 Posted 6/10/2008 10:15:29 AM
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| Hi everyone. I just purchased my first DSLR camera with two kit lenses. I did a lot of research and the Olympus E-510, a 10mp camera, got very good ratings at a very good price. My old camera is an Olympus C-765 ultra zoom 4 mp and I really get good quality pictures from it. I have been reading the manual and experimenting with taking bird pictures on a tripod with the 40-150mm lens. I am just not getting the clarity that I know I should be getting when I enlarge the pictures. I am getting frustrated and I would really appreciate any help that I can get. I know that it takes time to get used to a new camera and I know this is a good one. Yesterday I went to the website of a UN photographer named John Isaac. He uses the same camera and takes fantastic pictures. He emailed me just before he took off to India on assignment and briefly said that he shoots mainly on Aperature setting and that the kit lenses are very good. There must be something that I am not doing correctly. Thanks in advance for your input. Diane
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Posted 6/10/2008 11:01:10 AM
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Just some quick suggestions for wildlife photography.
1. Aperture priority mode usually works best. Be sure to choose the most wide open aperture available for your lenses. (smallest aperture number). Animals and birds move a lot. You'll want all the shutter speed you can muster.
2. Try ISO 400 or ISO 800 to gain even more shutter speed. The ISO 800 will mean more electronic noise, but might be worth the extra stop of shutter speed it allows. ISO 400 is usually where I start when I'm photographing live animals.
3. I think your new camera has a vibration reduction mechanism. That is meant to be used with handheld shots. You might want to turn it off for tripod mounted shots, as it might be working against your best efforts.
4. If your camera has a shutter release cable available, it can really help. Most people, including me, transfer body vibrations to the camera when "punching" the shutter release button. Better to keep your hands off. An alternative to the shutter release cable is your self timer. Sort of hard to time your shots with that, though.
5. Shutter slap can cause vibrations. Sometimes I use the "mirror lockup function". It's worth a try.
6. I read that your camera has a 45 point zone focus, or something like that. That's great for landscape or people shots, but not for wildlife. If you can select a single focus point and place that focus point on the part of your subject you want to be in focus, you'll like the results better. The 45 point zone focus will try to maximize the in focus elements in the frame. I think you want to use autofocus, but you don't want the camera overriding your idea of what the subject is. And, for the 45 point focus system to get everything in focus, the DOF plane would be deep.... hence, the aperture would be tiny (big number). See suggestion #1 above.
7. Be aware of the minimum focus distance for your lens. For example, my 400mm lens has a minimum focus distance of 11 feet. If my subject happens to be closer, the auto focus cannot lock in.
Okay, that's plenty to try. Be sure to ask more questions. Looking forward to see the output from your new DSLR.
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Posted 6/10/2008 11:09:09 AM
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| Thanks so much, Mr. Hahn. I do so admire your work and you always give such helpful advice. I will try your suggestions. Diane
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Posted 6/10/2008 11:50:38 AM
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Posted 6/10/2008 12:26:30 PM
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Most of my indoor shots (basketball/volleyball) are taken at ISO 1600. Check out these "noise reduction" software vendors if you need to use HIGH ISO's (of course a tripod could help you shoot at lower shutter speeds thus allowing you to keep your ISO (and noise) down. WE NOISE NINJA NEAT IMAGE (free demo) NOISEWARE (free community edition)
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Posted 6/10/2008 1:29:44 PM
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Posted 6/10/2008 1:39:13 PM
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Wright offers good comments. I use Noise Ninja, but usually only on portions of images captured at ISO 800 or greater.
Tonka, not sure I understand your question. In my mind, the ISO setting is directly correlated with electronic noise. The higher the ISO setting, the more noise one will encounter. It depends on the subject and lighting, but the noise reduction applications can remove a percentage of the noise, usually at the expense of some image detail.
The ISO setting only affects image sharpness to the extent it allows a fast enough shutter speed to reduce camera shake or motion blur, or both.
By the way, I never use the sharpen tool. It's the most artifact inducing tool around. I will use "Edge Sharpen" once in a while. Most often, I make two small USM filter passes.... usually as my last step before converting to a JPG file for Internet upload purposes. I never apply any "sharpening" tool to a JPG format image.
Ask more questions. I don't think I understood your question.
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Posted 6/10/2008 2:11:05 PM
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Posted 6/10/2008 2:55:42 PM
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