When lighting is poor, nature

mrbez

mrbez

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Hi Guys,

I went to Banham Zoo today and had an excellent time.

Managed to get some great shots, however, as the weather was poor my ISO was set to around 640-1600 most of the time.

I sometimes found that due to the low light I was unable to use a fast shutter speed, is there any way around this at all?

Would a flash help me here?

Thanks for any tips.

Craig.
 
Also, when I was focusing through the fences, the AF was taking a while to register the subject. Is this because it was focusing on the fence and then the animal etc? Better to use MF? Or could this be because I was using a 55-250?
 
40d will lose a lot of sharpness and show to much noise above iso800, you need a fast lens ie 2.8 to let more light in.
 
Hiya

Unless you buy a faster lens, there is no way of avoiding having to use a high ISO sometimes. What lens are you using right now?

If there's any way to enrage an animal, it's flash! It won't really help much in a zoo and could see you being eaten. There are applications for flash outside but not really direct flash - we're talking a proper strobist setup for portraits. You're best off sticking with natural light.

Sometimes it will be difficult for your camera to focus on the correct thing, particularly when you have it set to auto-select AF point, because it will then find the closest object and focus on that (in this case, the fence). A far more predictable option is centre-AF: if you set it to only use the centre AF point, you can focus by training the centre point on your subject (preferably an area of high contrast), press the button halfway to focus, hold it at half-press, recompose the picture, and fully press it to shoot.
 
I used the same combo as you have for a while and got some great shots with it in the right conditions, fast lenses are big ££££.
It's all about the light and sometimes it's better to put the camera away if you can't get a sharp shot.
 
Neil,

Did you notice a big difference when using ISO after you have upgraded the body?
 
This one is @ 250mm f5.6 iso100 1/400sec



You just need a lot of light to get your lens working at higher shutter speeds.
 
The 40D can turn in very credible results at 1600 ISO. Here's an example at 1600 ISO, together with a 100% crop and no edits. EXIF is intact.

20090606_171252_0117_LR.jpg


20090606_171252_0117_LR-2.jpg


Better a slightly noisy image than a slightly blurry one. I'm sure a little finessing could improve the appearance of noise in this example.

A tripod or monopod might help allow slower shutter speeds, which will in turn allow a lower ISO, so long as the animal is essentially motionless.

I don't use flash very often at the zoo, but when I have used it there has been no adverse reaction from the animals. They really do not seem to care one bit. This was shot with flash and I'm still here to tell the tale....

20100317_143649_2205_LR.jpg


My favourite zoo lens by far is the 100-400, which I almost never open up wider than f/5.6. I get pretty decent results, IMHO.
 
MrCraigBerry said:
When trying to shoot birds? :thinking:
Click to expand...

For birds in flight, at the zoo, a tripod will be no help, but that doesn't mean you can't get decent shots. However, trying to shoot active subjects, with a slow lens, in poor light, and expect sharp images, and no noise, is being just a little unrealistic.

Here's one from my 40D at the local zoo. This is at 800 ISO, but I needed an f/2.8 lens to get a shutter speed of 1/640....

20070925_141657_0001_LR.jpg


I'm afraid I don't have any BIF shots from my 40D at ISOs above 800. Still, I do have one from my 7D at 3200 ISO and f/6.3. Apart from an adjustment to the tint, this is unedited...

20100429_155333_7072_LR.jpg


100% crop....

20100429_155333_7072_LR-2.jpg



High ISO is not the cause of noise. Underexposure is. The better your exposure, especially if pushed to the right, the less noise you will have to suffer.
 
Last edited:
Canon EF 70-200/2.8L IS USM.

I go to the zoo once or twice a year, picking days with pleasant weather, when I can, but sometimes nature disagrees with my best laid plans. Even so, the only lens I feel the need to take these days is the 100-400. 200mm is too short for so many things. Having a monopod can really help take the strain, and improve on IS alone, but for BIF I always shoot hand held.
 
Tripod for photographing birds is obviously far from perfect, but at a zoo it might not be the end of the world (if it isn't busy) as long as you are prepared to be patient. They will (almost certainly) be back.
 
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