Comments please

Davey, you're not looking at all sharp with those shots mate. It's a shame because you're obviously putting in the time and effort. The shots are nice with nice subjects, but it's hard to get past the fact they're unsharp. With the kit you have you shouldnt be having these problems.

What focusing mode do you normally use? If the TC is forcing you to use manual focusing it could just be that. Do you wear specs? Have you adjusted the viewfinder dioptre adjustment to your own eyesight? :)

Not all lenses are suitable for use with a TC. No matter how good theTC is there's always some loss compared to using the lens without one. Zoom lenses will not respond as well to a TC as fixed ones. Try leaving the TC off for a while and take some shots without it.

It's very natural with a zoom lens to keep going for max magnification( I do it myself) and it isn't always best. Try to think more about capturing the surroundings and your framing - not just the main subject.

I'm sure there's just something very basic holding you back though Davey, if you let us know a little bit more about your kit and the Mode etc you work in, I'm sure we can get you sorted out! :thumb:
 
Nice shots davey

For me thougth the three with the deer seem a little cluttered would of been a lot better without the ducks. I'm guessing that probably would have been hard because theres loads of the buggers swimming about....
.
 
Ok you asked for it..

The first shot has the focus off somewhere between the duck and the deer (in fact a little closer to the duck) but as the duck has its head hidden and the focus is off on the deer the picture is really compromised.

Picture two is better focus wise but is still a little soft, also the framing is such that you have all the deer in the centre of the frame and shot from side on, it is usually much better to have some free space in front of any animal. Also there is a much better picture hiding in this shot, if you had done just a head shot of the deer drinking, again leaving some free space in front it would be a very strong shot. Obviously it would require a longer lens or moving closer to the subject, both of which may have been impossible for you. ;)

Picture three is much better composition wise for the deer and shows it not to be flat by the angle it has been shot at, again I would have lost the duck completely and reframed just on the deer leaving that essential small amount of free space in front.

Picture four has the duck with its feet completely cropped out of frame and the focus definitely has to be spot on the eye. I tighter crop just on the head would have been a much better composition or a lower down shot including all of the subject.

Overall you have the basics but are missing some essentials, the framing and focus must be spot on, especially with animals, the latter I feel could be improved with a little more time spent during post processing. Take a look at the recent threads posted by Marcel where his squirrel shot has been transformed from an average photo to a superb shot by a good crop and some skilful processing and sharpening. The goods are there, they just need to be brought out to show them at their best.


Don't take any of the above personally, I have been quite brutal but I can assure you we have all started out with shots with all the same faults as you have shown here. Practice, practice, practice and don't become downhearted. Its a skill that needs to be learned by the majority of us, there are not many of us that have it naturally unfortunately ;)
 
Dave !

Agree with all the other comments really, but we went through this with the Otter pics so wont repeat myself ! :)

Had a look at this one
48397286_nw_00060.sized.jpg


And with a little tweaking in photoshop it turned into this

48397286_nw_00060.sized.jpg


Simple levels adjust, ran noiseware over it, and then some sharpening ! Is a bit better, but obviously when you have practiced manual focus on the camera a bit more these will start to get better ! :)
 
CT, yes I do wear specs and they are of the type that change with the light so what ever I see through the veiw finder always looks darker than when seen on a screen or monitor by then it's to late, if I remove my specs then I haven't got a hope in hell of getting anything in focus!!!!!!

I took some advice from Ian and have started to practice the art of manual focus in my garden and I've reset the viewfinder and had a play last night and will have another go tonight.

For those shots yes I could have moved and taken another angle but I think I'm a little to shutter button happy at the moment!!! And not thinking fully of the whole picture, anyhow the camera was set to auto with auto focus, now on thinking about it I have my camera set up so that all the auto focus sensors are enabled should I reset and just have the centre sensor enabled?

I tend to use either the auto setting with auto focus or I'll go for AV again with auto focus, sometimes I'll go mad and go full manual!!!

Kit details
300D/350D Sigma 28-135, 28-300, 2xTC,Canon 18-55, 75-300 that's about as much as I've got oh yes all lenes are fitted with skylight filters
Shooting modes mainly auto but some AV and rarely TV, full manual mode when I'm feeling brave!!

Any help tips advice to point in the right direction would be most welcome.
Thanks for taking the time to look at my pic's and taking the trouble to comment.

I have created myself a Dioptric focus sheet and have tried it tonight and want to have another go tomorrow and if you Steve or IanC UK can check them over and if ok then anyone who would like copy can e-mail me and I'll gladly pass it on.
 
daveyuk said:
Any help tips advice to point in the right direction would be most welcome.
Thanks for taking the time to look at my pic's and taking the trouble to comment.
Click to expand...


Davey, your not going to like this tip but I'll give it just the same.
Put the 2xTC up for sale on E-Bay. Even on top notch lenses the quality degradation is obvious. I don't know what lens you used but I have the Canon 75-300 and I know it's soft at 300. Stick a TC on it and .....well you can imagine.
Also how good are your skylight filters. Poor quality filters will degrade the image, again I know this to my cost. I put a cheap Jessops filter on my 75-300 and the degradation was obvious. Give it a try. Set up the lens on a tripod and take a shot with and one without the filter. If you see little difference then all's well.
Another point. The Exif of the first shot shows 300mm and 1/200 sec. Did you use a tripod or does the lens have IS. If not camera shake will play a part, even more so if you used a TC.

Hope this helps,
Cameron
 
daveyuk said:
CT, yes I do wear specs and they are of the type that change with the light so what ever I see through the veiw finder always looks darker than when seen on a screen or monitor by then it's to late, if I remove my specs then I haven't got a hope in hell of getting anything in focus!!!!!!

I took some advice from Ian and have started to practice the art of manual focus in my garden and I've reset the viewfinder and had a play last night and will have another go tonight.

For those shots yes I could have moved and taken another angle but I think I'm a little to shutter button happy at the moment!!! And not thinking fully of the whole picture, anyhow the camera was set to auto with auto focus, now on thinking about it I have my camera set up so that all the auto focus sensors are enabled should I reset and just have the centre sensor enabled?

I tend to use either the auto setting with auto focus or I'll go for AV again with auto focus, sometimes I'll go mad and go full manual!!!

Kit details
300D/350D Sigma 28-135, 28-300, 2xTC,Canon 18-55, 75-300 that's about as much as I've got oh yes all lenes are fitted with skylight filters
Shooting modes mainly auto but some AV and rarely TV, full manual mode when I'm feeling brave!!

Any help tips advice to point in the right direction would be most welcome.
Thanks for taking the time to look at my pic's and taking the trouble to comment.

I have created myself a Dioptric focus sheet and have tried it tonight and want to have another go tomorrow and if you Steve or IanC UK can check them over and if ok then anyone who would like copy can e-mail me and I'll gladly pass it on.
Click to expand...

Ah,,, mystery solved then. :)

Two problems...

(1) Your specs.

I wear reactolite lenses myself so I know exactly what your problem is. You have two choices, you can either adjust the viewfinder so that everything is sharp without specs - your eyes would have to be pretty bad to be outside the adjustment range of the viewfinder - try it, or you can adjust the viewfinder so that everything is sharp WITH specs. You can't have it both ways. If you choose to adjust it for use without specs then when you take your eye away from the viewfinder, you can't see to adjust the camera...I know. The answer I'm afraid is..... specs on top of head - take pics.... specs off top of head - change camera settings. :D Damned annoying! I've avoided getting one of those silly lanyards to hang the specs on for fear of looking like Larry Grayson or some prowling @rse bandit. :icon_eek:

Annoying though this is, it still isn't the root cause of your problem because as long as the green focus confirmation light in the viewfinder is lit, your pics will be sharp regardless of whether the viewfinder is blurred to you or not.


(2) Focus LED lights

You've already sussed your real problem - it's all those focus LED's!! Select just one, probably the centre one for most situations, and use it to focus on your main subject. You should see a startling difference in the sharpness of your pics, so I'm hoping to see some results very soon! :thumb:
 
Garnock said:
Another point. The Exif of the first shot shows 300mm and 1/200 sec. Did you use a tripod or does the lens have IS. If not camera shake will play a part, even more so if you used a TC.

Hope this helps,
Cameron
Click to expand...

Another excellent point Davey. As a general rule the minimum safe hand holding speed is equal to the focal length, so a 300mm lens needs a shutter speed of at least 1/300 second. With a 2X TC fitted, the 300mm becomes a 600mm lens so you'd have to use a minimum safe shutter speed of 1/600 second.

This keeps cropping up, I think we need a tutorial on this.
 
Garnock
Guilty as charged I brought cheap jessop skylight filters not so much for what they do more for lens protection but they'll come off and I'll give your suggestion a rumble and see what comes out.
I'll drop the TC for a while and use my Canon 75-300 as I can use my Sigma 28-135 as my fill in for the short range and see if there's any difference with the Canon lens.

CT I know how you feel about them poofy nancy lanyards I no having one of those!!!!
Ok focus LED's I can set it to the centre sensor in M,AV,TV is there a hack so I can use to set it up with the centre sensor in auto mode?
If you want to make a tutorial and use my pics to show what they shouldn't look like then be my guest I hope others will learn through my pain!!!!
 
daveyuk said:
Garnock

Ok focus LED's I can set it to the centre sensor in M,AV,TV is there a hack so I can use to set it up with the centre sensor in auto mode?
If you want to make a tutorial and use my pics to show what they shouldn't look like then be my guest I hope others will learn through my pain!!!!
Click to expand...

I dunno about the hack Davey, but why use it on Auto anyway? Use TV when you want to set the shutter speed as being most important (using long lenses), and AV when DOF is your main concern. :) They're the two modes I use the most. You can always override the camera settings with exposure compensation if you wish.

There's no need to use your pics Davey, but thanks for the offer. We're always looking for well written tutorials from volunteers anyway.

hint hint :D
 
CT, hint taken and once I'm more happier with my focus problem and put it right I'll pen something to put in the tips and hints section, I'm hoping to be somewhat better as I'm off to the Biggin Hill airshow this weekend and that's a one off so don't want any problems there fingers crossed.
 
At the airshow keep a very close eye on your shutter speeds. Keep them high if possible even at the cost of raising the ISO if needed. That one thing alone will make a huge difference to the number of in focus shots you come away with.

Also at the airshow, select the centre focus point as that where you will be framing the majority of the shots anyway,

The last tip - don't forget to enjoy the event and don't get so caught up in the photography that you miss the day ;)

Good luck :)
 
Davey, spend some time in the back garden trying to photo birds as they fly overhead. That'll give you a true taste of panning with zoom whilst trying to photo flying things.

Play with the settings and see if you can improve things. Hint, put it on Tv, set to about 1/500 (or more if you can) and you'll possibly have to up the ISO.

:)
 
If memory serves me right Rather than using Auto use P I think this lets you select the focus points aswell.
 
daveyuk said:
CT, hint taken and once I'm more happier with my focus problem and put it right I'll pen something to put in the tips and hints section,
Click to expand...

Sorry Davey, that hint was a general one, not aimed at you particularly. We have plenty of very experienced members capable of doing a tutorial on this. We wouldn't expect you to do that at your current level of experience. :)
 
Steve, SammyC and McMav
Thanks for the hints all taken on board, I'll post some of my pic's and let you guys see what you think.

To all of that have spent time passing tips and hints or looking at my rather poor effort so far many many thanks
 
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