Sundrops

[twood]

Taken in overcast conditions just as a few rays of sun briefly broke through - after a night of rain. Took this while on World Photo Walk day this past Saturday.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Tim,

I see, from the EXIF data, that this was taken with a Nikon D3100 at 200mm (55-200mm lens) at 1/80s, f/5.6 and iso 100.

If viewed at 100%, this shows signs of either camera shake or subject movement in the highlights of the sun in drops.

I wonder - was the VR switched on?
If it was camera shake, having VR on should help reduce it.
However, if there was a breeze blowing the leaf, then only a higher shutter speed will help with sunlight.
The blur seems worse at the tip (RHS), my guess is the wind may have slightly moved the leaf during the exposure.

Your lens was wide open, so (in hindsight) you should have increased the iso to say 400, to obtain a shutter speed of 1/320s, which might have gone some way to reducing the movement. Depending upon conditions, perhaps even to 800 iso and 1/640s, but I suspect by then you might be concerned by noise - although this can usually be addressed in PP if it is still a problem after the image is downsized for display.

Turning to the positives; I like the uncluttered background, and especially the way you lined up the camera to get one leaf in front of the other and the highlights on both. The Auto WB has done a good job too and it is a pleasing colour and the exposure is good.

I hope that's helpful, Dave

[twood]

Hi Tim,

I see, from the EXIF data, that this was taken with a Nikon D3100 at 200mm (55-200mm lens) at 1/80s, f/5.6 and iso 100.

If viewed at 100%, this shows signs of either camera shake or subject movement in the highlights of the sun in drops.

I wonder - was the VR switched on?
If it was camera shake, having VR on should help reduce it.
However, if there was a breeze blowing the leaf, then only a higher shutter speed will help with sunlight.
The blur seems worse at the tip (RHS), my guess is the wind may have slightly moved the leaf during the exposure.

Your lens was wide open, so (in hindsight) you should have increased the iso to say 400, to obtain a shutter speed of 1/320s, which might have gone some way to reducing the movement. Depending upon conditions, perhaps even to 800 iso and 1/640s, but I suspect by then you might be concerned by noise - although this can usually be addressed in PP if it is still a problem after the image is downsized for display.

Turning to the positives; I like the uncluttered background, and especially the way you lined up the camera to get one leaf in front of the other and the highlights on both. The Auto WB has done a good job too and it is a pleasing colour and the exposure is good.

I hope that's helpful, Dave

Thanks for your comments, Dave. Yes, the VR was on, the shot was taken hand-held. Would have been sharper if I had my tripod. And yes, increasing the ISO could have helped with shutter speed. I am always reluctant to increase ISO as I have had some real grainy results so I probably err on the wrong side too often. Just need a little more confidence that I won't over do the ISO. I was with a group that was moving along pretty rapidly so I grabbed this and caught up. As always - my photos would benefit from a taking a bit more time and patience. Two things I need to work on.

[Wavelength]

Beauty