Canon EOS 350D and best Lens

[Derby411]

Hi All

I love taking photos and am now trying to take a lot of photos of birds but am not happy with my results... they seem to lack detail or are too dark or blurred!!

Therefore i wonder if any of you could post your views on the best lens/settings with the Canon 350D when taking photos of birds - moving and not!

Many Thanks!

[GerryNick2]

Hi

It would help if you were to first tell us what lens (or lenses) you are using with your 350D as this will help to advise on the best way forward.

Gerry

[Claymore]

Originally Posted by Derby411

Hi All

I love taking photos and am now trying to take a lot of photos of birds but am not happy with my results... they seem to lack detail or are too dark or blurred!!

Therefore i wonder if any of you could post your views on the best lens/settings with the Canon 350D when taking photos of birds - moving and not!

Many Thanks!

Hi, what sort of money do you want to spend? and like Gerry said what lens are you using at the moment?
If you don't have one already get yourself a sturdy tripod that will improve things for starters!
Cheers
Brian
Ps welcome to the forum, i'm a newby aswell so understand needing help (i need all the help i can get and still produce oeoeoeoe shots)LoL

[Jon]

Originally Posted by Derby411

Hi All

I love taking photos and am now trying to take a lot of photos of birds but am not happy with my results... they seem to lack detail or are too dark or blurred!!

Therefore i wonder if any of you could post your views on the best lens/settings with the Canon 350D when taking photos of birds - moving and not!

Many Thanks!

Could do with seeing your shots - do you have camera movement or subject movement or both?
Rule 1 Good camera support and as fast as a shutter speed you can get.
As a starter try 1/250sec or less - i.e. faster. You can of course get away with slower speeds but if all your shots are blurred at 1/250sec or less then you may have a camera/lens problem.
Start with your camera on ISO 400 - which mode are you using? - try AV at full aperture or Programme mode. At these settings you should be getting sharp shots unless it is very dull.
Jon

[big bill]

Hello like above a good support for your camera is essenstial,also if you set your camera to AV and select an aperture of about 5.6 it should enable you to have a fast enough shutter speed andan ISO of 100 or 200 this will in turn push the background out of focus placing all the emphasise on the main subject also try to focus on the eyes of your subject this will then ensure that the rest of the image is sharp you need tro be using a lens of at least 200mm and with the crop factor of the 350D this will give you 340mm .If you have one use a remote release switch this will stop any downward movement incurred by the shutter finger causing vibration
Stability is the main point with focusing on the eye.
If you put some of your pics up here we can see whats happening let us know the lens and settings used as well it all helps ,best of luck

[Derby411]

Right hi peeps.. thanks for the help so far. My Lens are the EFS 18-55mm which came with the camera and a Canon Zoom Len - EF 90-300mm 1:4,5-5.6 which i brought also at the same time as an extra.

I am tending to try different settings but as yet have not found one i am happy with.


These are my best pics of animal subjects and some aren't too bad but i know the camera can do better.. i'm just not using it to its best!

Some most of my photos are both camera and subject moment as i try to follow the birds! I don't make life easy ay?

As to how much i am looking to spend under £2k but depends on what results i can get from the lens.

Anymore questions please ask..

Thanks again for the help!

[Words]

You've got some pretty good shots there. I'm using the 400D, and rarely come below ISO 400 except on very bright days.

Birds against the sky are always tricky. You need to overexpose the shot slightly (dial in a + value and you should see the marker in the viewfinder move to the right). This will help pick up the detail under the bird. Don't be afraid to experiment with the settings.

Nice looking Fox by the way!

[Derby411]

Thank you. Just looking through my shots and i have actually set the falconry pics to ISO 1600!!!!!! More of my shots have been ISO 600

I just sometimes look at my pics and think they are blurred! I see some REALLY fantastic shots from some photo and they are crystal clear am i being too fussy guys?

[Derby411]

This might have already been said and i totally mis-understood but can someone tell me how i can get the background to blur out more on my shots please!???

[Jon]

Originally Posted by Derby411

This might have already been said and i totally mis-understood but can someone tell me how i can get the background to blur out more on my shots please!???

There are a number of different ways but if you are not careful it will look very contrived.
Firstly try to use a wide aperture and a long lens, after this you are looking at smoke and mirrors. You can select the subject - draw around it and feather a bit, then sharpen it then select inverse and then blurr the background. This is probably the easiest method. You can use lens blur whereby you selectively blur the foreground and the background - I have just received a tutorial today. The main thing is to make it look natural as opposed to making the subject look as if it is stuck in front of a n unnaturally blurred background. If you want more detail PM me.
Jon

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Derby411

Thank you. Just looking through my shots and i have actually set the falconry pics to ISO 1600!!!!!! More of my shots have been ISO 600

I just sometimes look at my pics and think they are blurred! I see some REALLY fantastic shots from some photo and they are crystal clear am i being too fussy guys?

Can you upload some of your shots to our forum gallery so we can see them?
Go to Gallery, Upload, and select the archives gallery. These are not moderated, so you can link the images straight into this or any other thread.

[Derby411]

Hi Jon thanks for the idea.. please can you pm me with more info, I will give it a try what you have already mentioned.

Glsammy, i have put linked in further up to some of my pics which are on facebook but you can see without membership!



i am after trying to get sharper details pics, a lot of my photos when i zoom in arestill rather blurred - they look better small like on facebook!

[glsammy]

I'm sorry, we don't allow external linked images. I'm afraid I'll have to remove the link, hence my request for you to upload some to our forum gallery.

[Derby411]

lol.. ohhhhhhh i didn't know that. I'll just used the 'insert link' from the reply to thread box.
I don't have the imagines on the pc i am currently on so will have to upload them later on when back home! Bear with me!

[Derby411]

ok here goes with a couple of pics...

[Derby411]

Originally Posted by Derby411

ok here goes with a couple of pics...

Ermm must have done something wrong i guess.. they aren't here any more.. *sighs* will try again at the weekend!

[glsammy]

Originally Posted by Derby411

Ermm must have done something wrong i guess.. they aren't here any more.. *sighs* will try again at the weekend!

That's because you tried to load them to the main Gallery. They're not British birds so aren't acceptable.
You can use these but load them to the Forum gallery, under Archives.

[jasongallier]

The long lens and wide aperture is the easiest but also the most expensive!

A cheaper but more difficult method would be to decrease your distance to your subject (easier said than done) and get the subject to be much further from any background.

An example might be a bird on a post/perch/bird table say 2 or 3m away while the background is 10+m away. That should blur the background.
In that case it is important to be on the same level as your subject but that in itself will enhance the photograph.

With the above I would say that a 200-300mm lens with an aperture of 5.6 would work OK. Pick something easy like Robins or chaffinches to make things easy on yourself. You can easily attract birds with food.

Jason G

PS - you'll need some patience and perseverance.