Diary of my start in the DSLR world of photography

[John]

Now that I have ventured into unknown territory regarding purchasing a new DSLR set up I thought it would be a good idea to post some photos as I go along. Some of you saw my first efforts of flight photography in the Gigrin Farm thread but today I thought I would deliberately try something to make me think about what I was doing.

I decided to leave it until nearly 2pm to go to a wood about 15 miles away from me, Whitacre Heath. Here there is a hide deep in the woods with a feeding station in front of it. The beauty of this spot is that you can re-position a couple of the areas with feed on them for photography purposes. The other beauty is at this time of year the background, given the right light, can enhance the image.

The reason I left it so late to go was the fact that within a fairly short time the light would start to fade and I would have to do certain changes with the system to compensate that loss of light so whatever I acheived would have to be thought out. No mean feat for someone who had never touched a DSLR two weeks ago.

Anyway, here is a batch from Whitacre Heath. There is one exception. The Squirrel. I know we have loads of Squirrels on the boards but I have fallen in love with this shot. He is one of the Squirrels that come to my garden and today he came within twenty feet of my Kitchen Window. I just had to take his photo (had to be through the window) and I like it so much that I have made it my wallpaper on my computer.

I hope you like the photos. One thing I would ask of those that know their photography. Remember I am not even a novice yet so criticism is what I am looking for if you think it is needed. That is the only way I am going to learn this new photographic discipline.

There are some photos that are not really up to standard but they are there for a reason and I will put a comment above them to say why.





I love the look on this birds face.




This was taken at 15:20 with the light very low. Very slow speed and I think I was possibly on ISO 640 to get it (could have been 400)


This Robin was taken a couple of minutes before the Nuthatch.


This Jay must have been at least 100' away and yet it cropped down to this which has amazed me. Not a brilliant photo but for me it helps dispel one thing I was told, and that is that you can't take photos of birds at that distance with this set up. Oh yes you can.


Taken in very low light and also on the floor. Very hard subject to get.


This Reed Bunting must have been at least 60' away and again I was surprised it cropped down so well.


This Willow Tit was about 70 to 80' away and yet it has cropped right down. If it had been better light it might have been sharper but I have put it on her to show again that you can take photos at a greater distance than I thought possible.


In the end I have a lot to learn and the only way to do this is through practice and listening to advice. If you have a comment that you think will help me then fire away.

As the weeks go by I will add a few images to the thread. That way you can see if I am improving or not.

John

[Bushcraft]

Some really good shots John. Keep up the great work.

[matt_xyz]

Hi John,

It seems that you've pretty much mastered the basics, these are nice images. The one thing lacking in all of these images is good light so, as you say, you set yourself a tough challenge. Good light will absolutely transform bird images so much so that I rarely bother taking bird shots in dull light anymore.

I assume you're using single spot autofocus? It's then just a matter of trying to focus on the bird's head (if it's close enough to make a difference) while keeping your shutter speed up. Although with your IS that won't matter quite so much, but obviously the IS doesn't stabilise the bird(!) One or two of the above images look a touch soft, perhaps due to slight movement of the bird, and so may have been slightly sharper with a faster shutter speed.

Otherwise just keep practising. I think you've done very well to be getting such good images so soon.

Matt

[eeyore]

headbanging shots john (sorry couldnt resist that ) - I like your nuthatch especially , I have spent years trying to get one,

[John]

Thanks matt

I was struggling with speeds as the light content was very low in the late afternoon, combined with the tree cover. I tried various things to combat it but in the end with light as low as it was I was never going to get any decent speeds up.

I did use single spot but as you say if a bird moves then the resulting image can still suffer.

It wasn't the ideal circumstances to do photography but I chose it to make me work that bit harder.

If I am out for a day it stands to reason that the light content won't be the same all day and there will be days when I will possibly be out all day. I would rather try, and possibly fail, with all types of light.

You never know even in bad light I might still get that bird that no one else has. To do that I want to not only get used to good light photography but also those days that probably are not right. If I can work with relatively poor light then hopefully the knock on effect is that I will learn to use my system that bit quicker as it is forcing me to make decisions, something we may be not doing so much in perfect or good light.

What do you think Matt. Is it a good idea to do it that way or just stick to good light days.

John

[Boddie]

I have noticed, even at these distances, that DOF means that although the body is lovely and sharp the head may still be out, just a touch. It is tempting to use the body to focus on but when cropping so much you could afford to focus on the head more. Having said that I am also critical of the birds feathers as a measure of sharpness so choosing your F number is critical.

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Boddie

I have noticed, even at these distances, that DOF means that although the body is lovely and sharp the head may still be out, just a touch...

most photo advice from the likes of rouse and gomersal suggests that the focal point should be the eye, this is difficult to acheive as with birds facing you , or animals with long muzzles such as wolves the camera often focuses on the beak or nose and it is virtually impossible to tell through ther view finder or on the lcd.

In these cercumstances f8 might be better than f5.6 but it is difficult to give generic advice as every situation is different

[Alan]

Hi John

It easy to see the ones that do stand out are the ones that have caught the little light that there is at this time of year. And as far as light goes, you’re right in saying that timing is critical in that it’s often in these dark months that the couple of hours each side of noon produce the results – at least for fast moving wildlife anyway. Getting enough light for fast enough shutter speeds, that’s the key.

Sometimes in low-light conditions, the auto focus ‘hunts’ the subject so don’t discount manual focusing, and always focus on the eye (the larger the animal the smaller the aperture needs to be as a general rule, but dependant on light and distance of subject of course. If possible, F5.6 for small birds, and larger mammals f8). The same applies to metering, switch to manual and meter off a mid tone such as a tree trunk if the dark background affects the metering. You’ll certainly learn more about exposure if you use manual modes sometimes. It allows you to understand what the camera is actually trying to do when in auto-expose modes such as aperture priority. Experiment.

I think in the short time you’ve been using the DSLR, you’ve done brilliantly. So just keep going the direction you are and you wont go far wrong. Just keep checking that histogram!

Alan

[matt_xyz]

Originally Posted by John

If I am out for a day it stands to reason that the light content won't be the same all day and there will be days when I will possibly be out all day. I would rather try, and possibly fail, with all types of light.

You never know even in bad light I might still get that bird that no one else has. To do that I want to not only get used to good light photography but also those days that probably are not right. If I can work with relatively poor light then hopefully the knock on effect is that I will learn to use my system that bit quicker as it is forcing me to make decisions, something we may be not doing so much in perfect or good light.

What do you think Matt. Is it a good idea to do it that way or just stick to good light days.

John

I think your reasoning is right John, if you can master photography in poor light you'll do even better in good light. And it's still possible to take competent images of unusual species in poor light. So there's nothing wrong at all with practising in all kinds of light. But you'll certainly find that your images improve when they're taken in warm winter sunlight.

By the way, like Pete I've never managed a nuthatch shot either. I just never see them around my way. Same with bullfinches.

Matt

[John]

One thing I hadn't considered was upping the F's. In Digiscoping if you do that the light content drops dramatically. As that is the only discipline I know I thought it would be the same with DSLR. I am going to have to unlearn a few principles otherwise I will be making a few mistakes. If I had gone to possibly f8 perhaps some of these shots would have crisper all round.

Food for thought and that is what I want.

I am not looking for acclaim just advice. Its nice to know you have captured good images but at this stage of my development it would be nothing short of foolish for me to consder myself anything other than a beginner so constructive critiscm is the only way I am going to get anything out of this thread.

John