Robin

Fangman · 27-02-2006, 18:38

Not as brave as CT stayed in the warm about 30 feet away!
Sigma 70-300 on 350D so will have to save up for a big boys lens.

Fast moving little blighter - always on the twitch, anyway warmed up a miserable day.

jewel · 27-02-2006, 18:41

Nice colours and good composition but, I think with the little birdie being OOF it just doesn't work.

Sean_Mcr · 27-02-2006, 18:48

Not very sharp i'm afraid, not that i think sharpness is the be all and end all. But for bird shots i think it's almost a must. I guess it's down to hand movement at such a long focal length, rather then a focus issue.

Or it could be that you've cropped it a fair bit.

Fangman · 27-02-2006, 18:52

Not hand - tripod and remote. As I said 30ft away and well cropped.

Sean_Mcr · 27-02-2006, 18:59

Ahh its the crop, its too drastic.

Sean_Mcr · 27-02-2006, 19:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fangman

Not hand - tripod and remote. As I said 30ft away and well cropped.

Not too great a distance with the 300mm, what mm did you shoot it at?

Fangman · 27-02-2006, 22:07

Full 300mm 1/40 at f9

mfwild13 · 27-02-2006, 22:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fangman

Full 300mm 1/40 at f9

At 1/40 the robin was probably 'twitching' too fast. You should be able to get away with f5.6 for such shots so you could have gained a fair amount in shutter speed.

Example at 400mm F5.6 (wide open), 1/800th and ISO400

Sean_Mcr · 27-02-2006, 22:51

I actually don't think it's the shutter speed in this case, though F/9 is too much when you can only get 1/40 as a result. The hole shot is soft for F9, and that's because of the deep crop. I'd like to see the uncropped shot

CT · 27-02-2006, 23:02

Noble attempt there Fangman. Twitchy little beggars aren't they.

I get a whole load of 'not quite' shots like that for every sharp one I get. Between his twitching about and your own mad lunges at the shutter button there's plenty of potential for blurring and camera shake.

Good attempt - I think his head was the bit that was moving in this shot which happens a lot and 1/40 is pushing it a bit with a 300mm lens.

Fangman · 27-02-2006, 23:15

Complete image .jpeg not the RAW

Do your worst! Said it was a massive crop - have to move the feeder nearer but then 'erself says they mess up where she wants to get to the washing!

CT · 27-02-2006, 23:22

Which AF point were you using there? Tell me it wasn't the centre one!

Sean_Mcr · 27-02-2006, 23:24

Ahh that's pretty much case solved there. There's nobody that could crop that much and leave a sharp image. I would have opened up the aperture, but other then that you have a much better image in the original

Fangman · 27-02-2006, 23:32

Focusing on manual - perhaps I should let the lens get on with it. I prefocused on the mid point where it perched and then fired the remote "portrait style" standing away from the camera. It was exceedingly dull and looked as if it was going to drop sommat nasty - but so far escaped. Will bang up ISO tomorrow and try again. Much more fun than clearing out the garage!

CT · 27-02-2006, 23:40

Move your feeder away from that pot (to the right) so you get a nice oof background which always looks better with bird shots. Since you'll be doing big crops, you don't want to up the ISO any more than you have to (noise) so work at full aperture and see how you go on. The only safe way to focus is on the eye or at least the beak. Have fun.

mfwild13 · 28-02-2006, 00:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sean_Mcr

Ahh that's pretty much case solved there. There's nobody that could crop that much and leave a sharp image.

But most bird photography has to be cropped that much! See full size original and 100% crop of my shot

Full image just re-sized for web
100% crop with no processing at all

Fangman, the focus seems to be on the front LHS of the feeder rather than the 'eye' of the bird. As CT says, you should try using the lens wide open and get the focus right by selecting a single zone and locking in on the eye/beak area. May be easier to practice off the tripod if you can get the shutter speed up sufficiently.

Sean_Mcr · 28-02-2006, 00:53

I can't agree that level of cropping makes for a good image, the least you could hope for is to web share. Commercial wildlife photographers could not make a living making prints out of whats left from images that severely cropped.

Hours upon hours spent in the wind cold and rain, in the birds natural habit are what make for amazing shots, not excessive cropping.