Looking for some insight.

Diplexbullet19 · 29 Sep 2013 at 20:48

Hi all im kinda noob with my dslr, taken a few photos that I like but the main reason I bought this camera was to take photos of wildlife. My dad is a gamekeeper so I want to capture some pheasants in flight problem being when I take photos with my d3000 + 55-200 af-s VR lens the bird are still small with not a lot of detail and cannot get a nice shot like I see from others.

I use auto everything so im guessing that might be affecting my shots but also I was wondering if I should upgrade my lens to the 55-300, id go for the 70-300 but its out of budget.

Any tips would be appreciated.

V-Spec · 29 Sep 2013 at 21:17

If you want to do flight shots of fast moving birds - it's a sad fact that unless you have very fast focussing sports gear and at least a 300mm lens, you're going to really struggle to get anything that's very good, but it's not impossible.

My advice would be:

1.> Practise on cars, stand at the side of the road and photograph them as they go past - keep doing this until the shots are sharp and you're used to how the camera focuses.

2.> Set your camera to single-spot focusing, so the centre focus point is the only one being used.

3.> Shoot in AV mode with the lens wide open.

4.> Pretend that you're clay pigeon shooting - know the angles things move at and how the camera will focus, get to know the sweet spot of exactly when to shoot - a quick burst of 2 or 3 in the right place, is all that's required.

You have your work cut out, but if you're close enough and you're well rehearsed in shooting fast moving objects then you should get something, but it's very difficult to successfully come away with anything "good" without big fast telephoto lenses and sports cameras (£6-7ks worth)

for example this was shot on a Canon 1DMkIII with a 300mm F2.8, and it took me about 30-40 attempts at various puffins flying past before I got this:

Diplexbullet19 · 29 Sep 2013 at 21:35

Lol yes finding it difficult but fun, problem being im finding it all very frustrating with how small everything comes up.

This was one of my first attempts, the distance was not far at all, just my next door neighbours tree. ive learnt abit more with shutter speed and as you just said I should use single spot, I just don't know if there is a way to get a closer image with my 200mm.

V-Spec · 30 Sep 2013 at 09:08

Diplexbullet19 said:
Lol yes finding it difficult but fun, problem being im finding it all very frustrating with how small everything comes up.

This was one of my first attempts, the distance was not far at all, just my next door neighbours tree. ive learnt abit more with shutter speed and as you just said I should use single spot, I just don't know if there is a way to get a closer image with my 200mm.

The biggest problem is always going to be focal length, (it always is with wildlife photography) it's an unfortunate fact that for a bird, with a focal lenth of 200mm you're going to have to be no more than 10 meters away before it gets too small in the frame. I know from experience that this is going to be very very difficult.

Canon make a decent 400mm F5.6 lens which is less than £1k, but for that you'd need to change your body so there really is no cheap option..

Diplexbullet19 · 2 Oct 2013 at 09:33

Well thanks for the input its really appreciated. I only need to win the lottery and I will be set xD. I found out I was also saving images in jpeg and not raw which would affect the quality I could work with. Thanks for the advice.

vail3r · 2 Oct 2013 at 09:56

Diplexbullet19 said:
Well thanks for the input its really appreciated. I only need to win the lottery and I will be set xD. I found out I was also saving images in jpeg and not raw which would affect the quality I could work with. Thanks for the advice.

Don't forget though RAW does not give better image quality, so its not going to allow you to crop any further or give sharper images it just contains more data for tweaking your photo's in PP. I find using raw gives me greater control for saving under exposed images but it can do nothing with a blurry image for example.

Also bear in mind the size of shooting raw and how big your memory card is when your going to be taking a large amount of photo's before you get a perfect one, I fell short on my recent holiday that I was shooting RAW and I was watching a bird show, by the end of the show I realized if I had switched to jpeg I would have had allot more room in my buffer for continuous shots and might of had more change of capturing the falcon flying past.

It might be something to consider as when your learning like myself I found it can help to have the ability to take more photo's continuously.

413x · 2 Oct 2013 at 10:00

I've also been told by people on here that for this you really need 400mm
I haven't got this and therefore haven't even tried tbh
I know I wouldn't be happy with what I have

1k for one lens when you are starting out is a lot

Columbo · 2 Oct 2013 at 15:18

The other option is a Sigma 150-500mm HSM OS but again thats going to be around the £600 mark.

I've used my friends on his D5100 and I was not only very surprised with the image quality but also the focusing speed.

It does need decent light though unless you are willing to bump the ISO up and it's not exactly portable.

Andy90 · 2 Oct 2013 at 16:29

Not going to repeat what others have said, but 200mm isn't going to deliver the shots that you want - you're only going to get the type of shot you've uploaded at that focal length and distance from the subject.

However, you've said something that no-one seems to have hit upon.

You say your Dad is a Gamekeeper? I suspect he has all the Camouflage gear and if he has been doing it for some time, then he knows a little about Animal behaviour? Knowing how to approach animals and their behavioural patterns is worth its weight in gold.

Why not set up some hides with Camouflage netting. You will be surprised at how close you can get to Birds etc. when they cannot see you. Set up some feeding stations with Branches stuck into the ground so that they can perch on them.

D.P. · 2 Oct 2013 at 16:34

For birds you really need 400mm on a crop body.
There are various ways to get there, I use a 300mm f/4.0 with a 1.4xTC.
Both the Nikon 80-400mm are very good, the newer one is exceptionally good t pricy, the older one is like th canon 100-400L (older designs, both perform well and are cheap)