Having problems photographing birds, post shot

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Hey guys. I shoot a canon 80d, canon 70-200 2.8 III and a tamron 150-600 g2. I shoot raw. I use canon dpp (not as much anymore), and on one photo raw. My images come out rather soft, not very sharp. What could be my issue? I tend not to shoot at the full telephoto end or wide open. Tamron adjusted my lens to my camera body & the canon checked out fine when I tested it on my spyder lens cal. I have very few custom settings, nothing to do with auto focus or anything affecting the final image. Ideas?

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Here are examples from the other day. Don't mind the colors in the osprey.

 

[480sparky]

Looks to me like a ton of noise caused by an über-high ISO.

 

[SquarePeg]

Hi can you add your settings? And what mode you’re in.

 

[Designer]

Hey guys. I shoot a canon 80d, canon 70-200 2.8 III and a tamron 150-600 g2. I shoot raw. I use canon dpp (not as much anymore), and on one photo raw. My images come out rather soft, not very sharp. What could be my issue? I tend not to shoot at the full telephoto end or wide open. Tamron adjusted my lens to my camera body & the canon checked out fine when I tested it on my spyder lens cal. I have very few custom settings, nothing to do with auto focus or anything affecting the final image. Ideas?

Are you applying some sharpening in edit?

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

I shoot auto ISO. 1/1000 or faster. F5.6-F8. Image stabilization. AI servo. High burst. Center weighed or evaluative, usually the latter. BIF I use a higher aperture.

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Hey guys. I shoot a canon 80d, canon 70-200 2.8 III and a tamron 150-600 g2. I shoot raw. I use canon dpp (not as much anymore), and on one photo raw. My images come out rather soft, not very sharp. What could be my issue? I tend not to shoot at the full telephoto end or wide open. Tamron adjusted my lens to my camera body & the canon checked out fine when I tested it on my spyder lens cal. I have very few custom settings, nothing to do with auto focus or anything affecting the final image. Ideas?

Are you applying some sharpening in edit?

Some, I try to balance sharpness with noise...

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Looks to me like a ton of noise caused by an über-high ISO.

The osprey was at 2,500

 

[Overread]

So there's a few things that affect sharpness:

1) shutter speed. This affects in two key areas handshake and subject motion
a) Handshake - now rule of thumb is 1/focal length gives you the slowest handholding shutter speed; however I generally add the proviso that once you go beyond 200mm the speed you need can get a lot faster because any small motion gets amplified. Of course this varies on lens weight, size and your fitness and posture.
That said at 1/1000sec you should be ok on handshake. Though you can help counter this by using a monopod or tripod or even just leaning on a tree.

b) Subject motion. At 1/1000sec this should not be an issue for a birds whole body; wingtips and fast moving areas might well blue; but the main core should be sharp.

2) Aperture. No lens is its sharpest wide open (smallest f number; biggest aperture). They all get a bit sharper as you stop down and then once you go past around f8-10 (varies lens to lens) sharpness will start to drop off again due to diffraction. However shots should remain decently sharp until around f13-16.
With zoom lenses I'd also expect them softer at their longer end compared to their short end.

For your lens at the 600mm mark I'd want to be at least one stop down from wide open to claw back the sharpness for the lens.

3) High ISO - can damage sharpness, however with a modern camera ISO 2500 should perform well provided you exposed the image properly and did not have to add excessive amounts of brightness in editing.
Similarly the noise should be removable without harming sharpness.

Overall your shots look a bit like you're cropping a lot, which can make things appear softer when you compare cropped shots resized for the net with fullframe shots. However it might be that you're making a few small mistakes that are not big enough to spot on their own, but which are adding up to a combined softer effect.

If your'e worried about lens sharpness then mount everything to a tripod and test it out. Once you eliminate that then you're down to considering if its shake from holding; adjusting posture; using supports and using a faster shutter speed - all potential resolutions.



So first it sounds like you're happy with lens performance outside of birds; so perhaps consider reading up on good posture and using supports as that might be where you are getting some handshake. Remember the rule of thumb is only a guidline and assumes good fitness and posture.

 

[SquarePeg]

Is that first one a heavy crop?

 

[SquarePeg]

Also have you applied any sharpening in post?

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Also have you applied any sharpening in post?

A little. Its not too crazy a crop. I've been shooting for a while now and I think most of it is my post processing but also understanding the limits of the gear I own. There 70-200 should be super sharp, correct?

 

[Overread]

70-200mm is super sharp as a MK1 the MKIII is sharper!

So what might help is if we can see a 100% crop from a sharp area of the shot before and after editing* (100% crop being where you keep the photo at its original size and crop it so that it can fit online; but without any resizing - just save it under a new name). In addition to a version resized for the internet as normal, but without any cropping before you resize it


*or at least before and after sharpening and noise removal

 

[weepete]

Try turning off IS, some lenses it can cause issues using IS and a high shutter speed.

I now do two sharpening adjustments for birds, one to get it in the ballpark then an adjustment after I've applied the masking.

Second one of the osprey looks to me like it's been lightened in post too much. The first I'm at a bit of a loss, but I've noticed a few of my recent shots have not been as sharp as they could be with my Tamron 150-600mm now I've got a 5DmkIV. It still could be one of my settings as I'm not as practised with it as I'd like to be but I'm thinking it's partly due to the resolution increase but my lens has developed an annoying squeek so could be a slight misalingnment. Recently I shot a heron in flight, in two of the 7 or so frames the texture on the legs was significantly sharper. Need ti do a bit of testing myself...

 

[Designer]

What could be my issue?

One, some, or all of these component factors; sensor, settings, lens, post-processing.

Start eliminating them one-by-one to find out where the problem is.

1. Borrow a different camera.
2. Stop cranking the ISO in camera.
3. Try a different lens.
4. Post is where you can increase brightness and add sharpening.

When you see where the problem is, make a change.