Need help here Please

I really need some help here for what ever reason my photos just don't have that wow factor. They seem soft or something not sure how to put it.

Equipment used is MK3 and 400 5.6 on a solid tripod light today is a bit overcast with the clouds brightening up at times.

I can't get a grasp on why they just don't show real detail and what do I need to do to make this happen either in PS3 or the camera settings.

Couple things I know I don't know how to do is layers and masking to remove items from a photo such as in #3 the limb in back ground.

#1

How much of a crop are we looking at?

I have seen more crispy images posted on these pages.

what was the ISO? these all look really grainy

They are cropped quiet a bit not sure as of how much to say.

As for ISO I'm at work now so have no way to give exif data but def nothing over 800 ISO I'm thinking more like 500 at most exif should be in tact

if the lighting was how you described, you really shouldn't have used a higher ISO than 200... when i shoot outdoors during daylight hours, no matter how cloudy it gets i never go over ISO 100, but that may just be a personal choice of mine, and i'm sure others would tell me that i'm wrong for doing that, but i get the results that i like.

The cloud cover was enough that the reason for the 500 ISO was to get my shutter speeds up using the 400 5.6 lens it needs a lot of speed to get sharp photos and looks like a lot of light to

Bigbitt8706 wrote in post #5619977
if the lighting was how you described, you really shouldn't have used a higher ISO than 200... when i shoot outdoors during daylight hours, no matter how cloudy it gets i never go over ISO 100, but that may just be a personal choice of mine, and i'm sure others would tell me that i'm wrong for doing that, but i get the results that i like.

You must remember that both of your cameras only have 10.1 MP, doesn't leave much room to crop.

Show us one of your full size images, one that is without PP.
Can we assume that you shoot RAW?

The first one is out of focus. The others look pretty good to me. The white-breasted nuthatch is a nice capture, being more than the typical "bird on a stick".

Birds are a tough subject.

I will have to provide a full size image when I get home tonight as I'm at work.

In the bird section I have a post of juvenile hawks posted and they are also cropped quiet a bit but they are tack sharp so take a look at those if you would. Photos posted here are shot at a closer distance than my hawk photos

chauncey wrote in post #5620025
You must remember that both of your cameras only have 10.1 MP, doesn't leave much room to crop.

Show us one of your full size images, one that is without PP.
Can we assume that you shoot RAW?

Gliderparentntn wrote in post #5620082
I will have to provide a full size image when I get home tonight as I'm at work.

In the bird section I have a post of juvenile hawks posted and they are also cropped quiet a bit but they are tack sharp so take a look at those if you would. Photos posted here are shot at a closer distance than my hawk photos

What shutter speed are you trying to stay above? A couple of your shots were 1/320 and one was 1/640. If you're using a monopod and especially a tripod there is no reason you can't shoot with a fairly low shutter speed?

I shoot a lot with a 1.4x TC + 300mm and can shoot down to 1/200 on a monopod if the subject is fairly still and will get sharp shots.

These look like heavy crops which just makes noise look far worse. Solution would be to get closer to the bird.

Don't know if the high ISO would be needed in these shots. It's hard to say but I'd try to lower the ISO. I usually don't shoot at iso 800 until right before sunset.

When shooting at iso 800 or higher make very sure that you're not underexposing. Underexposing and brighting in post just 1 or 2 thirds of a stop will really make noise appear. If anything, over expose a bit and bring it down in post, if you shoot RAW.

If you're not shooting RAW do it.

Also, my experience shows me that direct sun on the subject is far superior than not. I bet if you get some direct sun shots late or early in the day that the quality will improve.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the input folks. I guess I'm trying to over crop the images as I'm use to the 1.6 crop factor over thos new 1.3 of the Mk3 so it's going to be a new learning curve.

Here is a photo untouched and convereted over to jpeg to post on the net the file is large.

#1

With a 400mm and small birds you need to be 12-18 feet from them for best detail you are way too far away in the WP shot.