My JBP pic failed, will go back again tomorrow!

[Edmund]

Originally posted by Jed
Yup, good luck in your quest. When I first started out I too used to think recording shooting information (pen and paper in those days, and I'm not even that old!) would be a brilliant learning tool. I think with the benefit of hindsight and experience I now don't think this to be the case; in my opinion, just looking at your pictures and learning to identify where you went wrong will send you on that learning journey faster. As in, instead of slavishly looking at your shutter speed from your EXIF info, consulting a book and realising your shutter speed was too slow/fast, to be able to look straight to your resultant shot, identify the key elements of a shot that has been taken with a too slow/fast shutter speed, identifying that on the fly, and learning from there. But you're on the right road, shoot more and you'll get there.

Jed, I'm still doing the pen & paper recording. While hindsight & experience are possibly better teachers, I feel that recording the information does make me slow down and think rather than just shooting and guessing the results. Occasionally, I do flip back to information of my earlier shots and this does help reassure/censure me on what I am about to do.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by tomshen
I found it hard to get sharp pix when wide open this time. My problem is probably because:

1. I am relatively too close to my subjects so DOF is very small;
2. Smaller birds are much more agile than other larger animals. Actually motion blur was also one of the reasons. Maybe I should push ISO to 400 or higher sometimes;
3. I am a newbie in wide life photography. To be honest, it's more difficult than other types of shooting, especially when light condition is not very good (like this time). Try to shoot humingbird/eagle and I find my camera useless;p

Hi

you shouldn't be afraid to push your ISO above 100, especially when light is not ideal or your lens is not fast enough.

Especially so since u're using the D60 - it's virtually noiseless!

 

[tomshen]

Jed, appreciate yr info. Can I ask u a few questions here?:

1. when shooting flying/fast moving birds, which mode is better to use: aperture priority, shutter priority or manual mode?
2. Do u shoot with AI or manual focusing?
3. which shutter speed can freeze a flying bird, e.g. eagle/stock/humingbird? I found sometimes even mandrain ducks are too fast for me, at 1/320s for instance.
4. In overcast situation, should I use high ISO setting (400+)?
5. If my subject is moving, should I pan with it or, anticipate its movement and then stop to wait it to come in order to reduce camera shake?
6. Do u need a remote cable control to reduce camera shake when DOF is very shallow?

I may have too many questions so sorry about it;p

 

[tomshen]

Edmund, did u use any polarizer the day when u shot behide glass? I found all my pix have a cast without a polarizer.

 

[Edmund]

Originally posted by tomshen
Edmund, did u use any polarizer the day when u shot behide glass? I found all my pix have a cast without a polarizer.

Nope. I dun have a 77mm polariser nor do I have any use for it at the moment. The trick to shooting behind glass is
1) your location, when you look thru the viewfinder, make sure you choose an angle where the background/surrounding lights are not reflected. If you have someone to assist you, best is if he/she carries a great big open umbrella to help shield the light which is causing reflections.
2) if you are using flash, make sure you take your photo at an angle of around 45 degrees to the glass.

 

[tomshen]

thx