Bad photo's

[Daveee]

Hi everyone, sorry been away a few months due to work.
I'm very new to photography and have just started again. I spent a couple of hours stalking my prey, (an egret) got close, shot a number of photo's, got home and looked on the pc and deleted ALL of them.
Problem is:- an awful lot of noise and, not 100 percent in focus, the bird was moving slowly at first then took off.
Camera is D300 with 150-500 sigma lens. My settings were 1/1000, F8-F9, my iso was quite high on 800, I thought the D300 could handle a relatively high iso so wasn't overly concerned. Lens OS was off and was out of hand, I went out again with same settings on a still object and they were reasonably good, no noise and in focus.
Is my problem movement of the lens, hand shake or not following my subject correctly, should I anticipate where subject is going to be and hope? Or is my problem something else?
Can anyone help as I need my motivation back...

Thanks

 

[CT]

Could be all sorts of issues David. It sounds like your camera exposure settings were OK, but what about AF mode? Ideally for a moving subject you should be using continuous servo AF and a single AF point.

I can see how you could still have problems with an Egret though - being a white bird it would be very easy to get the AF point on the bird somewhere without sufficient contrast/detail for the AF system to lock on properly.

 

[fracster]

Can you rescue one or two and post them up? Be a lot easier to advise you.

D300 is fine at 800 isr should be.

 

[HoppyUK]

Hard to say much without a pic, but there are some warning signs there.

Unless it was bright sun, you are going to be under exposed with those settings. The meter was perhaps led astray by a light toned subject. Noise is guaranteed with any camera if you under expose; a white egret should be close to the right side of the histogram. Where was it?

1/1000sec shutter speed is marginal hand holding that lens at 500mm on a cropper, unless you are very steady. Why did you turn off the OS?

 

[Daveee]

Thanks to everyone for replying, I thought it would be a problem without photo's. The egret pics are deleted but I've found a couple of others with similar problems. Sorry for the cropping but maybe like this my problem is more visible! All advice and help is gratefully received (I need it!).
I'm pretty sure help is also required how to crop my pics. (I did say I was new Regards OS, I've taken pic's with and without OS and have the same result.

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[Daveee]

Thanks Jack, maybe you could explain this a bit for me. It seems logical because I have photo's of a swan and although not competition standard they are pretty good, my problem is always with moving subjects.

 

[CT]

Well there's nothing technically wrong with those three shots at all -in fact they're very good.

 

[Daveee]

Well there's nothing technically wrong with those three shots at all -in fact they're very good.

Thanks Jack, but when I zoom in on a 100 percent on my pc, I have a lot of noise and they appear out of focus, Ive just had a look at some bird pics here on TP and wow, I'd love to achieve that. Anyway, first walk and then run eh?
If you have any tips to help me out I'll be forever grateful.

 

[cdiver2]

I would agree with CT, I think you did well with the shots shown and use continuous servo AF and a single AF point. However be prepared to can a good number with birds in flight they can be very hard to get. Also you can not compare a shot that has filled the frame right out of the camera to one that you have had to crop/enlarge, the detail will not be as good.

 

[CT]

Thanks Jack, but when I zoom in on a 100 percent on my pc, I have a lot of noise and they appear out of focus, Ive just had a look at some bird pics here on TP and wow, I'd love to achieve that. Anyway, first walk and then run eh?
If you have any tips to help me out I'll be forever grateful.

Well the first thing is don't judge your images by looking at the full-size file - they'll often look a bit unsharp at that size and digital files benefit from sharpening anyway at the final output size. Worrying about IQ in the full sized file is rather disparagingly referred to as pixel peeping.

Noise will also look it's worst when viewing the full sized file, but largely disappears when you reduce the image to printing size or to a size for web viewing as it has with these three images.

Who's Jack?

 

[Daveee]

Well the first thing is don't judge your images by looking at the full-size file - they'll often look a bit unsharp at that size and digital files benefit from sharpening anyway at the final output size. Worrying about IQ in the full sized file is rather disparagingly referred to as pixel peeping.

Noise will also look it's worst when viewing the full sized file, but largely disappears when you reduce the image to printing size or to a size for web viewing as it has with these three images.

Who's Jack?

Oh! I thought you were.:bonk:
You mention that it's no good looking at the full size of a photo, what if you want a poster out of it? It wouldn't look very good with all the noise/pixels..
It would also be handy to know how to crop a photo in the right way so you don't see it's been cropped. I do see a difference when I've cropped a pic when it's next to a photo that isn't . I've seen from other photographers that it is possible to crop without being noticed.

 

[Daveee]

I would agree with CT, I think you did well with the shots shown and use continuous servo AF and a single AF point. However be prepared to can a good number with birds in flight they can be very hard to get. Also you can not compare a shot that has filled the frame right out of the camera to one that you have had to crop/enlarge, the detail will not be as good.

Being new to all this you have to bear with me, could you explain a bit about continuous servo AF and single AF? My main problem appears to be moving subjects eg. birds in flight. I was lucky enough to get close to a swan in the wild and they were not bad so moving is my problem. (I think!)

 

[CT]

Oh! I thought you were.:bonk:
You mention that it's no good looking at the full size of a photo, what if you want a poster out of it? It wouldn't look very good with all the noise/pixels..
It would also be handy to know how to crop a photo in the right way so you don't see it's been cropped. I do see a difference when I've cropped a pic when it's next to a photo that isn't . I've seen from other photographers that it is possible to crop without being noticed.

You can call me Cedric, Ced or Cedders like everyone else.

When you're looking at a very big poster sized image you have to take into account that normal viewing distance would be from a few feet. Viewed at the proper distance it would look fine, whereas if you looked at it from a few inches away it wouldn't look nearly so good or sharp, but it doesn't matter and it was always thus - even in the days of film and large prints, so digital has changed nothing in that respect.

If you don't want a shot to look obviously cropped then you need to crop it so that the aspect ratio is the same as the original shot, but there's no getting away from the fact that the more severe the crop the more you lose image quality and limit the size at which a print can still be acceptable. The secret is to keep your crops as moderate as possible and done properly there's no reason why you should see any obvious drop in IQ at normal web viewing sizes or reasonable printing sizes.

 

[CT]

Being new to all this you have to bear with me, could you explain a bit about continuous servo AF and single AF? My main problem appears to be moving subjects eg. birds in flight. I was lucky enough to get close to a swan in the wild and they were not bad so moving is my problem. (I think!)

Single AF just means that once you've locked AF on your subject, it remains locked as long as you hold that half-pressed position on the shutter button. This is handy as it allows you to recompose your shot before you press the shutter all the way to take the shot.

Continuous AF is the best for wildlife or any other moving subject as it continual refocuses while you hold that half pressed shutter button position and maintains focus right up to the instant you press the shutter fully home. That's assuming you've managed to keep that AF rectangle on the subject throughout, obviously.

 

[PsiFox]

On the D300 I frquently use AF-C with either 21 point dynamic AF or even sometimes 3D 51 point focus tracking. Works very well on small objects moving quickly I find the latter works best for high contrast BIF (nice contrast against the sky) whilst the former picks birds out better against ground clutter.

 

[Daveee]

Single AF just means that once you've locked AF on your subject, it remains locked as long as you hold that half-pressed position on the shutter button. This is handy as it allows you to recompose your shot before you press the shutter all the way to take the shot.

Continuous AF is the best for wildlife or any other moving subject as it continual refocuses while you hold that half pressed shutter button position and maintains focus right up to the instant you press the shutter fully home. That's assuming you've managed to keep that AF rectangle on the subject throughout, obviously.

Ok, thanks Ced If we get some good weather this weekend I'm off out to practice.

 

[Daveee]

On the D300 I frquently use AF-C with either 21 point dynamic AF or even sometimes 3D 51 point focus tracking. Works very well on small objects moving quickly I find the latter works best for high contrast BIF (nice contrast against the sky) whilst the former picks birds out better against ground clutter.

Ok, I'll go out this weekend and put everything into practice hopefully with good results.

I see you're from south Linc's Mark. My home town is Sleaford, my folks still live there but I moved to Belgium some time ago. I get back to see my mates and folks sometimes, so who knows, maybe we bump into each other with the camera's.

Thanks again for the info. PS what is BIF?

 

[cdiver2]

Dave for BIF (Birds in Flight) I use I use the continues AF and the center AF point. For still subjects I use the single AF. You can get focus on the eyes then while keeping the button at 1/2 press move the camera and compose the subject keeping the eyes as the main focus point. Hope this helps

 

[Daveee]

Dave for BIF (Birds in Flight) I use I use the continues AF and the center AF point. For still subjects I use the single AF. You can get focus on the eyes then while keeping the button at 1/2 press move the camera and compose the subject keeping the eyes as the main focus point. Hope this helps

That certainly helps

 

[PsiFox]

Ok, I'll go out this weekend and put everything into practice hopefully with good results.

I see you're from south Linc's Mark. My home town is Sleaford, my folks still live there but I moved to Belgium some time ago. I get back to see my mates and folks sometimes, so who knows, maybe we bump into each other with the camera's.

Thanks again for the info. PS what is BIF?

I'm in Spalding so you never know (BIF already answered)