Trying to improve wildlife photos: These were taken at almost 9 pm in the Colorado mountains. Light diminishing obviously. They do not seem as sharp as I would hope. Noise? Camera...

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Trying to improve wildlife photos

Jun 22, 2018 23:45:07 #

genocolo Loc: Vail and Gasparilla Island

These were taken at almost 9 pm in the Colorado mountains. Light diminishing obviously.

They do not seem as sharp as I would hope. Noise? Camera shake? Used spot focus on eye. Too shallow DOF?

Canon 80D with Canon 100-400L II lens, handheld braced on car window.

Suggestions, critiques?

Thank you in advance.

(Download)

Jun 23, 2018 00:06:04 #

jpwa Loc: Inland NorthWest

you need to get out in the wild sooner in the day when you will have more light which will lower your ISO, which will reduce the noise in your pics......just saying.

Jun 23, 2018 02:34:52 #

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

Your pics look sharp on down load. I agree the low light levels force the high ISO which might be causing noise problems but I don't really see anything to complain about. Was the car running when you were braced against the window? That will cause vibrations which will affect sharpness. I would suggest using a bean bag if you expect to do a lot of photography using your car as a blind and, of course, engine turned off.
Personally, I would be proud of them if they were mine.

Jun 23, 2018 07:50:23 #

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I downloaded the top image. It would benefit from some basic edits, starting by added +1 to +1.5 to the exposure in LR or similar editor. The image reports Photos 3.

Regarding best practices, more light is a good place to start, if you can get it. Photos has removed much of the EXIF data from the 80D so I can't see the focus point nor the focus mode. The eye to the left of the frame looks sharp and the eyes are the required area to focus. Stepping down a bit may seem like a non starter in this low light, but I wouldn't shoot the 100-400 II wide open if I can avoid it. Using say f/5 or f/5.6 for this image push the ISO higher rather than adjusting the exposure in post. Upping the exposure in post tends to bring out the noise and / or softens the details while processing the noise. The image seems to have been cropped a bit. If you find your results are always cropped from the originals, practice shooting at a focal length, if available in the lens zoom range, that is closer to what you tend to crop-to in the final results.

Confirm that you'd like to see example processing on the first image to have the edit reposted to this thread for ideas on post processing.

Jun 23, 2018 08:04:11 #

genocolo Loc: Vail and Gasparilla Island

Thanks for your advice. Yes, I would welcome any help in pp.

I will try getting out earlier although the animals here may be most active around this time.

Good suggestion about beanbag. Engine was off.

Will try to back off shooting wide open.

Jun 23, 2018 08:11:46 #

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Here's an example of a bit of post processing.