Very new to DSLR camera and have a pretty basic first camera. Though compared to my point and click the image quality is tremendous. I have a Canon EOS 350D with a EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II Lens fitted. I spotted a squirrel from my living room window running across a piece of grass with a slice of bread in it's mouth heading for the tree where I believe it has it's home. The tree is about 50'-60' feet away I estimate. By the time I had got my camera it was upside down on the tree looking at this slice of bread. Image. It certainly is not as sharp as I would have liked in fact it just looks wrong. Second image looks worse. What could I or should I have done differently? Please keep any advice simple as I have yet to learn what most of the tech terms mean. Thanks.
The first image needs cropping but as you say it looses quality. As the edges of the photo reduce the impact of the squirrel bread combo. I would say that I've found that with photography you have to make a decision between 'do I want to capture a moment ' or do I want to get a 'quality photo'. I know that's not a set rule but the in between is often luck I would say that having a tripod set up looking towards the squirrels home would help so you have that extra stability would help. Even if the squirrel is a little blurry you will have his surroundings in focus so you end up with a feeling of movement. What is your lenses sweet spot ? On the 18-105mm 3.5-4.5 nikon lens it's middle of the range and f7.1. That will help also tailor your ISO so you have the best quality to speed mix. You want a quick exposure so the squirrel isn't a blue. Ps. I'm going to say that getting a better zoom lens will help make it easier. But I'm saying that because it's true but not that it's a helpful comment. I have the 70-300 afs nikon lens and it gets amazing photos and I find myself using that and standing further back rather than using my kit lens.
First time I have seen the squirrel in months so actually having a camera I use quite often pointing at a tree is not really an option. I would have loved to have caught the little blighter running across the grass with the bread in his mouth as the contrast with the green would have made for a better shot I think. One thing though I was not using the 18-105mm lens I was using the recently purchased 55-250mm to take the shot. The squirrel was stationary at the time but only briefly so it was more of press the shutter and hope for the best.
Afraid there are rarely any quick ways to capture good wildlife shots, what you are trying to do is quite difficult, that's get a composed, sharp shot of an unpredictable moving subject, it's not easy and often requires quite a lot of time and effort which is why wildlife photographers often spend hours if not days sat around in hides staking out their quarry, even the pros with all their skill and planning rarely get the shot they want first time. I can't see any metadata on your image but using the 55-250mm from 50-60' away you would have been zoomed in quite a lot and the longer focal length you use the more chance of camera shake there is so the first shot is reasonably sharp for hand held and the exposure is quite good but the second shot looks like some camera shake which is not surprising for hand held. A quick rule of thumb is don't use a shutter speed slower than the focal length your lens is at, so if you are zoomed right in at 250mm (check the scale on the lens for approx focal length) then don't use a shutter speed less than 250/sec, that will help to reduce camera shake, using a lens at 55mm you could use a slower shutter speed of 60/sec as camera shake is less of a problem at wider angles. If you are really interested in learning photography then I would recomend taking a photography course if you can, it makes far more sense to buy a cheap DSLR camera and learn how to use it, than buying an expensive camera and thinking you will take good pictures, a common mistake. Come and join us on this photography forum if you want, there are a lot of very good tutorials and helpful people on it.
For opportunistic shots from inside like that; bracing the camera against the ingoes or sill can reduce shake. Trees, walls, gates, etcetera work when outdoors.
Looks like you got the focus ok on pic 1, but your metering may have been out a bit, with the bright background. Also looks like a heavily overcast day, which just makes everything look like crap.
Metering the the camera's way of detecting light and setting shutter speed and aperture appropriately. You can change the kind of metering - the number of sample points that the camera uses - but this often leads to the camera thinking that the scene is lighter or darker than it is and respectively under- or over-exposing the picture. You can combat this in one of a couple of ways: change the number of metering points (your camera should have a few options); change the exposure manually using exposure compensation (the +-EV button); or using a flash to light the scene a bit better.
Thanks mate, I think I get the gist of what you are saying will have a look at the manual to see if I can clarify what you have said.
A friend of mine purchased a Canon 7D with that in mind, its been two years and the camera is still set on 'Auto' :-/ I'm only a casual camera user but where's the fun? No to mention that the damn thing has about 60 pop on the shutter count 0.0
Mine was cheap. I bought it on the marketplace, in fact I see there is another one for sale at even less than I paid. Would a camera with a LCD viewing screen be of any use in the learning phase? As I know someone that may well be selling a 550D
