There's a Robin watching me.. advice!

Raider

Raider

Raider

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,576
Location
Leamington Spa / Oxford
Sitting out in the garden yesterday I couldn't help but notice that this little fellow was stalking me. I think i've spotted their nest (in a grate in next door's wall), so I guess he's just being careful!

I was fairly close to the Robin (around 6-10m usually), but I'm frequently disapointed by the quality. I think I have one main problem and that is that I can't get close enough to make the bird fill the frame, hence once cropped it's a bit soft. If I got the Sigma 100-300mm with the 1.4x convertor, I could shoot at 420mm with the same F5.6 as my current lens, and i'm sure the results would be sharper..

Robin2-3006.jpg


I think the tree is a bit distracting here.. it was shot at F6.3, F5.6 might have made the difference

Robin1-3006.jpg


Quite soft again, possibly due to the 1/160 shutter time, although similar shots at 1/400s can still look soft.

Robin3-3006.jpg


Bit too far away again (well it was in a tree..)
 
From my experience of photographing birds you have to be super accurate with focus. In some of your shots surrounding trees and branches appear sharper than the Robin.
i.e. 1st photo - the branch on the right edge of the photo is sharper than the Robin

Practice makes perfect though :)
 
SDK^ said:
From my experience of photographing birds you have to be super accurate with focus. In some of your shots surrounding trees and branches appear sharper than the Robin.
i.e. 1st photo - the branch on the right edge of the photo is sharper than the Robin

Practice makes perfect though :)
Click to expand...

Tis a very good point. Maybe it's worth switching to manual focus as an experiment. I've noticed that with the 70-300mm APO DG that if I press the button over and over, the focus does move around a bit.

Do other people here generally use manual focus? I guess if the subject isn't moving then it should only take an extra second or two.
 
SDK^ said:
From my experience of photographing birds you have to be super accurate with focus. In some of your shots surrounding trees and branches appear sharper than the Robin.
i.e. 1st photo - the branch on the right edge of the photo is sharper than the Robin

Practice makes perfect though :)
Click to expand...

Yer thats just what I was going to say. Also I don't think the blown out sky in the 3rd picture really works. Its probably the best composed shot out the lot. If it wasn't for the grey sky, the droopy branches on the right and the slightly soft Robin it'd be great :)
 
Birds in trees are hard as the camera often doesn't know what to focus on. I often have to use manual overide on the 350D, though the sucess of that depends on how well you've calibrated the diopeter!

The best long term apporach it to watch the Robins behaviour, there will be at least one branch that it always lands on as it patrols its teritory. If you set your camera up on a tripod and get the focus for that branch sorted then its just a matter of waiting :D

John
 
I've been trying to photograph birds and I must admit it really is damn hard.

Birds are fast and they are very unpredictable movements. I think you need tripod or monopod to take a really decent picture.


edit: OMG 999 post!! :D
 
At 300mm F5.6 with the subject around 10 meters away depth of field is only 9cm, 4cm in front and 5cm behind your subject. This is why focus has to be absolutely spot on.

nolimit said:
Birds are fast and they are very unpredictable movements. I think you need tripod or monopod to take a really decent picture.
Click to expand...
Only if you have a really heavy lens do you need Monopod.
I've taken photos of Robins at 400mm with a shutter speed of 1/50, it's far from perfect but the bird is still quite sharp.
 
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I've just tried with manual focus and the results were fairly similar.

I think I need to bring the tripod into action! :D
 
Raider said:
I've just tried with manual focus and the results were fairly similar.

I think I need to bring the tripod into action! :D
Click to expand...

A tripod is not going to help you with focus, a tripod is built to support the camera and lens to save blur from camera shake.
 
SDK^ said:
Not perfectly framed but a great photo
icon14.gif
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Yeah had to chop the feet off cos it was on an ugly wire-mesh fence, missed the tail because I was in a rush before it flew off.

EDIT: Sorry for the thread-hijack by the way!
 
2nd photo is suffering from camera shake. I feel that is the best composed shot however.

1st i have not seen the orginal but seems it has been cropped a fair bit and as you say has ended up quit soft.
Do you have use any filters ie UV or Polariser, as the first seems to be washed out colour wise. possibly a UV filter might have helped, maybe not.

3rd doesn't work because of the sky but you couldn't help that.

King4aDay: that is a lovely shot, even though it's legless and tailess it works as it's not just your normal centred shot. colours of the sunset/rise helping to bring out the robins breast and green (grass/plants/leaves) are spot on.
 
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