I took this HH shot this morning, out of the car window (20 mph wind, so I know the car was moving), with little prep time so didn't get the camera set up correctly, but I have deleted a number of shots like this because of focus issue you will see below. With a few more seconds to prepare, I would have set my XSI to F8 and AI Servo, but instead ended up with F5.6, One-Shot AF, 1/1600, 310mm (100-400 F4 L), ISO 200, spot metering. (The sky was blown out and the flying eagle was under exposed in the RAW file, so I moved Ev +1.5 and 30 Recovery to get things "somewhat" right). Normally AI Servo tracks the subject well, but the other eagle in this shot is not at all sharp and had I actually been in servo mode, my experience tells me that I would have ended up with the same result. Granted I was panning when I pulled the trigger, but movement was very slow at this point and I would think 1/1600 would have provided a clearer image of the stationary subject. I realize there are a number of problems with this image; the grey, featureless sky doesn't help either! In a situation like this where you are dealing with both moving and stationary subjects (even assuming I had the aperture & servo set correctly), what is the best way to get both subjects sharply focused? Any other critiques are welcome as well. Thanks.
Hi Ken,to answer your question about getting both in focus is to focus on the bird nearest you then have an f stop that will give you enough DOF to handle the distance to the 2nd. When shooting moving birds it's hard to come up with any other methods.
Whats working against you is the light and busy environment. Also due to the head of the left hand bird merging with its wing it is hard for me to distinguish its head(I can but had to study it)
Yeah, your key here was to get stopped down to f/8 or f/11. You still had plenty of ISO to work with. Also, you need +2EV or maybe a little more to get this properly exposed (it still looks under, even after your corrections). Was it snowing? You need +1 or +2 in snow to overcome the meter's tendancy to think there's more light than there is.
For birds, I work constantly in aperture priority. I set aperture for the DOF I need and use ISO to force the shutter speed that I need. Working in AP forces you to think about DOF. Focus on the "main" bird. To me, that's usually the one moving or in front, depending on the most important subject.
With +2EV and f/8, you would have probably needed ISO 400 or 800 to get a fast enough shutter speed in this light. On general principal, for moving birds I try to stay around f/8. That'll generally give enough DOF in case the bird is too close to focus the whole bird with a wide open aperture, or, as in your case, there are two birds.
the fact that the rear bird is out of focus doesnt bother me so much. as long as the action bird is in focus it works for me. it's like the parent watching the child learning to fly. the focus is all on the kid! agree with dave and dave's:) comments. i think the snow is actually noise introduced by changing the EV in PP, which given the way you said the original was aint too bad!!
From a car window with a 20 MPH wind in a HH position, wow this is a challenge. I must say, that is not the best position for a tack sharp image.
IMO, be in servo (lot's of movement), increase ISO for speed and in this case the correct EV would be something like maybe +2 given the light BG. The image was probably underexposed and when you ran NR to clean up addition nose caused by adding light in post the fine detail could be lost.
Not sure given the lens and subject distances if both could be in focus. As mentioned, stropping down would be best chance and cost you SS which was needed to counter the movement. Might have to rethink image and attack with higher ISO, shutter and maybe pick point in between with narrow aperture - TFS.
Ken, forgot to mention - great nature shot. Seeing both is cool and a wonderful day in the life scene - Nice job.
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 03-22-2010 at 05:32 PM.
Thanks guys, I really appreciate your insights. To answer some of your issues raised, there had been some snow flurries that morning, but not when this was shot. I put too much trust in spot metering to get my exposure correct; next time I will try to adjust the Ev prior to taking the shot. The "snow" was indeed noise from changing the Ev in PP, and I wasn't able to improve much with NR. I normally work in Av mode, but simply didn't have (or make) the time to to verify my settings as I was slamming on the brakes at 70 mph and trying to get my camera firing. I am starting to realize that the "buck fever" I used to get deer hunting has now transfered to my photography excursions! Hopefully my next post will be from a shot taken when I actually had the settings where I wanted them. Thanks again.
Focus Challenges
