First Photo's Take Two

[humbug]

hi folks,
got back out on the hunt for the red squirrels applying some of the advice given in my last post, took some at a lower iso but the blur was too much and found that iso 400 was right for the conditions and my equipment, but still learning so may be wrong.
any advice will be gratefully recieved.
cheers
brian.



File Name IMG_0431.CR2
Camera Model Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL
Shooting Date/Time 23/07/2007 12:06:43
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/1000
Av( Aperture Value ) 7.1
Metering Mode Center-Weighted Average Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 400
Lens 55.0 - 200.0 mm
Focal Length 200.0 mm
Image Size 3888x2592
Image Quality RAW
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Cloudy
AF Mode AI Focus AF
Picture Style Standard
Sharpness 3
Contrast 0
Saturation 0
Color tone 0
Color Space sRGB
Noise Reduction Off
File Size 9438 KB

[Gaina]

I'm no David Bailey myself but I think that's a lovely photo, it's go so much energy in it!

[Ollie]

Can't see anything wrong with that, it's a great action shot. Lovely detail, sharp and you have caught the light in the eye. I would be very pleased with it if I had taken it.
Roger

[Ukwildlifeo]

Great shot, i havent managed anything that good with the greys down here!

[eeyore]

very nice - to be hyper critical it might have been slightly better composed with the squirell to the right in the frame instead of centred so that it is jumping into the space

also you might want to try it with the apperture set to f5.6 to blur the background a bit more

however these are two very minor points and you should certainly be proud of the shot - particularly for only your second outing

[wildlifesnapper]

Hi

I agree about the aperture and putting the squirrel more to the right (easyer said than done when thery're all over the place ) otherwise great shot for your second outing.

neil

[glsammy]

A lovely shot, and as for your ISO settings, 400 is my standard setting. The noise levels are extremely low, there's little point in shooting at lower ISO settings, unless there's too much sunlight of course. Not a problem we've had to deal with much lately.

[nutmeg]

I think that's a smashing squirrel action shot

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by humbug

hi folks,
got back out on the hunt for the red squirrels applying some of the advice given in my last post, took some at a lower iso but the blur was too much

another thing you could try would be to set a much lower shutter speed and pan with it - its a very hit and miss technique but do it enough and you'll get lucky eventually - ideally you are looking to get the head and eyes more or less sharp - the background completely blurred and the legs showing a fair degree of motion blur

for that you want between 1/15 and 1/45 depending on how fast your squiz is and how smoth your panning action is.

depending on how confident the squirells are if you have a flash gun you could also throwing some slow sync flash

see here for a more indepth description of how this is done Photopositive

note - I have no conection to this site and am not recommending its comercial print sale aspects - but it was the best description of pan and slow sync that i could find.

[colincurry]

Great shot - I think we have red squirrels on an island at a nearby small zoo - will have to go back and see and take my camera.

Colin