Help with this please.

[mdougals]

Ok, this bird has been flying around for two weeks now, i've taken about 50 shots and they all look like this. What am I doing wrong?

[Daniel Bates]

Well, the photo looks a bit soft. Are you using the 70-300 or the 100-400? What focusing mode are you set on (centre point, etc)?

[mdougals]

100-400, single point.

[av1]

If you mean how the bird is kind of a silhouette, then its because you're exposing for the sky and not the bird. The easiest way to adjust for this would be to use exposure compensation to adjust your exposure till the bird is properly exposed.

[mdougals]

Originally Posted by av1

If you mean how the bird is kind of a silhouette, then its because you're exposing for the sky and not the bird. The easiest way to adjust for this would be to use exposure compensation to adjust your exposure till the bird is properly exposed.

Should I go up or down?

[Patti Edens]

I'm no expert here, but this might help...

Here's what I'm pulling from the EXIF in your photo...
ISO 100
f8
1/500 shutter speed
Manual Exposure with meter centered (no exposure compensation)
Center Weighted Average Metering
400 mm lens
Canon Rebel (1.6 crop factor)

Some suggestions:

For the exposure, as AV1 said, you need to overexpose the bird a bit when using the center weighted average meter in this situation. As per Arthur Morris, for this situation, you would need anywhere from +1 to +2 exposure compensation, but most likely +1.

And as Daniel said, it seems a bit soft. I'm guessing from camera motion but maybe also because it wasn't actually in focus.

If camera motion, using a 400 mm lens with a crop factor camera, rule of thumb on stopping camera shake is 1/(mm x crop factor), so that would be 1/640. Of course, those with steady hands are better than others, so it is just a guideline. But, in this case you are not only trying to avoid camera shake, you are trying to catch a bird in flight. So, you would have done better with a faster shutter speed.

You had a couple of options or combinations of options to achieve a faster shutter speed. You could have bumped the ISO to 200 and easily doubled your shutter speed and not have any appreciable noise. You could have even gone to ISO 400 without much noise.

Or, you could have opened your aperture up a stop and also doubled the shutter speed. You wouldn't have needed to worry about depth of field since the bird is so far away and one stop wouldn't have mattered - two stops wouldn't have mattered.

Or, you could have done both one stop aperture and one ISO bump and then nailed the shot easily with the +EC.

If the problem was not being in focus to start with, then you might try using just the center autofocus point and AI Servo on your Canon camera to track a bird in flight. Sometimes that works best for me. Sometimes not...

Knowing all this though, I still underexpose shots in this situation because when I see the bird, all I can think about is get on it, follow it and try to get it in focus and shoot. Everything else goes out the window in those few seconds of opportunity. What you need to do is anticipate where the bird will be and what the lighting conditions will be and have everything set up and ready before you need to shoot it. Easier said than done.

Good luck next time!

[Ahh!]

The bird is too dark, so start going up a bit.

Or what she said!

[mdougals]

Exposure problem is what i'm trying to fix. I usually keep shutter speed around 800 this shot must have been one where I was trying different settings to get a better picture so thats the blur problem. So what you are saying is if I bump up the exposure by +1 to +2 using shutter speed of 800 it should make the bird more visible? This bird will fly in circles for about 3-4 minutes so i'm not in a hurry to catch it. Thanks for the replies.