How could I have taken a better image?

[Kronos]

Very new to DSLR camera and have a pretty basic first camera. Though compared to my point and click the image quality is tremendous.

I have a Canon EOS 350D with a EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II Lens fitted.

I spotted a squirrel from my living room window running across a piece of grass with a slice of bread in it's mouth heading for the tree where I believe it has it's home. The tree is about 50'-60' feet away I estimate.

By the time I had got my camera it was upside down on the tree looking at this slice of bread. Image.



It certainly is not as sharp as I would have liked in fact it just looks wrong. Second image looks worse.



What could I or should I have done differently? Please keep any advice simple as I have yet to learn what most of the tech terms mean. Thanks.

 

[Kronos]

Thing is with squirrels they tend to blend in with trees so there's no contrast between the subject and the surroundings, getting a shot of him in the grass could have helped

try not to get things in the bcakground that are distracting and don't add to the shot, shoot in good light and try to get a good exposure, move around the subject to find the best scene and composure and try to avoid harsh backlighting

There's tons of things to think about tbh but it only comes with practice and even though I offer some advice I still tend to get it wrong myself heheh

Thanks mate. A couple of things by the time I had got my camera the little blighter was on the tree which was a shame as it would have been a fantastic shot of him with the slice of bread in his mouth making for his tree.
The other thing I was taking the shot from a first floor window and unfortunately the lens hood was on.

Don't know how or what good exposure is as I normally take shots with the camera on auto occasionally moving to close up or flash off.

 

[Kronos]

If you took it at 250mm even with IS you're going to need a high-ish shutter speed to get a sharpe image.

If you don't yet understand exposures though that's where you should start. Learn to use the historgram too. It'll all come with time.

Sorry but understood very little of your post.

IS?
Historgram?

 

[Kronos]

No issue with having the lens hood on. Its there to stop stray light from entering the lens.

Lens hood on or off won't make any difference to the amount of light on the subject.

Very useful to know. Thanks for that.

 

[Kronos]

How to make that picture better? Well hindsight is always good so if I took this picture, this is what I'd change for the next time




Lower point of view - kneel or crouch so maybe you won't get as much of the road/pavement as background and then you're more likely to get a bit of blur/bokeh

More exposure - If your subject is in the shade but surrounded by brighter areas then you'll probably need to over expose/increase compensation if you're relying on automatic metering.

Faster exposure - So that you can capture moving things without blurriness




Two of those suggestions contradict each other and that's why this is a difficult shot to pull off. Personally I wouldn't have tried to take this shot with that lens but that's just something you learn after a while I think. Even if you manage to expose everything correctly in a nice sharp shot, the result probably wouldn't be that pleasing. The only way this might work is with a much longer lens so you can get tighter on the squirrel and not have as much fence/road/pavement in the background. Even if you get a sharp shot of that, the squirrel will blend into the tree and look a bit meh.

Lower point of view: I was in a first floor window. Kneeling would have produced an image of a wall. lol.

More exposure: Will need to learn what over expose/increase compensation as I would imagine this is basic stuff.

Faster exposure: Hmm there is a setting for this but the squirrel was stationary at the time but only briefly so it was more of press the shutter and hope for the best.

Thanks as it adds a bit more to my woefully inadequate knowledge.

 

[Kronos]

Phal has already touched on it, but really you need to think about subject and composition, the side of photography that is shared with more traditional art forms. The actual camera settings are only secondary to achieving what you need to create that image. There are plenty of books and information online about this.

Unfortunately your image just looks like a total throwaway 'point and shoot' kind of photo. As Phal says, the biggest single improvement you could have made was changing your angle. Getting down on your stomach and shooting it from there would have made such a huge difference. It might have been difficult to capture him as you first spotted him, but that also ties in to your subject. Nature is unpredictable and fast, if you want to shoot properly, you likely would have to setup your camera and wait. As you get more experienced as a photographer, you will naturally know when you are able to get a good image to make it worth bringing the camera to your eye.

I think you missed the bit in my posts where I say I am in a first floor room so getting down on my knees or stomach was not an option.

But I take your point about nature being unpredictable and fast but I did make it plain I spotted this squirrel with the bread in his mouth making a beeline for a tree and by the time I had got hold of my camera the best shots had gone I think.

 

[Kronos]

Lots of useful advice so far, here are a couple of pointers.

1) Make sure the shutter speed is both (a) fast enough for the lens and (b) fast enough to cope with the subject movement.
For (a) there is a rough rule of thumb that the shutter speed should be inversely proportional to the effect focal length. So with your 50-250mm lens at 250 on a canon body you have an effective focal length of 400m so a shutter speed of around 1/400th second is the ball park figure. But remember your hands may not be that steady and a faster shutter speed will increase your odds of a sharp shot, shooting at 1/800th second will likely resolve camera shake issues. Now the lenses image stabilization (IS) is deigned to help lower this speed, on that lens you might gain about 2 stops. However, Shooting at a faster shutter speed and not relying on IS will produce more successful results than shooting slower and hoping IS works as intended. IS is only useful in a more narrow set of circumstances when you don't care about subject motion (see point b), you can't use a tripod, the light is poor, and you can't raise the ISO without degrading image quality - then IS/ becomes very, very useful.

For point (b), regardless of what you lens and camera is doing if the subject is moving you will need a shutter speed fast enough to stop that movement. This all depends on how fast the subject is moving and in which directions. For a squirrel running up a tree I would want to shoot at 1/500th second or faster.
Since the shutter speed required to prevent subject motion blur is typically faster than what you need to stabilize the require+lens using IS, IS becomes a fairly mute point.



2) You need to get close enough to the subject to afford a good framing.


3) you need to get out there, spend time with the animals, understand their behavior, let them get a little used to you. It takes, time, patience, practice and repetition.

Yes there has been some good stuff here and many thanks to you all.

What I am currently having problems getting my head around is focal length and shutter speed and how I go about setting these correctly. I am assuming that Auto is not good for this? Would I need to be in either TV or AV mode to change these settings?