I’m trying to - and have been for a while - get this sort of shot of a blue jay.
Is this photo ‘useable’ even if not 100% sharp? Should I go up further in shutter spped?
Is this a composite: No
Exposure time: 1/2500 s
F number: 5.6
Exposure program: Manual
ISO speed rating: 1600
Hi Eddie. It always depends on what you want to use the image for. Entering it in a photo contest-probably not. They’re sticklers for technique. Using it to illustrate how a bird takes off-possibly. Developing a more simple graphic from the photograph would certainly be possible.
I think your shutter speed is pretty good. To me it looks as if the softness other than wing tips is coming from the fact that the bird in both instances is taking off away from you requiring a large depth of field. I don’t know how close you were or what the focal length of your lens was, but the odds are your depth of field isn’t much over an inch or two if you didn’t crop these severely. For a bird as large as a jay, you’re not going to be able to get it all in focus unless it takes off parallel to you-which just means keep trying.
Thanks. Yes I was thinking an increased DOF may be needed.
Valiant effort Eddie. You got decent results for a very tough shot. You can get a pretty good idea of the dof by looking at the grass in second image. The other factor working against you is the closer the subject is to the camera the more the relative movement appears. So a subject far off does not cross over as many pixels on the sensor as a very close subject in the same period of time. You can get away with a bit lower ss for more distant subjects.
Higher ss for very close subjects like this and as much dof as possible will only help. And I imagine prefocusing is going to be real trial and error but might be an option.
Hi Eduard, I find the shot interesting with the take off pose but as you mention sharpness is an issue. I agree with the comments above. I think 1/2500s should be fast enough to accomplish what you are after here. Possibly experiment with a narrower aperture if you can manage it given the light.
