Birding help

So, just got the RF800mm for Christmas, so may start to attempt some more bird shots now that I have a bit more reach to work with. Was able to catch this eagle this weekend. Shot is not great by any stretch but looking for suggestions to help make future shots better. One thing, I think I should have used a faster shutter speed as the zoomed in image appears soft to me. This was a handheld shot out the car window, not from a hide or anything. Maybe even some motion vibration from the motor running.

Photo from duckster's gallery.
Image hosted by forum (1137751)

Most of my out-the-car-window shots are blurry. It's probably because of thermal waves due to the difference in temperature between car and ambient. So after getting a few in-case shots, I would get out of the car and take some more. And yes, I would boost the shutter speed a stop or two.

Duckster, I've noticed with some of your other shots taken with the 800/11 too, that you keep your ISO speeds very low, which means you can't have high enough shutter speeds, not @f/11. So increase your ISO speeds. The R6 can handle it! My default ISO speed on the R6 is 1600. I will go lower when I can, but with the 800/11 often need to take it higher, to ISO 3200, ISO 4000 etc.

There really is no reason to be shooting at ISO 125. Not with the R6.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19323113
Duckster, I've noticed with some of your other shots taken with the 800/11 too, that you keep your ISO speeds very low, which means you can't have high enough shutter speeds, not @f/11. So increase your ISO speeds. The R6 can handle it! My default ISO speed on the R6 is 1600. I will go lower when I can, but with the 800/11 often need to take it higher, to ISO 3200, ISO 4000 etc.

There really is no reason to be shooting at ISO 125. Not with the R6.

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I also see no reason to shoot at such a low ISO. . If I had the camera you had, I would have shot this at 1600 ISO. . In fact, my bodies are older than yours, and I shoot at 1600 ISO at least 90% of the time, with no need to ever use any kind of noise reduction software when editing later. . 1600 ISO shots are super clean and free of noise, right out of the camera, almost all of the time in almost all scenarios.

1600 ISO results will be pretty much identical to 100 or 200 or 400 or 800 ISO, as far as noise is concerned. . The old thoughts about keeping ISO low so that you don't get much noise - well that's not really how things work anymore. . I mean, yeah, 1600 ISO is going to give you cleaner results than 6,400 or 12,800, but all of the "low" ISOs (from 100 to 1600) pretty much give you identical results with the modern bodies.

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duckster wrote in post #19323082
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Maybe even some motion vibration from the motor running.
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May I ask why you didn't turn off the engine while actually shooting? . I have taken thousands upon thousands of wildlife photos out the window of my car over the years, but I can't recall ever having the engine run while shooting - not even once, ever. . I'll often leave the engine run while I get all ready to shoot, maybe even during a quick test shot, but once I'm ready to shoot for real I turn the engine off, shoot, then turn the engine back on. . Is there a reason why you didn't do this, or why it is not routine for you to do so?

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duckster wrote in post #19323082
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This was a handheld shot out the car window ...
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Instead of handholding when shooting out the car window, it really helps to have something to rest the camera on, to hold it steady. . If you don't already have a beanbag made for that purpose, then a balled up coat placed on the "window sill" of your car door works well. . Or, if shooting up at a steep angle, as I suspect you were doing here, you can have the window halfway up, and then place your balled up coat on the edge of the window, and then put the camera on that. . Or you can even just bring a small sofa cushion from home, or get one at WalMart for 5 or 6 bucks. . Anything to rest the camera on is far better than holding it freehand, especially at these extreme focal lengths.


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Thank you! I will do that. I guess the f11 aperture had me psyched out a bit

duckster wrote in post #19323082
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I should have shut it off, I was in the passenger seat with my wife driving. We switched spots when we saw the eagle as we were just on the way to the in-laws place for Christmas so it was kind of a spur of the moment, chance sighting. Was not thinking about it until after the fact.
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Oh, okay ..... easy to see how that could've happened, given the situation.

The more you shoot in general, and the more you shoot from a car, the more "second nature" all of these things will become to you. . Before you know it, you'll be turning the engine off and adjusting your settings and placing your beanbag on the window ledge without even thinking about it. . Your body will just do these things automatically, so your mind will be free to think about the Eagle's behavior, composition, etc.


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I should have thought about motor shake. I do a lot of hunting out west and we do glassing for game, sometimes with pretty large optics, binoculars or spotting scopes and we have to kill the motor to stop the fine vibrations. Just dumb on my part...

Make it a habit to set your ISO and your aperture before you leave home. I always start with 1600 ISO as default and adjust from there.

Like many things, its easy to get excited and go play with a new toy just to get the painful reminder, especially with wildlife and wild birds, that making a stellar photo has a lot more to it than just getting a big long lens. Otherwise, everyone would be out there with huge telescopes shooting perched birds and having a blast with their success.



Composition is a big part of a great photograph, right? So whether it was done with a 50mm or a 800mm focal length, the composition matters either way. Lightning matters a ton. Poor light results in a poor photograph that likely will have low signal to noise, low resolution and low contrast, so it will appear less sharp with low detail in most instances even with a newer sensor (such as minute bird feather detail on a distant bird; up close is different with lots of pixels on the same detail, but at a distance, with less pixels on subject, it gets harder). The environment plays a huge role, heat plumes, air turbulence, shooting over evaporating water, etc. What you shoot from or over, such as a warm engine, pavement, stone, etc, radiating heat. Then to finish it off, proper exposure values and a shutter speed to deal with the oscillation of a 800mm focal lengths magnified image on your sensor with tiny pixels (ie, slow shutter speed costing you the shot basically).

You've already got some great responses above and you already know what happened. So you're probably set for next time!

But its a good time to reflect, for others, and our selves, that getting the shot is never just because we got a big long lens to do it with; without all the other things that go into it.

Very best,

Great advice, thank you. I had been going with auto ISO

duckster wrote in post #19323235
Great advice, thank you. I had been going with auto ISO

I shoot auto ISO too with the 800mm, but with a shutter speed of around 1/800. I vary that but I find I need around that speed for satisfactory reduction of camera movement. Everybody's different, though, so your mileage may vary.

I just need to try some faster shutter speeds, for sure. The idea of f11 had me being overly cautious it seems

Replies noted and I agree. But a little post processing could help. May I post my version of your pic?