Roseate Spoonbill in flight

[Barbara Ponder]

Working on getting better on catching birds in flight with new camera. Lots of noise on these but a work in progress. CC welcome and appreciated.

[cuilin]

very nicely done focusing on the birds in flight. they are a bit noisy, what was your exif data?

[Barbara Ponder]

ISO-400, F/13, 1/640 300 mm f/4 lens

[cuilin]

they're way too noisy to be shot at iso 400 without some other interference. did you do a lot of brightening in post processing? whenever you brighten images in post you're increasing the noise in the image. you're best bet is getting the exposure right, or slightly overexposing. if you overexpose and darken it in post processing then you don't have the noise issue, just be sure not to blow out the detail.

for birds/wildlife i'd start off with iso 800 or even 1600 if it's overcast or twilight. maybe try a larger aperture like f/11, just be careful with your focusing as it will give you a even shallower dof. you can go even wider later if you don't have issues with nailing the focus.

to give you an idea of what's possible:

55-200mm lens @ 190mm
1/320s
f/4.8
iso 1600
handheld at twilight, but the sun had already gone behind the mountains so the moose and i were completely in shadows. the 7d mk ii is more than capable of giving you clean shots.

[Shadowman]

Nice efforts, agree about the noise being excessive. I've seen this occur on overcast days, especially if your subject is backlit and usually near the surface of the water. This sort of lighting wrecks havoc on skin tones.

[Barbara Ponder]

John, thanks. I am going to readjust some settings on the new camera and try again today. I love the color of these birds and am determined to get some good shots of one. They are seen less often this time of year but I am sure I will be able to find another.

[marlunn]

Have to say Barbara, you are getting good shots of them its the noise thats the issue for you, cure that and these are really good, dont suppose you have a bit more on the bottom of #3 to show the reflection better?

[NorthernFocus]

Another nice set regarding subject matter, Barb. On this set you ss was a bit low for BIF. Even for big birds it is preferable to stay at or above 1/1000. The 300mm f4 that you're shooting is good glass. Not sure how you do it on Canon gear, but I'd recommend you shoot aperture priority at f5.6 for BIF or wide open at f4 for static subjects. Then set auto ISO to kick in when ss drops to 1/1000. In that mode your ss will float with conditions and if it tries to go below 1/1000 then ISO will start changing. As I said I'm not sure how you set that up with Canon as I'm a Nikon shooter. Wonderful thing with modern gear you get the best of both worlds with letting both ss and ISO change but with ss being the priority.

Once you get the gear sorted out you will do well.

[Nicks Pics]

ISO-400, F/13, 1/640 300 mm f/4 lens

I am not the most experienced shooter, but I'm thinking that the ISO was probably too low, and SS too slow, and aperture too tight. I would open the aperture to gather more light, and raise shutter speed to capture action, and raise ISO out of to allow for the high SS.




Also , if you have Lightroom, or another software that can do it, you could reduce the color noise on those files significantly without reducing IQ much.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice compositions , I love the color of the birds