Some questions, an intro, and some pics for feedback

Joojoobirds

Before I start the novel, the questions:

For really crisp pictures in mediocre-or-decent lighting, how necessary is a tripod?

I find myself as zoomed in as far as I can go a lot of the time. Is that normal? Is it better to zoom out a tad then crop later, or is it better to fill the frame as much as composition will allow?

I'm REALLY struggling with manual focus- I rarely get the little red-dot/beep of success, and even when I do, it doesn't look as sharp as I want it once I get it on my monitor. But automatic focus doesn't always find the bird I'm looking at between two trees. Any tips on focus would be much appreciated.

For context: I feel completely out of the league of the regulars on this board, but I figure I can hang around for education and inspiration. I got a new lens for Christmas to go with my Rebel XS- a Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS, at the recommendation of a birding/photography friend. I work for Adobe so I have all the software (and know my way around it well enough, though there is always more to learn).

I'm thrilled with how much more fun I'm having birding, but find myself running into the same problem I've had before with my photography endeavors. I know just enough to know what good photography is, and that I'm not doing it.
I'm shooting in manual some of the time and need to practice more with this camera (I'll admit I learned on a panasonic lumix LX3 and still think that was a great camera for a point and shoot)- currently I shoot in landscape mode for most bird pics. At this point most of my frustration is with focus- I'm often zoomed in all the way, no tripod, and the pics are not as sharp as I'd like.

By way of intro, here are some of my favorites thus far. Most are taken through the window of my home office. Also, I've gotten very little work done since I got my new lens;)

#1- American Crow

ISO 800
Focal Length 300mm
Aperture f/5.6
Exposure Time 0.008s (1/125)
(if only it were a more exciting bird than a crow!)

#2- Killdeer

ISO 125
Focal Length 300mm
Aperture f/7.1
Exposure Time 0.0025s (1/400)

#3- Great Blue Heron

ISO 250
Focal Length 300mm
Aperture f/7.1
Exposure Time 0.0025s (1/400)

#4- Tufted titmouse

ISO 800
Focal Length 300mm
Aperture f/5.6
Exposure Time 0.008s (1/125)
(no I didn't apply a filter- that's a window that needs cleaning:))

More pics on smugmug at http://jooniper.smugmug.com/Animals/Birds/i-BM7Crgz

Any critiques- particularly on post processing- would be MUCH appreciated.

Stumblebum

Hi Jojo, for starters, I strongly recommend, you check out bottom of thread that I pasted the link for below (I tried to give away recipe/pointers that I feel work for me. This is not 'THE' recipe, it is just 'A' recipe):

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=244216

As for your specific questions (some repeat from what you would find in thread above):

1) Tripod - can help, not essential. For wildlife, mono-pod maybe slightly better option
2) Zoom - Wildlife is usually too far for any zoom. Sometimes one gets lucky. Zoom on their eye and crop later.
3) Focus - Even if you had $12,000 dollar lens, focus will always be a struggle. That is normal. When I try for birds in flight, 95% of the time, it ends up zooming on weed behind them. Only solution is to keep shooting and once in a while it WILL focus and result would be sharp
4) Other Photogs - There will *always* be people who are doing insanely amazing things. One day you would be one of those people, unless you quit.
5) Numerous shots - Even when you think you got the shot, keep shooting. Only when you process them would you find couple of keepers. Safety in numbers.
6) Heron shot is my favorite!

Final advice:

I have tried my hand at Landscapes, Wildlife and Macro photography and so far this is what I have found to be the KEYS to good pictures (assuming they are good):

Landscape - Lucky light
Macro - Lucky focus
Wildlife - Lucky close encounters

Cheers!

Taz

Allen

I use auto focus to get close on the bird then quick manual tweak of focus to get the eye. Big zooms have a
very narrow DOF and auto focus will only place the bird within the apparent focus range. Somewhere within that
apparent focus range is the exact focus. That is why manual tweaking is most times needed.

puzzledpaul

Tripods - people love 'em or hate 'em

Sort of depends on whether you walk about looking for (and hoping to find) subjects, or you find a suitable location (preferably target rich ) ... and set up, hoping for subjects to come a'visiting.

The bigger / heavier the junk that you're lugging about will influence your decision - but some sort of support does have advantages imo.

Personally I mainly use a tripod for BIF shots (with a video head) ... but all my low level shots are taken with a bean-bag on a home made bit of kit, because tripod based rigs (that I know about) don't go low enough for the sort of pics I'm after.

As such I rarely use MF because of the way the overall set up interferes with the MF ring (although am working on this).
The only time I can actually remember using MF is with cam on tripod and Live view - (relatively) static subjects in a poor light situation.

Whilst no cam lens system is perfect - AF wise - the better the kit, the better the chances of acquiring and keeping a lock.

Certainly take lots of pics ... even if you think you've nailed it ... a slight difference in pose - eg one with, one without eye catchlight ... will make a difference.

I don't particularly agree with the 'lucky close encounters' comment above, because sometimes it's possible to make your own luck

I'll not repeat the blurge associated with the pic in the linked DG thread ... but suffice to say I'd not have got the pic shown if I'd stayed in the previous position.

Yes, lucky the subject repeated the action, but ...
... doesn't make me consider myself a top -notch 'tog or red-hot bird spotter - just someone that thought ...' hmmm, just maybe ... '

As it was a local much visited venue it helped that I already knew of a (different) spot that would be useful for this angle / direction and also allow water level access

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=210909


You might also find these tips useful - if not already seen?

http://blog.northshots.com/2013/12/20-nature-wildlife-photography-tips/

pp

basflt

being a beginner / amateur myself , i want to add my 2 pennies , for what its worth

you say you know your way with software
so , thats the second part of making good photo's

the pics you showed are good IMO , nothing wrong with
what you should try is work on the backgrounds
ea , blur them , replace them with something , alter them , whatever ,.. often it can make a real difference

puzzledpaul

basflt wrote: »

...

what you should try is work on the backgrounds
ea , blur them , replace them with something , alter them , whatever ,.. often it can make a real difference

Certainly agree that 'working on backgrounds' - in general - is an extremely worthwhile thing to take on board.

Zoomer (guy on people forum) summed up priorities / what to look for, nicely - imo

Light
Background
Composition
Pose

So, bg second only to the essential stuff

However, I'd suggest that trying to get something 'better' at the time of pressing the shutter is the way to go?
Yes,stuff can be removed / cloned / blurred / tweaked / 'polished' etc ... but what a pita this can be if it's a difficult bg to start with.
Be mindful that modded pics aren't acceptable in certain areas of life tho - as I'm sure you (working for Adobe) are aware.

Since I'm basically lazy, and no PS great tweaking wizard, I take the easy way out and try to get blurred bgs in camera ... courtesy of the lens ... therefore what you see is what I got - no post blurring / tweaking etc

Blurring bgs can be traps for the unwary - imo - since it's easy to just apply a single blur and end up with a totally unrealistic dof falloff ...

Obviously I don't disagree with the importance of PPing ... however, just imagine it wasn't available and you had to get it right in cam ...

Forgot to mention in first post, btw ... and am sure you do anyway ... but don't shoot thro' glass unless absolutely necessary.

Yes, there are some commercial hides around that use fancy (and presumably expensive) mirrored glass - 'togs see subjects, subjects see themselves ... often used at waterholes for low - level 'reflection pool' shots.

pp (amateur too, btw)

Hides with mirrored glass
http://www.hidephotography.com/