Focusing on wildlife

gopher78

I'm about to get my eyes checked. I have trouble getting a sharp focus. I've written in before and gotten good advice. Use tripod, increase shutter speed etc. This photo was using a tripod, f 9.5 shutter speed 180 ISO 100 and I still get a blur. I'm using a K10 pentax with the new 70-200 2.8 tamron

Any suggestions

nrmdisk

A couple things come to mind...

1/180 is slow for 170mm, unless you have pretty steady hands. The rule of thumb is 1/EFL, i.e the 35mm equivalent/effective focal length. I think, and correct me if I am wrong, the focal length multiplier is 1.5, so your focal length in 35mm terms was 255, indicating a shutter speed of at least 1/250. some folks can handhold much slower than that - only you know if you are among them. If this was a tripod shot, did you have IS on or off (does your camera/lens combo have IS)?

How far away were you, ie is the picture above a heavy crop? If so, some softness may be expected. If this is not a crop, then I agree, you have a problem.

Do you get the same softness / out of focus with other lenses? IF so, perhaps your camera's AF is off. What happens of you try to focus manually?

Do you know anyone else who has a digital camera which you can use for a few shots? If you try a different camera and the result is the same, then the common denominator (a polite way of saying the problem) is you. If you can shoot fine with a different camera, then your camera is to blame.

Hope this helps even a little...with a bird as magnificent as that bald eagle, you deserve to get a great shot!

N

Snowgirl

nrmdisk wrote:

A couple things come to mind...

1/180 is slow for 170mm, unless you have pretty steady hands. The rule of thumb is 1/EFL, i.e the 35mm equivalent/effective focal length. I think, and correct me if I am wrong, the focal length multiplier is 1.5, so your focal length in 35mm terms was 255, indicating a shutter speed of at least 1/250. some folks can handhold much slower than that - only you know if you are among them. If this was a tripod shot, did you have IS on or off (does your camera/lens combo have IS)?

How far away were you, ie is the picture above a heavy crop? If so, some softness may be expected. If this is not a crop, then I agree, you have a problem.

Do you get the same softness / out of focus with other lenses? IF so, perhaps your camera's AF is off. What happens of you try to focus manually?

Do you know anyone else who has a digital camera which you can use for a few shots? If you try a different camera and the result is the same, then the common denominator (a polite way of saying the problem) is you. If you can shoot fine with a different camera, then your camera is to blame.

Hope this helps even a little...with a bird as magnificent as that bald eagle, you deserve to get a great shot!

N

Neil I just spent an hour mesmerized by your eagle shots. What patience you must have. They're brilliant and so sharp!

Thwack

When I've had problems like that, something else in the pic would be in focus (i.e.: camera didn't auto-focus on what I was expecting). I don't see anything in your pic that's crisp.

Were you manually focusing? If not, then seeing the eye doc won't help...

You mentioned a tripod but not which one...a flimsy tripod with a heavy lens won't help much especially if there's any wind.

When you snapped the pic, did you use a remote or timed release? A big lens hanging off a tripod is easy to create vibration with when your finger pushes the release (the bigger the lens and/or the more you're zoomed in, the bigger the effect of even a really tiny vibe).

Timed release lets the vibration dampen before taking the shot.

The hardcore folks lock up the camera's mirror before taking the shot so it can't affect things (that's getting into the final tiniest causes of problems so likely not yet a factor in what's hitting your pics).

jonh68

The most obvious is 1/180 ss. Use ISO 200 and use 2.8 or 4 as Aperture. You should have had AT LEAST 1/1000 ss with the direct light you had. That would more than make up for any hand shake going hand held.

Unless you just can't handhold that lens, there is nor reason to use a tri-pod.

Netgarden

I think I see front focus, which means the focus area ended up in front of the bird, possibly because your focus points are too many and chose the closer area. Do you shoot in center point focus? I find I get more keepers if I use center point only and one shot instead of aiservo. Aiservo can jump all over the place it's so sensitive.
Cool shot tho!