What am I doing wrong?

JerryL

JerryL

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338
Name
Jerry
Edit My Images
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I think reach is still an issue, but looking at the attached which for obvious reasons was heavily cropped, why does it lack punch? Am I adjusting exposures wrong, I want to improve my bird shots but I'm not sure what to improve on. Help appreciated.

 
To my mind you have a few problems here. Firstly there is too much distraction in the background. Removing the branches that are out of focus and behind the bird, at least, would be an improvement.

Secondly, the background is too bright - your eyes are naturally attracted to the lighter areas of a photograph taking the focus away from the bird.

Finally I always feel birds need to be doing something - feeding, carrying nesting material, etc - to make the shot interesting.

These are, of course, only my personal views :-)
 
some PP might bring out the colours however it suffers fundamenraly because of camera shake. Your SS needs to be at least 1/500 or better still 1/750, crank the ISO up 1 stop to 400 and your SS will tumble to 1/800.

Shooting wide open is not always best, but I understand why you chose that setting. Using a monopod or another support could give another 2 or 3 stops and alow you to reduce the aperture a bit giving more room for error on doF.

Lastly, punch has a lot to do with lighting conditions, you can not correct for this PP, only way is to spend time in the field and wait, shoot, wait, shoot , etc ...
 
I think its purely down to camera shake mate, if you can try again with a tripod or at least a monopod. It makes all the difference.
 
Hi Jerry, I agree entirely with Neil above, I also struggled as you are, but thanks to some helpful advice from a fellow bird photographer my shots were greatly improved. Best advice I was given was whenever possible use the tripod, camera shake needs to be eliminated if at all possible, this and camera settings made a great difference to me.

I am local to you living in Wakefield, so if you care to PM me perhaps we can arrange to meet and discuss technique.
 
I'm not seeing evidence of camera shake there. It's not properly focused (focus just behind) but it's a shot of a dull brown bird on a dull grey day, and it's a big enlargement.

Get closer/bigger lens, don't crop, get some decent light in there, and hone your post processing technique. Birding's not easy though ;)
 
HoppyUK said:
I'm not seeing evidence of camera shake there. It's not properly focused (focus just behind) but it's a shot of a dull brown bird on a dull grey day, and it's a big enlargement.

Get closer/bigger lens, don't crop, get some decent light in there, and hone your post processing technique. Birding's not easy though ;)
Click to expand...

Invariably with these types of shot you have a small bird, high up a tree and backlit just to make things more difficult. I'm just getting used to the 70-300 AFS VR lens but I don't think it is quite cutting it in these circumstances.

The essential EXIF data shows:
Camera-Specific Properties:
Camera Model: NIKON D80
Maximum Lens Aperture: f/5.7
Sensing Method: One-Chip Color Area
Focal Length (35mm Equiv): 450 mm

Image-Specific Properties:
Image Created: 2010:05:03 16:16:52
Exposure Time: 1/400 sec
F-Number: f/5.6
Exposure Program: Normal Program
ISO Speed Rating: 200
Exposure Bias: 1.3 EV
Metering Mode: Spot

My reckoning was as follows:-
1) Highly backlit subject hence the +1.3 EV compensation
2) Spot metering - so the camera would be adapting more for the subject
3) Shutter speed - 1/400 sec so shake should not be a problem ( I also had VR switched on)
4) I had 'auto ISO' on the camera appears to have chosen ISO200

Is my logic wrong entirely here, would I have got a better picture with other settings? I know reach is becoming an issue so some new glass may help but I need to improve my settings and what to use first.
 
There are several possible reasons:
poor lighting - dull day
are you shooting RAW or jpeg?
What software are you using to process the picture
the quality of your lens - might be ok in good light
the amount of cropping in the picture
etc
 
I think you're just expecting too much - the conditions are very challenging and it's a heavy crop :shrug:
 
awp said:
There are several possible reasons:
poor lighting - dull day
are you shooting RAW or jpeg?
What software are you using to process the picture
the quality of your lens - might be ok in good light
the amount of cropping in the picture
etc
Click to expand...

It was semi dull, sun breaking through broken cloud
I was shooting JPEG FINE
Software was iPhoto, I do have lightroom but I seem to make photo's worse when I use it for heavy PP
Lens is f5.6 maximum at 300mm
Tiny bird up a tree = heavy cropping - I suspect having to do the latter is not really helping
 
Nawty said:
I think you're just expecting too much - the conditions are very challenging and it's a heavy crop :shrug:
Click to expand...

Thanks to all who have replied, I think you are ALL probably right, performing heavy cropping is the greatest issue, followed by aperture. I think I have assumed detail will be there after cropping which clearly is not possible given the distance of the subject.

Next birding trip out I'm going to take the tripod and see if I can get closer as well.
 
TBH birds of all kinds are very difficult subjects to get good detail on.

The feathers are so fine that many lens/sensor combinations simply cannot resolve them and the further away you are the worse it gets.

Which basically means you need to get as close as possible - which is why so many good bird photographers use hides and quite expensive zooms or primes.
 
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