Poor images - can you help?

Hi,

I seem to have issues with focusing as you can see from the couple of images below, now this is not not 100% of the time but enough to annoy me when I miss nice shots like these because of it.

1/320s . f/5.6 . ISO 250 . 300 mm (Shutter speed priority AE)

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

Hi John,

what I see in your images is that they seem to be blurry, more than out of focus. To be honest, I can't see anything focused in the images

In your images, speed is a bit higher than focal, but I suggest increasing the speed to 500, and try to hold your camera steady

The issue with your kids is different, it seems to be depth of field question, where focus is in wrong place. For that you could try increasing aperture, to have a bigger depth of field.
Another option is not to focus and recompose, where you could miss the desired focusing point

Enjoy!

Try shooting in the Av mode (aperture priority).

Then work on making sure something is in focus. For moving objects, use the servo option. I also have my camera set up to auto-focus when I hit the 'AF-on' button, instead of when pushing the shutter button halfway. That way, for a moving object, I just hold the 'AF-on' button and it will continually focus on the moving object while I fire shots off.

I'm no expert, but that's what I do. If anyone has tips for me feel free to chime in!

Great shots so far! You'll get them right and they'll look good.

Cheers guys, I too use the "AF-on" button to focus - I'm thinking you;re right about both the speed and f number respectively, when I tried to get the herons it was a chance shot I was looking in the right direction so was completely unprepared.

Regarding the kids shot they do seem to be down at f5.6-7 most of the time so if I were to bump that up to 11 I should get the additional depth of field to get the full face - I'll give that a shot.

Thanks again.

Increasing your aperture at the same ISO is only going to drive down your shutter speed so something has to give. It looks to me like you have motion blur, especially in the first so I think I would suggest not worrying as much about aperture and get the shutter speeds up a bit more.

Actually good point - at 1/320 at 300mm with fairly fast moving targets I didn;t stand a chance did I - yep 1/500+ might have at least got the chaps still.

Hmn, just a thought - on a sunny day is 1/500mm in TV mode a reasonable standby anyway or do I then risk getting too shallow a DoF?

It really doesnt matter whether you are in AV mode or TV mode as long as in AV mode you are watching the Shutter speeds you are getting. When I said I saw motion, I wasnt even referring to your ability to stop the motion, but rather the sort of subtle motion blur that you get from the camera moving with a long lens. If you look at the trees in the first shot they are blurry, not just out of focus but a smeared looking blurry that comes from having your shutter speed too low.

gonzogolf wrote in post #12183760
It really doesnt matter whether you are in AV mode or TV mode as long as in AV mode you are watching the Shutter speeds you are getting. When I said I saw motion, I wasnt even referring to your ability to stop the motion, but rather the sort of subtle motion blur that you get from the camera moving with a long lens. If you look at the trees in the first shot they are blurry, not just out of focus but a smeared looking blurry that comes from having your shutter speed too low.

totally agree. you have to work with a minimal shutter speed, and then adjust your aperture and ISO to work with the shutter. action shots need speed. thats why its almost impossible to shoot action with a slow lens, you just can't get it exposed properly no matter how wide open you set the lens. so, you crank up the ISO , now your images are suffering even more.

as far as to the OP, you have a lot more headroom in your ISO settings, try 500-600 range, and experiment a bit. hell, for web images, you can crank it even higher than that.

1/1000 or more to freeze BIF imo. Of course a slow flying bird that is gliding you can get away with less, but I would start at 1/1000 and go from there.

Hmn, Allan how do you fare with the Sigma APO 150-500mm, I'm just selling one now but was a little concerned about the lack of light at speed. Is that you;re go to lens for BIF?