Starting geese

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7548/...d12122_b_d.jpg

Hi,
My first picture on BPN, 2 starting geese on 14 march 2010.
Camera:Pentax K20D
Lens:Sigma 120-400
Shutterspeed:1/400
Aperture:9.0
Focal length:400 mm
ISO:320

Comments are welcome!
Kees

Hi Kees, and welcome! You've chosen a difficult subject with flying birds. You don't say if you used a tripod, but even if you did you'll need a much faster shutter speed to get sharp images of a moving bird -- and even faster if you hand hold. And hand holding usually lets you track and keep a focus sensor on the birds better. These show motion blur, and possibly less than ideal focus. Even the most advanced cameras can be challenged in scenes like this, and there is a learning curve for shooting such shots, both for motion and focus. And then there are the esthetic considerations of good light and composition.

There is much to be learned here in the different forums. We welcome your participation!

Hi Kees, Welcome to the forum it is a great place to learn. I agree with Diane's comments. I think that a higher shutter speed would have helped reduce the blur on the geese. You could have achieved that by using a larger aperture as I don't think it would need to be as high as f9. Taking a stop off it to about f6.3 and maybe increasing your ISO to 400 would have given you a shutter speed of around 1/1000 sec which could have made the image much sharper.
Which mode are you using your camera in?

Hi Diane and Ian, thanks a lot for your reply!
Indeed, 2 starting geese is not an easy subject to start with....
I will treat your points shortly:
-I don't remember the use of a tripod, it was in march 2010 and I got the Sigma 120-400 just a couple of months before that.
Nowadays, very often when I use a tripod, I use it as a monopod, that is I only use one ''pod'' of the tripod. That gives me more flexibility to react faster.
-The camera was in the automatic mode, I think I should use the coupled Shutterspeed and Aperture priority instead.
Indeed, then I can use an aperture of 7.1 and a shutterspeed of about 1/1000 second, the ISO is automatically selected then.
Mostly I don't use a larger aperture than 7.1 because the loss of image quality. And not a larger ISO value than 800, because of the noise.

Kind regards,
Kees

Or, alternatively, many people find it easy to use Av when they're first starting, and just set a high ISO that you're comfortable with, and the widest aperture that will work -- both matters of experience. Then see what SS you're getting and adjust aperture or SS as needed. Or reverse the triangle by using shutter speed priority (Tv). When you get comfortable with the settings, full Manual mode can have great advantages in many situations, especially if the light on the subject is constant (sunny day) but the BG is changing from lighter to darker. But if the light itself is changing (sun going in and out of clouds), Av or Tv can be better.

The most important things are to learn what your minimum SS should be at different focal lengths, what aperture you need for different subjects (often wider than you might think) and what maximum ISO you want to use.

I don't know your lens, but most of them are very good just a stop past wide open.

You got some good advice so far...the main reason you got an oof image like this is the shutter speed. Even most seasoned bird photographers will rarely get anything moving sharp at that SS. Better get a "noisy" sharp image than a smooth blurred one, and for that reason, with the light condition you had here, ISO 800 would have been my go-to ISO. Lots of compromises in settings in bird photography eh! The settings you chose would have been OK for static subjects, but even then raising the ISO (and thus the SS) is often beneficial for sudden movements.

I am glad you are participating here on BPN...you will see that in time you images will improve by leaps and bounds! Keep them coming:S3:

@Diane and Daniel: Thanks for your additional information!

Shortly I will share a new picture here on this forum, in the meantime I share here the picture that was taken a second before ,
so the same EXIF applies:

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7525/...f16a78_b_d.jpg

When I was struggling for the first time to post a picture, I switched the two accidentally.:w3
My apology for that.

Kind regards,
Kees

To the lower right of a post you will see an Edit button that lets you change your text or picture. To change the picture use the Go Advanced button.

At least, this works for Members -- I guess it is the same for Participants. If I remember right, though, there is a time limit on it for making changes -- maybe 24 hours?

Diane, thanks for the hint!