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    Help needed please, these are rubbish!

    Sorry for posting these rather poor photos but having found what could be a regular hunting field for a barn owl I need to discover what is going wrong; no point just deleting them if I can't decide what I should be doing! So if any one has any suggestions I would be grateful.

    They were taken around 3:45 today so accept that the light wasn't great. I had 800 ISO set, too much noise if you go higher, and was using f5.6 on the 70-300L; camera is a 50D. IS was on. I used spot metering as yesterdays attempts hadn't worked well either and some were centre focus point others I went back to automatic selection. Some of the smaller ones were at the other end of the field so it might be the best I can hope for. Some of the problem will be my panning I guess but the shot at 1/640 I wouldn't have thought that was issue.

    Anyway these are the photos:


    1301_Barn Owl_036.jpg by Birdy574, on Flickr

    1/100 sec, quite a way across the field


    1301_Barn Owl_046.jpg by Birdy574, on Flickr

    1/250 sec, This is full frame no crop.


    1301_Barn Owl_051.jpg by Birdy574, on Flickr

    1/640 sec. This is full frame no crop.


    1301_Barn Owl_073.jpg by Birdy574, on Flickr

    1/50. Too slow and too far away!


    1301_Barn Owl_095.jpg by Birdy574, on Flickr

    1/80. Too slow? and a large crop.

    Might be that the conditions are just against getting a decent result, it may the user - but you will agree I've missed some good opportunities so any advice would be helpful.

    Thanks

    Andrew
    Andrew

    #2
    Re: Help needed please, these are rubbish!

    Looks like the light was against you on the day Andrew, your very minimum shutter speed should be 640/sec a 1000/ sec would be better!
    Also wear dark clothing and tuck yourself in against the hedgerow if you can, chances are he will come closer in to you. Also if you get a chance go very early in the morning, they hunt then! Good Luck.

    Papa.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Help needed please, these are rubbish!

      Its a real shame but you have some shots so its a start. Obviously the light was against you but aslo your shutter speed was a bit slow - need ot try for at least 1/1000 for birds in flight

      Stan
      Stan - LRPS, CPAGB, BPE2*

      http://neptuno-photography.foliopic.com/
      flickr

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Help needed please, these are rubbish!

        Panning: Tuck your elbows into your chest and brace your upper body. The only movement now should be from your waist to follow the subject and under no circumstances should you stop panning when you take the shot. Keep tracking the subject as if you were going to take another couple of shots and then stop panning.

        Shutter speed: A shutter speed of 1/640sec isn't fast enough for birds in flight, unless it is a large soaring bird with little wing movement. You need to get over 1/1,000 sec. For a Barn Owl I want 1/1,600 sec. That will give me a sharp body, head and wing root, but progressively blur the wings as they go towards the wing tips. The light wasn't doing you any favours, so if you want the shot, you have to up the ISO. Too much noise at higher ISO's? You have three choices available: bit of noise, stay home and don't take any shots, or blurry photo's. Noise I can deal with at the computer if it is too bad and it would probably only have been an issue with number 3, where you have a large expanse of single colour sky. In all the other shots, there is enough detail to mask the effects of noise.

        Fieldcraft: Blend in with your surroundings, wear appropriate clothing, no aftershave, or scented grooming products. Keep still and don't rush to take a shot as soon as you spot your quarry. Be quiet and move slowly and in all likelihood, she will come closer to you. She is used to quartering all of that field and the less she feels threatened by you, the more she will continue her normal behaviour. It's very cold and snow is covering the ground. Her prey will be less active and mostly foraging concealed by the snow, therefore the Barn Owl will need to be hunting longer to catch her food and that is a good opportunity for you. As you have already noticed, they are totally silent in flight, but the penalty for that advantage is that their feathers soak up water like blotting paper and consequently they can't hunt when it is raining, and only for a short time if it is snowing. After a couple of days of continuous rain, or snow, they desperately need to catch food, so when the rain stops, they come out to hunt.

        Hope that helps.
        Colin

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Help needed please, these are rubbish!

          Papa, Stan: Appreciate you taking time to look at these and comment, probably pushing things but its very tempting to try to get a shot when you see something for the first time.

          Thanks Colin for your in depth reply with some useful advice. Guess its the difference between taking a snap shot & a properly thought out photograph. I was at least following some of the fieldcraft suggestions which is why the owl suddenly looked directly at me lurking in the bushes.

          However the owl returned to same field around the same time today so maybe there will be other opportunities. I think my challenge over the next few weeks is to keep an eye on the field and see if i can plan a proper shot, without disturbing the owl. Photograph or not it was rather special to watch the owl hunting, getting a decent picture will just be the icing!

          Thanks again

          Andrew
          Andrew

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Help needed please, these are rubbish!

            Hi Andrew,

            Can't add anything to what the other have said - but you are up against it a little bit with the 50D. You're going to need a lot higher shutter speed as Colin says and in the poor winter days that means using a higher ISO setting. I really liked my 50D, but I found the noise level went up quite badly the higher the ISO went. As you can already see there's a lot of noise in the last two picture. Time to consider upgrading the camera body, maybe?

            Good luck - looking forward to seeing more owl shots from you

            TTFN,
            Neil
            Neilly's Flickr Page
            http://www.flickr.com/photos/60833437@N08/
            Facebook
            https://www.facebook.com/pages/Neil-...67642190098333

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Help needed please, these are rubbish!

              Time to consider upgrading the camera body, maybe?
              Well Neil that is certainly one option, but not sure its the healthy one
              Need to get the best out of what I have, which I haven't yet so there is room to improve given the advice here. Lets see where that leads......

              Andrew
              Andrew

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Help needed please, these are rubbish!

                Am storing all that good advice in my head!

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Help needed please, these are rubbish!

                  Good luck in your endeavour. I look forward to seeing the outcome.

                  Dave
                  www.microwyred.co.uk

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