Crow

[E.S. Crawford]

try shooting a black cat!

there is almost no detail except for a$$&%$*, eyes and teeth!!

i shot about twenty of a crow saturday and got 0 keepers.

nice capture, ben.


scot

[oBSidian]

Dom, Jim, Scot.

Thankyou all for the kind words and encouragement. Very much appreciated.

Dom - yeah, the birds in motion - ha! I'll let you know (in 20 years time) if i get that one cracked

Jim - did I mention thankyou for the kind words?

Scot - I'll have to have a go at black cats! Of course, you could just shoot the cat for real, get it stuffed, and then you could position it just how you liked and probably that would help you get the exposures and composition right... oh wait - haven't we been into this contentious area before?

Best wishes,

-Ben

[thinpaperwings]

Ben, this is one of the best photos of a black bird I've seen. I love that he has a pebble in his beak. It really adds to the composition. The entire photo looks very warm: was it possible that you had a sunny day?

[KENNETHD]

I would not be too down on myself had I shot this crow. He did you a nice favor by showing off a little, adding some interest by picking up the pebble. The focus is good, too. As far as the long end of your lense goes, you are right. Minute movement will be a hazard. To experiment if you have not done already, use a tripod, manual focus set timer to a few seconds and trip the shutter switch. This way all vibration, (even from your depressing the shutter ) will be absent. This ought to represent the best focus, minus movement, you canhope for. If you continue to get less than perfect focus at least you have eliminated movement.

Kd

[oBSidian]

Sara,

Thankyou for the praise and encouragement We did indeed have a sunny day!! - Imagine that! (not sure it's possible )

KD:

Thanks very much for the suggestions. I'll give that a go, and see what kind of sharpness I get. I also noticed today that using my tamron 90mm macro to take some shots of things further away, they too came out soft, which implies to me its more of a focus issue than a lens sharpness - because I know the tamron to be very sharp.

Thankyou both!

Best,

-Ben

[VTphotog]

Ben;

I recall reading that some cameras have had back focus issues. Apparently the sensor is set in position such that it appears that at infinity, the camera appears to be focusing *beyond infinity* . Not a large effect, but enough at longer focal lengths. Not up on all the details myself, but if you search the subject, you might find relevant info.

brian

[SteveDak]

Not bad at all for such a difficult subject.

I agree with everything that's been said about black furry/feathery subjects and focus. No matter what I do I just can't get a decently focused shot of our black cat - I put it down to auto-focus issues a while back, as it seemsto hunt for a lock, gives upand reverts to infinity.

[kenmck15]

you have done well here

hard subjects to capture as they move so fast and often result in burry images. Really well done with exposure as all the detail in the black feathres are present

nice shot

ken

[KENNETHD]

I think after a bit of experimenting, you'll correct the problem. It is always a bonus to get it solved before rather than during a shooting session. Crious to hear what you finally attribute the problem to.

Kd