# What do I need to adjust?



## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

I shot this from my tripod today but I can not figure out if it is a camera setting I need to adjust or if the bird was moving. What do you guys think? I'm still trying to learn how to use this camera.


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## richg99 (Aug 21, 2004)

I don't see anything wrong with the shot, but my eyes are old.

However, if EVERYTHING is a bit blurry...then the shooter or his tripod moved. 

If only a few details are blurry, then the wind or the subject moved something.

Rich


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## histprof (Oct 30, 2011)

Maybe a depth of field issue. Check the exif data to see if the aperature was wide open (ie 2.8). If so, the camera focused on the near shoulder and the eyes were just far enough away to drift out of focus.


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## "Spanish Fly" (Jun 14, 2004)

It could just be me but the object is just a tad, and I do mean just a tad, bit blurry and I'm NOT referring to the background. Might just be my eyes though


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## Jerry-rigged (May 21, 2004)

To me it looks soft... kind of like what I get if I shoot with too high of ISO and the noise reduction gets rid of too much detail...

Can you provide more details? Camera? Focal length? Shutter speed? ISO? is this Out of Camera, or did you do some PP?

Also some 100% crops of a few different spots (eye, shoulder, foot) will help to show if it is subject movement, camera shake, or noise reduction.


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

Thanks for everyones comments. This is how I learn by hands on. It is blurry. I have this issue a lot and I know it is something I am not setting right. Depth of field is what I think it is. I will play with that detail and see if I can get it to clean up. 

It was very calm this evening with no wind blowing at all so I would rule that out. You can not really tell from the shot because I cropped it out from a bigger frame shot. 

Iso.. that is interesting with it being cloudy I was adjusting the iso quiet often depending on the angle I was shooting in line with the subject. I will test that tomorrow and see if I can get it to repeat. 

This is right of the raw file. No adjustments were made to the image other than cropping size down. 

Canon EOS REBEL T4i
Lens is a Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD
Iso 640
270mm
0 EV
f/6.3
1/200 

The area out of focus is right behind his eye. That little area is driving me nuts. 

Thoughts with this information?

This model is a local and he lets me get really close to him so I know I will have other opportunities to take another shot.


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

Same bird, different angle. Same blurred spot.


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

Also I used a hand held pro-master shutter release to snap the pic. if that helps.


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

Here is another bird shot I took and it was more blurry all over. I am thinking it might be the shutter speed or the aperture. I did purchase the ExpoImaging depth of field/Focus Zone Dial guid today today. I am going to see if it will help clean some of these issues up. I hope it helps with speeding up the learning curve. Anyone else use one?


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## The Machine (Jun 4, 2007)

nice pic.


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## histprof (Oct 30, 2011)

OK. Interesting. At f/6.3 you should have had more than enough depth to catch the full bird. I had this problem once trying to do tripod shots of a landscape at night. I was using a Canon IS lens on my Rebel XT and the images came out blurry every shot. When I turned off the IS, the next batch were much sharper. If you are in good conditions, without too much wind, shooting from the tripod, switch off the VC on the lens and see what happens.


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

Thanks histprof. That might just be the trick. I did confuse the camera several times yesterday and ended up turning it of and on until the functions of the camera straightened out. This camera seems to do that more than my Rebel T2i I had. Catching any fine lines with this camera is starting to become a chore. I am doing everything I can to learn how to shot my shot with no software clean up time. IT does seem that every shot I make I have to at least adjust the sharpness which gets old.


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

The Machine said:


> nice pic.


Thank your sir.


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## histprof (Oct 30, 2011)

Here are the two shots that I am talking about. It took me three nights to figure out what was happening. I was using a tripod and using the self timer to trip the shutter so that I wouldn't have to touch it. I think I finally gave up and googled for help and found someone on a forum who suggested turning off the IS on the Canon lens for tripod work. Of course, the bottle of wine at dinner probably reduced my technical ability as well. :smile:

The first photo is with the IS and the second is without.


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## histprof (Oct 30, 2011)

Edit. Sorry. Uploaded wrong photo. Corrected, the post should now read: The first two are with IS and the third is without.


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

I see. That is a nice picture. The IS you are referring to is the Instant Stabilizer right? Is it turned off by the IS on the lens itself?


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## MichaelW (Jun 16, 2010)

A lot of birds are hard to get a really nice sharp photo of. They have areas that just won't show very sharp because of the feathers. The area behind the eye may be one of these. The photo looks pretty good to me. You might try just a bit quicker shutter speed even if there is no apparent wind. ( it doesn't take much to move a feather). In most shots just worry about the eye being in focus. To me if the eye is not focused then the photo usually just doesn't look right.


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

I could see that Michael. Very good point and an excellent tip.


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## Jerry-rigged (May 21, 2004)

Seeker said:


> T
> Canon EOS REBEL T4i
> Lens is a Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD
> Iso 640
> ...


18-270? Wow, That is a lot of zoom... I don't know much about that lens, but most super-zoom lenses tend to be a bit soft on the long end when shot wide open. You might play with the f/ a bit, stop down and see if that gains you some sharpness. Maybe set the camera to f/8, 1/400, auto-ISO, RAW and what kind of sharpness you can get before applying noise reduction.


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## stargazer (May 24, 2004)

+ 1



Jerry-rigged said:


> 18-270? Wow, That is a lot of zoom... I don't know much about that lens, but most super-zoom lenses tend to be a bit soft on the long end when shot wide open. You might play with the f/ a bit, stop down and see if that gains you some sharpness. Maybe set the camera to f/8, 1/400, auto-ISO, RAW and what kind of sharpness you can get before applying noise reduction.


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

Thanks Jerry and Stargazer.. I saw this same bird tonight and saw where there is a blend of gray in the area behind the eye. I think the camera just could not balance the color with my settings. I bet in the sunlight it will cleanup in my shot. We shall see, we have a three day weekend this weekend and I plan on filling up some digital cards with Spring pics..


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## LandPirate (Jun 5, 2009)

Hi Seeker,
I too have the T4i and I use a Tamron SP70-300 Di VC USD lens. I get my sharpest pics at or around f/8. I shoot most of my photos hand-held, so I had to really get the shutter speed up, which means high ISO. My T4i does a pretty decent job even with ISO 1600. ISO 3200 is a little noisy but cleans up pretty well.

I found that T4i doesn't do as well with auto-focus (AF) in dim lighting. You really have to put the sensor directly on the bird's eye or something else with good contrast. In order to get mine to take really sharp pics I also had to set AF to the center focus point only. If the bird is still then use the "One Shot" AF program. The AI Servo program expects to detect movement so it was continually adjusting focus on static objects.

Here's an example of one of my recent pics.

Distance is about 12 meters.
300mm 1/1000 f/7.1 ISO 320
Focus is directly on the eye.


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

Thanks for the feedback LandPirate. The IO server does give me fits in low light shots. The shutter speed does have to be fast. When I have it on the sports shot setting it sounds like the burst is going to destroy something in the camera body. It stops hard. Good looking picture.


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## RustyBrown (May 29, 2004)

*A mouthful...*

I'm a Nikon guy but this should help you. You are shooting at 270mm with a form factor of 1.6x so its really 432mm by 35mm standards. If you want sharpness in that situation I would shoot no less than 1/500 handheld. Vibration reduction is nice but as others have said sometimes its unpredictable.

Secondly all lenses have an aperture they prefer. Most nonpro lenses are around f/8. At 6.3 you're pushing that lens to its wide open limit. Thirdly by increasing your dof a little you've increased your margin of error until you get the sharpness settled.

The next matter is the ISO 640 is pretty sensitive but if I'm asking you to shoot faster and more stopped down something will have to give. Consider these guidelines and try to drop your ISO as it to can play a role on perceived sharpness.

Hope this helps.

Rusty


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

Thank you Rusty. We will see what we can get her to do in sunlight this weekend. This bird loves attention for some reason.


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## Seeker (Jul 6, 2009)

That is going to be a fast shutter speed but I will try it. I am going to play more with the dof settings and see what it does.


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