Critique My first attempt at bird photography

JAC40

JAC40

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Hi. I have just begun bird photography with my new camera. I have a Nikon 3100 with a 55-300mm lens. I am very much a beginner and know I'm going wrong somewhere but not quite sure how to fix it. My photos are nowhere near as sharp as most who post on here, and I really want to improve. I set the camera on Aperture priority and flicked between f5.6 and f6.3 (I think, although the lens says it's a f4.5-5.3) - I'm not really sure about all the terms yet. Any help would be very much appreciated. Apologies if I haven't set this up properly - I'm not really sure about uploading and giving details about the photos.


Woodpecker
Aperture : f6.3
ISO : 140
Shutter Speed : 1/125
Focal Length : 300mm

Long-Tailed Tit
Aperture : f5.6
ISO : 720
Shutter Speed : 1/125
Focal Length : 140mm

Black Bird
Aperture : f5.6
ISO : 100
Shutter Speed : 1/320
Focal Length : 300mm

Partridge
Aperture : f6.3
ISO : 140
Shutter Speed : 1/125
Focal Length : 300mm

Pheasant
Aperture : f6.3
ISO : 800
Shutter Speed : 1/125
Focal Length : 300mm


View attachment 6397 View attachment 6398 View attachment 6399 View attachment 6400
 
Not sure what happened to the pheasant but here it is!

Pheasant
Aperture : f6.3
ISO : 800
Shutter Speed : 1/125
Focal Length : 300mm
 
In some respects, there not too bad for first attempts (certainly better than my first and many subsequent attempts) but your shutter speed is a little low - try to get at least shutter speed to match focal length i.e 300mm 1/300
Also, you might find that an aperture of around f8 will be best with that lens.
 
Thanks for your suggestion about the shutter speed, I'll try that. I don't think my lens can do f8 though, it says f4.5-5.3.
 
JAC40 said:
Thanks for your suggestion about the shutter speed, I'll try that. I don't think my lens can do f8 though, it says f4.5-5.3.
Click to expand...


The numbers you are referring to on your lens mean it is the largest aperture you can dial in dependant how much you have zoomed.
You have a 55-300 lens, at 55mm you can not go larger than f4.5, at 300mm it would be f5.3, but you can certainly dial in f8 in av mode if you want

As for pics, as already been mentioned you have some very low shutter speed, if handheld will be difficult to get sharp but not impossible with practice.
Keep practising and posting for feed back
 
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Your lens can do f8 no problem. The number you mention is the 'fastest' it can go.

There always seems loads to learn at first, but in actual fact, if you take it one step at a time it becomes quite simple. With birds, they are very rarely still, even if they appear to be holding a pose. Therefore, you need to get your shutter speed raised quite a bit higher than you have done here.

I'll have a go at giving you some base settings to work with, and as you learn more you can adjust them to provide better quality shots.

Set your ISO for 1600 for now. You have to accept that this will give you maybe a bit more noise than you want, but we need sharp shots for now, and I'd rather have noise than blur.

Next, set your camera to Aperture priority, and leave your aperture as wide as it will go. This will mean your camera will hopefully give you a fast enough shutter speed to freeze any movement. Most of your shots here are at 1/125 which sounds fast, but in reality isn't.

Set your camera to continuous focus (af-c) and just use the centre point. Don't let the camera choose the focus point at the moment

Now, look for shots that won't need to be cropped too much. If you have to crop in a lot, you're going to lose quality, and sharpness. Remember though, a lot of nice bird shots show quite a bit of the environment, so you don't necessarily have to fill the frame with the bird.

With a bit of luck, you'll come out with some sharper - albeit noisier - shots next time. Once you've got those in the bag, post them along with the settings and we can advise on what needs changing and why in order to improve the image quality.

This is a fairly basic setup for now, but take it one step at a time, post your results, and if you take on board the technical advice on offer, then after a few outings you will see a big improvement.
 
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Thank you so much for your advice. I sometimes wonder if I'll ever 'get it' when it comes to dslr photography! I've been on a basics/beginner course but I'm still a bit confused about f numbers but I'm definitely going to try out your suggestions. With the weather and work it's sometimes difficult to get out but I get blackbirds and wood pigeons in the garden so I can practice on them! Thanks again for the tips!
 
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