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Chuck Kuhn
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p.1 #1 · need your advise

Like your comments on What I can do to improve these pictures. 5D, 100-400 L IS 4.5-5.6. Shot hand held today.

May 27, 2008 at 03:33 AM

jwheel
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p.1 #2 · need your advise

I like them a lot. Second one could use a little better crop (IF you have some room at the top) so you can get the entire wing in, although I bet you woulda done that if you had the extra room.

You should probably clean your sensor though, you have some nasty dust spots. They are very obvious in the first and second photos.

Jason

May 28, 2008 at 02:30 AM

Bernie

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p.1 #3 · need your advise

Shooting birds is tough and I don't do it well. That said, you probably should be shooting close to 1/1000 to minimize movement -- yours and the bird's (unless going for a special effect). Judging from the noise under the wings, you boosted the shadows. If you shoot with a low sun, you can get more light under the wings so that you don't have to do that as much.

May 28, 2008 at 03:38 AM

Scott Stoness
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p.1 #4 · need your advise

Framing great on both.

But both seem soft.
2nd seems a bit overexposed.

Birds are very tough, keep on trying.

Suggestions >1/1000, using autoservo, shoot lots, centre exposure measuring

May 28, 2008 at 04:57 AM

Chuck Kuhn
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p.1 #5 · need your advise

Tks to all, it's really my first attempt at birds in flight. It's like target practive as the zoom bye. (I was photography windsurfers on shore)

May 28, 2008 at 05:28 AM

Alan321
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p.1 #6 · need your advise

1/800 is too slow for capturing birds sharply.

f/22 is too slow for avoiding diffraction. You are sacrificing fine detail and shutter speed in order to get more DOF, but DOF is not everything.

You'd have done noticeably better with f/8 or f/11 and a lot faster shutter speed, despite the reduced DOF.

Use AI Servo mode with the centre AF sensor selected and allow the six assist sensors to be used too. That will improve AF tracking but still give you some control over what is focused. You've got enough pixels to spare that you can frame the birds loosely to get the right part under the focus sensor and to cope with changing shape as the wings are flapped (even though they often just glide). Crop later on.

You could even shoot in M mode with a suitable exposure to prevent exposure variations. That works well enough if you are facing the same way for every shot.

Shoot in raw mode so that you have a better chance of correcting exposure errors in post processing. You will see from these photos that the bird can be dark or light depending on the wing position in relation to the sun. You either need to predict that and shoot at the right moment or else do what you can to accommodate a wide range of brightness levels.

- Alan

Edited on May 31, 2008 at 01:07 PM

May 31, 2008 at 01:05 PM

Chuck Kuhn
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p.1 #7 · need your advise

Alan, thanks for the excellent response and detail.

May 31, 2008 at 01:55 PM

James Grimm
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p.1 #8 · need your advise

Hi Chuck,

In the first two, the sky looks pretty noisy. A couple of possibilities:

1. You might have sharpened the sky as well as the bird. If at all possible, it is best to mask out the sky when sharpening.

2. Your ISO setting was too high. A 5D in daylight should have almost no visible noise unless...

3. These shots were underexposed and you had to lighten them substantially.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
James

Jun 04, 2008 at 12:58 AM

James Grimm
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p.1 #9 · need your advise

James Grimm wrote:
Hi Chuck,

In the first two, the sky looks pretty noisy. A couple of possibilities:

1. You might have sharpened the sky as well as the bird. If at all possible, it is best to mask out the sky when sharpening.

2. Your ISO setting was too high. A 5D in daylight should have almost no visible noise unless...

3. These shots were underexposed and you had to lighten them substantially.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
James

Yeah, just looked at the EXIF data on these photos. You were using ISO 1000 @ f22. You will like the results *much* better if you use a lower sensitivity (ISO setting) and a wider aperture. For daylight photos, even of birds, there is a good chance you can get ISO 100 to work.

Jun 04, 2008 at 01:02 AM


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