Revisiting this shot on Saturday

[sebthedog1]

Hi there

I took this last weekend at a nearby nature reserve and I am going to go back to try and improve on it this Saturday. I normally shoot in manual mode (forcing myself to learn by my mistakes) but to take this I chose shutter priority because I am using a 55-200mm lens more towards the 200mm end and wanted to keep the shutter speed high enough to freeze any movement. I have no lighting except for my built in flash. I also took this handheld because I didn't want to risk them rushing off before I could get a shot, as it turns out they were really co-operative little things that were fairly happy to have me hanging around.

I think I need to get my tripod out, reduce the iso and decrease the aperture. I have a remote release and some kenko extension tubes as well - is there anything else I can do to improve this? It seems to lose sharpness in the middle - (I was focussing on the eyes) Is this just a result of F4 giving too shallow a dof?

Looking forward to getting some help/advice and quite happy to post the result of it back here next week.

Many thanks

Mandy






Exif data
Camera Canon EOS 450D
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 114 mm
ISO Speed 1600
White Balance was set to cloudy

[wanderella]

i really like this shot....bugs are hard to catch.....good job.

[jamesev]

Originally Posted by sebthedog1

Hi there

I took this last weekend at a nearby nature reserve and I am going to go back to try and improve on it this Saturday. I normally shoot in manual mode (forcing myself to learn by my mistakes) but to take this I chose shutter priority because I am using a 55-200mm lens more towards the 200mm end and wanted to keep the shutter speed high enough to freeze any movement. I have no lighting except for my built in flash. I also took this handheld because I didn't want to risk them rushing off before I could get a shot, as it turns out they were really co-operative little things that were fairly happy to have me hanging around.

I think I need to get my tripod out, reduce the iso and decrease the aperture. I have a remote release and some kenko extension tubes as well - is there anything else I can do to improve this? It seems to lose sharpness in the middle - (I was focussing on the eyes) Is this just a result of F4 giving too shallow a dof?

Looking forward to getting some help/advice and quite happy to post the result of it back here next week.

Many thanks

Mandy





Exif data
Camera Canon EOS 450D
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 114 mm
ISO Speed 1600
White Balance was set to cloudy

how close were you to the critter?

[sebthedog1]

About a foot and a half.