suggestions needed for a bird photo

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balex78

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Hello Steve and everybody,

my equipment is: Nikon D500 + Nikkor 200-500mm F5.6

I'm Alex and I'm from Italy. I've got a question about a pic taken today in the morning (about 8.30 am) . It was a cloudy and grey day, with low light , clouds low in the sky and a little haze in the air.
I'd like to understand from you experts why this pic has come out "soft" and "hazy" .

The subject was quite close (between 20 and 30 meters approximately) and the shot settings were:

500mm - 1/3200 - f5.6 - iso 180

shutter speed was fast and iso low, so why all this haziness and softness?

this is the link to the pic:

www.flickr.com/photos/48743015@N03/51944357417/in/datetaken-public/

Thanks a lot
Alex
 
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Hi Alex,
I’m no expert but my feeling is that there just wasn‘t enough light to get a nice sharp image . I have never had great luck with images taken on days like that unless I was right on top of the subject. How Sharp are you images on days when there is plenty of light available? If they are consistently Sharp than I’ll stand by my initial feeling that there is not enough light. If they aren’t than there Is something else going on. Next time in that situation, increase the ISO or Exposure compensation and see what happens. There is usually a lot of glare which can confuse the camera.
 
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I agree with Ralph - poor light contributed to the softness. Increase your ISO. Also, were you hand holding or on a tripod? While the lens VR certainly can handle some camera motion, it has its limitations. You're always better off using a tripod whenever possible. Lastly, it's possible that the atmospheric haze you mentioned contributed to the image softness/haziness. Hope this helps.
 
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You indicate that you took the photo at ISO 180, and yet you used 1/3200 shutter speed at f5.6. Did you use any exposure compensation? That kind of bright white sky will cause massive underexposure of a bird in front of it. When I photograph birds up against a sky like that I will typically increase the exposure 2-3 stops. In the absence of this, the bird is very likely severely underexposed, and hence when you bring up the exposure in post it will be very noisy and unsharp.
 
Could there be a lot of cropping? Sometimes you hit a limit. At 30 meters the field of view would be more than 2 meters on the long side.

Edit: didn't notice it was a crop camera, so the FOV long side would be more like 1.5 meters at 30 meters away, so maybe not that much cropping after all.
 
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It looks like you missed focus and the image is underexposed. Exposure is based on the subject. Your shutter speed is fast enough - faster than you need under the conditions. But you need a higher ISO. Did you brighten the exposure or lift shadows in post?

Your exposure settings are essentially what you would have for a bright sunny day. 1/4000 sec, f/5.6, and ISO 200 would be an exposure value of 16 - essentially sunny 16. Given the overcast conditions, you need 3-4 stops more light. That will likely blow out the background, but put you closer to what you need.

Here is a website to calculate the exposure value.
www.omnicalculator.com

Exposure Calculator

This exposure calculator will help you determine the equivalent exposure value from the three common camera settings: aperture opening, shutter speed, and ISO sensitivity.
www.omnicalculator.com www.omnicalculator.com

With lighting conditions as you describe, you don't have enough contrast for a good image of the under side of the bird. Even if you get a sharp, well exposed image, it's going to need more light and more contrast. For that kind of image under those conditions, I'd use flash. I also like to try slow exposure pan blurs under those conditions rather than fighting the light.

There are conditions where you can't get a great photo. For shorebirds like this, you have lots of opportunities with better lighting and chances to make a good image. This is fine for practice, but the images are discards unless you come up with something creative.

This image was under similar conditions. I was at f/5.6, 1/500 sec, and ISO 640. That's an exposure value of around 11 - 5 stops more light than your image. I gave up on flight and was looking for bright colors from these oystercatchers on the ground. Even then - these are casual images rather than anything I'd use seriously.
Cape May_5-18-2019_300098.jpg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
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thanks everybody!
yes I cropped it a bit but the gull was already quite close. I brightened the exposure a little in post, yes. The subject was very dark in the original photo.

My exposure setting is : center-weighted metering
 
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balex78 said:
thanks everybody!
yes I cropped it a bit but the gull was already quite close. I brightened the exposure a little in post, yes. The subject was very dark in the original photo.

My exposure setting is : center-weighted metering
Click to expand...
Metering generally assumes your scene is going to be neutral gray. It puts more weight on your subject. If your subject is of the shadow side of the bird, and the sky is a light gray, this is what you get even after some exposure adjustment in post.

You should strive to avoid having to make exposure adjustments in post. IF you are using any automated mode - Aperture or Shutter Priority or Auto ISO - Use exposure compensation of +2.0-3.0 to brighten the scene. If that's not enough, increase it further.

Keep in mind the image your camera is capturing. If the bird looks dark before you make any adjustments, it's under exposed. Even if you brighten it in post, you will lack contrast because the starting point is grays to black.

I'm not sure this image is possible without significant post processing or use of flash. My first choice would be to use flash to brighten the underside of the bird and throw enough additional light to have light and dark areas of the bird.
 
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