My Walk Today Dove, Chipmunk

[Radical]

Went walking this morning and ran into these guys.




I don't know no matter what I do it seems like I have to touch the crap out of all of my photos.
Just can't get them as sharp as everyone on here.

 

[robbins.photo]

Love #3 in particular - that is an awesome shot. The facial expression is just fantastic.

 

[robbins.photo]

A couple of quick thoughts on sharper photos, I looked at your EXIF data and your shutter speed might be a tad low on some of these, I'd recommend trying to increase your shutter speed somewhat. It also helps if you have enough light to stop down the lens a bit when possible.

 

[baturn]

Nice! And I agree about #3.

 

[Radical]

Thanks Robbins I'll try that, I have been shooting everything lately in manual mode, I shot those at f8 and 400 ISO with the meter at 0. The light was really bright this morning.

 

[robbins.photo]

Thanks Robbins I'll try that, I have been shooting everything lately in manual mode, I shot those at f8 and 400 ISO with the meter at 0. The light was really bright this morning.

I used manual mode for a while so I could get a better feel for camera settings, anymore I generally use shutter priority mode for most of my shots. It works well for me on the D5200. I start with a shutter speed based on my focal length and what I'm shooting, so usually for longer telephoto shots with most animals I like to start at 1/500 which is usually a pretty good for most larger critters. I let the camera pick the ISO and Aperture based on that, if I feel like I want a smaller aperture for more DOF I can lower my shutter speed till I get what I need, or if my shutter speed starts getting too low I can raise the ISO instead.

I do shoot Av sometimes for portraits but at least for me I've found shutter priority to be more useful for critter/zoo photography at least using the D5200. Manual mode is more of a pain to use because a lot of times I need to be able to just grab the camera and fire without really having time to adjust the settings, so shutter priority kind of gives me the best of both, I can adjust my settings as needed but I still am ready to fire and get those spur of the moment shots if needed.

Eveybody's method varies of course - a lot of folks that take action shots swear by Av mode, or prefer manual - etc. As for me I like knowing my shutter speed is where it needs to be, I can generally deal with a little noise if the ISO goes higher than I'd like, but I can't post out motion blur.