Cougar Mountain Zoo

I finally got down to the Cougar Mountain Wildlife Preserve in Issaquah today, there are only about 10 exhibits but it's a nice afternoon trip. More photos should be posted on my website at http://photos.meglet.n​et later tonight.


Kiwi, a scarlet Macaw in the World of Macaws exhibit-If I ever have a bird, I want one of these:
f/5.6 shutter 1/25s, ISO 100, 250mm

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I love all these! great job.

Nice attempts, but the first four look a little soft/blurred to me. Anyone else?

They are all soft with a blur...maybe check your settings next time. What lens were you using? steve

This trip certainly didn't yield the best pics, but they were fun to take and share. It rained off and on all day, so I had a UV filter on the lens, and used my not-so-great 75-300mm lens that is known to be soft. The tigers were also on the other side of a glass wall that I'm pretty sure doesn't get cleaned very often.

For the parrot shots, I was trying to get the background to blur, as I'm new to DSLR and still figuring out all the things I can do with it. While I still don't know exactly what I did right, at least I got closer to my goal.

Anyway, I don't have the exact settings with me, but I was using Av mode, f4.0-7.1 depending on indoors or outdoors. I try to stay out of P mode, because if I use that I'll stop trying to understand how everything works to get the best photos I can. I'll try to remember to post the actual settings when I get home tonight, as I'd appreciate some advice for next time to get better shots.

At first glance it looks like you need a faster shutter speed, but we'll know more with some EXIF.

Ok, I've added the aperture, ISO, shutter speed, and focal length for each photo to the original post. I'd really appreciate some comments and advice for next time.

If I have understood Av mode correctly, I set the aperture, ISO, and focal length and the camera is supposed to set the correct shutter speed. So if those of you who know better than me say I need a faster shutter speed, I would have to either use Tv mode and let the camera set the aperture, or just switch to full manual mode and hope I can get the correct match of settings to get a usable picture, right?.

I'll also be cleaning or dumping the UV filter I was using to keep the rain off the lens, since I compared the pictures from the park on the same day where I removed the UV filter for some of them, and the ones without the filter are definitely sharper and more colorful.

Nice job...I see softness also.
HP

i dont have very much experience with shooting through glass, but I've heard a polirizor can help but i hav'nt tryed it. I quite frequently bump my ISO up to 200 when shooting my dog with out any noticable pixelation.
it makes a good bit of difference when in AV, if you are still strugaling go to 400 but i wouldnt go higher if you wont to be able to crop with out loosing quality

As others have surmised, your shutter speed was too slow, resulting in blurry, soft images.

One thing to keep in mind is the reciprocal value of focal length x camera crop factor is a good measure of shutter speed needed for hand-held shots without an IS lens.

So, for example, your XTi has a crop factor of 1.6. If you were to take a shot at 300mm, then you'd need roughly a 1/480 shutter speed and steady hands to capture the image with minimal to no evidence of camera shake (300mm X 1.6 cf = 480; reciprocal = 1/480). On the 70mm end, the reciprocal value would be 1/112.

Now, whether or not your computed shutter speed is fast enough to freeze subject motion is dependent on the action of your subject. From the looks of your subjects, the reciprocal values would have likely frozen their motion.

If there's a need for more speed, shoot as wide open as possible and don't be afraid to crank up the ISO.

And, of course, all of this is affected by metering, which Bryan Peterson explains very well in his book titled Understanding Exposure. Buy it.

Have fun!

meglet wrote in post #4258077
It rained off and on all day, so I had a UV filter on the lens, and used my not-so-great 75-300mm lens that is known to be soft.

True, but often it's down to user error. The 75-300 can be decent under the right hands. It gets a pretty bad rep at times because it tends to be owned by people who just started with SLRs - so when bad shots ensue, often the lens gets the blame (same with the kit lens).

In this particular case, I'd say it's definitely down to user error. That softness there is pretty much mostly caused by motion blur.. not by any inherent weaknesses of the lens (although the 75-300 isn't the sharpest telephoto zoom around most definitely). Your shutter speeds were simply too slow. I note that you couldn't open up the aperture anymore, but you shot ALL of those shots at ISO 100. Bumping that ISO from 100 to 400-800 should of done the trick.

Also don't forget to post-process. With digital, taking the shots is only half the job.

Good luck.

Thank you all for your advice. I probably should have said the lens is known to be soft when the user doesn't know what they're doing. Although I have certainly gotten some better pictures than this, I'll have to get around to posting them. I have also discovered I prefer this lens to the kit, although I can't wait to get a 24-135 or 28-200 for more range in a single lens once I get the basics down a little better. Oops, rambling again.

I will have to remember to raise the ISO to 200 or 400 next time I'm out on a rainy cloudy day like this, my last trip was to a sunny beach, and ISO was my forgotten setting this time. I usually remember 3 out of the 4 things I am trying to pay attention to.

Ronnie, you're making my brain hurt with those numbers, which is why I'm still struggling with getting the proper exposures. I am working my way through the Understanding Exposure book, though, and it's helping.

Thanks again!

meglet wrote in post #4267557
Ronnie, you're making my brain hurt with those numbers, which is why I'm still struggling with getting the proper exposures. I am working my way through the Understanding Exposure book, though, and it's helping.

It's not that difficult really. Take your focal length, multiply it by 1.6, and you'll have a starting point for hand-held ability.

Keep at it.