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Thread: Soft Images - Lense issue / Shooting Technique issue / Other issue

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    Default Soft Images - Lense issue / Shooting Technique issue / Other issue

    Hi All,

    This might be a silly question but I had to ask to get it out of my head. I have been shooting birds for almost 3-4 months. I tried to use Nikon 200-500 lens and Sigma 150-600mm lens etc on my Nikon D7100 Body. Nikon lens copy had some issue with lens and hence move to Sigma Sport lens.

    Using my current setup Nikon D7100 + Sigma 150-600mm lens I do get some good shots, but when I shooting low light or when I am shooting Song birds I often get soft images. I am not happy with this as I love to see my images tack sharp ( Birds with Feathers ). The way I look is that any bird's Image which does not have feather details is considered to be soft with some exceptions for birds like Egrets etc.

    So am I being nit picky about the image sharpness and the lens etc, is this how bird photography should be like some shots will not be that sharp ? I know that I am no where near any professional photographer but I do like all my images to be really sharp and would do anything for the same.

    That being said I do get disappointed with some of my shots not being really sharp/ all with lots of grain etc. I want to take my photography to next level for that I do feel I need to solve this issue.

    Any advise or suggestion is greatly appreciated.

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    Krishna,
    Soft shops happen for many reasons, mostly, operator error is the reason.

    post an example where the photo is soft and maybe we can help you understand why it came out soft. Be sure to include a 100% crop from RAW without too much processing

    best
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    Attached Images Attached Images
     
     
    Hi Arash,

    Thank you for the reply.

    Below are the 2 shots take last Saturday at High Island, Texas.

    First Shot:- Scarlet Tanager seems to be really soft.
    ISO 640, f/6.3, 1/2500 sec

    Second Shot:- Prothonotary warbler although not great, I can say it much more sharper than first shot. The focus point was on the wings so it was much sharper at the wings.
    ISO 800, f/6.3, 1/500 sec


    I always seems to think why the first shot was really soft than the second one. These two shots are untouched in Lightroom. I just exported them in JPEG and uploaded it here.


    Thanks
    Krishna

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    at this size you can't really tell what is going on

    please post a 100% crop
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    Attached Images Attached Images
     
     
    Below are the shots 100% cropped.

    I exported the shots from Lightroom to Photoshop elements, Cropped 1:1 and save a JPEG files for the same.

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    Hi Krishna,

    These aren't 100% crops from a 24 mpixel camera, as the birds are too small. Can you upload your RAW files (e.g. dropbox or yousendit ?)

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    Hi,

    Apologies for the confusion. I uploaded the Raw files to Dropbox, below is the link to it.

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l9s6qibsh...obv_42zpa?dl=0


    Thanks
    Krishna

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    do you have the RAW files (not DNG).

    Never convert your RAW files to DNG. DNG format destroys valuable information such as active AF sensor or focus distance that is encoded in the RAW by camera. You also lose the ability to use RAW converters other than Adobe (such as manufacturer RAW converters that are often better), furthermore DNG is not recognized as an original file format, you won't be able to enter your photos in most prestigious competitions if you don't have the original RAW.

    keep your RAW files in their original form.
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    Hi Arash,

    Thank you for the details. As I am quite new to photography I did not know the details mentioned by you. I do not have RAW files apart from the DNG file.

    I always thought that DNG is the kind of Universal format for photographer so I converted and stored all my file in DNG format. Going forward I will not convert the files to DNG format. Thanks a ton for the information.

    Thanks
    Krishna

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    I had a look at your DNG files, below are the 100% crops (these is what a 100% crop looks like BTW).

    The first image has two issues, first the shutter speed was quite slow, as a result nothing in the image, even the wings, aren't quite sharp. Try to keep your SS faster than 1/1000 sec, the small song birds may look stationary from a distance but they make all kinds of small movements which can cause the photo to come out soft. In addition to that the critical focus was on the wing as opposed to head leaving the head even softer than the wing. You need to put the AF on the bird's head as opposed to the wings. Once you become more experienced to tell when the bird is moving, and if you have access to lenses with advanced image stabilization (IS or VR MK II), you can move to slower SS.


    Name:  _KRI5158.jpg
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    The second image had fast enough shutter speed and it doesn't look much softer than the first one, if you ask me they look about the same in terms of sharpness. The shaded areas have lots of noise that reduced the visible detail and thus impression of sharpness. Due to harsh light, the highlight (red) channel is close to sensor's saturation level and also suffers from loss of details.

    Name:  _KRI5601.jpg
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    Overall the conditions were poor in both of these photos. Having the sun behind you and the bird at eye level and closer will greatly improve the overall quality and sharpness of your photos.

    The other factor to consider the quality of optics, I'm not really familiar with third-party lenses such as Sigma but some lenses aren't sharp wide open. you may have to stop down by one stop to reach maximum sharpness. You can usually tell this by looking at manufacturer's MTF charts or by doing a controlled test yourself.


    For comparison here is what I consider a sharp RAW file.

    Name:  _H__2680-copy-3.jpg
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    EOS 1DX 400mm f/4 DO IS II + 1.4X III. ISO 1600.

    here is a 100% crop from my RAW file

    Name:  _H__2680.jpg
Views: 834
Size:  396.1 KB
    Last edited by arash_hazeghi; 04-12-2016 at 12:31 AM.
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    hope all of this helps
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    Hi Arash,

    Thank you very much for explaination.

    Thanks
    Krishna

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    So how do you get to the eye level of the song birds. Typically they tend to be high up in the trees right ?

    Thanks
    Krishna

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    Key Takeaways for me.

    1.) High Shutter Speed
    2.) Always shoot birds with eye level. Observe the Angle of Sunlight and make right choice.
    3.) Cross check on the Lens if there are some issues.
    4.) Do not convert into DNG files, Preserve the RAW images as it is.

    If you can let me know how you made those 100% crops from the DNG file then it will be really helpful to me. I want to check all my existing shots using this method.

    BTW Great Information given to me... Thanks again for the help.

    Krishna
    Last edited by Krishna Prasad kotti; 04-12-2016 at 09:35 AM.

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    Hi Krishna,

    To get them to eye-level you'll to get them to come down. For more consistent results that means setups using either food, water, audio (judiciously). The bonus with this is that you can also control which perch and background you'll get. You can always just hope to encounter one that is low, but unless that is a shorebird you will not get as many opportunities as you may hope for.

    Are you hand holding? If so, you will need to make sure the focus point is on AND ACTIVE on the eye (preferably) or at the very lest on the face or upper neck. Even just a bit of back and forth movement on your part can put critical focus on other parts such as the shoulder.

    High shutter speeds are desirable and should be used most you can, of course, but not always available. You can get excellent results with much lower SS by using good long-lens / hand holding technique.

    If you find your birds consistently soft on the face but sharper on the wings or flanks you may need to micro-adjust your kit.

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    Hi Dan,

    Thank you for the information. All my song birds shots were in wildlife refugee or bird sanctuary. I guess if I need to setup food, water etc they need to be done in the backyard. I agree that with this backyard setup we control which perch or background we can get.

    I was landholding my Sigma 150-600mm lens. I will work on Hand holding it better etc to improve my shots. I will see if I can setup bird feeders at back yard instead of hunting for them in Bird Sanctuary. I did observe the lens to be soft based on general shots. I contacted Sigma Support for this issue and am going to ship the lens to have it corrected.

    I will use a micro adjust Kit in future.

    Thanks
    Krishna

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    Krishna, I would like to add my two cents worth. I have the Sigma 150-600mm Sport lens. It is very heavy for me. (I'm an average (older) female of 5'6" and 140lbs wringing wet) I tried hand holding and it's not worth my effort. I am now using a tripod all of the time. Sure, it's cumbersome and not as easy to manoeuvre at times, but I'm shooting a lot better. Have a look at some of my images in the ETL forum. Not up to the "avian standard"...yet, but I think you can see that the Sigma is performing well. Mine is particularly sharp at f8. Although I shoot a lot wide open, because I'm always battling the light. I am more than happy with the lens. Try using a tripod!

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    Hi Glennie,

    Thank you for the sharing this information. I really like Sigma 150-600 Sports lens. Yes it is very heavy but I am not worried to take it out in the field and be confident of it (heavy use etc). I will try to shoot more with on Tripod with it as you have suggested.
    Coming to Image quality I think for the price it is the best in the market though I think I should have gone with Nikon 200-400 mm lens. I was not confident to buy used lens for such high price. God I wish I had seen this forum earlier I would have looked at the used gear and would have brought that lens with confidence.

    I think my Lens has some issues, I will be shipping it to Sigma to check on it.

    I like your posts in ETL forum. I guess I should post my pictures there more often than here, as I do feel my shots are not yet up to Avian Standard... :-(
    I will not give up and will try to shoot as much as I can and Improve as much as I can.

    Thank you for sharing the information.

    Thanks
    Krishna

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    A 6.5lb is not a heavy lens if you are in good shape. You certainly don't need a tripod a get sharp files. (I never use one). You need to work on improving your hand holding techniques

    Using a tripod is very limiting if you like to shoot flight shots, I wouldn't recommend it unless you are physically incapable of hand holding your rig.
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    Hi Arash,

    Can you let me know the details or point me any resource which I can read to improve my hand holding techniques for big lens?

    Thanks
    Krishna

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    Quote Originally Posted by Krishna Prasad kotti View Post
    Hi Arash,

    Can you let me know the details or point me any resource which I can read to improve my hand holding techniques for big lens?

    Thanks
    Krishna
    Hi Krishna, Hand holding cannot be really taught online as every person is different, there is no generic recipe. If you are really interested I recommend you take a few workshops with someone skilled in the art who can couch you one on one.

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    It looks like I had better get into some weight training! Krishna, have a look a few threads down. (4th March - Stance for Handheld BIF) There are some very good tips there to start.

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    Thanks to everyone who has written above comments. I have learned a lot from reading them.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Krishna Prasad kotti View Post
    Hi Arash,

    Can you let me know the details or point me any resource which I can read to improve my hand holding techniques for big lens?
    Great thread. Thanks for starting it and volunteering some examples to really allow Ari to get into specifics.

    Regarding hand holding, don't let the sea of tripod deter you when you're out shooting with others. Once you develop your hand holding skills, you'll get shots that they constantly miss. Most people that I know that hand hold, just started and continued to work at it. I know women hand holding Canon 500mm lenses and they tell me that they just started one day and just kept working at it.

    Some things that I do that I find helpful:
    I use ISO 800 as my default, to help keep the SS up.
    In really bright light, or shooting white birds, I move down to ISO 400
    In overcast or in deep woods shadows, I'll go to ISO 1600
    My target SS is 1/2500 to 1/3200, but I go down to 1/1000 and even lower, in crappy situations. Your fingers must be crossed also.
    I put my left hand under the balance point of lens. I prefer my hand directly on the lens, to be closer to the center of gravity, but many people use the foot.
    When shooting from 20-degrees down to 20-degrees up (roughly) I try to keep my left elbow into my body. For higher angles, I use pure arm strength, which increases over time.
    Rest your arms whenever you get a chance. Sometimes, when there's lots of action, it can get very tiring. The good news is that you're building muscle, but you may have to miss a few shots to rest.

    Good luck and give us a follow up report after you've worked at it a bit.

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    Good read and great info provided by the members

    Thanks

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    My 2 cents:

    1.) High Shutter Speed - Not necessarily. One you become more proficient with your gear, you will be able to handhold at lower and lower shutter speeds, of course depending upon conditions and equipment.

    2.) Always shoot birds with eye level. Observe the Angle of Sunlight and make right choice. Of course your images will usually be more pleasing at eye level. If a subject is higher than you would like, back up to take your short. This will help to cut off the angle. There are many images i have taken of a very high bird. But I have backed up and used long zooms. Most of the time, your images work best with front lighting (from behind you), but don't forget that other types of lighting such as back lighting and side lighting are also unique and effective under the right conditions. Try to work hard first at shooting with the light coming from behind you. As you get more experienced, you'll begin looking for other forms of lighting.
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    It is definitely possible to get tack sharp images at low shutter speed ( my example is 1/200sec hand held). But it needs experience and skill. For a beginner trying to debug sharpness issues it's easier to use faster SS for a while to take this factor out of the equation until they are experienced....
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    Thank you all for the valuable suggestions.

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    One addition that I don't see mentioned above, when I started trying to photograph birds I found that shooting my Canon in AI Servo mode helped my keeper ratio improve a bit. I don't know the Nikon system but I assume there is an equivalent setting that helps to hold the focus with a moving bird.

    Barry

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    Attached Images Attached Images
     
     
    If I may jump in,

    I've been working on sharpness, and Arash, I really appreciate your example of "what is sharp". Wow, even the examples I have that I thought were sharp are not close to that. Which is sad for me, because I have already taken many pictures of cool birds.

    Attached is a nightjar with the Faithful profile & 100% crop taken from a screencap, so you can see the focus point was right on the eye. I was using the spot point for best accuracy.

    7D MKII, 100-400mm II +1.4x III, 401mm, f/7.1, 1/640s, ISO 500

    (Obviously in this case I could have removed the TC)

    Is there a clear, key flaw here that is obviously the culprit? The nightjars rely on camouflage- they don't move much. So at 640mm (FF equivalent) with the 4-stops of IS this lens provides, shutter speed should be plenty fine. ISO is low enough. I could have stopped down a bit, but this combo is supposed to be pretty darn sharp wide open. The sun is obviously not behind me- is this enough to completely ruin sharpness, or just for the most attractive shots? The time was about 5 hours past dawn, which is a harsher light but also the only way I'm able to get low ISO & fast shutter speeds.

    I was using One Shot, so it's possible I swayed. I've AFMA'd this combo with FoCal, it's possible I screwed that up (though my results are in line with the most typical results for the combo, per FoCal)

    If you can lend me some insight, I'd appreciate it. I haven't snagged any shots under perfect conditions & settings, so I can't know for sure, but I'm wondering if my equipment has issues.


    Sidebar, high ISO noise regularly makes my results even worse- there's not that much light below the jungle canopy or in the morning hours when birds are most active. Is there a "best" approach to combating this? Faster glass is out of reach for me for now. Getting good at noise reduction and getting aggressive about shutter speed seem the only possible ways to get several stops, is that right?

    P.S. If you've used FoCal, do you have any snips from the PDF reports of the target photos it got? This is mine during calibration @ 560mm at the selected AFMA setting:
    http://3.static.img-dpreview.com/files/p/E~forums/57676203/473ab0218647410a99043eab319b2930 (f/8 1/320s ISO400, 7D MKII, 100-400L II +1.4x, AFMA 10) The target clearly isn't razor sharp. At the time I thought perhaps that's just as good as it gets, but perhaps that isn't true.

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    If I may jump in,

    I've been working on sharpness, and Arash, I really appreciate your example of "what is sharp". Wow, even the examples I have that I thought were sharp are not close to that. Which is sad for me, because I have already taken many pictures of cool birds.

    Attached is a nightjar with the Faithful profile & 100% crop taken from a screencap, so you can see the focus point was right on the eye. I was using the spot point for best accuracy.

    Name:  Capture.JPG
Views: 564
Size:  91.3 KB

    Name:  MO8A8762.JPG
Views: 566
Size:  219.8 KB

    7D MKII, 100-400mm II +1.4x III, 401mm, f/7.1, 1/640s, ISO 500

    (Obviously in this case I could have removed the TC)

    Is there a clear, key flaw here that is obviously the culprit? The nightjars rely on camouflage- they don't move much. So at 640mm (FF equivalent) with the 4-stops of IS this lens provides, shutter speed should be plenty fine. ISO is low enough. I could have stopped down a bit, but this combo is supposed to be pretty darn sharp wide open. The sun is obviously not behind me, and it's about 5 hours after sunrise so the light is a bit harsher. But are these things enough to totally ruin sharpness, or just for the most attractive results?

    I was using One Shot, so it's possible I swayed. I've AFMA'd this combo with FoCal, it's possible I screwed that up (though my results are in line with the most typical results for the combo, per FoCal)

    If you can lend me some insight, I'd appreciate it. I haven't snagged any shots under perfect conditions & settings, so I can't know for sure, but I'm wondering if my equipment has issues.


    Sidebar, high ISO noise regularly makes my results even worse- there's not that much light below the jungle canopy or in the morning hours when birds are most active. Is there a "best" approach to combating this? Faster glass is out of reach for me for now. Getting good at noise reduction and getting aggressive about shutter speed seem the only possible ways to get several stops, is that right?

    Lastly, if you've used Reikan's FoCal, do you by chance have reports saved, with the image snips of the target? My snips of the target are not terribly sharp; I figured it was just the limit of the optics, but maybe that's not actually true.

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    Hi Patrick,

    Using one-shot AF is a recipe for failure. NEVER use one shot AF for birds, use AI-servo all the time as the birds move (unless they are stuffed). Also don't get hung up on MA, most of the time it's not needed and it's just a waste of time. See my blog to read more and understand this issue better http://arihazeghiphotography.com/blo...always-needed/ There is a lot of misleading information on the web around this issue.

    The images made in the middle of the day often suffer from heat shimmers as explained above, from your image this looks like to be the issue. Photographing in such harsh light is a not productive, try to photograph when the light is soft and uniform. Ultimately some location just aren't going to work for bird photography despite the presence of interesting wildlife/habitat. The solution is to move on to a different location where the conditions are right, not all of us live close to places that are ideal for taking bird photos, we need to travel and explore other locations. For dealing with low light, you can also use a tripod and slower shutter speeds.

    The 7D2 with 100-400 and 1.4X is not going to be as sharp as a 1DX with a MKII super telephoto lens, no matter what you do to it. But you should get results better than what you have above.

    best
    Last edited by arash_hazeghi; 05-12-2016 at 04:25 PM.
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    Arash, thanks for the reply. AI Servo is hard sometimes for me for birds, it's dang hard to constantly keep the focus point over the eye of something like an ibis, where the neck is thin and the head is small. But I can completely understand why one-shot could be a problem, I plugged in the parameters for this shot and my DoF is only 20-30mm.

    I've read that piece of yours on AFMA before, it's just hard not to worry about it. But I will try to follow your advice :) Now, given that I have already calibrated my lenses & everything, by "don't worry about it" do you mean, just leave it with those settings and don't worry about redoing it, or do you mean just put it back to 0?

    I definitely have a number of photos during mid-day where conditions could be leading to heat shimmer, of course I find low temps & soft light tends to mean dim light, and next thing you know I'm shooting at ISO 6400 to keep the shutter speed up. Although, reviewing my library, maybe I should start getting aggressive with shutter speed, I have shots @ 560mm that exhibit no motion blur at 1/320s, 1/200s, even one at 1/20s. If softer (and dimmer) light is what I need then it's probably worthwhile to try.

    As for equipment, I was just looking at the IQ tests on the-digital-picture.com, and I did compare my setup to yours, and you are so very right. I guess I figured the supertelephotos offered mostly reach and speed, I didn't realize how much sharper they were. A 400mm DO +2x is still sharper than my 100-400 @ 400mm, both on the 7DII! And I can see the 1D bodies offer IQ uplift, though not as significant as the glass upgrade. Just when I thought I had kicked the habit of dreaming about gear I don't have, now I'm drooling over the thought of a 400mm DO plus the new 1DXII- all AF points are active at f/8, you see... but in reality I don't want a big heavy kit.

    On my most recent trip I kept the 1.4x on the camera most of the time, there were times where it was either TC or crop but I probably let myself get a little lazy on my sneaking & hiding, and I can see in the image tests the price I pay with this lens.

    The good news is I definitely have obtained better results than the nightjar, that one was just puzzling as I had expected that one to be one of my sharper results. Looking through those better photos, I do notice most are in softer light...

    I know you've shot with this body and if memory serves also with this lens- can you comment on whether this particular example is closer to the best I could hope to get out of this combo? Faithful profile, no processing.

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    7DII, 100-400 II +1.4x III, 560mm, 1/160s, ISO 1250, +0.3EV

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    Hi Patrick,

    I am afraid the sample above is very soft and lacking. The reason it is so soft is very slow shutter speed. You won't get that many sharp shots at 1/160sec unless you are on tripod. at 560mm and with the 7D2 you want to be at least 1/1000sec or faster if you are hand holding. If you need to use such slow shutter speeds you need to invest in a good tripod and head. Even with a tripod you will be gambling if you use very slow shutter speeds as the birds move all the time


    best
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    Arash, hope I'm not taking too much of your time, but is that considering image stabilization? If it is, does that mean un-stabilized I would be shooting for 1/4,000s or 1/8,000s, something like that?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Shyvers View Post
    Arash, hope I'm not taking too much of your time, but is that considering image stabilization? If it is, does that mean un-stabilized I would be shooting for 1/4,000s or 1/8,000s, something like that?
    I think Arash was referring to the SS necessary for sharp frames when hand holding. His statement had nothing to do with IS vs. no IS. You almost never need a SS faster than 1/4000 to do most any kind of bird photography.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Shyvers View Post
    Arash, hope I'm not taking too much of your time, but is that considering image stabilization? If it is, does that mean un-stabilized I would be shooting for 1/4,000s or 1/8,000s, something like that?
    Doug beat me to it

    Yes, you need 1/1000sec or faster with IS when hand holding. A very experienced photographer who is skilled in hand holding like Doug can get sharp images hand holding a much heavier rig down to 1/250 sec with IS but from your image I can tell you are not there yet, so to get sharp images stay at 1/1000sec or faster where you can.

    And no, it doesn't meant that you need 1/4000sec without IS. The min shutter speed you can get sharp images with greatly depends on your skill and experience. For beginners I recommend the fastest shutter speed possible for best results


    hope this helps
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    Ok, I guess I can live with that, and I'll improve with time (& weightlifting).

    If you can bear with me, I dug through my collection to find decent shots I took above 1/1000s. If you don't mind giving a little bit more feedback-

    Osprey: (1/2500s f/5.6 400mm ISO 500)

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    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2...lc5V3VNM25hQ2s

    Taken maybe 90 minutes before sunset, you can see the light is coming from the side.

    Is this a lighting problem? Focus problem? Other? AI Servo had locked focus on the leading edge of the wing.


    Aracari: (1/1000s f/8 560mm ISO 1250)

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    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2...3FUZG0yaUxWNHM

    This one had the focus point on the neck for composition, and it's mixed lighting, some shade and some fairly harsh and direct. Are those the only problems?

    Thanks guys, I appreciate the input & the time. I definitely don't have any ideal photos (combining all of high shutter speed, base ISO, perfect lighting, nailed focus, etc). I hope the crops aren't too obnoxiously large.

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    Hi Patrick, I am not quite sure what your question is.
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    Arash, my apologies. My question is, as with the flycatcher, can I hope to obtain significantly better sharpness than those two samples with the gear I'm shooting, and if so are there any clear issues in those photos. I tried to select photos I had taken, eliminating photos that suffered the problems we talked about previously (heat shimmer, very harsh light, low shutter speed); I guess you could say I was looking for further technique critique from a sharpness perspective.

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    I see,

    I'd say the osprey sample is about as sharp as I'd expect for the gear you are using in the given (poor) condition that you were shooting. You have some deep shadows and the image is underexposed. The 7D2's sensor will struggle with such deep shadows and the resulting noise (grain) will reduce the apparent sharpness. You don't want side light, you want the sun to be behind your neck when shooting for best results. Checkout Artie's tutorial about sun angle

    in short you want to photograph when your shadow is about three times your height and pointing towards your subject.

    For the second image the critical focus point is on the shoulder rather than the head (from the resolved feathers in that area). The image is very contrasty due to harsh light. Such extreme contrast sometimes causes a false AF lock. The focus points are larger than the frames you see in the finder.

    So in short both of the images are poor as a result of operator error.

    Hope this helps
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    Thank you, it does help a lot. I appreciate the feedback.

    Edit: I had not found the write-ups on sun angle before, thanks for suggesting it

    Edit2: The irony is poignant. Thanks again for putting up with me, Arash :)

    In addition, probably 3/4 of my current 17,095 comments on Bird Photographers.Net deal with folks having problems with either the proper light angle or the proper head angle. Those two flaws are rampant in images posted for critiquing.


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    Hi,

    I had some similar issues with my 100-400 f 4.5-5.6L IS USM lens (the old one) that I had purchased used and my pictures were missing that little extra sharpness. I was worried that I might had bough a bad lens and did a lot of reading on the net. Somewhere I had read that it is not advisable to have any filters or protectors on the lens. Since the used lens had a UV filter on it I removed it, then did a micro adjustment and the sharpness has improved dramatically.

    I am not an experienced photographer, so please only use this advice as my own experience that I am sharing.

    Cheers
    Niels

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    I'm a relatively newbie in bird photography, but have learned a great deal from people like Arash and Doug. So please allow me to share my own experience

    1. My first rig was a T3i and the 100-400 Mark I. I tried to add the 1.4X and 2X Tcs to extend the reach with disastrous results.

    2. I learned that to get sharp images, start out with the basic. Shoot at relatively high SS (faster than 1/1000), relatively low ISO (<800 for the 7D2), F8 is a good start, bare lens only, IS on, no filter, sun behind your back, early morning or late afternoon or overcast sky, tuck in your elbows, use your body (chest, knee,) and other structures (ledge, door) for support. Shoot some controlling subjects at eye level (birds at feeders)

    3. Examine sharpness at 100% view (LR has this option)

    4. If fail, go back to the 1, 2, 3 above. Doing any else at this point is pretty much useless.

    Equipment does affect sharpness. Once I acquired the basic skills, I moved up to FF bodies like 5D3 and 1DX and better lens (500f4, 100-400 Mark II). But if you don't get the sharpness with your gear, moving up equipment is unlikely to help.

    Practice, practice, and practice.

    Go out with people who are more experienced. It's hard to believe sometimes that people can shoot images that sharp, but they do. The reason this hobby is fun is because there does not seem to be a limit on how much you can learn and improve.

    Good luck

    Loi

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