Widlife photography

[nyrfan44]

I'm using my D50 with the 55-200mm lens. Most of my pictures came out well. But, I have yet to over come much of the blurriness that has occurred on movement or even stationary shoots. I was wondering if it can be a problem with the settings I am using. I have been using the Sport setting with continuous photo setting without flash. On some occasions I will switch to the Portrait seeing/continuous photo setting. All picture have been taken at zoo's with pretty good lighting.

[ciogi]

I'm using my D50 with the 55-200mm lens. Most of my pictures came out well. But, I have yet to over come much of the blurriness that has occurred on movement or even stationary shoots. I was wondering if it can be a problem with the settings I am using. I have been using the Sport setting with continuous photo setting without flash. On some occasions I will switch to the Portrait seeing/continuous photo setting. All picture have been taken at zoo's with pretty good lighting.

There are a couple things you can do to try limiting the blurryness in your photos, one of which is uping your ISO especially when using a zoom lens you want to be using at least 800 iso, but take note that the higher the iso the granier your photos will look. The even easier way to limit blurriness is to invest in a tripod, although you are taking moving shots, having the camera on a tripod will limit the camera shake so now all you have to worry about is the subject moving instead of subject and hands. Taking out the variables causing your blurriness is whats going to help you. Lastly if you know how to use Manual mode that will be your best bet, or even Aperature priority because you can pick the smallest aperature which will allow you to shoot at a faster shutter speed.

Hope I helped!

[ELAY]

There are a few things to think about/try:

1. That lens, although AF-S, is notoriously slow on autofocus, so part of the blurriness may be due to AF problems. Before you go continuous shooting, try a few singles to make sure you nail the AF -- then if you get blur when moving your camera around and doing continuous, at least you will have a few to fall back on.

2. If you are shooting sport mode, then your camera is defaulting to fast shutter speeds, but still you may want to consider shooting in S mode, and controlling shutter speed yourself. Set to minimum 1/250, preferably 1/500 if you are shooting anything that moves -- especially if you are at the long end. The previous poster is correct -- in situations where you are having trouble getting fast enough shutter speeds, boosting your ISO can help. The rule of thumb is that you should try not to shoot slower than the focal length of your lens; this means that at the long end, you should try to avoid shooting any slower than 1/200 even with stationary subjects.

3. Reduce camera shake. Whether this means leaning against a wall, resting your camera on a rail, or using a tripod or gorillapod or something, anytime you are dealing with slower than optimal shutter speeds, stabilize your camera and/or the photographer.

That lens now comes in a VR version, at basically the same price I paid for the non-VR version...that would help too.

EL

[nyrfan44]

Thanks, both of you. I shall try these technique's on my next trip this week. I shall let you know how it works out.

As for the lens. The 55-200mm lens came with the camera. Hopefully this week end I shall be purchasing the 70-300mm VR Nikon.

I was also wondering, other than a UV filter what other filters should I use or if not anything else.

[jdepould]

I wouldn't worry too much about filters, UV should be fine. I agree that shooting in S or M would probably be beneficial. 1/500 is a good speed to start with, aperture to f/8 or so, adjust ISO to taste. Depending on your setup, a bean bag may be enough to stabilise the camera, but if you're standing then it wouldn't work so well.

[nyrfan44]

Thanks I will give it a shot. As for when taking these pictures. Sometime I have no choice but to stand and hold the camera.

[velvet4269]

When I went on my local "walkabout," hitting up several of the parks in Austin, I kept my camera on Aperture-priority mode, WB set to 'daylight,' and left myself on f/8.0. I did play with the EV levels, depending on lighting, but for the most part, left everything else alone.

Of course, I was also still learning the camera, and taking one step at a time, but I think I managed some pretty decent results. Towards the end of my little vacation, I was playing with different f/stops, white balance levels, and manual focus, but I learned as I was going; even from the bad pictures :)

[nyrfan44]

I'm slowly learning myself. But, I think it is time that I pick up a book on the camera and maybe take a class somewhere.

[sunsetter]

If you are shooting behind any glass you might try a polarizer filter. I just took some shots at a local zoo and had to shoot thru glass windows and got some reflection that I could hav reduced if I had taken my polarizer filter.

[nyrfan44]

If you are shooting behind any glass you might try a polarizer filter. I just took some shots at a local zoo and had to shoot thru glass windows and got some reflection that I could hav reduced if I had taken my polarizer filter.

Any particular one? I have one that came with my Hoya starter kit. But, i had no idea what it was for.

52mm Hoya Filter starter kit..

[xxpinballxx]

a good tip for shooting through glass is to get as close to the glass as you can without touching it and then try cupping hand around the lens up against the glass. preferably shading from the light source!

[sunsetter]

The circular polarizer wil do quite a few things. Basically to make sky darker blue but will also reduce reflections in soome cases. Adjust to where you like it.

[RussHeath]

Circular polarizers are one of those essential tools that photoshop still can't replace. Learning to use them is a bit of trial and error, but ultimately you just look through the viewfinder, slowly rotate the polarizer until you like what you see, then shoot! They do reduce light by anywhere from 1.5-2.5 stops, but you mostly need them outdoors in bright light so it shouldn't be an issue. If you find yourself using them in a lot of situations, consider springing for the expensive Nikon ones, as they are the most neutral and block the least amount of light so you can use them in more situations. :)

All the "Trip to Utah" series on my Flickr page (see signature) were shot with a circular polarizer.

[baseballboy828]

The scene modes are garbage. If you really want to get something sharp, go into aperture priority mode (A) and set the aperture to the minimum. Then change the ISO to 800. If you want to handhold, spring for a VR lens. Very expensive, but when you have the option of getting a good tripod for $150 or more vs. spending another $100 on the lens, you have to decide. If you are doing mostly wildlife, the lens may be a better investment.

[kirbinster]

I find the most important thing is to make sure you do not (yes do not) have continuous servo turned on, set the autofocus to single servo and you will probably get a sharper focus - at least it works for me. Also skip those "toy" settings and stick with "P", "A", "S", or "M".

[RussHeath]

The scene modes are garbage. If you really want to get something sharp, go into aperture priority mode (A) and set the aperture to the minimum. Then change the ISO to 800. If you want to handhold, spring for a VR lens. Very expensive, but when you have the option of getting a good tripod for $150 or more vs. spending another $100 on the lens, you have to decide. If you are doing mostly wildlife, the lens may be a better investment.


You're suggestions here will certainly minimize camera shake type blur, but may not result in the sharpest images possible. All lenses have a "sweet spot" somewhere in the middle of their aperture range. See Darren's blog entry about this:

Here (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/find-your-lens-sweet-spot/)

By cranking up the ISO to 800, you will also introduce some grain which can detract from sharpness. The sharpest images possible will result from fast shutter speeds (the thing you're trying to achieve in your suggestions with low aperture and high ISO) and no camera movement, but you must also consider that most lenses will be considerably sharper in their "sweet spot" of aperture range than turned all the way down.

If sharpness is the ultimate goal, then there is no substitue for a tripod. VR certainly helps, though. Set your camera to aperture priority mode, select an aperture in your camera's sweet spot, and shoot from a tripod for sharpest images. IMHO. :)

[PLouie]

I think another problem that might be causing the slight blurriness might be the lens. These cheaper telephoto lenses tend to get soft at the long ends no matter how good your focus or shutter speed is. Usually between 200-300mm it gets soft on my Sigma 70-300mm APO. In your case it would be 200mm for your lens (My friend has the same lens as you). NaturesPixels suggested that if you use a smaller aperture around f/8-14 (I think) it would give you sharper images at the long end.