I've not posted a photo here before as I do not feel as though my photos are any where near the quality all of you post. I'm fairly new at photography and am reading everything on this website and learning a tremendous amount. There are some amazing photos. I'm curious...often times people will post their image file info such as ISO, Shutter speed etc. However, what do all of you do in your wildlife adventures regarding auto focus. Do you guys use single point autofocus or do your use continuous AI Servo autofocus? How do you flip from one to the other quickly when there is fast action?
Also, do you use single point focus or 5 point focus or more?
I ask because I am not quick yet at switching from single point focus and PLUS focus points.
Please know I took these photos of wild animals and so I did not have the opportunity to re-arrange the way they were situated. Also, these are straight out of the camera I do not know how to use LightRoom yet. Right now I am trying to learn all the various features on my camera and trying to take a good photo straight out of my camera. Eventually, I want to learn how to utilize LightRoom to enhance my photos.
Thank you for any advice you can provide.
I think these shots would clean up fairly nice.
For your focusing question, it all depends on what and where you're photographing.
If it's a larger animal like these sheep, I use the center focus point making sure I have enough room to crop it the way I want it to look like when I done.
For birds on branches, with a lot of stuff around it, single point.
If it's in the air, I use the zone area.
Every situation will be different and the only person that can say for what will work for you, is you.
I don't Lightroom, I use Photoshop.
When you bring your photos into Lightroom, if you click one to edit, somewhere on the screen there's an 'auto' button. Try that. For some photos it really does work well, and for others, it may point you in a direction to work your shot. Yet some other times you'll wonder what it was trying to do cause it looks awful. But even that's helpful to know what isn't going to work. So try the auto button and move those sliders around til you get something you like.
What camera are you using?
Oh my goodness Dave, thank you so much for the response. I mostly take wildlife photos, which does include birds. But I seem to miss a lot of photographs of anything moving because I have my camera on single point focus and I don't shoot in AI Servo but I am wondering if I am doing things incorrectly. I do not personally know any wildlife photographers so I am photographing by the seat of my pants so to speak.
I am reading everything that I have available to me. I get faster shutter speed for moving objects, higher f stop for blurred background etc. But you do not find a lot of people talking about focal points and does one use single shots or continuous shots...etc. I do not know how to ad additional photographs so I will start a new post with a couple bird photos. THANK you for your advice.
My camera I used is a Canon 7D Mark II and for these shots I used my Tameron 150 - 600 lens on a tripod.
I have my camera in AI servo 99% of the time. If you don't use that, if a critter moves away or closer to you, the shot will be out of focus. In AI servo, the camera is constantly focusing while you have the shutter or your back button focus button half pressed.
When shooting, try shutter priority mode, and use auto iso.
Let the camera choose your aperture and your iso. Find out how fast of a shutter speed you need to get a non blurred shot. At this point it doesn't matter if your shot is noisy because of high iso's, or what the depth of field is. First thing you need to know is what your limits are for being able to hold your camera steady enough to get a non blurred shot.
Once you get that, then start messing with the other stuff. Work on one thing, when you have a handle on that, then work on another setting.
This isn't going to happen over night, it takes time and a lot of shots to get to where you just know how to set up your camera.
The good news is, the film is free, you just have to take the time.
Remember too, while using a tripod, turn off the image stabilization.
Good luck.
Thank you so much for all the wonderful information. Yes I always forget to shut off image stabilization when using my tripod. (Drats) I get too excited about the beautiful critter I see. LOL
I wondered how people actually got shots of wildlife like that. I keep getting told to take my camera off of AI Servo but could not figure out how to quickly turn AI Servo on when out hiking. Leaving it on makes perfect sense to me. When I am out taking photos of wildlife I do use shutter priority mode. But without AI Servo turned on I kept missing birds in flight. So if you have AI Servo turned on does that allow clear photos of stationary animals/birds?
Just keep shooting. Dave has some great tips there you can use. I have a Canon 5diii and a tamron lens the same as yours. Mine is not the latest model. I find that after 400 zoom the quality of the photo drops off somewhat, so if you can get closer and keep the zoom low and then crop. The first image you have there I would crop right in to the Ram. I have assigned my AI servo to my DOF preview button so if a bird is on a branch I can take some stills then as soon as you think he will go press and hold the DOP button. You could also set these in reverse if you liked. As I said the drop off on my lens annoys me so I am looking at hiring a Canon 70-200 to see the difference. Always use the tripod when you can and a remote button. The tamron lens does not hold a constant fstop so I often find its using a very high iso to compensate. I get best wildlife [closer] photos with my canon ef 24 -70 2.8 lens as it holds 2.8 right through the focal length. Also use the multi shot. Have fun
Bruce, thank you so much for the information. I also have the first version of the tamron lens. I agree that photos are super soft once I push it to 500 or 600mm. I did micro adjust my lens to my 7D Mark II and that helped a LOT. The lens still does not get tack sharp 3 D photos if the wildlife is too far out there.
I bought the 70 -200 L F2.8 last fall and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Super tack sharp images. I took photos of a friends wedding in Jamaica and WOWOWOW. Such clear amazing beautifully colored shots. I did buy the latest version of that lens.
I also bought the 100 -400 L F4.5 lens a couple years ago and it is fairly good also, but nothing like that beautiful 200 lens. The 200 even looks good with the canon 1.4 extender.
I have become obsessed with this hobby and spend a lot of time out hiking with my dog. Now I am trying to fine tune my photography skills. Everyone does things so differently and some get a bit defensive of their shooting styles. I appreciate all the advice you guys are giving.
Sorry for all the questions, I am curious where all of you guys put your photos for people to view? Right now I have only been uploading photos to my facebook. Do you all have specific websites you use?
Also, are you guys ruthless about deleting blurred, missed shots? I have been saving all of my photos but I'm filling up external hard drives. LOL. SO I am going to take the rest of the winter and start culling anything that is blurry, or where the bird is not looking at me, or the photos is just too awful to fix in LightRoom once I learn it.
I have been told it is bad to delete each photo as I am taking them in my camera. That worked best for me. I could take a couple photos, look at them if they were blurry or missed shots I would delete them instantly. Now that I was told it is bad for the camera I stopped and do not have time to wait and wait for photos to load on my computer to see which ones I want to delete.
I am curious what everyone else is doing with regards to these questions.
For me the only place people can see my photos is on this site in my profile. I do not use fb or any other site. I keep all my photos and store them on external hard drives. My favorites are stored on usb storage as well. Not in favor of cloud storage personally. I never delete on site because my eye sight is not good enough to see them in the camera screen. This can be a pain sometimes as I have to wait and see what the results are. Have a look or join the experimental group on this site as people can do some amazing things with photos that may seem not right at the time. I play with pse a lot and will sometimes try photos that would be generally discarded. You seem to be in a hurry. Maybe don't be so hard on yourself. Also why do you need to delete so fast [unless they are really bad]. I have been taking photos for a long time now and to date I have not totally filled one of my hard drives. You said earlier that everyone does things differently and that is because there are really no hard and fast rules it all depends on what you are after. Sounds like you have the gear so keep doing what you are doing and take the advise that suits you. Keep on shooting.
Thank you so much for all the information. I love to hear what others are doing. I'm not really in a hurry just trying to find an organized method before everything becomes too overwhelming if that makes sense. I've been shooting for a long time also. I have never had the time to take it seriously until the past couple years. Now I want to learn everything I can and do things to the best of my ability.
Enjoy the journey. Cheers