The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Group of swans flying in the early morning in Friesland. You may notice that one of them has an object around its neck. I love the soft morning light and the formation, with all heads and at least an eye per bird visible. However, I am troubled by the lack of sharpness due to the low shutter speed and birds’ movement. Is it worth trying again at higher ISO and then hope the noise reduction routines in PS take care of the noise? Any other suggestions?
Esme, I am really drawn to your picture. The soft colors and the position of the swan make for a nice composition. I am not an expert on ISO and shutter speeds, but I think it can be individual to the camera. How high can you push the ISO on your camera before the noise gets objectionable? That is an answer I have yet to determine on my camera. Topaz DeNoise has been helpful for me. I know that auto ISO will allow you to up the shutter speeds on moving objects. I have used that when photographing landscapes if there is a breeze. I used the shutter speed I think is needed and let the camera decide on the ISO. I hope that helps. Thanks for sharing this photo.
Hi Esme. Even though the camera is getting a bit older, that’s recent enough that modern noise reduction should be able to handle at least twice that iso. I used a Canon 7D Mark II from 2013 until just a few years ago and was able to push it to iso 4000 and still get decent results if the exposure was right to start with.
I really like the beautiful light in the sky behind the swans and the formation is quite nice. I also like the size of the group in the frame. The temptation is always there to zoom in on the subject, but I don’t find it to always be the best solution.
Esme, there are such beautiful colors in this and your composition is great as noted by @Dennis_Plank. I also agree that you should try again with a higher ISO and faster shutter speed. Your capture with all of the swans moving slightly toward you is really nice.
Oh, and welcome back to NPN, hope to see a lot more of your work here.
@Barbara_Djordjevic , @Dennis_Plank and @Ed_Williams : many thanks for your suggestions and tips. In the future, in similar conditions, I will push the ISO to get a faster shutter speed.
This year I hope to get a sharp picture that does justice to the beauty of flying swans in the warm sunrise light.
A wonderful opportunity in wonderful light! This is a quite nice image on its own but I hope you will find a chance to work the theme. One thing to do is shoot a lot as they fly, on burst mode if you can hold focus on them. Then choose the best wing positions and hope to avoid two overlapping birds, for the strongest images.
@Diane_Miller, many thanks for the nice words and the encouragement. I will try the burst mode - my husband has preached about it for years. I tend to avoid it because I feel it takes control away from me, but that’s a silly stance: first, it makes a lot of sense, statistically, to use it; second, taking control away from me when there are multiple birds moving much faster than I can react may actually be a good thing
It is a good thing!! You could argue that autofocus takes control away from you, too. (About 50 years ago, a few elite bird photographers had bragging rights about their ability to focus on moving subjects. I suspect the best of them had three hands.) With all the modern tools, you still have the artistic control of finding a good arrangement of birds in the frame. If the birds are flapping their wings, burst mode lets you choose the most pleasing frames from action way too fast to react to. That level of artistic control is enough for me!
