I need help with taking pictures

Bassett1976

I am fairly new to taking pictures. I have a Canon Rebel XL, I use a Sigma 18-50 mm, 1:3.5-5.6 lens and a Canon Zoom EF 75-300mm, 1:4.5-5.6 lense.

I was able to head down to the SD Zoo and Seaworld yesterday and got some pictures. I wanted to get some help because I keep getting fuzzy pictures with the zoom lens.

Example:
http://bassett1976.smugmug.com/photos/124449581-M.jpg

I want to learn ways to make this picture work. I think it would have been a good picture if it wasn't fuzzy/blurry. I know using a tripod works best but since they are animals they tend to move more than I do. I also figured part of it might be a lens issue or a setting issue, not sure.

Here is a good picture that I took yesterday.
http://bassett1976.smugmug.com/photos/124447903-M.jpg

I want all my pictures to look like this.

HELP!!!

Zanotti

Shutter Speed: 0.0769s (1/13) at 300mm.

As this translates to 500mm in film, rule of thumb of one over the shutter speed would indicate you need at least 1/500 sec. Nobody can hand hold a long lens at 1/13 second - even a tripod wouldnt do much unless the monkey didnt move either!

Others can chime in as well. Good luck, lots of great help here at DGrin.

Z

ian408

What Z said.

Take a gander at your manual and see the various settings you can use
for taking a shot. They're called modes. The basic explanation for them is
"auto", the camera controls everything. "Tv", shutter priority. You control
Shutter speed & ISO. The camera controls aperture. "Av", Aperture priority.
You select aperture & ISO and the camera controls the shutter.
"M" is fully manual. You set the shutter, aperture and ISO settings. The
camera makes no decision for you.

There are a couple of other modes as well but these are the basics.

Here's an example of how they work considering your photo.
Your subject is moving all the time (as are you) and you are using a
long lens. The movement is subtle, breathing, or perhaps camera
shake (heavy camera, you're breathing too). You'd first want to consider
the lens length and using the 1/lens in mm guideline, set the camera to
Tv and set the shutter speed to 1/500 at a minimum. If you are not that
steady (you have to hand hold the camera with nothing to brace against),
you should try for a higher shutter speed. Something in the 640+ range
is usually better. For moving subjects, the fastest shutter speed is often
the best--there are other times you'd use a slower shutter but for this
example; let's stick with faster is better.

Exposure is like a three legged stool. With Shutter, Aperture and ISO
each being a leg. Good exposure is a balance of all three. If you want
high shutter speeds, adjusting aperture and ISO are the way to achieve
that. If you want control depth of field, your adjustments will be shutter
speed and ISO. And if you want to control noise (ISO), your adjustments
are shutter speed and aperture (lower ISO is generally equal to less
noise--some camera bodies are capable of producing images with less
noise at higher ISO than others--check to see how your camera performs).
Like a three legged stool, if you change the length of a leg, you must
change the others--think of proper exposure as a balance between
shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings.

Getting back to your example. 1/13th of a second is far too slow for
this lens to be hand held. What you would do is set shutter priority and
the shutter speed to 1/640 or better (higher) then adjust your ISO setting
from 100 to probably no more than 400 (remember, lower is better) until
you get an aperture setting that works for the depth of field you want.
Try different settings and notice the changes between them.

Hope that's helpful and that you have a chance to go back to the zoo for
another shoot!

JohnDC

Zanotti is right. Your shutter speed was much too slow. You need to stop motion blur caused by movements of you and your subject. To get a faster shutter speed do the following:
1. Increase your ISO until you get a shutter speed of 1/500 or faster for the kind of picture you were taking. Try to get at least 1/1200 if you can. Higher ISOs increase noise (like film grain), but noise is better than motion blur, and Canon sensors are pretty good in cutting noise.
2. Get more light by doing the following:
a. Open your aperature more (decrease your aperature number--something like f4). For this portait-style shot, f4 will also give you the benefit a shorter depth of field that will keep the background out of focus.
b. Use flash (but natural light will look, ah, more natural).

davev

Hi. I looked at your site and the photos from the zoo.
It looks like you took all your shots at ISO 100. The only time I shoot at ISO 100 is when I use a tripod. (night shots or moving water) I usually use ISO 200 outdoors on a bright day, 400 for overcast, 800 for stormy weather and 1600 indoors.

The best thing I can suggest to you is to buy an image stabilized lens for the longer shots (70-300). It helps a lot hand holding shots in less than perfect conditions, and I have hundreds of photos to prove this.

John suggested trying to get a shutter speed of 1/1200. I don't agree with this, not at a zoo where the subjects are mostly lying around. You need that kind of speed if you're trying to stop action, like that of a flying bird, but not an orangutan sitting down. But everyone has a different point of steady/unsteadness. I'm lucky. I'm pretty steady.

Now I'll pass on an Andy Williams tip: If your shutter speed is lower than what you'd like it to be, (1/300 at 300mm) have your camera on continuous shooting, and hold the shutter down until you've taken 2 consecutive photos. The second shot should be better than the first one. You don't get the shake from your finger pressing the shutter.

Not knowing your age, (23 or 103) size, (meaning more or less in shape) or if you had the 32 oz coffee with a red bull on the side that morning, it's tough to add any more suggestions.

Bassett1976

Thank you all for your replys! I am still new at all of this and I'm looking to take great pictures all of the time instead of occasionally. I've learned something and hopefully my next trip will be better!

Its interesting that all of you told me to change my ISO to at least 200 if not more. Most of the information that I've gotten so far is to have the ISO at 100 for sunny day pictures. I will make sure to change this the next time for sure!

ian408

Bassett1976 wrote:

Its interesting that all of you told me to change my ISO to at least 200 if not more. Most of the information that I've gotten so far is to have the ISO at 100 for sunny day pictures. I will make sure to change this the next time for sure!

I think that with your camera (I would need to look in the manual), if you
leave the camera on "auto", it will pick all three settings for the "best"
exposure. Works most of the time but not always. Try one of Av or Tv
on your next trip to the zoo.

Regarding ISO. Remember the 3 legged stool. You want more shutter speed,
you have to adjust. If you are wide open (f5.6) and you can't get the SS
you want, you only have one other option, ISO. If it's 100, make it 200 and
so on. I would try not to go above 640.