Pictures of Wildlife with EOS Rebel

[robbins.photo]

As much as people say gear doesn't matter that isn't true. Sure you can get a good image with a rebel and a plastic fantastic 50mm. But when it comes to wildlife and paid gigs there is a reason pros use $5000 bodies and up. They have a much superior focus system and burst rate, which for a working pro is everything. For a hobbiest as yourself sure it doesn't matter but too a pro good gear is a necessary investment.

Gear does matter vrs it's the photographer not the camera blood bath to begin in 3... 2... 1...

Yeah, cause these suck with such low quality gear.

I never said you couldn't get good shots, I'm saying that a more expensive camera will be more reliable and easier to capture your vision without fighting your gear for it.

That's not how this works. One side takes everything you say to a ridiculous extreme and then then folks on the other side do the same to them.

Haven't you ever used the internet? Lol

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[table1349]

As much as people say gear doesn't matter that isn't true. Sure you can get a good image with a rebel and a plastic fantastic 50mm. But when it comes to wildlife and paid gigs there is a reason pros use $5000 bodies and up. They have a much superior focus system and burst rate, which for a working pro is everything. For a hobbiest as yourself sure it doesn't matter but too a pro good gear is a necessary investment.

Gear does matter vrs it's the photographer not the camera blood bath to begin in 3... 2... 1...

Yeah, cause these suck with such low quality gear.

I never said you couldn't get good shots, I'm saying that a more expensive camera will be more reliable and easier to capture your vision without fighting your gear for it.

Spoken by a person that has never used a 1Dx Mk II. It's not complicated at all.

 

[cougar]

Now I am falling even lower - I was unable to take a decent picture of the 2 bears where one was at 10 and the other, believe it or not was only 5 meters away .
I think I will remain a landscape photographer.

 

[robbins.photo]

Now I am falling even lower - I was unable to take a decent picture of the 2 bears where one was at 10 and the other, believe it or not was only 5 meters away .
I think I will remain a landscape photographer.

Just a quick glance but looks like the issue here is your cameras autofocus system. The camera will pick the point of focus based on the highest point of contrast within the autofocus points available.

As a result it looks like your camera has chosen something other than the bear as it's primary point of focus. Try reducing the number of autofocus points your camera can choose from. On my nikon I usually use only one and aim for the critters eye. I will also use 9 points sometimes, but rarely do I give it more than that.

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[zombiesniper]

Good point on focusing above.
Lets look at the settings you were using for shot one.
49mm
Aperture priority
F/20
1/80sec
ISO5000

Aperture
The aperture here is what could be causing some of your issue. F20 is great if you want near the whole scene in focus which in this case I would be wanting the bear in focus and let the rest of the scene blur out.
Due to the high aperture your ISO had to compensate by raising to 5000. 5000 iso is not going to produce clean shots with your camera, or mine.

AV mode. Although this is a very useful and highly recommended mode. May I suggest you use "M" and heres why.
In M you can set your Depth of Field (DOF) and your shutter speed expressed in 1/xxx and with ISO set to auto 90% of the time your camera will properly expose the shot while you still have control over DOF and enough shutter speed to ensure a crisp shot.

If I was using your gear on that shot I would probably start with the following settings and see how it went from there. (Obviously these are rough estimates as I wasn't there and can't fully appreciate the scene from the pics.)

Mode M with Auto ISO.
1/100 Based on a 55mm lens (1/400 based on your new lens)
f8
ISO is set by the camera.

So why do I start with these.
M - I explained my rationale above.
1/100 - I doubled (approx) the focal length of the lens due to not knowing how stable you are as a shooter.
f8 - This should allow enough DOF without sending the ISO into an unusable range.

All of the above are just a basic set up to start. Once a couple of shots are taken I would adjust the settings to get the lowest SHARP shutter speed I could and adjust the DOF (if required) to ensure I'm getting everything I want in focus.

This may sound difficult but it really isn't. Go into your yard and find a subject, flower rock whatever and try these settings. Then adjust one and see the difference.

Last point. Take some time and learn the basics of shutter/aperture/ISO. It's not hard to learn the basics and it will improve your pics dramatically.





Cliff for the ADHD crowd.
Saw the pic, recommended settings and to learn the basics.



All opinions expressed above are from a novice so take them with a grain of rocksalt.

 

[Braineack]

Any camera is only as good as the user. The settings chosen for each picture made no sense for what you were trying to capture.

 

[cougar]

Thanks sombiesniper!

I didn't look at the settings. ISO5000 has apparently messed everything up!

I think I used the same Av mode and high ISO to shoot the pictures below and they are also a mess.
And it is not an easy feat to get up there.

Now I have to do it again.











I feel sorry I did not used one of the Auto modes. For me it would have worked the best. I tend to always forget something.

 

[zombiesniper]

Some of those can be saved in post with a little dehaze and saturation correction.

 

[101Photography101]

Wildlife photographers use long focal length lenses a lot. I think your telephoto zoom option will help quite a bit.

I agree with this statement, for sure!

 

[beagle100]

I would expose for the bear and over expose the background by a 1/2-1 stop to ensure I had as much fur detail as I could.

Complicated stuff. I think I just need to tie a salmon to a line , throw it into those bushes and then pull the line back slowly.

I bought the 250mm lens. Delivery time 2-4 weeks. Once I get fresh shots with it I will update the thread.

that's good but for wildlife you're going to eventually want longer

even the old original 55-250 is still good - for a $50 lens
(not a bear)

Untitled by c w, on Flickr

 

[zombiesniper]

Agreed longer is always better (puns aside).

 

[robbins.photo]

Ok, so a couple of quick samples of what I was talking about earlier, this was taken with my Nikon D7100 using a single focus point, I put the focus point on the eye:

Lake and Park 518 by Todd Robbins, on Flickr

This was shot when I was still using a D5200, again, single focus point, the bear's paw:

20140419 N85 108 by Todd Robbins, on Flickr

And again, single focus point using the eye as the point of focus, also shot with the old D5200:

20140406 291 by Todd Robbins, on Flickr

 

[cougar]

.. this was taken with my Nikon D7100 using a single focus point, I put the focus point on the eye.

Is this the metering setting?
I had mine set to "Center weighted average" for the last 3 bear pictures. Maybe it was supposed toe be "Spot metering" ?

Oh, I noticed there is an AF Method setting on the fourth menu tab which allows you to select "FlexiZoneAF[]"

 

[robbins.photo]

.. this was taken with my Nikon D7100 using a single focus point, I put the focus point on the eye.

Is this the metering setting?
I had mine set to "Center weighted average" for the last 3 bear pictures. Maybe it was supposed toe be "Spot metering" ?

There is a YouTube video on the SL1 menu which I will go through in a minute.

Actually what I'm referring to here is how many auto focus points you let your camera choose from. After looking at the SL1's manual doesn't look like it has the ability to limit the focus points however you can choose a particular focus point while shooting:

http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/5/0300010915/01/eos-rebelsl1-100d-im-en.pdf

Starting on Page 105

On my Nikon I can actually limit the number of focus points it chooses from, which is a great feature.

 

[cougar]

Thanks Robbins.

I will use this setting next time.
(and I will set the metering mode back to what it was.)