Chickadees in Action (C&C)

[True_Shot]

#1

#2

#3

#4

^Stupid black stick....
#5

It looks like the clarity isn't all that great, but I don't know why because my shutter speed was at above 1/2000s the whole time (maybe the high ISO?).

 

[sm4him]

It looks like possibly you were shooting wide-open? Not sure what lens you have, but it looks like your aperture was set on 5.6.

Check out some of the advice I got on a recent thread about a somewhat similar situation (though my birds weren't in flight): Bird thread. The best advice was: Stop down. While the second set of shots are still not great, they were definitely an improvement, just by stopping down a little.

On the other hand...those little bitty birds are just FAST!!

 

[robolepa]

Thanks for posting those True_Shot. They're by far my favorite bird. Were you just sharing your photos, or were you also looking for advice on improving the sharpness?

 

[True_Shot]

It looks like possibly you were shooting wide-open? Not sure what lens you have, but it looks like your aperture was set on 5.6.

Check out some of the advice I got on a recent thread about a somewhat similar situation (though my birds weren't in flight): Bird thread. The best advice was: Stop down. While the second set of shots are still not great, they were definitely an improvement, just by stopping down a little.

On the other hand...those little bitty birds are just FAST!!

Okay thanks for the advice. To maintain a higher shutter speed if i kept the ISO at 1600, do you think that would affect my picture quality?

Thanks for posting those True_Shot. They're by far my favorite bird. Were you just sharing your photos, or were you also looking for advice on improving the sharpness?

Looking for critique and thanks for commenting.

 

[punch]

your ISO is pretty high for daytime... however, your aperture was fairly wide considering you were 25m away from the bird using a telephoto lens... i would suggest closing that down. i know that's going to lead to more sticks in front of the bird, but you will just have to find a clearer shot to him, i think.

the wings fanned out are pretty awesome and i love that the sky is actually blue... so you're managing your exposure triangle. you just need to figure out what your priority is and adjust for that.

 

[sm4him]

Okay thanks for the advice. To maintain a higher shutter speed if i kept the ISO at 1600, do you think that would affect my picture quality?

What has seemed to work best for me, so far (although I'm still learning it myself and experimenting) is to stop down to about f/8 or 9, try to keep my ISO to no higher than 800, lower if possible, and then use exposure compensation if necessary. I seem to be getting a bit sharper images that way than using a higher ISO.

Using an off-camera flash can help too, but I just got mine this week and I've just barely started learning how to use it, so I'm not much help there.

 

[gsgary]

You have gone from one extreme to the other and this time you missed focus, what focus point where you using ? and what focus mode were you using ?

 

[True_Shot]

Okay thanks for the advice. To maintain a higher shutter speed if i kept the ISO at 1600, do you think that would affect my picture quality?

What has seemed to work best for me, so far (although I'm still learning it myself and experimenting) is to stop down to about f/8 or 9, try to keep my ISO to no higher than 800, lower if possible, and then use exposure compensation if necessary. I seem to be getting a bit sharper images that way than using a higher ISO.

Using an off-camera flash can help too, but I just got mine this week and I've just barely started learning how to use it, so I'm not much help there.

Ah okay gotcha. I'll try that next time I go shooting Are your birds in flight when you take the pictures?

You have gone from one extreme to the other and this time you missed focus, what focus point where you using ? and what focus mode were you using ?

Which other extreme? I don't rememeber... lol. I was using mainly the middle dot and One Shot focus... should I use AI Servos for in flight birds?

your ISO is pretty high for daytime... however, your aperture was fairly wide considering you were 25m away from the bird using a telephoto lens... i would suggest closing that down. i know that's going to lead to more sticks in front of the bird, but you will just have to find a clearer shot to him, i think.

the wings fanned out are pretty awesome and i love that the sky is actually blue... so you're managing your exposure triangle. you just need to figure out what your priority is and adjust for that.

Thanks for the advice. The reason for my ISO being high and my aperture being wide is because I needed a higher shutter speed to capture the birds moving, but I just didn't get the focus i wanted. :/

 

[gsgary]

Your other post shutter speed was too slow now you have gone very high on iso and shutter speed, yes you should be using AI servo

 

[True_Shot]

Your other post shutter speed was too slow now you have gone very high on iso and shutter speed, yes you should be using AI servo

The reason for the really high shutter speed is to freeze the action of the birds in the air

 

[punch]

that still seems like a high shutterspeed even for catching action.

there is a lot of light in the scene so at the very least you should be able to lower your ISO and close your aperture. even if you comprimsed some shutter speed, i think you'd be happy. as it stands you're shooting at an extreme SS but not getting the clarity you like.

 

[robolepa]

Where are you guys getting the exif data? I'm not sure what lens you used, and how far away you were, but by having your aperture wide open, you're depth of field is so shallow that it's going to be next to impossible to get a really sharp shot. For instance, in pic #3, the focus is perfect on the foot that is highest on the branch, while the lower foot, which is only about 1 centimeter further away, is out of focus. The depth of field is just too shallow to have the bird entirely in focus - moving or not. For instance, if you shot your subject with a 300mm lens from 3 meters away, with an aperture setting of f/5.6, the depth of field is only 2 centimeters. Even with precision focusing on your part, more than half of the bird is going to be out of focus. The more you stop it down, the greater the depth of field.