Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

I'm disappointed with these photos taken out my front door early this morning. I have great equipment and wonderful opportunity but I feel I blew the chance to get a better picture. I would have liked to seen better focus, depth of field, and detail of the animals fur.

I used a full frame Sony A900 camera, a Sony 300mm f/2.8 lens with 2X converter for an effective length of 600mm. I used a F58AM flash with a home made Fresnel tele-extender so the light could reach. The settings are ISO=200, 1/125 seconds, f/5.6.

There is a ridge of a hill in front of my house that deer like to bed down on and watch over my house during the night and early morning. I have a foyer at the front door with room for a big tripod and my camera. If I slowly open the door the deer will tolerate me, but they do not like my flash. I can only take a few pictures before they leave.

I did not crop these photos at all. The 600mm lens gets me that close. The next time I'll not use the 2X converter. I find it's next to impossible to critically focus in dim light with a teleconverter. I'll remember to turn off the "Super Steady Shot" (anti-shake) in my camera, and use ISO=800 and increase my shutter speed to 1/250 seconds.

Can you think of what else I could do to get better pictures?

The first picture, before the flash went off.


What the heck was that! I'm up now!


Let's get out of here!

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Yes...I can think of a few things...one you've already zero'd in on (dump the teleconverter.)

Also, your lens length is VERY long for hand holding at 1/125.

The "general" rule is use a shutter speed 1/focal length at a minimum. You're at 600mm so you shouldn't use a shutter speed below 1/600 as a minimum. I know that I couldn't even do a 1/focal length....I'm that shaky.


dump the teleconverter, get the highest shutter speed you can...up the ISO to allow for this


for example: at your settings:

ISO = 200

SS = 1/125

Aperture = f/5.6


Would have also been equivalent to:


ISO = 800

SS = 1/1000

Aperture = f/5.6



OR


ISO = 400

SS = 1/500

Aperture = f/5.6



ISO/Shutter Speed/Aperture are part of a "triangle" recipe that produces a "proper exposure." If you change one, it means you must adjust one of the other elements accordingly.


If you want the SS to go up...you must raise the ISO or open up the aperture or a combination of both of those.



Does that make sense?

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

I can understand how you thought I was hand holding the camera because of the blur, but it was on a big sturdy tripod. I suspect that the blur was caused by the anti-shake mechanism in my camera. I should have turned that off because I was using a tripod.

I can only turn the shutter speed to 1/250 and maintain flash sync at that distance. I need all the power I can get out of my flash to reach the distant deer and keep a good depth of field.

The lens used.

English_Wolf Loc: Near Pensacola, FL

Please post an original, on a thumbnail one cannot see anything worth commenting about.

Click on "store original" next to browse.

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

Okay, I'll post a bigger version. See attached:

Bigger version

photo guy Loc: Chippewa Falls, WI

These are not bad at all in my opinion. I had to do post process on my recent deer ones due to taking the photos in the fog. Keep up the nice work.

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

Thanks but I also did some PP on these. I used an old program called focus fixer to make it appear a little sharper.

I'm starting to think the blur I got was due to motion of the imaging array caused by the anti-jitter I used on a tripod at this large focal length. To me the images look like too much noise reduction was done. I know that there was zero noise reduction done.

photo guy Loc: Chippewa Falls, WI

It can happen to have a slight blur with just a bump to some tripods. I have done it with mine already. I too use a outdated program but sometimes doesn't matter. I had some photos that I took over the weekend blurred in the back since I was zooming in so tight on the subject in front (birds).

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

Okay, now that he has posted the original, what's your comment? 8-)

English_Wolf Loc: Near Pensacola, FL

He posted another thumbnail so... Original means original, not some scaled down version. Result is no comment until the real stuff is out, even then there maybe no comment.

Even with this one you can see that the focus is on the twigs on the right side of the picture. What else maybe wrong? Not the exposure, the histogram is right on.

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

Darn, oh well. :lol:

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

Okay, I can play along. This is a full sized JPG version, zero post processing:

For English_wolf

English_Wolf Loc: Near Pensacola, FL

The focus is behind this time... This seems to be your major problem.

There is some motion from your camera handling but it is minimal and considering hand held and a 600 mm only one word: wow!

I also did a quick curve adjustment but since it is not requited by you, I will not post it, only if you give me the go ahead. (never-mind on that)

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Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

It was NOT hand held. All of these were taken on a tripod.

I think my problem is that the 2X converter made it near impossible to focus, and the depth of field is ridiculously shallow at the f-stop I used.

better focus but still blured

English_Wolf Loc: Near Pensacola, FL

Same as before, focus point is off, this time in front of the deer, on twigs again.

The DOF maybe shallow but it will does replace a good focus.

The 2x is responsible for a couple of things like the flatness of the picture and some distortion in the corners (in the possible addition of being harder to focus - You are the judge here). It also is responsible for the 'softness' of the picture focus as a whole.

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