Beginner Learning to shoot birds on a 400mm....

Judi said:
The improvement in your shots is dramatic robin keep it up. :):canon:
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....No pressure then :D

My improvement is definitely due to all the advice offered by others in this thread.
 
RedRobin said:
....No pressure then :D

My improvement is definitely due to all the advice offered by others in this thread.
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You are obviously working very hard to perfect your shots and it is extremely hard to follow all of the advice all of the time, specially as at the same time you are having to learn all about your new camera.:)
I haven't even started with mine got it just after you got yours and apart from a few food shots i've not done much.:canon:
 
Judi said:
You are obviously working very hard to perfect your shots and it is extremely hard to follow all of the advice all of the time, specially as at the same time you are having to learn all about your new camera.:)
I haven't even started with mine got it just after you got yours and apart from a few food shots i've not done much.:canon:
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....Yes I'm very lucky that I am retired and have lots of wildlife on my doorstep.

I'm afraid that there is absolutely no substitute for practice - You just need to shoot, shoot, shoot at every opportunity.

Which Canon do you have?
 
When you are retired you don't have time to work! Or that's how it should be.

My favourite subjects are Dragonflies and I run an ever growing group on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/561222590593478/

I have a Canon 100mm f2.8L IS (also bought from TP Classifieds) ready and waiting for the mini-beast season but grabbed the opportunity to buy an excellent condition 3yr old Canon 400mm f5.6L from TP's Classifieds, hence bird photography but one or two photographers in my group have been successfully shooting Dragonflies on 400mm.
 
Another photo from my third session of learning to shoot birds in my garden on my 400mm....

Dunnock_m1435v.jpg


^ Dunnock: Canon 70D, 400mm f5.6L, ISO 1600, f9, 1/1600, 0 EV, monopod, minor crop.

I actually quite like the 'noise'/grainy quality of the background and this picture is an example of why I think it can be of benefit - As well as adding to a painterly quality of a bokeh it sets off visually against sharpness on the subject. The Canon 70D seems to handle noise up to ISO 1600 quite well but I appreciate that some toggers don't like any noise at all. So, sorry Jeff but I'm staying on ISO 1600 (coz me likey da noize) for a while as a mainstay but not of course set in stone.

I don't do gardening apart from keeping my wildlife pond clear but I will be trimming some (not all) of the twigs on this bush to assist my bird photography.

Some of my neighbours look down their noses at the state of my garden but they don't have the wildlife. No birdsong or interesting visitors but just boring flat lawns which may as well be finest Wilton carpet in green - Yuk!
 
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I like your Dunnock, you can see the colour of its eye!

RedRobin said:
When you are retired you don't have time to work! Or that's how it should be.

My favourite subjects are Dragonflies and I run an ever growing group on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/561222590593478/

I have a Canon 100mm f2.8L IS (also bought from TP Classifieds) ready and waiting for the mini-beast season but grabbed the opportunity to buy an excellent condition 3yr old Canon 400mm f5.6L from TP's Classifieds, hence bird photography but one or two photographers in my group have been successfully shooting Dragonflies on 400mm.
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I have caught a few Dragonflies when we were on holiday in Cornwall but they are not as good as i would like. :(:canon:
 
Judi said:
I like your Dunnock, you can see the colour of its eye!
I have caught a few Dragonflies when we were on holiday in Cornwall but they are not as good as i would like. :(:canon:
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Dunnockeye_m1438v.jpg


^ This shows the Dunnock's eye colour even better but it's a huge crop enlargement and I don't like the neck ring shadow or beak being so obscured so it's a reject.

Isn't it rare that our photos are as good as we would like? We photographers (and artists) are always striving to do better. If you ever get some Dragonfly/Damselfly shots which you are happy with, please feel free to join my facebook UK group but you can, if you wish, join anyway if you are a Dragonfly enthusiast....

https://www.facebook.com/groups/561222590593478/

:)
 
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Good to see the improvement in your shots Robin, the Dunnock is great.

I'm trying this area of photography too and found some interesting youtube videos on setting up a bird studio in your garden - it saves hunting them out!
I've posted some of my shots on here, hopefully they'll improve as i go, especially having just read the tips in this thread.

Neil
 
you can also shoot dragonflies handheld at 500mm it just needs the right gear and the right technique robin ,not quite so good on birds in flight though hence the change back to canon .


hang ten by blackfox wildlife and nature imaging, on Flickr
 
Judi said:
I have I think 3 dragonflys and 1 Damselfly from the holiday last year on my Flickr acc scattered around, I haven't worked out how to organise it yet, just keep putting them on :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/93102495@N02/
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you live in seabirds and owls central judi ,i.e bempton cliffs no excuses get out and get some shots in .another good local reserve for you is filey dam wish i lived where you do :cool::cool:
 
We have only managed one owl round here, so far. we do go to Bempton and Filey O/H take his camera and I am left holding the dogs out of the way. we will have to do a swap one day, need to get some work in on the new Camera lots of practice first
 
Mentalblock said:
Good to see the improvement in your shots Robin, the Dunnock is great.

I'm trying this area of photography too and found some interesting youtube videos on setting up a bird studio in your garden - it saves hunting them out!
I've posted some of my shots on here, hopefully they'll improve as i go, especially having just read the tips in this thread.

Neil
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....Thanks for the encouragement, Neil :)

I'm not sure I like the idea of going as far as setting up a garden bird studio - Perhaps it's the word studio which makes it sound so unnatural. 'Studio' tends to mean flashing lights etc. I would be curious to watch any of these YouTube vids if you have a link.

Please post a link to where on TP you have posted your bird shots. In the Birds section?
 
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the black fox said:
you can also shoot dragonflies handheld at 500mm it just needs the right gear and the right technique robin ,not quite so good on birds in flight though hence the change back to canon .
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....Are you trying to persuade me to spend even more of my money on camera gear by buying a 500mm, Jeff!

I shall be shooting Dragonflies and mini-beasts on my 400 and my 70-200 and my 100 Macro once the flight season starts. And hopefully some 100mm Macro shots of Damselfly emergence from my garden wildlife (no fish) pond.

That really is an excellent shot of a Common Darter you posted, Jeff.
 
RedRobin said:
....Thanks for the encouragement, Neil :)

I'm not sure I like the idea of going as far as setting up a garden bird studio - Perhaps it's the word studio which makes it sound so unnatural. 'Studio' tends to mean flashing lights etc. I would be curious to watch any of these YouTube vids if you have a link.

Please post a link to where on TP you have posted your bird shots. In the Birds section?
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Robin,

Here's a link to my current studio - it's not what you think!
Basically it's a feeding station with various branches for the birds to land on.
Flash is an option, but not compulsory.

There are links in this thread to my recent postings

Neil
 
Thanks, Neil :)

in that case, I already have a bird 'studio' which I call my 'BirdCafe'. It's in my garden with bushes and trees dotted around and a small wildlife pond nearby which the birds visit and bathe in the shallow end of.

In fact my recent shots of the Blue Tit and Dunnock are in a bush which is only about four feet away from the constantly well stocked 'BirdCafe' feeding station. Most of the birds accept me being in the garden but the Greater Spotted Woodpecker is quite nervous.

file-6.jpg


^ The birds obviously skidaddle when a Sparrowhawk visits! Taken on my FinePix F500EXR pocket camera from my first floor window before I had my Canon DSLR.
 
Very nice shots Robin showing great detail. Look forward to the mini beasts!
 
the 500mm robin comes from a 300mm f4 nikon prime BUT they have which canon doesn't a 1.7t/c which when bolted on gives a very useable 500mm combo and doesn't alter the close focus distance of the lens which is 1.5 mtrs approx ,so you can just flick a switch to change from a birding lens to a extremely close focus pseudo macro type .the main trade off being the fact that it slows the A/F down ,not much but enough to miss some shots .
hence me telling you on the phone to avoid tele-convertors if possible
 
I shan't be relying on Canon's 1.4x to extend anything other than my 70-200mm f4L IS which I have already found to work well to offer me the option of 98-280mm.

That Nikon combo of 300mm f4 + 1.7x but with the ability to focus down to 1.5m sounds very useful but I shan't be changing to Nikon as I prefer the Canon interface and also the swopping costs would be a waste of the money which I have already recently spent.

Having to use more than one lens might be far less convenient but my attitude is that I'm under no pressure to deliver photos to a client etc and so I can choose what I want to shoot for the day and accept that while I'm out shooting birds I might miss insect shots or vica-versa. It's easy to carry 2 lenses around anyway if I want to - I have already sorted my gear so I can carry 3 plus a 'pod.
 
Joeturner11 said:
As said the Nikon 300mm f/4 and 1.7x combo is the best ' cheap' 500mm on the market if you ask me, View my link in my profile to flickr and you can see all my birding images taken with it if your interested :)
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....Sure but as I just posted, I'm not interested in changing from Canon to Nikon to get the best value for money 500mm combo when I already have recently spent money on a Canon with 3 L lenses.

I've got Guy Edwardes' excellent illustrated wildlife photography 100 tips book and he uses a Canon 500mm a lot for many of the shots in the book. The lens costs about £7.7k though.

This thread is about the Canon 400mm.

Btw, I checked out your Flickr stream as you suggested and there's lots of very very nice pictures indeed. It's refreshing to see photos which haven't been over sharpened like many are. Some great moments captured. I'm staying with my 400mm Canon for the foreseeable future.
 
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Seeing some good improvement in the updated shots, keep it up :). The Dunnok pic (post 47) you could have dropped the iso on that quite a bit as the shutter was very fast, that said its reasonably sharp anyway so no harm really.
 
mac124 said:
Seeing some good improvement in the updated shots, keep it up :). The Dunnok pic (post 47) you could have dropped the iso on that quite a bit as the shutter was very fast, that said its reasonably sharp anyway so no harm really.
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....Thanks for the encouragement, Mark (y)

Yes, you're right in that I need to practice quickly altering my settings (such as ISO which is easy on the 70D). However, as it turned out I particularly like the background noise on that Dunnock shot - I think it adds to the picture as a whole and enhances the bokeh.

Many here will not agree with me and they prefer to use de-noiser software in post processing - It's not my preference.
 
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