J Corley

Sometimes I just can't get a decent photo of the birds in my yard. They are never as sharp or vibrant as they are once I process them. These bird images were taken yesterday with a Canon 70D and a Canon 100-400mm lens (older version). Love the images but I know they can be better. They were both hand held (my preference), although I have two tripods. Is it me, the light or the processing. I used Lightroom and Photoshop to finish them.

Suggestions please... this is a periodic problem and it is really frustrating me.

A beautiful yellow bird in my sunflowers.

(Download)

J Corley

This yellow bird was taken the same day as the previous one?
What did I do wrong?

LarryFB Loc: Depends where our RV is parked

Looking at the posted photo, it looks like you focused on the flower not the bird. Are you using an area focus? It would be better to use spot focusing, focus on the bird, keep the shutter release pressed half way to maintain focus and exposure, recompose, then press the shutter release all the way down.

Old Timer Loc: Greenfield, In.

Was it hand held?

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Flower seems in focus, bird does not. Camera/lens may be front focusing, or you may be pulling the camera down and to the right when you press the shutter.. We could see your settings and the pic better if you check the "store original" box when you upload the pic, so we can download it and zoom in.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Too much noise, you don't need 2000 iso and 1/2000 of a second. Try a lower speed 1/640 or less, and lower your iso to support that speed. Also the flower bud in the lower left corner is the best focus. Your camera/lens may be front focusing. How far were you from the bird?

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Also, always try to focus on the eye of the bird.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

What format are you shooting, JPEG or RAW? Do you have an original file before your post processing? I think we should start there.

Regarding EXIF in this image, you're at ISO-2000 and shutter speed 1/2500. You should be getting sharper images. I'm not seeing any portion of the image sharper than elsewhere. That said, you could shoot slower in the 1/1250 to 1/2000 range and use a lower ISO, particularly in the light of this example. The noise reduction is very uneven and should be a lot cleaner from a 70D image and having been run through LR or PS. This is why I ask to see the original before your processing. I'd also like to know the AF drive mode and where you had your active focus point, something that Canon's DPP software can reveal from the original image before your processing.

The colors and composition are very nice. I understand your frustration on not being sharp in the details. Your camera and lens are much more capable, but we need to see more of the original technical details before your processing to find where the problem resides.

mrpentaxk5ii

What did you want in Focus, the bird or the flower or both? If you wanted both you need a greater F stop for deeper depth of feild if you want to have the bird in focus and not the flower, use select auto focus point, this is where you have a single focus point, move it to where the bird is, focus and take the photo. If you are using group auto focus the camera will focus on the object closest to the camera and that would be the flower.

Haydon

As others have suggested, the flower is in focus but the bird isn't. Set it to a single focus point and shoot for the eye. Long lenses fall out of focus quickly because of shallow DOF. You may be working with just an inch if not less depending on the lens, distance etc.

Japakomom Loc: Originally from the Last Frontier

Are you using in camera sharpening? If so, I would turn it off. You should be able to get a nice sharp picture without it turned on with your lens/camera combo.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

JC, what Focus mode are you using? Are you on "One Shot"?
Problem is your camera doesn't have spot focus. Deep in the leaves like that, that the camera focus in the bird and not the leaves which have more contrasting edges for the focus system to lock onto, it might be a complete crap shoot.
As was asked, how far away are you? Did you crop that shot?
Lots to deal with here that you may not be able to control! Good luck
SS

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Nice flower shot!!! LoL
Sorry, see my reply in your other post!!
SS

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I can't download the image. But if you are using a 70D, ISO 2000 or 2500 is too high. I usually set my camera to ISO 1000 and a shutter speed of 1/1000 which is plenty fast and I hand-hold a 150-600 Sigma Sport. My aperture is usually between 7.1 and 9. If the light is bad, I will do what I need to do, usually adjusting the aperture and shutter speed first, then increasing the ISO to as high as 3200, but that is fine on a D800/810. I would not suggest such high ISO on your camera.

Also, you will get better control over the outcome if you shoot raw, since you can dial in the amount of sharpening and noise reduction (and masking on the noise reduction) to fine tune the final result better than any in-camera setting.

I have lots of birds using a variety of exposure settings on my flickr pages:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gene_lugo/

[Edit] the download server was temporarily offline. I can see the image now.

The bird seems to be moving and it is slightly out of focus and slightly overexposed (about 1/2 stop to 2/3 stop).

You used ISO 2000 which is too high, 1000 would be better, and that would mean that you'd have to use a slower shutter speed. If everything is to remain equal, that would be 1/1250. BUT, you were slightly overexposed, and you had +1/3 exposure comp to add more exposure - so 1/1600 or even 1/2000 would likely be a better exposure. Aperture is fine - that lens is quite sharp at F7.1.

You also cropped the image to 10 mp, so you can't expect the same quality as you would get from an uncropped image.

I am not sure what focusing mode you used, but I would suggest single point, center sensor, and back button focusing, so that you can focus on an eye, then recompose without re-acquiring focus. That may help. Or alternately you can move your active focus point, in this case to the right to get it on the bird's eye - which you can do with either normal AF activation (half press on the shutter) or using the back button only.

When I shoot birds I determine a general setting for the worst case - white bird in full sunlight (if applicable) and use manual exposure to set a fixed ISO, shutter speed and aperture. I will then adjust on the fly based on what kind of light is falling on the bird. When I measure the exposure, I seek out the brightest thing in the scene, measure it with the camera's spot meter until the arrow is centered in the viewfinder, then I add 1 fulls stop extra exposure (shutter, aperture or combination). This is good until the light changes where I do it again. It avoids overexposure and lost highlights.

mrpentaxk5ii

the thing that I don't understand is where you have photos by and your name, that part is not sharp when you view the photo in download.