Black-capped Chickadee (pic)

[mcary]

[Steve Foss]

Mike, long time, no post. Pretty one!

[eelpout#1]

Hey Mike, what happened to the owl avatar? That mallard looks kind of familiar, is he nicknamed "lumpy"?

[Swimmer]

If someone could help me with some compostion questions, I would appreciate it. It looks to me that the shot environment had plenty of light, and good quality light, so I would compromise on aperture setting (let's say f6) in order to get sharp focus on the entire bird (so the autofocus allows the outline of the bird to be sharp also)...and still not loose the bokeh effect. Am I on the right track here. I'm guessing Mike shot at at around f2.8 in order to get the nice bokeh, but then sacrificed a little sharpness on the outline...maybe to emphasise the eye/face? Just wonderin.

[mcary]

Swimmer, Here's the data from that shot.

Shutter Speed 1/200, Aperture Value f/5.6, Exposure Compensation +1/3, Digital Exposure Compensation -0.3, ISO Speed 400, Lens 100.0 - 400.0mm L, Focal Length 400mm

I had been out photographing ducks on Lake Superior and took this shot "off the cuff" so to speak as I arrived home. I just turned the camera on and took the shot. All the settings were left over from shooting duck shots against a fairly bright background - the increased exposure compensation. I then had to rectify for the overexposure digitally with software. The bird is soft even at f/5.6 because I was only about 10 ft. from the bird and DOF seems to get pretty narrow at that distance. Hope this helps. Mike

[Steve Foss]

The bokeh is because the background is far enough away so f5.6 renders it nicely blurred. I bet Mike and I BOTH wish we had telephoto capabilities to f2.8, eh?

Going from f5.6 to f6 won't sharpen up any softness when the 100-400L IS is shot at 400mm. Commonly, f7.1 or f8 is best for that lens when at max focal length. Even at f8, at 6 feet the DOF is quite thin at 400mm. Sometimes, a small bird quartering away from the camera, if you lock focus on the wings, will show you an OOF face. Unless you're trying for some kind of effect, it's just always best to lock focus on the eye and recompose, unless you're shooting a lens that's quite stopped down, say f11 or more.

[Dbl]

Quote:

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The bokeh is because the background is far enough away so f5.6 renders it nicely blurred. I bet Mike and I BOTH wish we had telephoto capabilities to f2.8, eh?

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I almost pulled the trigger on a 300/2.8 today, but I had a brief moment of sanity and am still waiting.

[Steve Foss]

Sanity, my friend, is overrated.

[Swimmer]

Quote:

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Sanity, my friend, is overrated.

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That's what I keep telling em.

Anyways, thanks for the response. I realise he would need the monster f2.8 in order to bump up the f-stop. So, given Mike shot with the 100-400 (f4 limitation), at 400mm one would need a ton of light in order to open the apurture. And then the quality of light may be a factor. Interesting. As soon as the boss "returns" the 100-400L, I will test these properties.

[Steve Foss]

Hey Swimmer:

Well, if we're insane at least we like it that way.

At 400mm, the 100-400L IS is limited to f5.6. I've worked hard these last few years to develop enough technique to shoot it regularly at iso400 at f8, with shutter speeds quite fine on sunny days but dropping into the 1/60 range on overcast days. I've gotten excellent sharp images with that lens handheld to 1/30. The portrait of the Arctic wolf on my Web site was shot at iso800 at 1/30, handheld, with that lens at 400mm at f5.6.

It can be done.

In all honesty, however, at slow shutter speeds, no matter how good the technique, monopod, steadying, etc., you discard more images than you keep. Since it's digital, that's not much of a problem, however. You just have to expect to toss more than you retain when you're at the edge of the performance envelope.

I want to clarify a point you made, however. You said: "One would need a ton of light in order to open the aperture." In fact, the higher the f-stop number, the SMALLER the aperture hole, so f2.8 is very wide open, while f11 is a much smaller opening. The smaller the aperture opening, the longer the shutter needs to stay open to properly expose the image. It takes more light to "stop down" a lens (reduce aperture opening) and still get a sharp image, not more light to open it up.

Have fun putting that 100-400L through its paces.

And, as always, show us what you get.