Bird shot, help please

PropilotBW · Apr 13, 2013

I took this shot tonight, and I am wondering if my exposure was picking up the bright side of the bird house? (I do have it on spot metering). The photo wasn't as tack sharp as I had hoped. The photo seems to have a lot of noise?
This was at full reach 200mm (cropped).

PropilotBW · Apr 13, 2013

Here's another example of the issue I'm having.

SCraig · Apr 13, 2013

I don't see a lot of noise, however there is some pixelation from the cropping. That's to be expected depending on how heavily cropped it was.

It isn't tack sharp however the exposure is OK. You didn't pick up the bright side of the birdhouse with spot metering or everything else would be much darker. I'm not a big fan of the 55-200 lens though. I have one, that I never use any longer, and was never impressed with the sharpness. The image doesn't have any EXIF data attached so I don't know what aperture or shutter speed you used. You need to stop that lens down about 2 stops from maximum aperture (f/8) to get in the sharpest area of the lens. Additionally, if your shutter speed was rather slow you could have some motion blur as well.

Should you decide to replace the 55-200 I'd highly recommend the Nikon 70-300 (not the 55-300). It is an excellent all-around lens, and the one I reach for more than all my other lenses.

SCraig · Apr 13, 2013

The second one appears to just be heavily cropped and losing resolution.

coastalconn · Apr 13, 2013

Some exif info might be helpful, but it almost seems like your focus was on the wooden panel and not the bird?

bunny99123 · Apr 13, 2013

Number one is sharper. I like the bright color of the bird against the subdued background. What kind of bird is it?

PropilotBW · Apr 14, 2013

coastalconn said:
Some exif info might be helpful, but it almost seems like your focus was on the wooden panel and not the bird?

Hmm, Not really sure how to include EXIF data if it wasn't already imbedded...but here's the manual info for #1.
200mm, f/5.6, 1/250
ISO800
EXP +1.0
MATRIX METERING--I didn't do this intentionally. I meant for spot metering...which is why that's what I said initially...oops!
VR-OFF (on Tripod).

PropilotBW · Apr 14, 2013

bunny99123 said:
What kind of bird is it?

It's an Eastern Bluebird

coastalconn · Apr 14, 2013

Maybe a few thoughts. At ISO 800 and a heavy crop i'd assume the D5100 will still be noisy... Also what focus mode were you using? It still looks like the bird feeder is the focus point instead of the bird? If you were at ISO 800 and still only 1/250th you didn't have very much light. I think it may have been a loosing proposition. You couldn't stop down because your shutter speed would have been too slow or your ISO would have been too high. The real secret of getting good bird photos is good light and being really close...

PropilotBW · Apr 14, 2013

coastalconn said:
Maybe a few thoughts. At ISO 800 and a heavy crop i'd assume the D5100 will still be noisy... Also what focus mode were you using? It still looks like the bird feeder is the focus point instead of the bird? If you were at ISO 800 and still only 1/250th you didn't have very much light. I think it may have been a loosing proposition. You couldn't stop down because your shutter speed would have been too slow or your ISO would have been too high. The real secret of getting good bird photos is good light and being really close...

I used spot focusing and it was aimed on the bird's eye.. or as close as I could get to that area on a moving bird from 75'. I Could have missed it; however I don't usually leave the camera in Continuous Servo Autofocus...

I agree, I thought ISO800 was high, but then again, it was lower light, and with the moving bird, I wanted the shutter speed as high as I could get at that time of day. I also had to put in an EV+1.0...which is probably why the side of the house is so loud.

It's a pretty significant crop. It's probably about 85% cropped.

I also agree: My lens isn't for birding. I have to make due with what I have for now. Time to put on the Camo!

coastalconn · Apr 14, 2013

I always wear camo

Even with a 500mm a small bird cropped at 75 feet or more generally won't give you fine feather detail.

I've been shooting in single point a lot lately, seems to give better control...

dxqcanada · Apr 14, 2013

Your spot metering on the darker area will try to reproduce that to a 18% grey.
As this is the darker area it will lighten the entire scene, so the bright area on the right will become very light.

As SCraig stated, if the camera picked the bright side it would have darkened the scene to make that area 18% grey.