Thanks for looking This was actually how this sequence played out. The cardinals get really angry at the squirrels when they're around the feeder. Usually so do the mocking birds, but didn't catch one of those today.
Yes these little guys figured out the feeder pretty quickly. I was lazy, and instead of making a squirrel-proof setup, I just hung the feeder on a small nub from one of the tree branches.
The squirrels just hang upside-down from the larger branch, reach over to get some food and eat it while hanging like that.
The shot that surprised me was the pigeon, of all things, because of a technicality. My D90's spot metering is off -- it was reading background speeds even though I had the AF sensor squarely on the pigeon's body -- I had to comp the exposure about 2 stops to get any sort of detail on the bird.
Jan 03, 2009 at 02:55 PM
anthony whitmo Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Good job Jeremy. You captured some sharp detail in these. Good job with the exposure and composition as well. Definitely a great improvement from your previous post.
Socrate
Shasoc wrote:
Good job Jeremy. You captured some sharp detail in these. Good job with the exposure and composition as well. Definitely a great improvement from your previous post.
Socrate
Thanks!
I'm actually struggling with 2 aspects of the camera, and unfortunately both are driving me crazy. At least now, though, I'm aware of the issues, so perhaps I can work around them and hopefully my pictures will improve.
1) The center AF sensor. I "mapped out" the actual size of my sensor this morning using a black box on a white paper -- Seeing how much larger (or smaller) the sensor is than the VF bracket indicates by slowly edging the center sensor closer to the box -- it's fairly significant.
This would explain why some of my shots, though I was "on the eyes", are missing focus. Perfect example -- the last shot in my series here -- I was definitely on the eyeballs of that squirrel, yet the fur above him is more in focus.
2) The spot meter is atrocious. Today was the first time I seriously used spot meter, since I was going from lit to shadowy spots, and it's significantly off. The pigeon shot in this series is a good example.
I first focused (and metered) on the head, but way too dark since sky was backlighting. I had to move the center sensor down a "bracket size", AE-L, then move back up to focus on the head and get the shot.
I tried this out on a fairly distant bird on my roof -- same result. I literally had to point the center AF bracket below the bird's feet to get the bird's meter readings. I triple-checked all my AF settings to make sure I didn't have something wrong.
Still, these shots are an improvement, so I'm happy. I just have to wonder if the D300, with a heck of a lot more AF points, would be more accurate.
Edit -- As for AF point, it may also be my approach.
I'm currently taking a body-to-eye focus path, meaning I'll hit the body with the center AF then move over to the eyes and constantly check for focus. While this occasionally is working, I think since I have some play in my bracket-to-sensor sizing, that the AF is still picking up on the point just previous to the eyes.
I may experiment with "background-to-head" focus path. Stop just short of the head and come in from that angle, so that the sensor pics up the head (and hopefully eye) and keeps that lock.
I'm actually struggling with 2 aspects of the camera, and unfortunately both are driving me crazy. At least now, though, I'm aware of the issues, so perhaps I can work around them and hopefully my pictures will improve.
1) The center AF sensor. I "mapped out" the actual size of my sensor this morning using a black box on a white paper -- Seeing how much larger (or smaller) the sensor is than the VF bracket indicates by slowly edging the center sensor closer to the box -- it's fairly significant.
This would explain why some of my shots, though I was "on the eyes", are missing focus. Perfect example -- the last shot in my series here -- I was definitely on the eyeballs of that squirrel, yet the fur above him is more in focus.
2) The spot meter is atrocious. Today was the first time I seriously used spot meter, since I was going from lit to shadowy spots, and it's significantly off. The pigeon shot in this series is a good example.
I first focused (and metered) on the head, but way too dark since sky was backlighting. I had to move the center sensor down a "bracket size", AE-L, then move back up to focus on the head and get the shot.
I tried this out on a fairly distant bird on my roof -- same result. I literally had to point the center AF bracket below the bird's feet to get the bird's meter readings. I triple-checked all my AF settings to make sure I didn't have something wrong.
Still, these shots are an improvement, so I'm happy. I just have to wonder if the D300, with a heck of a lot more AF points, would be more accurate.
Edit -- As for AF point, it may also be my approach.
I'm currently taking a body-to-eye focus path, meaning I'll hit the body with the center AF then move over to the eyes and constantly check for focus. While this occasionally is working, I think since I have some play in my bracket-to-sensor sizing, that the AF is still picking up on the point just previous to the eyes.
I may experiment with "background-to-head" focus path. Stop just short of the head and come in from that angle, so that the sensor pics up the head (and hopefully eye) and keeps that lock.
I'm sure I didn't explain that very well! ...Show more →
Jeremy, not sure I understood your "body-to-eye focus path". Sounds to me as focusing and recomposing, in which case the focus will stay where you focused at first. In this case a eye-to-body path will work better. But I'm sure you are meaning something else. I use a lot the peripherals focus points with my 40/50D and put my focus point right on the eye. I'm sure the D300 is as good. As for spot metering it can be tricky. You really have to know how it works and how to compensate the exposure for it. I know Dave can give you some great advices on this matter. You should also consider the use of fill flash for back lit subjects or bright bg as the sky, otherwise a good exposure of the subject can create blown bgs. Nevertheless you are doing the right thing trying all these different settings and my advice would be to keep shooting and keep trying, as you are already doing very good.
Socrate
Shasoc wrote:
Jeremy, not sure I understood your "body-to-eye focus path". Sounds to me as focusing and recomposing, in which case the focus will stay where you focused at first. In this case a eye-to-body path will work better. But I'm sure you are meaning something else. I use a lot the peripherals focus points with my 40/50D and put my focus point right on the eye. I'm sure the D300 is as good. As for spot metering it can be tricky. You really have to know how it works and how to compensate the exposure for it. I know Dave can give you some great advices on this matter. You should also consider the use of fill flash for back lit subjects or bright bg as the sky, otherwise a good exposure of the subject can create blown bgs. Nevertheless you are doing the right thing trying all these different settings and my advice would be to keep shooting and keep trying, as you are already doing very good.
Socrate
I think I'm doing this (it's almost subconsciously) -
1) place center AF on body of target to get initial AF focus.
2) Move quickly to head/eyes, reacquire AF and snap.
My logic behind this is that I'll prevent large focus hunt if I were to initially try to focus on the eyes -- for instance, my focal point may pick up the background around the head...the body is a much larger target.
However, what *may* be happening -- camera AFs on body just fine, I move to the eyes to get AF again, but the camera, due to the AF point having some "play", still acquires target near the original location and not the eyes.
This is just pure conjecture - I'll definitely need to experiment more.
My logic in thinking the D300 would be better suited - since it has so many AF points, my *assumption* would be that the center AF point wouldn't have as much play as my D90's point currently does, hence it would be more accurate.
Also, IIRC, D300 (and D700, etc) use those points to help assist the "primary" focus point in some modes, though I could be completely wrong in that.
Anyway, thanks for the input The spot meter isn't a huge deal, since I rarely use it, but I"m just surprise at just how far off it is compared to my Pentax K20D--that camera was dead-accurate when it came to spot.
The larger issue, for me, is the focus acquisition -- some of the angles I'm shooting are pretty crazy, and being off just a little is causing a large number of throwaways.
Even with "safe" pictures that should be easy, I find myself shooting about 7-8 captures if I have the time, to help get the focal point in the right place
This was actually how this sequence played out. The cardinals get really angry at the squirrels when they're around the feeder. Usually so do the mocking birds, but didn't catch one of those today.