On the few sunny days I have managed to get out with this lens, I haven't captured any award winning BIF shots. I've been distracted by having twice the focal length as before and all the new bird photography now open to me. I still need to work on my long lens technique and squeeze out the sharper images I know this lens is capable of. However I'm really enjoying the extra focal length over my last birding lens.
Here are a few examples from this lens so far.
This is the ubiquitous Eastern Spot Billed Duck, so called for their bright yellow tip on the end of their bills. They are resident in lakes and rivers, year round.
Canon EOS 7D and a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM lens (EFL of 640mm), using a tripod. Exposure Trio: 1/250s, f/5.6 and ISO 200.
The equally ubiquitous Carrion Crow. Easy enough to catch in flight and provide a nightmare for getting a good exposure. At least here there is some definition on the wing while not blowing out the sky.
Canon EOS 7D and a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM lens (EFL of 640mm), handheld. Exposure Trio: 1/1250s, f/5.6 and ISO 100.
Another shot of an Eastern Spot Billed Duck, having an early morning stretch.
Canon EOS 7D and a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM lens (EFL of 640mm), using a tripod. Exposure Trio: 1/2500s, f/6.3 and ISO 800.
A Great White Egret spots breakfast while hunting in an old rice field. He wasn't bothered with my presence at all. I ended up switching to a shorter 70-200mm lens for it's faster aperture, zoom convenience and Image Stabilisation.
Canon EOS 7D and a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM lens (EFL of 640mm), handheld. Exposure Trio: 1/1000s, f/5.6 and ISO 100.
A Eurasian Wigeon out for a early morning swim on the lake. These guys only come around in the winter and migrate back north over the summer.
Canon EOS 7D and a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM lens (EFL of 640mm), using a tripod. Exposure Trio: 1/500s, f/5.6 and ISO 200.
An young Azure Winged Magpie searching for a mid morning snack. I needed to really boost the ISO on this one since they were in the shade and highly mobile, making a tripod useless.
Canon EOS 7D and a Canon EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM lens (EFL of 640mm), handheld. Exposure Trio: 1/1250s, f/5.6 and ISO 2000.
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteYour Eastern Spot Billed Duck photo is terrific. I really like that one. I think I like it the best because you have the entire head and water ripples in sharp focus and water ripples, but trailing body is starting to get soft.
It really focuses your attention on his eyes.
My second favourite would be the Eastern Spot Billed Duck stretching its wings. The lighting is also very appealing in this one.
I have a question about ISO noise.
If I notice that a scene is just too dark to stay with 200 or below, then should I go for the next ISO up and still have a slow shutter speed, or go up again and have a faster shutter speed?
I mention this because I noticed that when I used ISO 400 in a church recently with a slow shutter there was a lot of noise in my images which was a disappointment. I normally shoot in good lighting so this was a bit new for me. I noticed that my ISO 400 shots outside the church came out looking good without much noise at all. Do you have any tips on which is the best way to go with this to get the cleanest photos?
This question popped into mind because your last photo was taken with ISO 2000 and I had to admit I haven't tried my rig with ISO 2000 because I just expected it would be too noise to be useful.
Regards
Craig.
Hi Craig,
ReplyDeleteAll these shots were taken on the same day, in the so called "sweet light" of early morning. I also found a spot along the river so the sun was always behind me so the subjects had good natural lighting.
I often plan my outings around the direction of the sun. Even down to what side of a train I sit on will depend on the time of day and the dominant direction of travel.
So you're worried about ISO 400 being noisy. It probably is if you're cropping at 100% or printing at maximum resolution. Even ISO 100 can be very noisy in the shadows.
I must admit I usually try to avoid using ISO 2000 but if it means the difference between getting the shot and getting nothing, I'll try it. If it really is terrible I can delete it later but I usually can't re-shoot a missed opportunity.
I don't have many shots of Azure Winged Magpies so I upped the ISO keeping a high shutter speed to get the shot. Software can't fix a blurry image but it can improve a noisy image. Thus I would favour a higher shutter speed.
Having large parts of the background out of focus hides heavy handed noise reduction well. However the actual Magpie suffers a little and some detail is lost. This image probably won't cut it as a poster sized print but it's quite acceptable for the web.
Even outputting for the web, I don't fill the screen with an image. Someone once told me that if a thumb nail image doesn't look interesting, zooming it isn't going to make it any better. I agree with this statement and so my web images are sized to fit completely on screen. The viewer shouldn't have to scroll around to see everything.
The final output here is about 20% of the original file. This kind of compression will remove most of the noise created by high ISO, leaving the image looking relatively clean.
So my advice is, if you've got the card space, take the high ISO shots and show them on the web, or print smaller.
steve