I agree with Shane... It looks like your autofocus sensor was not on the bird.. I don't know what kind of camera you were using, but if it has multiple autofocus sensors like mine, I only use the center focus sensor when I am shooting BIF, with other than clean backgrounds..
What they said -- continuous autofocus mode and one focus point selected and keep it on the bird. (Not easy.) And fire away in burst mode. This is difficult with anything but the best pro bodies. If the bird is flying parallel to the sensor (from right to left or reverse) you'll have a better chance at the AF keeping up. AF speed might not be fast enough with your camera for a bird coming right at you. But then it's harder to follow it and keep the sensor on it.
I don't see much at all in focus here.... looks like a combo of too slow ss with a REALLY FAST incoming subject and moving/panning the camera at the same time....and yes, what Shane, David and Diane said above. But, ENJOY the challenge!
think I may have figured out part of the problem, not sure, please advise if I'm right....
noticed my digital zoom was turned to on, which I never do unless I need to zoom further out.
i was barely zoomed for any of these, not even close to the digital zoom range.
from what I'm understanding though is with it turned on, when I focused on the bird in the tree and held the shutter half down to lock focus.... My camera disregards that focus if digital is turned on.....
then focuses on whatever it wants.
still not positive this was the problem.
its the Sony cybershot dsc hx 300, and Jerry was familiar with the camera, but like I said my shots looked great out in the field.... Pulled some up on the iPad and was shocked.
i was doing purely high burst, I always do and the rate for this camera is 10 FPS.
the shots coming at me I stood still and didnt move or pan, just depressed the shutter for my 10 frames, then my camera has to pause to record those.
all were taken at shutter speed of 1250 with ISO at 640.
any other thoughts?? Should I try just leaving it on aperture mode at 6.3 and let shutter do auto?? Or???
Last edited by LinzRiverBalmer; 11-21-2013 at 04:22 PM.
Still think ss was way too slow for this subject.... Try focusing beyond the target, then bringing it in, quickly. IMHO. How did your instructor evaluate the shots? If you are going for fast flyers... you can try TV, as long as lighting is ok.... Always make sure digital zoom is off....just in case.
Doesn't sound like digital zoom is the problem, although it's never recommended for quality shots -- crop later in the computer.
Looks like focus just wasn't following the subject. Set just the center focus point, keep it on the bird, and make sure continuous AF (or whatever your camera calls it) is set.
Not sure if it will help or not but auto tracking can find it difficult to focus on a subject moving straight towards the camera which is why most shots tend to be of subjects moving horizonal to the camera.
I'm sure I have also read that some cameras cannot track while the shutter is open so on a long burst you could be loosing focus. Maybe try several smaller bursts.
Iian may have pegged the problem here -- check the manual.
If it is a mirrorless camera, focus might be too slow for this kind of shooting, to the point that even short bursts may not work -- don't know these cameras at all, and I know they're getting better, but a guess worth checking out.
Liv...maybe I'm reading your post wrong, but as I'm reading it, you shot 3000 images
and a few are coming up out of focus?
If so, I wouldn't worry about it. The reason is, its possible that the images that are oof,
could be the images that the camera is trying reacquire focus on after the buffer is cleared.
Thanks to all.... I think everyone is right, its a mishmash bag of issues.
the camera is mirrorless, had to check. However it is touted as capable of these shots at 10FPS.
what we believe happened is..... Shutter a little slow, light a little low, digital zoom accidentally on, and of course flying right at me.
some of the shots not right at me were better, not perfect, not great, but better.
the photographer there for instruction, just like I thought was everything looked good on LCD playback.... Green light on focus, etc.
thinking the green go ahead for focus was based on my half shutter.... Camera had a green half shutter, then or whatever reason did not track the bird.... I have lots of thorny Russian olive in focus... Lol.
i did take around 3000 photos..... About 3/4 of them are like this one above, look awesome, perfect on LCD.... And then, something went wrong.
my apologies for not posting critiques to compensate..... I literally have 1 bar of service, and even with that its taking forever to post or email, or call.....
snow is forecasted next 2 days too.
i will make up for the lack of commenting as soon as I'm able.
thank you all for the help, priceless and appreciated as always!!!
The camera ended up being broken... the problems got worse and worse, and I had my backup with me, an older version of the same camera that I did some exact pictures with later on which were fine.
The more I used the camera the more things went haywire.
By the end of the trip it would focus on nothing at all and everything had a greenish cast. I tried different disks, different settings, nothing.
Took it back to best buy and they shipped it for fixing.
Quick Help Please, shooting issues at the Bosque
