Project 52 by Wendy (ScoutR)

[Goldcoastgolfer]

The D7000 has two types of focus points and at least 9 of them are in the centre part of the camera so you shouldn't need to be dead centre (it's explained in the manual from memory - I can't remember how many and how they work off the top of my head). So it shouldn't matter so long as the subject your tracking is in the ring in the view finder - especially in 9 point mode.

Just as a comparison, it might be worthwhile:

a. Changing the mode to 3D tracking (uses a different method to choose the subject in focus); and
b. Zooming in a bit (say to 100mm) and see what sort of results you get with a distant subject from there.

[ScoutR]

This week will be a continuation of last week. I am still working on focus and freezing action. My goal is to continue experimenting with the different focus modes on the camera until I know what they can do and am happy that I can quickly decide what mode I want when a shot presents itself and am able to change quickly to the mode I decide on.

Some things I plan to try and shoot
1. Hockey and/or swimming and diving at the community centre if I'm allowed to take pictures there

2. I'd still like to get those squirrels flying from tree to tree in the backyard. I tried tracking them this morning with the current settings that I'm experimenting with: AC 9 point. The results were not good. Couldn't get focus to lock on the squirrels at all let alone track them. I'm not sure any of the modes will work with these guys. There is not enough contrast between the squirrels and the trees. The poor camera doesn't know what to focus on. I think my only chance will be if I can get close enough to focus while the squirrels are against the sky, that will be mostly luck I think

3. A more advanced (for me) type of shot I would like to get is to freeze a slow moving subject while blurring fast movement around the main subject. For example, horse and buggy with traffic zooming past. Stationary or slowly moving person with other people flying by. Anything in this nature to try and show the contrast in the pace of life, and how isolating it can be if you're not keeping up.

4. Birds in flight. These will probably have to be ducks or geese or maybe a crow might get close enough to work with my 200 mm.

5. Generally speaking I will just be watching for anything that moves. Things that I usually avoid because I know I won't get the shot. Horses, bicycles, people, birds, whatever...

Anyway, I'll be considering all advice given so far in this thread, and also am open to any and all other suggestions. I'll post something by the end of the week for sure and perhaps sooner if I try something and need some help.

Wendy

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Wendy,

Perhaps the answer to the squirrels is MF

Cheers,

[johnbharle]

I feel the snow is too white and featureless. Any way to get some texture in there in PP? Or as the others have suggested, try when the light is more angular. But the leaves are beautiful in both.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

2. I'd still like to get those squirrels flying from tree to tree in the backyard. I tried tracking them this morning with the current settings that I'm experimenting with: AC 9 point. The results were not good. Couldn't get focus to lock on the squirrels at all let alone track them. I'm not sure any of the modes will work with these guys. There is not enough contrast between the squirrels and the trees. The poor camera doesn't know what to focus on. I think my only chance will be if I can get close enough to focus while the squirrels are against the sky, that will be mostly luck I think

When all else fails, manual focus and try and pick an angle so that the squirrels move parallel to you. If their distance from you doesn't change, they'll stay in focus. Not as fancy or as eloquent a technique, but a very valid one when trying to focus on small, fast moving objects that don't want to cooperate with our fancy auto focus systems

. A more advanced (for me) type of shot I would like to get is to freeze a slow moving subject while blurring fast movement around the main subject. For example, horse and buggy with traffic zooming past. Stationary or slowly moving person with other people flying by. Anything in this nature to try and show the contrast in the pace of life, and how isolating it can be if you're not keeping up.

You're stealing my theme again! I'll be posting a photo this week... probably shortly actually on this and have some comments on what I found.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Hi Wendy,

Perhaps the answer to the squirrels is MF

Cheers,

I just figured out what MF stands for Two of us giving the same advice now Wendy

[ScoutR]

here are a couple bad shots to show you what I want to improve on to give you an idea of the conditions.

#1. EXIF: uncropped: 1/400s: f 5.6: ISO 800: +2 1/2 EV: 130mm

FlyingSquirrels-1 by Wendy FS, on Flickr

#2. EXIF: uncropped: 1/400s: f 5.3: ISO 800: +2 1/3 EV: 120mm

FlyingSquirrels-2 by Wendy FS, on Flickr

Off to the left (on screen) there are 2 apple trees and a chestnut tree. The squirrels use the trees as a highway. I'd like to be able to freeze the squirrels in mid jump and still end up with sharp clear pictures where I can see the eyes and whiskers and expression on their faces.

From the perspective of these shots, the squirrels path is usually left to right or right to left. Forward or backwards movement might range up to 5 or 6 feet.

When I saw Dave's post suggesting MF I thought he was joking but he seems like a pretty serious guy and there wasn't a smiley face so it got me thinking (scary)

Anyway, my original thought was that 3D tracking might be best for this, but I think the camera will still have trouble locking on the squirrel and staying locked on with all the tree branches around.

I also started to realize that this is not so much a focus challenge as it is having a fast enough shutter speed and more DOF to compensate for any forward to back movement.

Conclusion: I think you guys might be right and manual focus just might be the answer. I can anticipate to a certain extent where I want to focus. Whether the squirrel ends up there will be a matter of luck, BUT if I have the lens stopped down enough - say f16, I might have enough DOF to keep it in focus. The other consideration is shutter speed, so I will pick a day with good light and then adjust ISO to give me a shutter speed of at least hmm... 1 500s or higher

I'm really perplexed by this. Not so much because I want a shot of squirrels in mid air, but trying to figure out if and how it can be done to get a technically good shot. I`m not worried about composition or background or anything else, I just want to get a good sharp shot. This is a practise exercise more than anything else.

Let me know if I am getting myself sorted out on this. I think I was way off track thinking focus was the main issue. I will keep practising on this one when I get a chance. A good shot is not my goal for this week, BUT I will have something better before years end.

Wendy

Note: I`m having trouble with my keyboard, so you will have to fill in the blanks for slashes and apostrophes and some other symbols.

[ScoutR]

I feel the snow is too white and featureless. Any way to get some texture in there in PP? Or as the others have suggested, try when the light is more angular. But the leaves are beautiful in both.

Thank you John, I agree about the snow it does need more texture. I wasn't that crazy about the shot though, so I didn't go back to it. Actually it was more a case of... Weeks over - time to move on to something else so I let it go. When time permits I will probably get back to these and see if I can improve on them a bit.

Thanks again for the feedback
Wendy

[Hasselbox]

Nice pictures Wendy. For me, number 2 is the best one.
Les is more.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

#1. EXIF: uncropped: 1/400s: f 5.6: ISO 800: +2 1/2 EV: 130mm

If you can manage it I think you're going to go much faster with your shutter speed. I believe (given that we don't have them down here) squirrels move pretty fast and that you're probably going to need something in the order of at least 1/2000s to have a chance of capturing them frozen and sharp. The diving photos I took were at 1/1000s - couldn't do it any slower than that) and that motion I think is relatively slow and predictable compared to a squirrel's movements. I posted a photo of my eldest doing a jump on his scooter (Project 52 Week 3 Reject) at about 25km/hr and 1/3200s was the slowest shutter speed I could use before I finally got a sharp picture of him in mid flight.

Conclusion: I think you guys might be right and manual focus just might be the answer. I can anticipate to a certain extent where I want to focus. Whether the squirrel ends up there will be a matter of luck, BUT if I have the lens stopped down enough - say f16, I might have enough DOF to keep it in focus. The other consideration is shutter speed, so I will pick a day with good light and then adjust ISO to give me a shutter speed of at least hmm... 1 500s or higher

If you zoom in tighter to I think the 3D AF will have more of a chance of tracking the squirrel. If your squirrel is moving backwards and forwards up to 6 feet I think you may struggle to MF. I'm guessing you're at a wider view to compensate for any unexpected movement in the frame. One of the tricks that I learnt in the military for tracking a subject that I've zoomed in on is to keep both eyes open - one through the view finder for composition and the other allows you to see lateral movement easier and react faster than if you were looking through the view finder alone.

Something else to try out in any case. Given the shutter speed I think you need you might not be able to stop down too far.

Oh and I thought I'd add the reason for the higher shutter speed is not just because of your subject's movement, but your own as you track it. If you're moving in one direction and the squirrel suddenly changes direction to go in the opposite way and you snap the shutter the combined effect of the different travels of direction can cause a loss of sharpness.

[ScoutR]

Well, I'm pretty late with my week 3 shot and even then I'm settling. This is a feral cat that I feed and she follows me around now. She moves slower than the squirrels and in this shot I liked the fresh footprints in the snow and her shadow.

EXIF: 1/5000s: f5.6: ISO 800: 44mm: Matrix +2/3 EV: AFC 9 point
Why oh why did I not stop down a bit on this one OR lower ISO???? I'm sure I didn't need 1/5000s shutter speed. My excuse is that I was out tracking squirrels and birds. The cat shot was an afterthought. By the time I get finished with project 52 I will know this camera well enough and have things set up so I think fast enough and make the changes automatically. That's my goal anyway.

Cali by Wendy FS, on Flickr

Wendy

[Goldcoastgolfer]

You know, my first thought was "1/5000s???" But in all honesty it looks great! Your ISO's not extreme - and to be honest is probably set right for a moving animal - the cat could have taken off at any time after all.

Besides, you don't have to use the same old settings to get the light balance right. There's more than one way to skin a cat

[ScoutR]

I have decided that from here on in for this project I am not going to tie myself down to a weekly goal. I still have all the goals previously mentioned and more as I think of them, but I am finding that sometimes the opportunity for a particular goal might not present itself that week and it really cramps my style and makes me claustrophobic when I have to commit to one thing.

So right now I don't know what I will be working on this week. I'm not finished with autofocus and I've already learned a few things that work and some that don't, but I don't want to spend all my time looking for moving subjects, so this week might be something different, but I won't know what it is until I see or read about it. It'll be a surprise.

Now I'm off to check out everyone Else's projects which I have not had time to do all week. I hope I don't get called away before I am finished.

Wendy

[kezmal]

I think its a great photo Wish we had snow - especially right now, as I'm sitting sweltering in a hot lounge room after my afternoon Xbox workout LOL.

[Sam Smith]

Nice one. So if you feed it and it walks around with you, is it still a feral or is it now you pet?

[Donald]

The footprints in the snow are beautiful. This, again, shows how the good images are very often the simple ones. A cat; Its shadow; Snow; Footprints. That's all it needs.

Can I jump (pun intended) back to the leaping squirrels?

If I missed the following being noted, I apologise. But it seems to me that you are able to predict with a high degree of accuracy, the route the squirrel will take. In which case you can manually pre-focus on a mid-air point on that route. Set yourself up for burst shooting with a high shutter speed. And when a squirrel starts on the move, start firing the shutter.

It may take a few attempts, but you'll nail it in one of them.

As I say, apologies of this was discussed above and I missed it, or it was previously dismissed as an idea.

[Nicola]

Well, I'm pretty late with my week 3 shot and even then I'm settling. This is a feral cat that I feed and she follows me around now. She moves slower than the squirrels and in this shot I liked the fresh footprints in the snow and her shadow.

EXIF: 1/5000s: f5.6: ISO 800: 44mm: Matrix +2/3 EV: AFC 9 point
Why oh why did I not stop down a bit on this one OR lower ISO???? I'm sure I didn't need 1/5000s shutter speed. My excuse is that I was out tracking squirrels and birds. The cat shot was an afterthought. By the time I get finished with project 52 I will know this camera well enough and have things set up so I think fast enough and make the changes automatically. That's my goal anyway.

Cali by Wendy FS, on Flickr

Wendy

Lovely photo and lovely cat!
perhaps, an other thing that could improve this one is a lower point of view: next time, while you are changing the ISo / shutter / aperture settings you could bend down on your knees...
ciao
Nicola

[ScoutR]

Well it's only been 4 weeks and already I am way behind on projects and replies and everything else it seems. The last 2 weeks have been exceptionally busy.

Thanks for all the feedback since I last checked in. I didn't notice that there were more posts or I would have answered sooner. My apologies.

Donald, I think you are right about the squirrels, but I know I will have to sit there quite awhile until they take the usual route with me sitting as close as I'd like to be. They run and jump from tree to tree all year round though so I know I'll get the shot before the year is over.

Sam, The cat is still feral, she is just training me to make sure I like her well enough to bring her food on time. She seems to like being petted, but I think it just helps warm her up. At least she warns me before she attacks. Then I leave her alone.

Nicola, LOL, by the end of the year I might be able to do all those things on the fly. Not sure I would have liked the low angle on this one though, I don't think the footprints would have shown up as well and they are as important as the cat and the shadow. I know what you mean though, about getting down to the subjects level. In most cases I would try to do that.

Wendy

[ScoutR]

My project for this week ended up being printing. I have a Cannon iP 4300: not a super duper printer or anything, but good enough to get started. I purchased some inexpensive paper and thought I'd give it a whirl.

I'm not worried about print quality or colour or anything like that right now. I don't really expect that much from this printer, but I've actually been quite pleased with the results. The biggest problem so far has been trying to set it up to print the size that I want. When I have fussed around enough that I think I know what I'm doing and how to work the software, and things still are not going right, I will start a separate thread in the forum to get some help. For now I will keep working on it, and I want to do a search here on anything printing related. I know there have been some good threads on printing but I've never paid too much attention because I didn't think I'd ever try my own prints.

The main thing I've learned so far is that if I want to be able to use standard sized frames, I am going to have to pay more attention to aspect ratio when shooting and cropping.

Framing has been fun too. What a fussy job. Dust, and fingerprints and lining up the print and trying to keep it in the right spot, and then having to make adjustments and getting fingerprints all over the glass again.

So, it's been an interesting week. I only got out shooting one day and didn't really get any good shots at all. I thought this one was kind of comical. It's a little busy, but it's already a large crop and not very sharp,so it's the best I can do this week.


EXIF: 1/640s: f5.6: ISO 800: 200mm

coming in for a landing by Wendy FS, on Flickr

Wendy (ScoutR, or maybe I should change that to Shaky)

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I know where you're coming from with print sizes. I've found that with some of the family and portrait shots I've done when it comes to getting them printed, I need to pay more attention to how I do the cropping of shots.

A nice fun shot you've come up with this week Trying to get moving birds sharply is always a challenge!