Critique Nearly got good shots.

[Zimmer]

I marked it critique, and although a newbie, I'm here a little while, so I pretty much know what's wrong myself.
Having my coffee, in the car, I spotted these dudes and the camera happened to be on the seat.
The light was poor, on max aperture and just got time to quickly bump the Iso to 1000, and press the shutter. I know, shutter speed too slow and "missed" his tail too.
.
Got the iso to 2000 for the second one, so a little bit better.

Could have been nice shots, next time eh. :arghh:


One having his lunch, and the other preparing to.

 

[twhite87]

I'm sorry to say Tom but I can't help but feel the focus is way off. Perhaps a little more room around the subjects (no need to crop/move in so tight). It's a shame because your other shots are all pretty good looking at your flickr feed. Keep it up though. Definitely going in the right direction.

 

[BillN_33]

birds twitch

Technically - too high ISO, (for that tight crop) - too slow shutter speed - off focus - that lens you have can do a lot better

composition - too tight a crop - not enough space around the bird in the right areas - and you've chopped the tail off in #1 - focus on the birds eye

Have another go ........ use a tripod or bean bag

 

[gramps]

Yes keep on trying ... we all get missed ones

If you look at the 1st it appears that the focus is on the small twigs to the right, and in front of, the bird ... likely just focused wrongly but it could suggest the need to micro-adjust your lens. Keep an eye on it and if you notice that you seem to be getting images that are sharper in front of the subject, it might be something worth looking at

 

[Zimmer]

Thanks a lot for the comments, I'll try to address a few of them.

First of all, a bean bag/tripod was not an option, it was unplanned pictures, the camera just happened to be on the seat, so it was "press the button or don't bother" time.

Re. high iso, again, it was that or nothing, plus I thought that Iso 2000 on a Canon 6oD should be reasonable.

Re. the cropping comments, there was little cropping done, the first picture in OP wasn't cropped at all, and the second one was not a huge crop.



I will post the pics as they left the camera.







Re. focussing, wasn't perfect, but as you can see, I was in the general vicinity.












Another "new" shot















Now the above pictures, I'm a bit disappointed to be honest. I had decent opportunity, decent camera, decent lens, close range and although not textbook, I had reasonable focus, reasonable shutter speed at 1/640 and IS to help me, I had hoped for better.

 

[new2me]

shutter speed at 1/640 and IS to help me, I had hoped for better.

IS might be going against you at that shutter speed.

 

[BillN_33]

In #5 - the composition "problem" is that you did not take the shot with enough "negative space" to the right to allow you to crop or not and give you what would be termed as an acceptable composition

technically if you look at the Jackdaw image it is on the "soft" side, not sharpe ....... you have to figure out why that is.

Getting sharpe feather detail in dark, (black) birds is not particularly easy

the longer end of a zoom is always the softest, but given your distance from the bird you should be able to get better images

Not sure what's what here image wise but the first image of the second lot looks the sharper

 

[Zimmer]

In #5 - the composition "problem" is that you did not take the shot with enough "negative space" to the right

Nothing, I could do m8, the only thing to the right is that nasty metal pole. I'm not too bothered about the composition, my hands were somewhat tied in this particular instance.
What does bother me, as said above, if I have "good" equipment, a "reasonable" shutter speed the focus point was OK, and I still got very soft shots.

IS might be going against you at that shutter speed.

Tell me more m8.

 

[BillN_33]

I think that it is just a matter of practice ... and the better the light the better the image will usually be

I would not worry, I would just keep trying and maybe try single cell focus as well as the 9 points that you have used, it may help you to "home in" on the eye

 

[Zimmer]

I think that it is just a matter of practice ... and the better the light the better the image will usually be

I would not worry, I would just keep trying and maybe try single cell focus as well as the 9 points that you have used, it may help you to "home in" on the eye

I did use single cell focus, (centre dot) see the "red" box on the focus shots, so another excuse bites the dust.

The light was poor, so will have to wait for some fine weather, and hopefully you are right, or maybe I have the shakes

 

[BillN_33]

or maybe I have the shakes

most of us have those? ...... if they are non cropped shots, when you get that near try just using 200mm or 300mm ......so that you have some space around the image

 

[new2me]

Tell me more m8.

Try it without. I'm not sure if it's down to equipment, or focal lengths, but I find that Image Stabilisation can be detrimental upwards of 1/500, but that may be down to my poor technique or maybe the camera/lens I use.