period they have young, between May and August. After that the youngsters can fly and if disturbed the problem is not too big (but still).

 

Somenone mentioned picturing them when hunting, above water for example. Well, let me state first that almost all pictures of flying bats in environment are made in a studio. Merlin Tuttle, Dietmar Nill, Stephen Dalton all have studio's where they picture not all but a great deal of their bats. I do not say these are caught, most of the time these are sick animals that are kept in captivity for a short time. So these beautifull images are not made in the wild, do not forget when you try to do the same !

 

There are exceptions on this of course. I know some Dutch photographers that picture bats above water when they pass a small bridge. They put some food on a stick that is just under water so the bats are trained to pass the bridge at the same point.

Almost the same trick was used by mister Dalton, but he used a device with compressed air to shoot prey vertically and trained some Horseshoe bats to collect the food. Indeen, in wild conditions. These pictures are amazing, but I don't have to tell you the difficulty of this project.

 

Normally I'm able to get a 50% success with normal flight pictures in dark conditions, wich is very (!) high. Very stunning pictures are let's say made in 5% of the case. Also not bad.

 

To end with, Vesa also made some good comments, but if you want to picture bats in the wild and in their environment, make it a lifetime project. This is very very hard. You can't work on the flashes anymore, and you don't know where the bats are flying. Your best chance I guess will be an electronical one, with a series of beams measuring the speed of the animal and giving your shutter a signal at just the right time. But you should better contact the MIT if you want to do this (a friend of mine is considering a small radar to do the trick...).

 

Oh, one last thing. Vesa said he has to overexpose his film with 1 stop. This is called the reciprocity failure, typical with fast or slow speeds. I think you will find more of this in other posts.

 

E-mail me if you have more questions about this.

 

Rollin <rollin@natuurfotografie.be>

Dave,

 

Contact Joe McDonald at hoothollow@acsworld.net. His web

site is www.hoothollow.com. I have photographed bats with him

numerous times and he has the setup down pat. When he first

started photographing bats he used Metz strobes but then

switched to a custom setup. He used to use a Dale Beam to fire

the lights but recently switched to the beam made by Woods. On

the nights I shot with him we used 105mm lenses and held the

cameras shutters open until the flashes fired. It would normally

take 4 or 5 hours to setup the equipment for a shoot that would

last about 2 hours. We used Velvia because it gave the best

black background.

 

John Patton