Bit of advice for some kingfisher shots........

bournemouthmike

TPF Noob!
Joined
Feb 17, 2013
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
Location
dorset
Can others edit my Photos
Photos OK to edit
Hi, I've had my canon 600d since last October and been slowly improving and moving towards more wildlife and nature shots. Recently I got the sigma 150-500 to help with the extra reach! I've been using it on a tripod in a hide to get some shots of kingfishers. I just wondered if you could take a look at what I've been doing and give me some pointers. The birds mostly 30 meters or so way. There's some more photos on my flickr account but the attached image gives you an idea. Its just not very crisp and I expect its my settings. I'm using auto ISO.
f/8
1/800
ISO 6400
spot-metering
Any advice would be greatly received. Thanks.
 

Attachments

  • $IMG_9658.JPG
    $IMG_9658.JPG
    968.5 KB · Views: 161
Well that's a lot of iso noise.
Why not set the shutter speed lower and decrease the iso? Especially with a bird sitting like this and using a tripod, you could easily manage 1/250 I guess... And that would cut down your iso noise loads.
 
Thanks for the reply. I did wonder if it was an iso issue. If I lower the shutter speed do you think the camera will pick the best iso or should I be choosing it myself?
 
Yes, if you lower the shutter the camera will probably lower the iso by itself.
I prefer manual iso myself, but it's not obligatory.
 
Agreed. A bird at 30 meters is a rather small subject that will require a lot of cropping, even at 500mm. You can't afford to give up any resolution because of noise. ISO is one setting I will never allow my camera to choose so I never use Auto ISO. I was limited to 1/60 second this morning because of heavy clouds and low light, but I didn't want to raise my ISO. I missed quite a few shots but a bird photo with a lot of noise in it might just as well be missed because they just plain don't work.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top