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turbodls1ta · Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 440 Location: T'exas, y'all

Just some random bird I shot while in South Texas. Just seeing if Im on the right track..
1/4000, f5.6, ISO 400, 200mm

robhainer · Joined: 03 May 2010 Posts: 2908 Location: Dallas, GA, USA

Focus is close, but a bit soft. Also noisy and underexposed. Composition isn't bad, though too centered.

You don't need 1/4000 of a second. It's not a bullet. You can afford to drop your iso since it's not a moving target. That will help with the noise.

turbodls1ta · Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 440 Location: T'exas, y'all

BTW, anyone know what kind of bird this is?

turbodls1ta · Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 440 Location: T'exas, y'all

Yea, It was shot at 1/4000 because I was actually in the middle of shooting jets and forgot to to adjust. Would a smaller aperture have helped the DoF or would it not have mattered? I was roughly 50 ft away..

robhainer · Joined: 03 May 2010 Posts: 2908 Location: Dallas, GA, USA

Might have helped focus by getting you closer to the sweet spot on your lens, which is f8 on most telephotos. Not sure about yours. DOF isn't the issue. It's the focus on the subject itself.

The focus isn't that far off. The noise from underexposure is killing the detail.

I think it's a mockingbird, by the way.

turbodls1ta · Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 440 Location: T'exas, y'all

Canon 70-200 f4

chinchoi · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:31 pm

i think not enough frontal light to show the bird's feather detail, so it look soft, & your focus seems to be on the bird torso and not the eye, thus the OOF issue.

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:44 pm

A bit more like this.

pharm · Joined: 09 Jul 2006 Posts: 9423 Location: Never quite sure

Fill flash.

rinder99 · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 1:28 am

"Yea, It was shot at 1/4000 because I was actually in the middle of shooting jets and forgot to to adjust."

Well....DUH.

jeffbanke · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 5:48 pm

More like this I would say, and fill flash would have been great idea as you need more fill

rinder99 · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 6:50 pm

Ya wanna shoot this subject, Ya need a flash extender.

jeffbanke · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 6:55 pm

and forget about built-in camera flashes

turbodls1ta · Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 440 Location: T'exas, y'all

So slower exposure, or fill flash.. Check.. Right now I have a 430EX, which I think has a range of about 120ft (which could have worked here, I guess). Was it just the underexposure that caused the noise? I gave the original photo about 30% noise reduction, which took care of the sky and brighter spots, but not the chest of the bird..

jeffbanke · Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 9:21 pm