Einreb92 Loc: Philadelphia

Hah. I like the concept of graduating, but in my case, I went from always shooting in auto on my D70s to trying to exert more control, thereby learning more about the science behind taking a self controlled capture. In my way of thinking, we should all always be in a state of graduation.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

I think that part of your challenge here is the slowness of the lens from an aperture standpoint. F/5.6 is pretty slow and it also makes the DOF large enough that too much is in focus in your photo and it makes it difficult to separate the bird from the rest of the scene a bit. Unfortunately that is the lens that you have now so you just have to work with it if and until you can get something faster lens wise. I would suggest you get an app for your phone or tablet for DOF. You can get them for free or a couple dollars. That way you can plug in the parameters of the camera, lens and distance and get feedback on the acceptable DOF. The closer you shoot toward the 300mm end of the lens the shallower the DOF will be at a given aperture. Shorter length of lens will give greater depth of field at any given aperture. For example, my DOF calculator indicates that a 1.6 crop camera with a 600mm lens at f/4 shot at 30' has a DOF of 0.11 feet... While a 300mm lens at f/5.6 on the 1.6 crop camera has a DOF of 0.63 feet at 30 feet away. Almost 6 times the total depth of field.

The other thing you can do to deal with the limitations of your current lens is to shoot in RAW and crop a great deal to isolate the subject more. That will not be a great solution with a lot of cropping as you will greatly reduce the resolution of the picture. The other thing that could be done is to use post processing software to reduce sharpness or blur the surrounding elements and isolate the subject more. You can also do that with vignetting tools and use that to frame and isolate the subject.

Best,
Todd Ferguson

Tom M Loc: 77429

Shouldn't that be the other way around? If shooting a white bird, shouldn't you go (-) on the compensation to keep from overexposing and blowing out the white detail, and if the bird is dark with a brighter background (backlit) shouldn't you go (+) on the compensation to show more of the detail on the darker bird, rather than just a silhouette? I could be wrong.

SkyKing Loc: Thompson Ridge, NY

...this was posted on featheredphotography this morning...it’s a blog by Ron Dudley...I like this website because he posts his camera settings for each shot...
1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
http://www.featheredphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/belted-kingfisher-2663b-ron-dudley-768x549.jpg

Einreb92 Loc: Philadelphia

Thanks Todd, for your clear evaluation of the weakest link in terms of my equipment. The lens does a fine job in better light, and I agree better glass would eliminate at least one problem. I always shoot RAW and have a suite of software to use to work on images. I have no qualms about cropping and am glad I posted a full image so you could weigh in. Thanks again!

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

The meter will try to make everything medium, 18% gray. So it will try to make very white or very dark objects medium gray. It will underexpose the white to make it gray and it will over expose the black to make it gray. For a Snow shot you can usually meter and then overexpose 1-2 stops. I do think camera metering algorithms are getting better at metering at least on the higher end cameras. Just my opinion.

Best,
Todd Ferguson

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

And if shot at 30 feet with those settings the DOF would be approximately 0.15 feet...
But we don't know the distance....

Best,
Todd Ferguson

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Your welcome...
and get a DOF app and play with it... it is instructive and in part explains why we don't need F/1.4 800mm lenses...aside from the huge size and weight they would have to be...

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Whenever I've been confronted with a situation such as you describe, I'll meter something stationary in the same light as the bird would be. My hand works well held over my head and metered. That would simulate the shaded side of the bird in flight. As long as the lighting is similar to that on your hand, there will be no difference in the exposure between your hand and the bird.

If the lighting is changing, broken clouds blowing by, take two meter readings. One when your hand is in shade, the other when in sun. Remember those two settings. Then just switch between the two depending on the lighting, as there is little time to do much else.
--Bob

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

And if you want to set up two setting to toggle between it is handy if your camera allows you to define custom shooting modes. My Canon does and I use that capability...

Best,
Todd Ferguson

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Nikon has shooting banks that maintain settings, similarly. How quickly one can change between them is an issue when situations are changing rapidly.
--Bob

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Todd, with group auto focus the eye of the bird is in focus no matter how near or far. That's what is so great about GROUP AUTO FOCUS. Mind you, I try to get all five spots on the bird, which is not all that hard to do. I used to practice panning on moving cars hours at a time until I had them centered almost every time. And 6.3 gives a lot more DOF than say 2.8. I find that at 6.3 most all of the 4 foot wing span of a great blue heron is in focus from one tip to the other.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Bill, do you know which Canon focus mode is closest to group auto focus?

Best,
Todd Ferguson

jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

I don't know that I would ignore the meter. In shutter priority, the camera will set an aperture for you but I would still look to see what it is wanting to choose and if the meter shows a proper exposure or not. For maximum flexibility you can put the camera's ISO in "Auto" too but if the light is too low it may choose an ISO higher than you want to use. I would recommend setting the ISO to somewhere in the 100 - 400 range and if the light is too low maybe up to 800. Use the fastest shutter speed that you can and still get a good exposure and if you lens has VR turn it on too.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

I recommend using shutter preferred and setting the ISO to AUTO. AND, learn how to hold your camera very steady!