Here are some of the birds I see at work.
The Scarlet Honeyeater is a first for me & I showed the owners of the property and they had never seen them either.
The wren is me favourite.
Sorry they are not the best quality, but I am slowly getting better.
Cheers
Devster
Hi Devon, you certainly have lots of beautiful birds around, where ever you work
Photo number 5 is the best in my view.
As you asked in a different thread, as to how to get your photos sharper, have a look at them individually and find the sharpest point in the photo. In some of them I find it hard to find that point. Because I don't use Canon, I can't tell you what setting you should use, but a simple advice would be to focus on one spot, like the eye in birds is a good spot. (my Sony has a grid , squares that tell me exactly where the focus is) Can I ask how much you have cropped the photos? Looking at your photos on the PC , try not to zoom in too much, I'm sure there would be a distance where your photos are sharp.I wouldn't crop them too close, but rather find the spot where they are still sharp. I love number 5
, well done
M-L
I think I would enjoy working wherever it is that you do Devster, what a great range of birds! Love the Cormorant, their eyes are such a beautiful colour, and what a gobful that Kingfisher has too, fantastic stuff. Great start and good to see you're enjoying the addiction of birding!
West Coast Tasmania
Great variety of beautiful birds.
Nice catch to get your friend the kingfisher with his lunch! Lovely patterns you captured in the cormorants feathers.
As an observer of the photos posted on the forum, I have learned that some of the most effective photos have less bird and more environment - the photo shows the bird in its habitat. So as Araminta says you can get a great photo by cropping less and keeping more. Which is good for those of us with less optical zoom.
Thanks guys for the tips. As a newbie I am still learning, so always welcome constructive criticisim.
I know these photos arn't as sharp as I would like but I am slowly getting the hang of it.
Its my brother In laws camera & my lense so still haven't found the sweet spot yet.
This may sound stupid but over the weekend I was thinking of taking a stuffed toy (a bird lol) and placing it on a fence and take pictures of it.
I was going to take shots from varying distances, varying zoom lengths & changing the aperature to see at what range and aperature it takes the best photos.
I was going to have it on aperature priority & auto ISO.
Is that silly?
Cheers
Devster
Thats a good idea Devste - a scientific approach.
Not silly at all. in fact a very good idea. Looking at your pics i think the problem is "Camera shake" as nothing is in focus.
What lens are you using? Does it have IS, OS or VR. Is your shutter speed fast enough? Tripod? Distance to subject?
A few details on the exif data would help.
Shorty......Canon gear
Canberra
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/
I am using a Tamron 150mm-600mm lense and I have the VC on.
I have been experimenting with modes so I have been using aperature priority with auto ISO.
Also have been taking some manual pics as well.
I'm not sure what your last line means.
I read somewhere that using a 600mm lense I should have the shutter speen a minimum of 1/600 is that true?
Whats kind of a rule of thumb on setting the shutter speed when taking hand held photos?
I haven't been using a tripod.
I seem to take a lot of dark photos, but I'm guessing thats just not having the subject in the right lighting environment.
I have been taking these pictures when I finish work so its about 5-5:30 & getting low light.
Today I finished at 2:30 and took some better pics (I think).
Will post them up on the weekend & would love to hear your thoughts.
Cheers
Devster
Devster, that is very similar to something I did when I first got my gear last year, not silly at all! Another suggestion would be to practice on some "easy" birds. Silver Gulls (Seagulls), Ducks, even Chooks if you have them, something static and reasonably still, and then progress from there. Shorty really knows his stuff! Less than sharp and it could be your handholding technique for one (assuming you're handholding), which will improve with practice/time. I'd be interested to hear some more shot/gear details too, as Shorty has mentioned.
West Coast Tasmania
I think you are both right about the camera shake.
I'm not use to such a big lense.
I too get excited when I see a bird I haven't seen or photographed & just want to hurry & take the picture before it flies away.
And since I'm just starting out, there is a lot of new discoveries.
Like today I saw my first flycatcher. I thought it was a willy wag tail but it was slightly bigger and the head wasn't as rounded.
When it made a different noise, I looked at it closely, ran to get my camera & then it was gone.
I heard it nearly all day in the trees outside but when I finally finished work it had mived on.
I hear so many different varieties but can never seem to find them.
Some of the ones that have alluded me are:
Roufus Whistler, Silvereye, Olive Backed Oriole, Lewins Honeyeater, Yellow faced honeyeater, Blue faced Honeyeater, noisy friar - The list goes on.
Cheers
Devster
Hi, Devster. It will just take time for you to get used to the weight and focal length of the lens. My suggestion would be to try and use it everyday and given time you will notice a big improvement as your body adapts to holding it.
You need a lot of light with this lens, if you can get out on a nice bright day set your camera to manual and auto iso.
I would suggest a shutter speed of 1/1000 to start and Wide open (f6.3) and see how you go. Over time you will be able to drop the shutter speed and change the aperture to suit your preference.
As for the dark shots you mention there is most likely not enought light and your shutter speed is to fast.
Looking through your view finder you will see a light meter, make sure the bar is in the middle and not to the left as this will indicate you have not enough light with your settings.
When i first got my Sigma i struggled for a while but now can comfortably shoot at 1/80 on close birds and 1/200 on distant birds.
Just keep shooting and posting your results and you will see an improvement over time.
That sure is a nice list of birds you have there.
Shorty......Canon gear
Canberra
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/
Thanks Shorty. I have been using it all day and have already seen a slight improvement. I will take your advice and start shooting with a higher shutterspeed.
Normallly the birds are in the trees in the shade and it tends to be darke, Hopefully the auto ISO fixes this but it tends to be too dark.
I'll give it a go and see how it works out.
Cheers Devster
Not a bad idea Devon, every time I tried something new, I went to the local park. Ducks are a beautful subject, I call them "non moving objects" geat to practice on. Good luck.
M-L