Annoying Fuzzy Halo/Outline - Need Help To Solve! I was wondering if anyone has a thought as to why there is a strange fuzzy outline, especially around the head. All the shots on this...

Feiertag Loc: British Columbia, Canada

I was wondering if anyone has a thought as to why there is a strange fuzzy outline, especially around the head. All the shots on this day has the same issue.

Shot with a Nikon D850, Nikon 200-400mm @ 400mm, f/4, 1/1000, ISO 640.

Harold

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DaveC1 Loc: South East US

This is an auto focus lens with VR correct? This is also a 5.3 mp crop of the original image I see.

DaveC1 Loc: South East US

It almost looks like the camera was moving down and to the left at the time of the exposure with some owl head movement added in.

twowindsbear

How about posting a pic of something other than a bird that that shows this problem?

billnourse Loc: Bloomfield, NM

Were you on a tripod? If you were and did not take the lens off of VR that might have caused it. If the lens is in VR on a tripod the system tries to compensate for movement when there is none.

Odd it looks like it is only the owl that is messed up, and not the post it is sitting on. The eye even looks pretty good. It seems to be mostly in areas of high contrast around the owl where there is white on brown.

Bill

Feiertag Loc: British Columbia, Canada

twowindsbear wrote:

How about posting a pic of something other than a bird that that shows this problem?

I would but I don't have any others to offer but the owl.

Feiertag Loc: British Columbia, Canada

DaveC1 wrote:

This is an auto focus lens with VR correct? This is also a 5.3 mp crop of the original image I see.

Yes and it is cropped.

pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA

Had the owl just turned its head around as the shutter released. The whole bird lacks sharpness. I’m wondering if it’s nothing more than movement. Don’t know your shutter speed. Just wondering outloud.

Feiertag Loc: British Columbia, Canada

billnourse wrote:

Were you on a tripod? If you were and did not take the lens off of VR that might have caused it. If the lens is in VR on a tripod the system tries to compensate for movement when there is none.

Odd it looks like it is only the owl that is messed up, and not the post it is sitting on. The eye even looks pretty good. It seems to be mostly in areas of high contrast around the owl where there is white on brown.

Bill

I shot this from in my vehicle. The camera was resting on a bean bag. The VR was on. Maybe it had the same effect as if it were on a tripod?

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Don't shoot the messenger here, but at first blush it looks like camera shake to me as well, but at 1000, unless you were sitting the camera on a lawnmower, it seems unlikely.

The second thing (the part where people may get mad at me) it looks like you tried to cut out the owl, blur the background, then paste the owl back in? The background blur looks too consistent. If you did do this, cut out the owl, use content aware to fill in where the owl was, then paste it back in.

If that's not what you did, then I apologize, it's just what it looks like to me.

Feiertag Loc: British Columbia, Canada

pesfls wrote:

Had the owl just turned its head around as the shutter released. The whole bird lacks sharpness. I’m wondering if it’s nothing more than movement. Don’t know your shutter speed. Just wondering outloud.

As I initially stated, the speed was 1/1000. It was a bit breezy but you would think that speed would freeze the feathers? Maybe not!

Feiertag Loc: British Columbia, Canada

bkyser wrote:

Don't shoot the messenger here, but at first blush... (show quote)

It's all good, I did not cut and paste the bird. I don't even know how to do this.

I was wondering when the question of its authenticity of the photo would come up? It looked to me like what you observed. Cheers.

twowindsbear

Here's my WAG:

The bird is just fuzzy around the edges - simple as that.

Or maybe 'fluffy' is a better word

Feiertag Loc: British Columbia, Canada

twowindsbear wrote:

Here's my WAG:

The bird is just fuzzy around the edges - simple as that.

Excellent! I didn't want it to be my camera.

pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA

Feiertag wrote:

As I initially stated, the speed was 1/1000. It was a bit breezy but you would think that speed would freeze the feathers? Maybe not!

I'm sorry I missed 1/1000th. My mistake. Doesn't seem likely that speed should have produced the effect. But the fuzziness surrounds the bird. Was it breezy? FWIW I have an 800mm manual lens and I can see the difference on setting birds between 1/1000th & 1/2000th. Anyway my error. Sorry.