Photographing Wildlife

[snaphappy1952]

I wonder if some of you kind folks who reguarly shoot wildlife ( birds in the main) can help me. Whilst shooting wildlife is not something I do a lot of, I do from time to time find myself in a nature situation where hides are available etc...and I blast away!

I try and take on board the usual advice from books and magazines ie: Focus on the eyes, use as fast a shutter speed as possible, get close. And I shoot RAW.

My camera is a Nikon D300s and for such work I usually attach my 80-300mm Nikkor with VR and try and use a monopod.

While I am pleased with what I see in my camera screen, when I get them back onto my PC and open them in Photoshop I am quite often disappointed by the results when viewed at 100% - to me they never seem sharp enough. I am attaching a few examples for comments please and any advice.

I wonder if I am focussing on the right area - I tend not to use manual focus as I wear glasses and dont trust my eyesight!!. I switch between single focus and continous focussing...but am never confident with either. I am also not sure if its my laptop screen, which is not showing my pics sharp?

Basically - I see "bird" shots on here or in magazines and they are razor sharp..

Any help appreciated!!

Thanks

 

[grey.squirrel]

Do remember that RAW images will often need sharpening in PP anyway so if they seem slightly OOF then it could just be that.

 

[DonnaM]

I presume you mean 70-300VR not 80-300. I started birding with the 70-300VR and found that it needed to be stopped down to f/9 or f/10 for best results. At 300mm it is not the sharpest lens available but for most non birding applications it is quite acceptable. I have also found just recently that processing in Capture NX2 gives better results than Adobe Camera Raw (LR2/CS4 etc.) Hope that helps.

 

[snaphappy1952]

I presume you mean 70-300VR not 80-300. I started birding with the 70-300VR and found that it needed to be stopped down to f/9 or f/10 for best results. At 300mm it is not the sharpest lens available but for most non birding applications it is quite acceptable. I have also found just recently that processing in Capture NX2 gives better results than Adobe Camera Raw (LR2/CS4 etc.) Hope that helps.

ooopss yes - of course the 70-300mm

Too get the speed up..I do tend to have it nearly wide open (or wide open to be honest)...hmmm...may have to re-think.

As for sharpening...now that part of PP scares me!!

I also dont have NX2 ( too mucho dosho)

But thanks for your comments. Appreciated.

 

[GrittyShaker]

I started shooting birds with my 70-300 wide open too, and although the focus was fine, the results were a bit soft. I now shoot at about f8/f9/10, and up the ISO a bit instead. The results have been much better.

 

[DonnaM]

As for sharpening...now that part of PP scares me!!

Sharpening in Adobe Camera Raw:

Amount 30-80
Radius 0.5
Detail 50-70
masking 0-25
Luminance 0-40
Color 25

Try playing with these settings as a starter and see how you get on.

 

[Stu Meech]

As others have said, most consumer lenses are better when they are stopped down at least 1 stop.

As for processing, you can always use ViewNX which is free and being Nikon software is better to process basic stuff in there than non-Nikon software IMO.

On my D300s I also have the centre button in playback set to full magnification so I can easily as see with one button push if the image is fully sharp at 100%.

 

[snaphappy1952]

Some good tips...I will take them on board. Really appreciate the help.

Stumech - is ViewNX the freebie software you get on the camera disc...or does it come from elsewhere?

Cheers all.

 

[Stu Meech]

It may well be on the disk, I've never checked really. But it can be downloaded for free from the Nikon site and offers basic but useful processing tools etc on RAW files.