Have I done something wrong here?

[LoveT]

Hi - anyone able to help/advise?

I was priviledged to have a visit today from several buzzards. So got out my E3 and Sigma 50-500mm (with Sigma UV filter attached) and had a go at photographing these beauties in flight (I need to practice!).

I was so excited with my results - they looked great in the viewfinder. However, I was really disappointed when I downloaded them:




Technical info as follows: High Quality JPEG, ISO 400, continuous AF, +1.3 exposure compensation, 1/1250 sec at f4.

If you zoom in or crop the image there is some serious colour fringing around the outside of the bird. I've tried Photoshop and Lightroom on them with no effect - the quality remains poor. If I'd taken RAW images (as I normally do) would I have had a little more leeway with editing?

I don't think it could be the lens as I took this one round about the same time:


The only conclusion I come to is the camera couldn't handle it, but any clues as to what I'm doing wrong?
(Sorry about the image quality - I had to squash the life out of them to get them a reasonable size )

Thanks

Thea

[DavyG]

Hi Thea,

I'd be surprised if your camera couldn't handle it, I've seen some stunning images coming from the E3.

Which metering mode were you using?

Where was the sun in relation to the bird?

Personally, I always shoot RAW, it does give you more leeway when developing your pics.

I find that it's best to use my Bigma at around f8 where possible, it seems to produce sharper images.

Dave

[LoveT]

Hi Dave - thanks for the reply

Now this is the strange thing - I've got the camera set to Aperture Priority, and I opened the aperture as wide as possible in order to get the best shutter speed for capturing the birds in flight. However, the exif data says that it is set on manual exposure .

The sun was to my left and slightly behind me - the birds were flying away from the sun, and away northwards.

I have taken shots with the E3 of birds in flight before, and usually managed to get a nice silhouette of a bird , but without this fringing! So today I thought I'd try what I've seen in other threads and use a bit of exposure compensation to see what happens. Maybe I used too much....

And yes I usually shoot in RAW too, so goodness only knows just why I decided to change my mind today .

Nice camera, shame about the operator .

Thea

[Fourwings]

I can see what you mean Thea, but they are not that bad.
Shooting in-flight birds with the Bigma really is a bit of an art form to be fair, its not the best lens in the world for this kind of photography, but with practice reasonable results are possible.
It took me ages to master the in-flight technique with my Bigma, with the 150mm f2.8 prime it was so easy to do, providing the bird was close enough of course!

I would suggest using an f stop between f8 & f10 but no higher or lower, I let the shutter speed decide which one I use, ie.. the faster the better.
I use AI-servo focus mode which I suspect is the same as your continuous mode and as for exposure comp, I usually set at +0.7EV when shooting into a bright sky.
Once I have aquired focus lock on my target, I pan through and keep my finger on the button until the buffer is full, and hopefully some of those shots are keepers.
Not very scientific I'm afraid but it gets results for me.
This was taken yesterday using that method.

[LoveT]

Thanks very much fourwings - I feel better knowing I'm (sort of) on the right track, and that the lens takes a bit of getting used to for these sorts of shots .

I've taken note of the info you've given and will have a go (hopefully very soon!). It's the one thing I'm desperate to get right this year as I'm really weak at in-flight shots.

Thanks again.

Thea

[RichBrew]

Hi, Thea,

No, you haven't done anything wrong. From the exposure information you have given, you seem to be heading in the right direction. The colour fringing you see is chromatic aberration, and can be removed in Photoshop. Almost all long telephotos suffer from this to some degree, and in particular zooms (the problem can also beset wide angle lenses). Shooting in RAW or JPEG won't make any difference.

RichBrew

[LoveT]

That's very interesting RichBrew - I'm aware it can be corrected in RAW images at the File/Open stage (as I have done that on occasion), but I wasn't aware it can be fixed in JPEGs using Photoshop.

If it's not a dumb question, how do you do it to JPEG images then?

Thanks

Thea

[RichBrew]

Thea,

You will need PS3 to remove the fringing, which needed to be shot in RAW first. Sorry if I gave the impression that it could be removed from a JPEG. I also meant that the chromatic aberration would still be present no matter what file format you shoot in. I hope this clears up any misunderstanding (it's been a long day).

RichBrew

[LoveT]

Originally Posted by RichBrew

Thea,

You will need PS3 to remove the fringing, which needed to be shot in RAW first. Sorry if I gave the impression that it could be removed from a JPEG. I also meant that the chromatic aberration would still be present no matter what file format you shoot in. I hope this clears up any misunderstanding (it's been a long day).

RichBrew

That's okay RichBrew - same here ! I had a feeling you were going to tell me that it couldn't be done with JPEG, but then maybe you've found this clever toy in PS3 that I hadn't come across yet!

Thanks for your help

Thea

[GerryNick2]

Looking closely at your images I can see some strange artifacts like concentric circles spreading out from the centre of the image. Have come across this on a couple of occasions in the past and the culprit was the UV filter. Try taking some shots in similar conditions without the UV filter and compare the results.

Gerry