keeper rate

[Stuart Edwards]

how often are pictures supposed to be in sharp focus with long lenses ? i have a 70D and picked up a 100-400L last year and the keeper rate was less than 50%. i figured it was partly due to an old lens and partly user error. i recently picked up a 400f5.6L that is noticeably sharper wide open , but the keeper rate isnt any higher. i tried the focus micro adjust on both lenses and even bought focal pro to make sure i did it right. lately i have been trying iso 1600 in bright daylight to keep shutter-speed up to rule out camera shake and it didnt improve much. basic settings i am using are center focus point , spot metering , one shot ,back button focus . could i be doing something wrong , or a bad setting in the camera ? when its sharp , i find the pictures great , but i miss a lot of shots that are out of focus. i plan on upgrading to a 7dII but if the problem is me , i would like to figure it out before upgrading .
thanks
Stuart

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Stuart,

Welcome to BPN.

The most important factor for getting a high percentage of sharp flight shots is the skill of the photographer. Soft flight shots are usually due to user error. It takes much practice, patience and experience to develop these skills. However, gear plays an undeniable role too, some cameras/lenses are less ideal for flight photography and some are more capable. A more advanced camera body can sure improve your keeper ratio but that assumes you know how to use it and have developed some of these skills already, otherwise upgrading to a better camera does not necessarily improve the ratio of sharp flight images.

MA will not help you get sharp flight shots, so you can rule that one out. There are other factors that impact sharpness, I discuss the more important ones here

http://arihazeghiphotography.com/blo...always-needed/

From you settings, it seems to me that you are new to bird photography. One shot AF is for stationary subjects that do not move. Spot meter is not suitable for flight photography, so there is much ground to cover here.

My recommendation to you is that before upgrading your body try to attend a field class/workshop instructed by someone skilled in this art to get more familiar with the basic methods and skills of flight photography. There are also camera-specific guides that will help you...


best

Arash

[Carolyn Arnesen]

You may want to try AI Servo AF with high speed continuous drive mode, rather than one shot, for moving subjects.

[Stuart Edwards]

thanks for the replies . i do use AI servo for birds in flight but i dont shoot them very often. most of the time i am shooting stationary subjects .. i had a look at that link you shared Arash , and that looks exactly like the problem im having . i will pay attention to heat shimmer and try getting the shutter speed a little higher . it is a little disappointing when you see a great pose of a bird get a few shots then find out later that none are usable .

[Mike Hitchen]

The focus point is often a bit larger than the square shown in the viewfinder and because of the difficulties of tracking moving birds, it is easy for the camera to pick up the edge of the focus point and focus on the background. But another part of technique is that it is easier to track a bird flying across from you than it is to track when flying towards you.

One thought comes from my experience with the 7D and is something commonly mentioned by people using it: even when you are able to keep the focus point on the bird it is not unknown for it to misses focus every third shot or so (this is not a case of 'regularly every third shot' but does happen enough for this to be a decent average) and this may come from one of two things: the AF system may just not be optimised as highly as it could be (the 70D has a modified version of the 7D AF system) or the 7D (and maybe the 70D) may just not have the power from the battery to drive the AF of a large lens like the 100-400 quickly enough to keep up with the bird.

You already know you can get pin-sharp shots so I would not bother gettnig a new camera until you can do so often enough to your satisfaction or it will be money wasted. One way to check the focus is not to raise the ISO because the high ISO will make the picture a bit fuzzy anway, but to put the camera on a tripod (or sturdy support) turn off IS and take repeated shots of the same object, and using the focus ring to manually defocus it in between shots. If you get a decent hit rate with that then try the same with slow-moving subjects moving across your field of view and build up the experience from there.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Stuart, sorry if I missed that info somewhere...but are you photographing handheld or with a tripod? If handheld, use Continuous rather than One Shot, take a short burst of 2-3 images, and use AI Servo as even the tiniest of movement back and forth on your part can and does result in soft focus (even when you think you are being super steady). As a fun test, focus on the stationary subject with AI Servo and listen how the focus is constantly readjusting with your ever slight movements....

[arash_hazeghi]

Good call by Dan even for perched birds it's best to use AI-servo as they make small movements which will usually make the photo soft if you use one shot AF, your own small movements will also result in soft frames.

best

[Karl Egressy]

Stuart wrote: " i plan on upgrading to a 7dII but if the problem is me , i would like to figure it out before upgrading"
Hi Stuart,
I met a guy a few years back.
He was a well known BIF shooter, one of the best I have ever known. He said he would go out every day and shoot a few thousand frames of Gulls to practice.
This is how he started, then advanced to faster and more difficult birds.
His camera was a Canon 1D Mark II and the lens was a 400 f5.6 L and a 500 f4.0 L IS.
Conclusion: Practice, practice, practice.

[Joel Coster]

how often are pictures supposed to be in sharp focus with long lenses ?...

Not very often, from my experience.

+1 to the "practice, practice, practice"
+1 to "...is the skill of the photographer."

Furthermore. New equipment is not the answer to most problems. If one has suitable tools, technique can always be improved. My father was a carpenter and cabinet maker for 45 years. He gave me an old (60+ years now) hammer. If I had trouble with a nail, he would take the hammer out of my hand and drive the bent nail home without any problem (while his 80yo hands shook in comparison with my 55yo hands).

That said, I used that carpenter's hammer to re-roof half of my wood roof. A couple years later I started re-roofing the other half. While buying supplies, I noticed a Roofer's hammer on the wall. Best tool I ever bought. But after 3000 nails, I realized I was just learning to pound nails properly

[David Stephens]

Use Digital Photo Professional to review your non-keepers. Was the AF on the bird's eye and it was still OOF? If half are in focus and half are out, it's not micro-focus. It'll usually be user error, including, but not limited to getting the AF exactly on the birds eye, for a perched bird, or head for BIF.