Looking for C&C on a few photos

[Rob5589]

I am having difficulty in achieving sharp shots. Aside from the rookie LR adjustments, where am I going wrong? Shutter speed too slow? Hand shake?

Thanks!

blue heron on Flickr

IMG_0744 on Flickr

IMG_0787 on Flickr

 

[Tuckerjr]

It could be a combination of the things you mention above. Are you shooting manual ? Are you looking through your viewfinder ? Have you adjusted your viewfinder to your vision ?

 

[Rob5589]

Generally I shoot in "A" mode, occasionally "M," always auto focus. I do use the viewfinder and it is set up for my vision. Thanks for asking.

 

[Designer]

I just took a close look at #1. It's all pixelated. How do you do that?

Since the EXIF was no longer attached, I have to just guess at some things.

Is this a small file that you're looking at zoomed in?

Did your camera confirm focus?

Where was the area of focus?

 

[Rob5589]

I just took a close look at #1. It's all pixelated. How do you do that?

Since the EXIF was no longer attached, I have to just guess at some things.

Is this a small file that you're looking at zoomed in?

Did your camera confirm focus?

Where was the area of focus?

Lol, I have no idea. It was shot in RAW and processed in LR. I tried to focus on the birds head. And the camera confirmed focus. Shot at f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 500, 375mm, from monopod. Thanks for taking a look.

Here is the EXIF from from Flickr:

• X-Resolution - 80 dpi

• Y-Resolution - 80 dpi

• Software - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.2.1

• ISO Speed - 500

• Sensitivity Type - Recommended Exposure Index

• Recommended Exposure Index -500

• Exif Version - 0230

• Exposure Bias - 0 EV

• Max Aperture Value - 5.7

• Metering Mode - Center-weighted average

• Sub Sec Time Original - 97

• Sub Sec Time Digitized - 97

• Color Space - sRGB

• Focal Plane X-Resolution - 1520

• Focal Plane Y-Resolution - 1520

• Focal Plane Resolution Unit - cm

• Custom Rendered - Normal

• Exposure Mode - Manual

• White Balance - Auto

• Scene Capture Type - Standard

• Lens Info - 100-400mm f/?

• Lens Model - EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM

• Lens Serial Number - 0000000000

• Compression - JPEG (old-style)

• Thumbnail Offset - 904

• Thumbnail Length - 25159

• Displayed Units X - inches

• Displayed Units Y - inches

• Photoshop Thumbnail - (Binary data 25159 bytes, use -b option to extract)

• IPTCDigest -7ce5d88f577a5a97c63e03e5234f6197

• Coded Character Set - UTF8

• Application Record Version - 4

• Viewing Cond Illuminant - 19.6445 20.3718 16.8089

• Viewing Cond Surround - 3.92889 4.07439 3.36179

• Viewing Conditions Illuminant Type -D50

• Measurement Observer - CIE 1931

• Measurement Backing - 0 0 0

• Measurement Geometry - Unknown (0)

• Measurement Flare - 0.999%

• Measurement Illuminant - D65

• XMPToolkit - Adobe XMP Core 5.6-c011 79.156380, 2014/05/21-23:38:37

• Creator Tool - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.2.1 (Windows)

• Metadata Date - 2015:11:06 17:15:12-08:00

• Format - image/jpeg

• Lens ID - 183

• Image Number - 0

• Approximate Focus Distance - 82

• Flash Compensation - 0

• Firmware - 1.1.6

• Document ID - xmp.did:5ec1a81e-f297-dd4f-a5ac-e530dea63b0e

• Original Document ID -3CBB6EF80E58D4391F6B8763CEFC1B65

• Instance ID - xmp.iid:5ec1a81e-f297-dd4f-a5ac-e530dea63b0e

• History Action - converted

• History Parameters - from image/x-canon-cr2 to image/dng

• History Instance ID -xmp.iid:5ec1a81e-f297-dd4f-a5ac-e530dea63b0e

• History When - 2015:11:06 17:15:12-08:00

• History Software Agent - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.2.1 (Windows)

• History Changed - /

• Derived From Document ID -3CBB6EF80E58D4391F6B8763CEFC1B65

• Derived From Original Document ID -3CBB6EF80E58D4391F6B8763CEFC1B65

• DCTEncode Version - 100

• APP14 Flags0 - [14], Encoded with Blend=1 downsampling

• APP14 Flags1 - (none)

• Color Transform - YCbCr

• Camera ID - 72157607012320362

• Camera Type - Digital SLR

 

[coastalconn]

As far as the lizard I'm not 100% sure.. but to answer your question about the birds...

• Approximate Focus Distance - 82

That is 240 feet away on a bird that is 4-5 inches long. You have to get much closer to get detail in your images..
For example this yellow rumped warbler was about 20 feet away at 700mm.. Yellow Rumped Warbler 10_6

 

[DarkShadow]

I also suggest turn on focus point indicator disabled by default.When you playback and take a peek at an image a little red box will be where the focus point was at the time of the shot..Hit the Q button and repeat until its at 100 percent view and the focus point indicator will go exactly where the camera focused.No scrolling around all over the place.

 

[Rob5589]

Thanks everyone, definitely some things to work on.