If I had to elect one camera feature that has made a “sea-change” difference to photography in the last few years, it wouldn’t be sensor resolution, frame rate or extra card slots, it would be the ability to capture a pre-burst of buffered images on half pressing the shutter button prior to fully depressing the shutter, at which point the buffered images are copied to your memory card while further images continue to be collected at a predetermined frame rate. Fujifilm, Canon, Nikon and Sony all offer cameras with this feature, usually, but not exclusively in their flagship models.
Why is this such a game changer? Well, I can only speak to Fujifilm’s take on this clever feature, although I suspect much of what I say is relevant to all camera marques. It is a game changer because you can now catch elusive, fleeting moments that we cannot even visualise, let alone successfully actuate a shutter release at the critical moment an animal exhibits a particular behaviour; our human eye-brain-trigger finger reflex just isn’t up to the job. The fact that pre-shot can address this and permit the successful capture of visually imperceptible key behavioural moments means we can now catch images like never before. At least the common man can; I say this because even back in the 1980’s Stephen Dalton was using high-speed flash techniques that he pioneered to catch insects, birds and other animals in flight or mid-leap (see https://www.stephendalton.co.uk/). Now, thanks to pre-shot, I often end up with behavioural wildlife images that I feel may be comparable to Stephen Dalton’s work, as do so many other contemporary wildlife photographers.
Pre-shot is perfect for bird take off, wildlife conflict (aggressive behaviour), catching a perfect composition of flighty species, feeding behaviour etc. The fact is we have no precognitive ability when it comes to predicting the precise moment a bird will take off, even if we do have a degree of insight into a species’ behaviour. Of course, this all sounds great, but the success of pre-shot relies on a reasonable frame rate to catch at least one winning frame from maybe 40 or more images/second. After a good day’s photography, you could come back with 10,000 images – hopefully all caught with the electronic rather than mechanical shutter. I suspect you’d soon need to replace the mechanical shutter if you were regularly taking 10,000 images on it every week or so. As it is, dealing with this number of images requires some ruthless triaging – especially if you have a high megapixel camera and shoot in RAW (forget megabytes and think dozens of gigabytes per shoot).
The following image shows the classic use of pre-shot to catch fast, flighty birds as they take off. This singing honeyeater was very challenging to shoot, but produced an okay BIF shot.
Everybody will evolve their own settings to achieve successful pre-shot images. In my case, pre-shot is usually applied to bird photography, with custom settings set up to deal with different scenarios (open or tree-tangled scenes) and variable lighting conditions.
In general, for tree-tangled scenes I’d use bird detect with a spot (single point) continuous AF mode, aperture priority (lens wide open) and a starting ISO of 1250. The frame rate would be 40 FPS using the electronic shutter. Pre-shot with these settings on my Fuji XH2s and 500mm f5.6 lens is great at catching “THE” moment. In more open environments I would alter the focus area to zone and if light is very good, I’d drop the ISO to 500. I’d use the same set up on the Fuji XH2 and 150-600mm lens, but obviously use the slower maximum FPS settings with its electronic shutter. The caveat to these settings is that you need to have a working ISO that forces the correct shutter speed for your subject – I aim for 1/3200 sec, but anything above 1/2000 might work okay, depending on the subject, and what it’s up to (flying, fighting, eating etc). If movements are slow, but difficult to predict, you can get away with very slow shutter speeds.
If I’m solely interested in birds in flight, then I tend to use a custom manual setting that has an ISO of 3200 or 2500 and shutter speed of 1/3200 as my starting point.
The following images show what’s possible when using Fujifilm’s pre-shot.
I sat in my car with the window down at dusk, focusing my Fujifilm 500mm f/5.6 lens on a post that was popular with some welcome swallows. Several swallows were queuing up to use this post as a spotting platform for insects. I shot a great many sequences using pre-shot mode (focus on swallows on the post shooting to the buffer [a I second loop]), then after they lift off depressing the shutter fully to write that 1 second buffer to my CF type B card. There were several keepers using this approach -see below.
A similar scenario presented itself at this same location earlier in the evening. Red kneed dotterels are small waders that are amusing to watch as they beetle around the wetlands and mud. At certain times of year, they can be seen engaging in aggressive behaviour towards each other. Apparently, they like to defecate on their rivals’ heads – interesting behaviour to capture. I’m not sure that is what they are doing in the following images, but you never know. The first image shows a red kneed dotterel doing a John Cleese ministry of silly walks sprint along the water’s edge. All images (aggression and running) were taken using pre-shot mode.
Pre-shot is great fun to experiment with in your garden where you can hone your birds in flight skill set. The following images were all made possible using pre-shot, and were taken in my garden.
The following sequence shows five images of a red wattlebird taking off from a bird bath in my garden – all images taken at f/5.6, 1/3200 sec, ISO 2500
Of course, not only can you shoot BIF in your garden, but also behavioural shots such as this red wattlebird caught making its characteristic raucous loud cackle. Again, you’d be lucky to catch this without pre-focus.
There is a saying amongst bird photographers that it’s better to get a good photo of an ordinary species than a poor photo of a rare or exotic species. With that in mind, common species such as the new holland honeyeater that dominate our gardens and most places that I photograph present a perfect bird species to practice on. In Australia we are lucky to have such a magnificent colourful and bold aeronaut to photograph. Certainly, more satisfying than chasing sparrows. The following images were shot using pre-shot and conjure up anthropomorphic parodies of a serious meeting and animated argument respectively
This same species of honeyeater is very dynamic. They don’t stop for more than a brief second and are difficult to shoot in a good pose. Pre-shot is perfect to shoot with as it provides an increased likelihood of catching a classic pose that is pleasing to the eye. Here are some examples, all of which were shot from a hide.
Feeding is a good time to shoot with pre-shot as you can shoot to buffer until something interesting happens and then fully release the shutter – hindsight that actually works! Here I shot a nankeen kestrel feeding – when (just after) he opened his beak I released the shutter.
Quite often a bird will shift position, and you know it is about to take off. This white-faced heron is an example. It got into this position ready for take-off as I buffered shots with pre-shot. I pressed the shutter fully but was too close to get a good flight shot. Still, this is an unusual and interesting pose
Pre-shot is the only reliable way to catch the moment a bird strikes for prey. Here I used the technique to catch the moment a white-faced heron’s head broke into the water. The second shot is part of a similar sequence showing a heron catching prey
When faced with a colony of sea birds you can really have fun with pre-shot. This crested tern colony was busier than Piccadilly Circus in rush hour. I prefocused on a bird in flight using pre-shot as I panned, and when I was happy with the composition (or I saw a critical momentary event) I released the shutter. The following two tern images are very different but were both caught thanks to pre-shot.
I think that one of the best birds to hone your BIF skill set on has to be swallows. Difficult to catch on the wing, they are fairly easy to catch as they take off using pre-shot. This individual below was sitting on some barbed wire fencing. I used pre-shot to buffer images until he took off. The resulting image below is one of the best images I’ve taken of a swallow, and without pre-shot it would have been nearly impossible to achieve.
Using pre-shot is great fun; make sure you practise, and you’ll end up with some great shots, not to mention a lot of blurry rubbish, just be prepared for a lot of data – the flip side of this type of photography.
I’ll end this article with a three-image sequence of a spotted dove taking off from the gravel driveway in my garden. I used pre-shot knowing that as I approached the bird it would fly off, hopefully in the right direction to avoid the classic bird “bum” shot.
Have fun!