nature shutter speeds with 75-300mm

[hedphonz]

hey this is my first time leaving a quesion. i am now living in korea and i am having problems getting clear shots of birds and other tings. anway i am mainly a graphic artist who takes the picture and loves to mess around with it afterwards. anyway i have been having a problem with cropping things and having them not clear at all. sometimes i crop it around 150%, though i rarely do that. anyway what is a good shutter speed to use for moving birds or people or cars on a sunny day and cloudy day? would you suggest i just get a sharper lens so that the crops aren't as soft? let me know.

[Vega$50]

Where is the picture of your example?

If you don't have one...try the sunny 16 rule...

f/16 and shutter speed set to 1000...adjust up and down from there

[etaf]

you need to make sure you do not have camera shake - as a general rule you need to use a shuter speed of 1/effective focal length
not sure if you are shoting digital or not - {if digital then effective is key}
anyway
if you have the focal length set to 300mm then you need a shutter speed around >1/300th (1/500th - full stops, not sure of yoyr camera shutter choice )
if at the 75mm end then 1/75th (1/125th - full stops, not sure of yoyr camera shutter choice)
unless the lens is an IS - then you can knock about 2 stops off that
so /125th and 1/30th in my examples

hope that helps

[nosquare2003]

Where is the picture of your example?

If you don't have one...try the sunny 16 rule...

f/16 and shutter speed set to 1000...adjust up and down from there

Have you missed the ISO setting?

(Edited: And how does sunny 16 rule helps the poster? Not to offend you, but I just don't understand.)

[CyberDyneSystems]

For moving subjects with 300mm you would be better off with much faster shutter than the 1/1 rule of thumb.

Try for 1/500th at least and see of that helps. It depends on how fast things are moving though,. to stop a wingbeat on some birds in flight you need upwards of 1/1000th shutter.

[nosquare2003]

In case if it is related to freeze motion, there was a discussion a week ago:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=60309

[Mark_Cohran]

Where is the picture of your example?

If you don't have one...try the sunny 16 rule...

f/16 and shutter speed set to 1000...adjust up and down from there

If you're going to recommend the Sunny f16 rule, lets at least get it right:

With the subject in full sun, set the aperture to f16 and the shutter speed to the reciprocal of the ISO.... for example: ISO 100 => f16 at 1/125 or f11 at 1/250, etc.

However, your recommendation really doesn't help the poster since it appears he has a subject or camera movement problem and not an exposure problem. In this case the appropriate thumbrule to use is set the shutter speed to the reciprocal of the focal length adjusted for any camera crop factor - so at 300 mm set the shutter speed to 1/300th or on a 1.6 crop factor camera - 1/500th (1.6 x300 = 480). Of course, this is just a thumbrule and many people can hand-hold to a slower shutter speed, while other will need a higher speed.

An additional option might be to get an IS lens or a tripod.