Shitting birds, for n00bs, using camera

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > Shitting birds, for n00bs, using camera

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Fart Amplifier: Apr 12, 2003

One Eyed Magpie by Steven Sarginson, on Flickr

# ? Jul 30, 2018 06:35

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# ? Jun 6, 2024 00:59

spookygonk: Apr 3, 2005; Does not give a damn

July 30th

# ? Jul 30, 2018 21:45

torgeaux: Dec 31, 2004; I serve...

spookygonk posted:

July 30th

Great timing.

This was the biggest guy I've seen in a while...never got close enough for a decent shot, though.

Too Far Away by B. B., on Flickr

# ? Jul 31, 2018 00:44

DorianGravy: Sep 12, 2007

torgeaux posted:

This was the biggest guy I've seen in a while...never got close enough for a decent shot, though.

Too Far Away by B. B., on Flickr

Still a cool shot. How much damage do you think little birds like that can do to a hawk?

After wanting to see one for nearly a year, I finally got a look at a Black-crowned Night Heron!

Now if only I could figure out how to take evening bird photos without massive amounts of grain. Anyone have tips? The first one was shot at 1/200 second, wide open (f/6.3) and 6400 iso. That's a very high iso, but I feel like the shutter speed was already a bit low as it is. The second was 1/60 second, but that was after I'd gotten my tripod out. Is the best solution just to go out when there's more light?

# ? Aug 3, 2018 07:41

VelociBacon: Dec 8, 2009

DorianGravy posted:

Still a cool shot. How much damage do you think little birds like that can do to a hawk?

After wanting to see one for nearly a year, I finally got a look at a Black-crowned Night Heron!

Now if only I could figure out how to take evening bird photos without massive amounts of grain. Anyone have tips? The first one was shot at 1/200 second, wide open (f/6.3) and 6400 iso. That's a very high iso, but I feel like the shutter speed was already a bit low as it is. The second was 1/60 second, but that was after I'd gotten my tripod out. Is the best solution just to go out when there's more light?

If your lens is f/6.3 wide open there is essentially nothing you can do in that kind of lighting condition. More expensive bodies obviously will deal with noise better but sounds like the lens is the limiting factor.

# ? Aug 3, 2018 08:03

President Beep: Apr 30, 2009; i have to have a car because otherwise i cant drive around the country solving mysteries while being doggedly pursued by federal marshals for a crime i did not commit (9/11)

VelociBacon posted:

If your lens is f/6.3 wide open there is essentially nothing you can do in that kind of lighting condition. More expensive bodies obviously will deal with noise better but sounds like the lens is the limiting factor.

Yeah, light is like money when it comes to taking pictures--you've only got so much to work with, and once you blow your budget compromises have to be made (e.g. lots of noise).

# ? Aug 3, 2018 13:38

BetterLekNextTime: Jul 22, 2008; It's all a matter of perspective...; Grimey Drawer

Yeah, it looks like it was really dark, so there's not much you can do. I think the grain adds to the mood of it being almost night, so while it may not be the most stunning shot of a BCNH I think it works in this instance of capturing the moment you saw the heron flying in front of the trees well after the sun went down. If you aren't happy with the inherent grain of iso 6400, you can add and tweak extra grain in Lightroom. Turn the "weakness" into an intentional feature of the photo. That photo is probably already underexposed for a neutral scene, but if ISO6400 is a dealbreaker for you, you might be able to cap the ISO at 3200 and pull up one stop in post. That may or may not be better than what you have.

For what it's worth, there are often known roosts of night-herons that you can photograph during the day but then all your shots are sleeping/preening. I like that you got them active. But now go back to that place and see if they might start moving around 30 minutes earlier.

# ? Aug 3, 2018 17:03

Kenshin: Jan 10, 2007

duckies!

# ? Aug 4, 2018 04:59

DorianGravy: Sep 12, 2007

Kenshin posted:

duckies!

Adorable!

Thanks for the advice everyone. But now I have another problem. I rented a Sigma 150-600mm; It showed up yesterday, and I took the Night Heron photos above, which turned out alright considering the low light. However, I went out a little earlier today had trouble getting good shots. A lot of the shots were definitely overexposed and/or slightly out of focus, even in great light. Some photos were alright, but the main problem is that the camera/lens seems to think it needs a lot more light. I use a Nikon d5100 and shot mostly in f/6.3 and ~1/800 with auto iso (which has served me well for birding in the past), but it often picked an iso much too high for the conditions. If I put the camera in an auto mode, it also picked settings that made things too bright.

Here's an example of an unprocessed shot. A lot of the shots were like this. The sun was low, giving the scene a beautiful and clear light, and there was nothing to make me expect any trouble with the exposure or focus, but the photo was both overexposed and out of focus. This is f/6.3, 1/640 second, and 2800 (!!!) iso.

Some photos turned out alright, but I usually had to lower the iso manually. My first thought is that something's wrong with the lens. It's a rental, after all, and maybe it got knocked around by previous users. However, complicating the situation is the fact that I dropped my camera a few weeks ago (tripod blew over in the wind while I was trying to photograph lightning and the camera struck concrete). For snapshots with my normal kit lens, however, the camera seems to be fine.

So I'm at an impasse: Unless it's operator error, there's either something wrong with the lens or my camera. Is there a good way to figure out what's to blame and fix it?

P.S. As thanks for getting to the end of that screed, here's some more pictures from a couple months ago:

DorianGravy fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Aug 4, 2018

# ? Aug 4, 2018 05:52

BetterLekNextTime: Jul 22, 2008; It's all a matter of perspective...; Grimey Drawer

Hard to know, but a couple of possibilities:

regarding the focus, it almost looks like the reeds in front are in focus (maybe?). There may be more contrast there. Pay attention to which AF points are lighting up, or better yet, manually choose or use center point and recompose. Also, it's possible that the lens is not the sharpest at f/6.3, so maybe go for F/8 and see if it is any better. Also, check that you didn't accidentally turn off the IS. This is often way to easy to do.

Regarding exposure, you have dark trees and dark reeds in the shot. If you have a metering setting that is using most or all of the image, it may be trying to make those lighter, at the expense of over-exposing the bird and the vegetation that's in the sun. Either use a more focused metering setting, or just get to know your camera and how it might read scenes like that, then tweak the exposure compensation up or down to get the exposure you want. And just thinking about capturing golden hour light, you may want to have in mind that it shouldn't be as bright as mid-day at the beach, so you may start with the idea that you will underexpose by a little bit since your camera may be just trying to get the mid tones to a certain level or whatever.

Always a good idea to check for exposure (especially blown highlights) by looking at the LCD in the field. If you aren't getting what you want, dial it up or down until you do.

e: seems like you are very concerned with the ISO. Maybe try aperture priority mode and set that to f/6.3 or f/8. Then set your ISO to 1600. Let the camera choose shutter speed, and then use exposure compensation to make a lighter or darker exposure if necessary.

BetterLekNextTime fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Aug 4, 2018

# ? Aug 4, 2018 07:16

torgeaux: Dec 31, 2004; I serve...

Trying not to overwhelm the thread with bird feeder pics. Tried a different setup, with my 9mm 6-8 inches from the feeder on intervalometer.

Close2 by B. B., on Flickr

Close by B. B., on Flickr

9mm Hummingbirds by B. B., on Flickr

# ? Aug 4, 2018 15:19

President Beep: Apr 30, 2009; i have to have a car because otherwise i cant drive around the country solving mysteries while being doggedly pursued by federal marshals for a crime i did not commit (9/11)

That�s so cool! I�ve never seen shots of hummingbirds that close.

# ? Aug 4, 2018 15:44

Fart Amplifier: Apr 12, 2003

You will almost definitely need to do an AF fine tune on a Sigma lens. Get one of those little plastic calibration things and keep it in your camera bag.

Not to mention that someone else may have used the Sigma dock to mess with the focus calibration.

# ? Aug 5, 2018 05:41

DorianGravy: Sep 12, 2007

BetterLekNextTime posted:

Hard to know, but a couple of possibilities:

Thanks for the advice. I tried a lot of these suggestions, but couldn't really resolve my problem. I think it might be the camera (which I recently dropped) and not the lens.

Fart Amplifier posted:

You will almost definitely need to do an AF fine tune on a Sigma lens. Get one of those little plastic calibration things and keep it in your camera bag.

Not to mention that someone else may have used the Sigma dock to mess with the focus calibration.

Hmm, maybe. This is a rental, though, and I have to return it tomorrow, so I have no time for that. Still, despite fighting with exposure and focus, I'm reasonably pleased with how some of the shots turned out.

I wonder what this Osprey was thinking as it flew by, watching a person on the ground staring up at it.

# ? Aug 6, 2018 06:02

Fart Amplifier: Apr 12, 2003

Also, check the screws on the lens (on the ring where it mounts to the camera). They should be tight. I have a Sigma lens and have had to tighten them a couple times. It's normal for a lens to have a little bit of play when you turn it, but it should have no forwards or backwards play (towards/away from the sensor)

# ? Aug 6, 2018 22:57

DorianGravy: Sep 12, 2007