Kookaburra

Maynard23

My first attempt at shooting wildlife.
Hook in with you C&C please.:thumb

Personally, I expected the images to be sharper.
I was using a Canon 40D, with a 70-200 2.8L IS lens.
Am I asking too much of the lens, or am I kidding myself?:scratch


Kookaburra On Rock


Kookaburra On Swings


Kookaburra Takeoff

Cheers, Maynard

Maestro

Nice images of a bird I probably will never get to see in person. The image where it is taking off is nice and sharp to me. The seond one looks sharp enough. Do you sharpen in post processing? I tried extracting your EXIF data but couldn't. What are your technicals, F-stop, shutter speed, etc...?

Giphsub

Cool shots of a cool bird I was just watching a pair earlier this afternoon. Such huge heads in proportion to their bodies. As Stephen said, 2 and 3 look sharp enough.

Maynard23

Kookaburra Follow Up
OK Steve, here are the camera settings.
Bear in mind that I shot these with the camera straight out of the box, and set to Aperture Priority.
Also, I have done no post processing, just a bit of cropping.

1/ f2.8 @ 1/3200 sec ISO 100
2/ f2.8 @ 1/2000 sec ISO 400
3/ f2.8 @ 1/5000 sec ISO 400

Thanks for your comments guys.

Cheers, Maynard

Maestro

Maynard,

You shot the images with your lens wide open. While that is one heck of a lens, most lenses aren't as sharp wide open. It looks like you had enough light to shoot at F8 or even higher. I probably would have stopped down to F8 or so and traded some shutter speed for a bit more sharpness. Also, in Photoshop, if that is what you use, adding just a tad more sharpening really makes a difference especially in bird photography as the plumage detail really begins to come out.

Looking forward to more.

Maynard23

Great Feedback

Maestro wrote:

Maynard,

You shot the images with your lens wide open. While that is one heck of a lens, most lenses aren't as sharp wide open. It looks like you had enough light to shoot at F8 or even higher. I probably would have stopped down to F8 or so and traded some shutter speed for a bit more sharpness. Also, in Photoshop, if that is what you use, adding just a tad more sharpening really makes a difference especially in bird photography as the plumage detail really begins to come out.

Looking forward to more.

Ahhh, just the feedback I'm after!!

Thanks for your comments Steve!! Much appreciated!!

Cheers, Maynard

Harryb

Maestro wrote:

Maynard,

You shot the images with your lens wide open. While that is one heck of a lens, most lenses aren't as sharp wide open. It looks like you had enough light to shoot at F8 or even higher. I probably would have stopped down to F8 or so and traded some shutter speed for a bit more sharpness. Also, in Photoshop, if that is what you use, adding just a tad more sharpening really makes a difference especially in bird photography as the plumage detail really begins to come out.

Looking forward to more.

On your first capture the bird's head is turned too far away from you. You want to get a head angle like in your second shot.

The second shot is cool and my main criticism of it would be that the eye is too dark. In PS try selecting the eye (its easier if your view it at around 200-300%) and then lighten up the selected are with levels and apply some USM to it.

The BIF is a nice capture but again I would try to get the eye to stand out a bit more.

The 70-200 is a great lens but a tad short for wildlife captures.

Ann McRae

Also, the typical sweet spot for the canon 70-200f2.8 is f5.6. For sports (not unlike birding) I start there, and vary shutter and ISO to match the light. As well, for anything moving, learn about AI servo, back button (*) focusing (CF 4,3 IIRC) and center focus spot. I can't recall all details right now, but there are many techniques to help get the best out of lens and camera.

Keep shooting, keep posting.

ann