New camera?

Shorthand · Dec 22, 2011

A little more support for Expose-to-the-Right, which I really think has a lot to do with your situation.

The more I think about it, you really only need to do two things:

Try to shoot at f/8 or f/11 whenever possible for max sharpness.
Expose to the right to maximized tonality and minimize noise.

A couple more links:

A more modern update of the Now-classic "Expose Right" article - http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/optimizing_exposure.shtml
How this applies to wildlife photography specifically - http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/on_safari.shtml#suckout

Come to think of it, I need to expose to the right a lot more.

Steve Morris · Dec 22, 2011

this is just what i needed, i have just purchased an 550D and to be honest i think i have got into the buy this buy that i might need this and that...geeesh its cost me a fortune although i did get it for a bargain, its nice to get some feed back on how to stuff as i am new to digi photography as i have just laid to rest my old eos100 35mm and climbed on board the digi express highway and of course joined this site, at the moment its all gobbledygook gook for me but i hope with time i may produce photos that you guys so readily display, would like to know if there are any flaws in the 550D that can be addressed before i venture out into the mighty blue (ish) yonder and press the "take this photo NOW!!" button so many times before it makes the ends of my fingers profusely bleed ....lol

Midwest · Dec 22, 2011

PK62 said:
This is an example of one of my shots at 400mm, I focused the fence out of the photo also, but my wolf just doesn't look really sharp to me.

It would help if the image was posted larger so it would be more easy to judge the sharpness. However, I looked through some shots in your gallery and it struck me that they often do not seem as sharp as I would expect them to be. I have a few thoughts:

1. Go to the bhphotovideo site and vew the videos on how Canon AF works.

2. Spot-focus your subjects and use one-shot, not servo or auto. Servo is going to keep hunting for something in the photo that is really changing distance (from the camera, for focusing change) and may not really settle down and lock on the right thing when nothing is changing focus distance significantly. I've found that the majority of the time, one-shot works better for me.
3. Try a different lens and see if it might be a problem with the lens itself.

I'm kind of a stickler for properly focused images and I'm just not seeing it in your gallery in the shots I looked at. You are right, they really ought to be sharper. I know the XSi is capable of taking a very good photo (since I own one) so maybe one of my suggestions will help. Good luck.

Midwest · Dec 22, 2011

PK62 said:
That's good to know and way less expensive. Do you know of any good instructional DVDs that I could purchase, or just practice, practice, practice?

There are three videos on this page - informative and interesting to watch. Just what you might need, too. Specific to the Canon dslr, done by a Canon engineer, tons better than just reading the camera manual.

http://www.video.bhphotovideo.com/?fr_story=a2b001b4009876d9c3ede34353cb6af0c193bc8f&rf=sitemap

WilbaW · Dec 22, 2011

imqqmi said:
The trick is to sharpen after you downsize for web view.

before you downsize and apply any kind of sharpening, make sure you're applying some noise reduction. I use Neat image.
In short:

Process your images without noise reduction or sharpening

Apply noise reduction with your favorite NR software (supplied DPP does a good job though you may loose a little more detail)

You can sharpen the full size image. That can be a good thing if the image is slightly too soft.

Resize and sharpen once more.

Not disagreeing or challenging, just tossing an alternative into the general discussion...

Depending on the tools you use, you might find that for images for general sharing the noise reduction and preliminary sharpening in your raw converter are plenty good enough. I use Adobe Camera Raw and over time I've found that the more I do there the less I have to do in Photoshop, and the better the overall result. Sure, if you need the best possible outcome then use the best tools you can find for each editing task, but you might already have a good solution for run-of-the-mill editing. I tend to think that a simple tool used well will give better results than a fancy tool used without the expertise necessary to get the best out of it (same with cameras...

).

--
Check out the unofficial Rebel forum FAQ - http://snipurl.com/RebelFAQ

imqqmi · Dec 22, 2011

Good info Shorthand!

Shorthand said:
The more I think about it, you really only need to do two things:

Try to shoot at f/8 or f/11 whenever possible for max sharpness.

In my experience the 100-400L is very sharp wide open, even on a 7D. I agree it's very slightly sharper and the 400mm f/5.6 prime is a bit sharper but it's still very usable. A sharper lens can also produce moire effects.

Full image downsized:

unresized crop (aka 100% crop), noise reduction and conservative sharpening is applied:

--
Kind regards
Imqqmi

http://www.pbase.com/imqqmi

The DSLR jargon cheatsheet:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/dslrcheatsheet.pdf

Sunset blending tutorial:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/tutorial/blendingTutorial01a.pdf

Wilba's Frequently Asked (beginners) Questions and answers
http://snipurl.com/RebelFAQ

imqqmi · Dec 22, 2011

imqqmi said:
imqqmi said:

The more I think about it, you really only need to do two things:

Try to shoot at f/8 or f/11 whenever possible for max sharpness.

Click to expand...

In my experience the 100-400L is very sharp wide open, even on a 7D. I agree it's very slightly sharper and the 400mm f/5.6 prime is a bit sharper but it's still very usable. A sharper lens can also produce moire effects.

Full image downsized:

unresized crop (aka 100% crop), noise reduction and conservative sharpening is applied:

--
Kind regards
Imqqmi

http://www.pbase.com/imqqmi

The DSLR jargon cheatsheet:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/dslrcheatsheet.pdf

Sunset blending tutorial:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/tutorial/blendingTutorial01a.pdf

Wilba's Frequently Asked (beginners) Questions and answers
http://snipurl.com/RebelFAQ

--
Kind regards
Imqqmi

http://www.pbase.com/imqqmi

The DSLR jargon cheatsheet:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/dslrcheatsheet.pdf

Sunset blending tutorial:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/tutorial/blendingTutorial01a.pdf

Wilba's Frequently Asked (beginners) Questions and answers
http://snipurl.com/RebelFAQ

Digirame · Dec 22, 2011

You wrote that the 550D/600D/60D/7D isn't the solution and it's a minor upgrade over the sensor in the 450D. But can we consider that 18mp is much better than 12.2mp for cropping, for those that take wildlife photos? What about the improved ISO performance, so that one can achieve higher shutter speeds, considering all other things equal? That sure helps, for example, when birds are flying rapidly. That's why I'm looking at the newer Canon models that have gotten excellent reviews from Dpreview.

WilbaW · Dec 22, 2011

Digirame said:
You wrote that the 550D/600D/60D/7D isn't the solution and it's a minor upgrade over the sensor in the 450D. But can we consider that 18mp is much better than 12.2mp for cropping, for those that take wildlife photos?

I certainly find that advantage with the current sensor (60D), but I must admit that I haven't shot any back-to-back comparisons with the same lens, so what I'm seeing could be more about the new lenses. Anyway, I can crop way more than I ever could with the 450D.

Digirame said:
What about the improved ISO performance, so that one can achieve higher shutter speeds, considering all other things equal? That sure helps, for example, when birds are flying rapidly. That's why I'm looking at the newer Canon models that have gotten excellent reviews from Dpreview.

Yes, sometimes it seems like 3200 is the new 800.

--
Check out the unofficial Rebel forum FAQ - http://snipurl.com/RebelFAQ

PK62 · Dec 23, 2011

This is all great info.. I'm anxious to try all of your suggestions and I'm checking out all of the sites you suggested too. Thanks again, this will give me a lot to work with for awhile.

PK62 · Dec 24, 2011

As I was out today implementing some of your suggestions it also occurred to me that I have a UV filter on my 100-400mm lens. Could that be causing loss of sharpness too? I can't seem to get a fast enough shutter speed with F8 to take bird shots, and I'm trying the +2/3 exposure comp.(expose to the right)... I'm starting to confuse myself, I'm going out now with a tripod, like I probably should have done in the first place. Hope all of this makes sense.

Digirame · Dec 24, 2011

This has been discussed at length on different forums. From what I remember reading, there may be a problem with low quality UV filters. But apparently with the higher quality (and more expensive) UV filters this seems to have no impact. I don't know any of the science behind this, but again that's what I remember reading. Since I paid relatively a lot of money for my UV filter at a camera shop, I was hoping I had one of those high quality filters. So far, I've had no problems with the filter on my telephoto lens. Maybe you could just experiment some and remove the UV filter and see if that helps.

imqqmi · Dec 24, 2011

Here's some tips on BIFs if you haven't seen them already, you might find them useful.
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1031&message=35879850

PK62 said:
As I was out today implementing some of your suggestions it also occurred to me that I have a UV filter on my 100-400mm lens. Could that be causing loss of sharpness too? I can't seem to get a fast enough shutter speed with F8 to take

Could very well be, just remove it. I would only use it if there's a sandstorm I want to shoot in (never happened) or when there's considerable sea spray.

I'd just shoot wide open. The 100-400L is a sharp lens even wide open (f/5.6).

PK62 said:
bird shots, and I'm trying the +2/3 exposure comp.(expose to the right)... I'm

See the link above, I'd use M mode for more consistent results. It's really easy to setup. +2/3EC might blow out highlights if you're not careful. It's not a one size fits all solution for any shooting condition and shooting to the right of the histogram only makes sense if you shoot raw and post process your images. Even then there's very little advantage above setting the ISO properly.

PK62 said:
starting to confuse myself, I'm going out now with a tripod, like I probably should have done in the first place. Hope all of this makes sense.

When shooting birds in flight a tripod may only be in your way. For stationary wildlife it can be great tough especially if you get down on the ground.

All shot wide open:

--
Kind regards
Imqqmi

http://www.pbase.com/imqqmi

The DSLR jargon cheatsheet:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/dslrcheatsheet.pdf

Sunset blending tutorial:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/tutorial/blendingTutorial01a.pdf

Wilba's Frequently Asked (beginners) Questions and answers
http://snipurl.com/RebelFAQ

PK62 · Dec 24, 2011

Beautiful photos. I can't get my shots anywhere near that sharp.

imqqmi · Dec 24, 2011

Could you post a full size image or a raw shot I can take a look at that you consider your best and sharpest wildlife shot? It might just be a mater of post processing.

PK62 said:
Beautiful photos. I can't get my shots anywhere near that sharp.

--
Kind regards
Imqqmi

http://www.pbase.com/imqqmi

The DSLR jargon cheatsheet:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/dslrcheatsheet.pdf

Sunset blending tutorial:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/tutorial/blendingTutorial01a.pdf

Wilba's Frequently Asked (beginners) Questions and answers
http://snipurl.com/RebelFAQ

PK62 · Dec 24, 2011

These are a couple of my best shots. Nothing like what I see on this forum, but I'm really trying to improve. Lens was hand held in both of these shots.

imqqmi · Dec 24, 2011

Thanks, but I need the original files, the last one is post processed, sharpened and cropped etc. From what I can see it's a little over sharpened, this increases detail but also noise. I also can't access the full sized originals from the dpp gallery, not sure how to fix that.

With the large size one of the first I've removed noise, resized to 1280x833 pixels and sharpened it. I've also applied some warming to make it a little warmer and applied some vibrance and saturation. I think it's pretty good:

PK62 said:
These are a couple of my best shots. Nothing like what I see on this forum, but I'm really trying to improve. Lens was hand held in both of these shots.

--
Kind regards
Imqqmi

http://www.pbase.com/imqqmi

The DSLR jargon cheatsheet:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/dslrcheatsheet.pdf

Sunset blending tutorial:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/tutorial/blendingTutorial01a.pdf

Wilba's Frequently Asked (beginners) Questions and answers
http://snipurl.com/RebelFAQ

PK62 · Dec 24, 2011

The goose in flight is much improved. I'm going to have to learn to pp better. I have PSE8 but obviously am not using it correctly. Thank you, it gives me hope that at least my original shots can be worked with once I learn how.

imqqmi · Dec 25, 2011

Glad to help! You can also ask about processing in the digital darkroom forum. There are lots of PSE users there so they can help you with specific techniques:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1006

PK62 said:
The goose in flight is much improved. I'm going to have to learn to pp better. I have PSE8 but obviously am not using it correctly. Thank you, it gives me hope that at least my original shots can be worked with once I learn how.

--
Kind regards
Imqqmi

http://www.pbase.com/imqqmi

The DSLR jargon cheatsheet:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/dslrcheatsheet.pdf

Sunset blending tutorial:
http://www.jmbfoto.nl/tutorial/blendingTutorial01a.pdf

Wilba's Frequently Asked (beginners) Questions and answers
http://snipurl.com/RebelFAQ

New camera?

Senior Member

New member

Forum Pro

Forum Pro

Forum Pro

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Forum Pro

Forum Pro

Senior Member

Senior Member

Forum Pro

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Veteran Member

Keyboard shortcuts