Scarborough Trip Gulls in Flight

[operanut1972]

Hi All I took my Canon gear out for a proper spin on Sunday. Please give honest thoughts and advice. The Gull in flight was handheld at 300mm hence wobble, but no IS. This was my first ever BIF capture still got lots to learn!!!

1)



2)



3)



4)



Anyway, as I said be honest, I wont learn otherwise!

[Davy Crockett]

sent some answers, hoping they are helpful

[operanut1972]

Hi DC,

No can find your responses, where did you send them?

Cheers

[Davy Crockett]

Originally Posted by operanut1972

Hi DC,

No can find your responses, where did you send them?

Cheers

Click on each picture to go to the gallary

[PMG]

Originally Posted by operanut1972

Hi DC,

No can find your responses, where did you send them?

Cheers

We've both answered under each pic Steve but I may open a thread which is titled For Steve Advice in a min ......
Change of mind - I will upload to here instead for the time being ......

Pauline

[PMG]

I will get time later poss to put more thoughts down but to put you on I looked at this and cropped tighter as an illustration of how to get both things in and get the eye to look at both from the kids faces across the prow of the boat to the gulls - you need to train your eye first for the story you want to tell

Pauline

[operanut1972]

Hi Guys,

Found the comments eventually, I was having a brain f*rt. The first shot was a grab one, but your right I should have gone portrait, this shot was using the 18-55 and I was right at the 55mm end, I think I tried to move closer but it flew off, despite me moving slowly. I see what you mean, I've tried cropping into the head but there's not enough interest in it. No 2 is the same, nothing there apart from a simple record shot. Number 3 the gull in flight, I just focused and squished the trigger got about 5 shots before the buffer got backed up . However, I was just pleased to capture something.

Question: When taking Bird in flight should I have the camera in AI Servo or AI Focus? To be honest I was so excited I left the camera in one shot, which is why (along with the handholding) they were ever so slightly blurry lol. Next time the tripod is coming with me.

The last shot: I saw the boat, I saw the kids and I saw the birds I thought I could get a picture but none of my crops were working. I am inclined to agree with DC about focusing on the birds next time, but If I had put all the focus points on would this have helped do you think? Your crop is going someway near to the shot I had pictured Pauline thanks.

Thank you both for taking the time to critique, as I keep saying, I've got lots to learn. I am completely hooked with the birds in flight, just need to figure a way to attach the camera, lens and tripod to the chair/ground or go a different way altogether. I'm much happier with the people and building shots taken at the same time, so definitely a winner on the Cannon gear. I think I'm going to check to see when the Canon 70-300 L is going to be available for hire and see how I do. That's all the glass I'm going to play with for now. I've got some other shots that I'm playing with, I may well add them here or another thread depends on if I can get them fit for critique.

Looks like you guys had a good day eventually .

[Geoff F]

Well, honest comments? The School Report would read something like 'Has potential but must try harder'.

Besides loosing the feet from #1 the whole scene needs a rotation to straighten the vertical lines.

#2 would work with a crop to a different size. I would try 5 x 4 ratio and get rid of the sand on the right side. Some people like to work strictly with the Rule of Thirds which leaves an expanse of nothingness over a large area, like this photo; but I think that method looks unbalanced unless there is something of interest there.

#3 isn't sharp but the question is why. What was your shutter speed? For flying birds you really need at least 1/1000 which can sometimes cause problems with other settings. Otherwise, you didn't focus correctly.

#4 is a very difficult scene to photograph and get everything sharp. Unfortunately you appear to have nothing well focused here. Your only strategy would be to get the boat in sharp focus and hope there were some birds also withing the sharp focus range.

With a scene like this your camera will prefer to autofocus on the hard edged boat instead of soft edged birds. In this case you need a fast shutter speed plus good depth of field. Which means something like 1/1000 and an aperture of F11 to F14 approx. And this needs good light plus a fairly high ISO; possibly ISO 400 to 800.

For moving targets, AI Servo is probably best as it keeps searching for a suitable area to 'lock on'. AI Focus can work OK providing it achieves the initial focus, which can work if the subject is moving slowly and you focus quickly.

As I said initially, there is potential here, it just needs a little more practice with these tricky shots. But even the experts shoot plenty of frames and expect a high discard rate with the last two subjects.

And with regard to the Canon 70-300 L lens. I was considering this lens when it was first announced but that was just before the VAT increase and they weren't available in the UK then. So I went for the 70-200 L IS F4 instead.

Recently a friend purchased the 70-300 L, after trying my basic 70-300 IS and my 70-200. He is delighted with the results and is producing some good work with it.

[operanut1972]

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for the feedback, I took a couple of shots of the Gull one of which was in portrait mode (#1) but I felt the focus wasn't on the right area. The format worked better though. (#2) was a grab shot, I try not to enclose the subject too much, to the point I leave it lost, I see what you mean, I wish I could say I consciously worked to the rule of thirds, but I didn't. (#3) I was at the limit of a Sigma DG 70-300mm no tripod and no IS, my hands aren't that steady at the best of times but whilst it was fuzzy it was so much better than all the others that I attempted and binned using a Panasonic G2. I'll dig the exif info up on all 4 shots and post it. (I'm using my iPad to keep up with new posts). As for (#4) Pauline had the measure of the shot I was aiming for, I think I hit the shutter and hoped I could get a decent shot out of it. I need to break the habit of shooting in mode P. I've got very lazy.

As I said at the start cheers for being honest, at least there is something there to work with and I'm not wasting my time and money.

ATB

[operanut1972]

Originally Posted by PMG

We've both answered under each pic Steve but I may open a thread which is titled For Steve Advice in a min ......
Change of mind - I will upload to here instead for the time being ......

Pauline

He he, missed this last time I looked, ok mea culpae. I was viewing on the iPad and didn't scroll down enough. Oops, lesson learnt, will now get hat and coat and sit in the ran for being impatient

Hope coffee isn't giving you gype. Speak soon