Cute little bird

Just starting off taking pics. Came accross this little guy staring at me and couldn't pass up the shot. What do you think? Any info other then needing a better lens and editing software? I touched it up a little with Eye of Gnome for Linux.

Camera Model: Canon EOS REBEL T3i
Exposure Time: 1/60 sec.
Aperture Value: 5.00 EV (f/5.7)
ISO Speed Rating: 100
Focal Length: 55.0 mm

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Cute little Robin. Were the parents around?

Try a higher ISO and Av Mode at maybe F/8. Just get the shutter speed up a bit, the lens is good enough.

canonloader wrote in post #12576134
Cute little Robin. Were the parents around?

Try a higher ISO and Av Mode at maybe F/8. Just get the shutter speed up a bit, the lens is good enough.

ok, thanks. I really am trying to learn in manual to understand the settings. So the reason its not as clear is the iso/lighting and shutter speed???
I didnt know it was a robin, It was at work in a secluded zen meditation style garden. I figure the parents are around so i didnt hover too much.

Yes, shutter speed, ISO and Aperture are all interconnected. The way to understand it is like this. Let's assume that a perfect exposure for that bird in that particular light at ISO 200, is going to be f/8 at 1/400s. So, all of a sudden, a cloud comes over and makes it darker, by one stop. You have three choices to still get a perfect exposure, by changing just one of the three settings. You can up the ISO by one stop, to ISO 400, or, the Aperture by one stop, to f/5.6, or, the shutter speed, by one stop, to 1/200s.

Each setting change is in one stop increments. That's the easy way to remember the relationship to all the settings. One click of the dial is one stop, whether it's Aperture, ISO or shutter speed. Spend a half hour out on a park bench one day and go ahead and get a perfect exposure. Make note of the settings, then change one by one stop, then change another by one stop to compensate. You will still end up with the same perfect exposure. Once that snaps into your memory, you'll never have another problem making sense of it all.

Forgot....

With birds, animals and people, always try and get focus on the eye. Shutter speed for birds sitting pretty much still, should be about 1/400s. Higher is better if you can manage it with a reasonable ISO and workable aperture.

Lower ISO will generally produce a sharper image, but you need lot's of light at lower ISO's to keep the shutter speed up with a workable f/stop. The T3i should be good to ISO 400 or so with no noise.

Aperture, or f/stop is how big or small the iris in the lens is open. Smaller, but with a higher number, will give a better depth of field. For birds up close, you want at least f/8, further away, you can get by with f/5.6. Experience will help here.

Shutter speed will be the big determiner here for sharpness. The faster the shutter speed, the more your going to stop any movement. In a perfect world, the best lighting would be from your rear, at ISO 100, F/8 and 1/1000s. But that's not going to happen very often, so adjust the settings to get the best you can with what you got. And hey, if it's just too dark and nasty, go home and watch TV.

Got it. thanks for the input. Cant wait for next time! Going to get my birdseed for my feeder

canonloader wrote in post #12576550
Lower ISO will generally produce a sharper image

That's interesting. Is this just a noise issue? With my 40D I've always worked on the basis that, so long as the ISO is no more than 800, the priority is to get a fast shutter speed (because of birds' propensity to move). If I can do this with a lower ISO too, so much the better.

I also use spot metering as a default for birds, but I'm usually shooting on the move rather than staking out a patch.

"Generally speaking", with digital sensors, a higher ISO requires a higher voltage which will produce more heat in the sensor, which produces more noise. This is not always true though, some sensors normal range is ISO 200, and to get ISO 100, puts strain on it, producing more noise. I think my 40D did best at 200, but it also did real good at 400.

Thanks for that, Mitch. That makes a lot of sense and is very helpful. I'd agree with your assessment of the 40D!