What to do with a photo like this...

[jedirunner]

Hi all,

I was out with my daughter last night and we saw some deer out grazing in a field. They perked up when we parked, but didn't seem to mind, so I got out of the car, tried to brace myself on the hood of my truck and took a few pics.

Here are some issues:
1- I never seem to get the focus and clarity that I see others get with wildlife shots. Is this because it's straight out of camera with no post processing? Is it because I am missing something in focusing technique? (I zoomed in, put focus point on face as best I could, and took the shot).
2- What post processing would you do on a shot like this? This jpg is from the camera, and then cropped and resized in photoshop to get down to a size TPF would successfully upload. It was an overcast day, early evening (sun was still 2 hours from setting)
3- What do you all do to get such better clarity in your photos? I never seem to get the focus I want in almost any pics with this lens.

Here's the photo, shot with 5d3, 70-300L, 300mm, f11, 1/200, ISO 400.




Thanks for any help and advice you can give. I'd like to move past my wife and kids saying "there were deer in the field?", and into anyone saying "hey, that was a great shot!" ... and I'm a *LONG* way away from that. ;-)

Kevin

 

[kathyt]

Are you on continuous focus or one shot? How do you have the camera set up, as far as focusing is concerned? My focus improved when I switched to BBF, because it forced me to separate the two buttons on my camera. So, now I can use a button to make sure I am in focus, and the other button to worry about exposure.

 

[The_Traveler]

This file is 56 k and way smaller than the limit on TPF; the image is really too small to see anything or to demonstrate anything.
Load the largest size you can into another hosting site (like Flickr or Photobucket) and put a link to it here.

 

[David444]

I never seem to get the focus I want in almost any pics with this lens.

Have you tried micro-adjusting the lens?

On overcast days try using some fill flash. I would also recommend shooting in raw instead of jpeg.

 

[curtyoungblood]

One thing, I see that you shot at f/11 and 1/200. That is probably a little slow for 300mm. There's a good chance there is some blur in there. You would probably be better served to shoot around 1/500 and open the aperture s little.

 

[jedirunner]

This file is 56 k and way smaller than the limit on TPF; the image is really too small to see anything or to demonstrate anything.
Load the largest size you can into another hosting site (like Flickr or Photobucket) and put a link to it here.

Ok, I've changed it into a link to the original. Is there a proper way to do this to make it more obvious that it's a link?

 

[amolitor]

Not bad for a 300mm handheld at 1/200, I'd say. It's not TACK sharp, but it's not bad.

You got a couple problems:

- it's overcast so the light is not so nice/interesting. It's kind of flat.
- the tonal range of the deer matches the background (this is kind of how deer are made, so it's gonna happen)
- the background is unappealing, it's just some some spring/fall debris, mostly sort of deal grass and branches, except in the foreground, which is quite nice
- the deer is centered in the frame and not "dynamically" placed. That's sort of OK, it's a static pose, right?

So, to get a little more visual interest you can punch up the contrast and/or saturation a bit. You might be able to separate the deer from the background by selectively lightening or darkening things. You might consider blurring the background out more, or cloning out some of the less attractive things.

This might be a little postcardish/garish:

 

[jedirunner]

I never seem to get the focus I want in almost any pics with this lens.

Have you tried micro-adjusting the lens?

On overcast days try using some fill flash. I would also recommend shooting in raw instead of jpeg.

I do shoot raw (to the CF card) and jpg (to the sd). I cropped/sized the jpg to put on the forum as I wanted as little adjustment by me as possible so you all could see what the camera gave.

I do have a 580EXII, but I think the deer were too far away for that ... I was at 300mm for this shot. Do you think it would have reached or helped still?

 

[The_Traveler]

Totally agree with Andrew.

People get excited about images with large swathes of appealing color and where the thing they are looking at is fairly large in the frame.
Deer in a field are the antithesis of that.

 

[HL45]

3- What do you all do to get such better clarity in your photos? I never seem to get the focus I want in almost any pics with this lens.

Here's the photo, shot with 5d3, 70-300L, 300mm, f11, 1/200, ISO 400.

f/8 ISO 1600 would get your speed up, ISO 1600 should not be a problem with the MKIII

My best sharp clear shots w/100-400mm are always the combination of tripod, shutter release and f/8 (sweet spot for my setup) with ample sun and a front lit subject. As kathythorson said back button focus has improved my shots too!

This is a good shot for the conditions IMHO.

 

[jedirunner]

3- What do you all do to get such better clarity in your photos? I never seem to get the focus I want in almost any pics with this lens.

Here's the photo, shot with 5d3, 70-300L, 300mm, f11, 1/200, ISO 400.

f/8 ISO 1600 would get your speed up, ISO 1600 should not be a problem with the MKIII

My best sharp clear shots w/100-400mm are always the combination of tripod, shutter release and f/8 (sweet spot for my setup) with ample sun and a front lit subject. As kathythorson said back button focus has improved my shots too!

This is a good shot for the conditions IMHO.

Thanks everyone. I have already tried some setting changes with some Robins out back ... even while it's even darker than yesterday evening, and sprinkling a little, I feel I got better shots than I did yesterday, with better combinations of aperture, speed, ISO. I knew there were composition issues with the deer, and I'll pay more attention to that as well.

I'll keep experimenting and now I need to go learn about back button focus (I didn't even know the acronym when it was first mentioned up above!

Thanks again for the enlightenment. I look forward to more in the coming months/years.

Kevin

 

[Deeger]

Nice shot. But she's an ugly deer lol. Poor thing.