Trying to capture jumping fish Please Help

[TARPONTIM]

I have a 20d and i am trying to capture jumping fish photos i have a 28 135 is and a 100 400 is I am capturing the fish in the air but i am not getting the detail i want. Anyone have any sugestions on what settings. When i use sport mode i have to much noise i am trying but any help would be greatly appreciated.I love the 20d i get 3 pictures before the fish hits the water.Should i be using manual faster shutter speed. Thank You Tim

[Jon, The Elder]

Tim- I use the same equipment, cept' I shoot horses.
Some details are missing here, so I'll assume you're pretty familiar with your gear.
I shoot in AV mode and often in ISO 800 to get the shutter as fast as I can. The 28/135 does very well at 5.6 for DOF.
You should be able to get 4 shots instead of 3 depending on your reflexes. Similar setup for the 100/400.

[Digital Prophet]

I used to use a slower zoom lens to shoot my horse photos under arena conditions. I was always stuck at ISO 800 and still wasn't getting what I needed.

My suggestion to you is to move to a faster lens. Personally I switched to a 50mm prime with a 1.8 appeture and I instantly got better photos. Lower ISO's meant less noise and faster shutter speeds. If the distance is an issue then maybe investing in a teleconverter may get you to where you need to be. I don't know b/c I have never used one.

If you are getting the shots you want then it sounds to me that you have practiced and have your timing down. So the faster lens ought to get you the shots you want.

- Digital Prophet -

[TARPONTIM]

Thank you for the imput you both hit on some great points. I have not been trying the shots in av so i will try tonight. Thank you Tim

[TARPONTIM]

The prime idea sound great mabee time for a new lens

[Todd Jacobsen]

I have a 20d and i am trying to capture jumping fish photos i have a 28 135 is and a 100 400 is I am capturing the fish in the air but i am not getting the detail i want. Anyone have any sugestions on what settings. When i use sport mode i have to much noise i am trying but any help would be greatly appreciated.I love the 20d i get 3 pictures before the fish hits the water.Should i be using manual faster shutter speed. Thank You Tim

Don't forget to limit the your focus aimpoint. You could be focusing on the water vs the fish.

Adjusting the apeture (stopping down) can increase DOF but can detract from the subject (the fish).

[Jon, The Elder]

Hi again Tim- Your original post problem was not enough detail, so lets address that. First the 28/135 is not an L so we can't expect that quality. We can however use good post production to overcome the some of the 'sharpness'.
Out of the box, the 20D doesn't give that "kodak moment", super sharp/super saturated imagery.

Primes were suggested - great, remember though that wide open lens = less DOF. (Not knowing just what general size of your fish) assuming they are 3/4 angled toward/away from you. How much DOF do you need to get the full depth of the fish in focus?

With a prime your 'zooming' is done in this case with your boat ! I don't believe you have that kind of time on your side.
If you have a rough idea where your subject is going to come out - you might do a rough manual focus and decrease the AF time by a bit.
If you are concerned about noise at ISO 800 (I don't see much at all) A copy of 'noise ninja' or whatever else you favor - will knock it down to nothing.

Boat motion -light source/color/intensity - camera movement from wind - camera settings - water reflection/refraction. A real challenge my friend.

Love to see a shot or two when you get it all figured out. Should be a very interesting little scenario
Best of luck to ya'.

[TARPONTIM]

Thank you Seti i have a few and i will post them to show you what i am getting. The fish luckely are big 100 lbs + 5 to 6 feet long some smaller. The images i want to capture are definatly challanging but i am having fun. The biggest challange is the boat movement and the antisipation of where the fish will come out of the water. I have not purchased any noise software yet I guess i got into this thing to get the best shots without to much post processing. I practice as much as i can i live in a photo heaven. The Keys. I really would like one prime l lens and i need a good wide angle. Any imput in that catagory is great. I was thinking about the 50mm 1.4 Thank You Tim

[TARPONTIM]

[img=http://img19.echo.cx/img19/2983/tarponphotos111small0ry.th.jpg] (http://img19.echo.cx/my.php?image=tarponphotos111small0ry.jpg)
Here is one i got the other night.

What do you think?

[mgbeach]

I think I'd probably shoot aperture priority at f/5.6 to f/8 and use AI Servo focusing to increase your chances of a sharp shot on this moving target. Keep the shutter half pressed and stay trained on the general area they are jumping. And shoot a LOT of frames. The one you posted is close. As for noise reduction software, you don't need to buy anything. There's a free version of Neat Image available on their site.

[symes]

I think I'd probably shoot aperture priority at f/5.6 to f/8 and use AI Servo focusing to increase your chances of a sharp shot on this moving target. Keep the shutter half pressed and stay trained on the general area they are jumping. And shoot a LOT of frames. The one you posted is close. As for noise reduction software, you don't need to buy anything. There's a free version of Neat Image available on their site.

THe only thing I would caution is the free version of Neatimage doesn't allow you to save your pics at 100%, it is pre set at 91% so your files are never over 1000K which is much smaller than the average 4000-5000K pic. I have the step up from the Neat Image and I am happy about that

Cheers,