First posts I think

[readingr]

Hi everyone - I think this is the first posts I've put in the wildlife section.

Got some new toys and been playing so bear with me.

I probably picked the worst subject to start with because these chaps were zipping in and out of the riging of the boats in the marina.

All done on a 5D with the 100-400mmm F4.5-5.6L IS USM on full auto.

Any tips graetfully recieved.

Roger

[Loupey]

In that case, WELCOME TO THE NATURE/WILDLIFE FORUM

I know several shooters have that particular zoom lens so they should be able to give you special handling tips for you.

As for the images themselves, it does appear a bit soft. Could be combination of factors: focus point, camera shake, camera "picture style", post processing to name a few. Can you post your shooting specs?

Did you shoot raw? I'm sure that you know that an image straight of the camera almost always look horrible (not that I'm saying that at all about your images). Like peeling the layers of an onion, it takes good PP skills to get to the good stuff :thumbsup:

Looking forward to see what that 5D can do!

[readingr]

In that case, WELCOME TO THE NATURE/WILDLIFE FORUM

As for the images themselves, it does appear a bit soft. Could be combination of factors: focus point, camera shake, camera "picture style", post processing to name a few. Can you post your shooting specs?

Did you shoot raw? I'm sure that you know that an image straight of the camera almost always look horrible (not that I'm saying that at all about your images). Like peeling the layers of an onion, it takes good PP skills to get to the good stuff :thumbsup:

Looking forward to see what that 5D can do!

Okay

1st with the Black headed gull
ISO 100
AV F5.6
TV 1/1250
Metering Mode Center-Weighted Average Metering
Focal Length 400.0 mm
Picture Style Standard
Drive Mode Single-frame shooting

Lens 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
IS on
Mode 1
Auto

2nd
ISO 100
AV F13
TV 1/500
Metering Mode Center-Weighted Average Metering
Focal Length 400.0 mm
AF Mode One-Shot AF
Picture Style Standard
Drive Mode Single-frame shooting

Lens 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
IS on
Mode 1

3rd - Back of the gull heading for the rigging
ISO 100
AV F8
TV 1/640
Metering Mode Center-Weighted Average Metering
Focal Length 375.0 mm
AF Mode One-Shot AF
Picture Style Standard
Drive Mode Single-frame shooting

Lens 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
IS on
Mode 1

Is that too much info?

Roger
Auto

[Copy_Kot]

If you do not do this kind of shooting very often, I would say you did pretty good. The only tip I can offer is to shoot with a large aperture... so you can blur your backgrounds and get your shutter speeds up for the flying birds. I'm not familiar with that lens either, but an aperture of 5.6 should get you good enough DOF for a gull and a much faster shutter speed.

One of the best bits of advice Loupey has given me is to use the Neutral style setting with no in-camera sharping and etc., while shooting manual exposure. Shooting like this has worked extremely well with my 30D (you should see the images I was getting before using the landscape style... absolutely horrible).

[Loupey]

Thanks, Roger - the data helps a LOT.

Before, viewing the images without the data, I thought they were all over exposed (blown out whites). But based on the data alone, they are all underexposed - especially the 2nd one. Perhaps when you converted them from raw or during post processed they were over compensated creating the blown out effect. This is quite common using any AE mode (Av, Tv, Program, Auto). In such a sunny condition, you will quickly learn that the setting at ISO 100 will be around 1/1000s at f/5.6, 1/500s at f/8, etc. so I would simply use manual exposure.

As to your original question about the softness, I think it is a combination of the following:

1) With at least the last one, you're shooting with one-shot AF mode. That mode is meant for stationary subjects. So with moving subjects your focus is going to be lagging behind causing out of focus blur

2) In all of these you're using single frame drive mode. With such active subjects, use continuous drive and squeeze off a short burst (2~3 frames at a time) and you will increase the success rate for getting that one sharp image. I think your 5D has a max rate of 3 FPS (like my 10D), so getting more than 2 shots at a time may not be feasible.

As Copy mentioned (he's a good listener, eh? ), I suggest using the neutral mode which sets all the presets to null. Otherwise, the camera will do something that you can't undo later. Take what the pixels saw, not what the camera thinks the pixels saw.

In summary, work on mastering the exposure first. Nothing kills an image faster than an under/overexposed image and no amount of post processing can fix it IMO. Besides, it's always best to do as much in-camera as possible. Your results will show it.

Hope that helps. Let us know what you think.

[readingr]

Thanks for the responses.

Copy_knot - This is the first time in donkeys years that I've tried to catch something so fast with the camera and lens which were not a week old when I took these. I used to take air shows and motor racing in my youth with a Canon AE1 without motor drive . Still getting used to the 5D and the lens - so many settings to think about.

Loupey -
That's what I needed the advice is terrific and to be honest I thought I had put it into servo mode for tracking the birds but the EXIF says I hadn't.

Post processing was the reason you were thrown - I used auto in Elements 2 to set the level, just to get them on here. Point noted about speeds and aperture.

As for number of frames its 3 per second and 17 RAW in one burst from memory, then it seems to slow a fraction after that. I never thought of using burst mode. I need to get some more memory cards for this

The Neutral will be set next time I play with this.

Need to read the manual on the lens and the camera to find out if IS works on manual, so much to learn

[paulnj]

White birds in that lighting are not easy to shoot, so I say you did great for your limited wildlife chasing

[big baldo]

I guess I'll chime in with all of my infinite wisdom!! After reading here about shooting burst mode, I have not taken my camera off it. I always shoot at least 2 frames of the same shot. Often when I look during PP, the first shot is OOF or head turned or something like that. The second shot usually will be spot on!
I also found this to be very helpful when shooting a family portrait where you have to worry about people blinking or looking away. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Hope this helps.........BB