More Merrit Island Practice

Zanotti

OK, this is pretty poor. Why? Shutter speed, poor DOF, poor focus?

C&C appreciated:



Date Taken:2006-12-17 15:46:1815:46:18
Make:CanonModel: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
Size: 3456x2304 Bytes: 2161165
Aperture: f/4.0 ISO: 200
Focal Length: 200mm (guess: 212mm in 35mm)
Exposure Time: 0.0031s (1/320)
Flash:Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
Exposure Program:Aperture priority
Exposure Bias:0ExposureMode:0
White Balance:autoColorSpace:sRGB

Harryb

Excellent practice shot it has a lot to teach ya. First your ISO setting was too low. I would have bumped it up to at least 400 so that I could get faster shutter speed. 1/320 sec is way too slow too attempt a flight shot. 1/640 sec is the absolute slowest shutter speed I would use for a flight shot.

Your exposure adjustment was 0 which would explain why you had no feather detail in your shot. The camera's metering will try to read the greens in the shot as middle gray (128) and its a lot lower than that (looks its between 80-100). So the camera's meter wull average out the scene and your whites will get blown out. I would say that you need to do an EV adj of at least a half of a stop and probably 2/3rds of a stop in that scene to avoid blowing out the highlights. The bonus here is that by making that adj you would have been boosting up your shutter speed.

Your focus seems to be good as the beak and the eye appear to be sharp.

Zanotti

Thanks Harry, I am looking forward to the shoot at Merritt Island to learn more.

The other issue I seem to have is anticipation of what may happen. Of course you are right to do all those things, but as the bird is making a hasty retreat from my apporach, its a little tough to remember to do all that!

I was happy to see some water drops suspended in space, that means some degree of focus and shutter speed. Do you think that the outside wing is due to speed as well?

Man, I am loving this almost instant feedback. I took the photo after 3pm today and now at 6 we are discussing its merits!

Z

Harryb

Zanotti wrote:

Thanks Harry, I am looking forward to the shoot at Merritt Island to learn more.

The other issue I seem to have is anticipation of what may happen. Of course you are right to do all those things, but as the bird is making a hasty retreat from my apporach, its a little tough to remember to do all that!

I was happy to see some water drops suspended in space, that means some degree of focus and shutter speed. Do you think that the outside wing is due to speed as well?

Man, I am loving this almost instant feedback. I took the photo after 3pm today and now at 6 we are discussing its merits!

Z

By the time you leave MI IV you'll be handling these type of shots with no problem.

Anticipation of wwhat the subject is going to do and what settings you'll need to capture that action comes with practice. A good example would be that egret sitting in water. In that situation there would be less light on him and you would probably get by with an EV adj of -0.3. If he started to take if you would want to increase that adj to about -0.7 because when he flies he will have more light on him.

The blur on the outside wing is due to the slow shutter speed. In fact you probably could have gotten away with the motion blur on the wings and had a good capture if you had nailed the exposure.

Harryb

I forgot to say earlier that this was an excellent post. We always post our best stuff and never the shots we blow.

If we posted some of our lesser works for feedback onand what we did wrong it might be very interesting and definitely very helpful.

Good work Z.

Zanotti

Thanks Harry, I am definately in learning mode.

I have taken so much from Dgrin, copying yours and others styles. I did a set identical to Pathfinder's motorcycle shots, then sent them to him for comment.

I find knowing what to change immensely helpful. Seeing all these perfect shots here is sometimes disconcerting, but I do learn something almost everyday here and that's invaluable!

Its funny, but I am touching everything from podcasts to magazines, to where to order, to what to use, to how and what to shoot from Dgrin.

Its become an important part of my day.

Thanks to all,

Z

pathfinder

Hi Zanotti,

I agree with Harry that shooting this scene with the dark green trees in the background, if you are using Evaluative metering, you will need to set your camera for -2/3 to -1 1/3 Expsoure Compensation to keep from blowing out the highlights of the egret.

I disagree slightly with Harry about shutter speed though. ( Sorry Harry - you are the Man with BIFS ) but Zanotti was shooting with a 200mm lens, and I think that 1/320th or 1/400th is probably fast enough with a 200mm lens and panning. I never am able to get a shutter speed that is three times the inverse of the focal length - 200mm lens 1/600th sec At 800mm, that would be 1/2400th - hard to do that at reasonable ISOs, isn't it??

I have more concern with your aperture of f4. Shooting BIFs at f4 does not leave much margin for error in focus. I would prefer to shoot at f5.6 or f6.3 or f7.1, or even f8 if possible for BIFS. Especially when shooting with glass longer than 200mm.

This bird must be pretty close in to fill a frame with a 200mm lens, thus the DOF is even less than if the bird were further away. The wingtips are both OOF to my eye.

I know sometimes there is not enough light to shoot smaller than f4, but I would probably bump the ISO to get a smaller aperture if it was my choice.

And last, but not least, was this shot in RAW?? Raw will save your bacon a lot if you shoot in it. Compact Flash has come down in price ennough that I suggest shooting in RAW + medium jpg. Medium jpgs will let you evaluate your shots quickly and RAW is there when needed. It just seems to work best for me this way.

Zanotti

The next shot


OK, same bird, as he's going away. Focus is improved, ev is not, speed doesnt look so bad here. Shot isnt well centered anymore, playing catch up to his exit!

I have been shooting primarily in Jpeg (L). I dont have the experiance in RAW processing to be effective there. As a matter of fact, I took the family Christmas Card tonight and shot raw +jpeg and ended up using the jpeg files, primarily because I know how to handle them.

Z