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Archive 2015 · Birds Of Pray and focusing

  
 
mxwizard1
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Birds Of Pray and focusing


I'm hoping that the bird shooters here can help me out...We have a Bird Of Prey Wildlife Centre 45 mins away and thought this would be a great spot to try. After the show the birds are brought back to tethered area to get a closer look...So here are 4 examples without any processing done.Can you help me with getting sharper images...Maybe my technique is in need of improvement. ( duh ). Focusing methods and the such....Always grateful and thankful.






















Aug 10, 2015 at 05:25 PM
ben egbert
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Birds Of Pray and focusing


Just looking at the first one. I can't see a focus issue, where you using a tripod? It does not really look soft or blurred to me, but there should be some feather detail in the dark feathers, It almost looks like a lot of NR was used.


Aug 10, 2015 at 06:44 PM
mxwizard1
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Birds Of Pray and focusing


All images were hand held. I only imported them into Lightroom then exported them at 1000 pixels on the long side....Nothing else...I looked at the images first as NEF in Windows Photo Viewer at Fit To Screen mode. The second Image is sharper that the first one for sure. The 3rd is soft on the beak a little and the last well....its softish....As far as NR.....im not sure for the NR because I didn't do anything on the images before exporting them....Cheers Ben.


Aug 10, 2015 at 07:38 PM
sbeme
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Birds Of Pray and focusing


First two look good to me in terms of focus on the eyes with enough sharpness, detail. Second is better than the first in terms of the feathers on the body. I suspect a bit of movement either in bird or camera but there is always the possibility of shallow DOF adding and stopping down more, bumping the ISO to the 800-1600 range.
Third is challenged. I am hard pressed to convince myself where the plane of sharpness is, since I think some movement has muddled the picture.
Fourth also missing some sharpness.
Overall I suspect you have been doing a good job in all choosing the eyes to focus on, but shutter speeds are relatively low for handheld, at least for me. Technique wise, if you are not using a tripod or more easily a monopod, make extra certain that you create a tight triangle between neck, hands and camera with lens supported underneath, using the strap to provide tension. And/or lean against a post, wall, or rest your camera on a surface, trying to damp any vibration.
If it were me I would have shot all these at 800 or higher, depending on camera body, optimized hand-holding, wished for a monopod, and had fun! Worth a revisit for sure.

Scott



Aug 10, 2015 at 08:09 PM





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