Low light; sharp focus .... photographing the feeder

Hello, I've spent my winter trying to get better at bird photography. I traveled to Brazil and managed to get a few decent toucan shots in well lit conditions with a d5500 and a 300mm max telephoto. So I know I can do this.

Back in cloudy grey cold Wisconsin. Using my d750 with my sigma 150-600mm.. Have a window In the way, but the feeder is maybe 25 feet away.

I'm pushing ISO, have tried many settings up to 1200, lens has to be almost wide open, and shutter speeds are rarely above 250, usually below, because of the glass.

yesterday I tried my 70-300mm lens. Same results.

I want crisp photos. I get acceptable photos. I don't get crisp ones. They are soft.

what can I try? I use single point focus , continuous focus.


Thanks for any help.
Diane

I shoot at a feeder through a window and also get soft images for the most part. I managed to get a couple sharper images today on larger subjects, which was a dove and a squirrel. I think small subjects in lower light lack the contrast needed to get really sharp images, but that is a guess on my part.

dmiller91 said:

Back in cloudy grey cold Wisconsin. Using my d750 with my sigma 150-600mm.. Have a window In the way, but the feeder is maybe 25 feet away.

I'm pushing ISO, have tried many settings up to 1200, lens has to be almost wide open, and shutter speeds are rarely above 250, usually below, because of the glass.

yesterday I tried my 70-300mm lens. Same results.

I want crisp photos. I get acceptable photos. I don't get crisp ones. They are soft.

what can I try? I use single point focus , continuous focus.


Thanks for any help.
Diane

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Usually for that "Sharp/Crisp focus, you need to shoot 1 1/2 to 2 times the focal length for you shutter speed, unless using a tripod. Example: Lens set to 300mm, shutter speed should be set to a minimum of 1/500 - 1/640 Second.
The glass windows will have an effect also on sharpness, especially shooting at an angle through double pane glass.
Your 600mm (I don't have one, so take this with a grain of salt) might make it so you can shoot outside and stay away from the feeder far enough so you won't bother the birds and get some good shots without added, unwanted filters (windows). The drawback to the 600mm is that shutter speed would have to be set to faster speed which of course would mean large aperture and/or high ISO setting. It is just the way it is. :encouragement:

nikonpup said:

i find using lightrooms haze filter helps soom when shooting thru windows. You can try a rubber lens hood. The lens hood helps seal out window reflection, press the lens hood against the window.

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If you can't find a rubber lens hood, a quick fix would be to get some thin/flexible plastic or rubber tube, cut down its length to create a groove so you can fit it around the rim of the lens hood.

You have covered what is possibly the biggest problem in your first line "well lit conditions" if your not shooting in good light you will not get those extra quality images,this is one of the reasons people pay mega bucks for expensive lenses they keep bringing in the results when the cheaper ones have bottled out.
Shooting through glass is another problem if your looking for those high quality images,unless you have optically perfect glass,which you can get but i think it tends to add a tint to images,it will normally have a adverse effect on your image.

Shooting through glass will reduce the contrast, apart from diffracting light slightly. You are just introducing more reflecting surface. If you want sharp images, avoid shooting through glass.

If you really want to shoot from the room, then you have to have a small opening (window? ideally round) through which you can poke your lens during shooting. You can have a thick foam collar to weather seal the area around the lens when shooting.

Have you tried using Auto ISO with the higher shutter speed settings that @cwgrizz suggested. You will get some noise, but the D750 does do well in low light. That is one of the things I am working on with my D7200 and when I can keep up they turn out well.... (I have my own issues with getting sharp pics not related to the equipment), and the noise is not objectionable. I run them through Nik Define 2 to clean them up a bit.

Might be worth a try. Talking to my uncle in Coon Valley you all have a little more gray weather left.

Under these situations I use manual focus,live view,zoom in on the subject, adjust focus, shoot. My 3200 does not focus well in low light situations and this procedure works the best for me. It is also possible to switch back to viewfinder mode and shoot as well.

dmiller91 said:

Hello, I've spent my winter trying to get better at bird photography. I traveled to Brazil and managed to get a few decent toucan shots in well lit conditions with a d5500 and a 300mm max telephoto. So I know I can do this.

Back in cloudy grey cold Wisconsin. Using my d750 with my sigma 150-600mm.. Have a window In the way, but the feeder is maybe 25 feet away.

I'm pushing ISO, have tried many settings up to 1200, lens has to be almost wide open, and shutter speeds are rarely above 250, usually below, because of the glass.

yesterday I tried my 70-300mm lens. Same results.

I want crisp photos. I get acceptable photos. I don't get crisp ones. They are soft.

what can I try? I use single point focus , continuous focus.


Thanks for any help.
Diane

Click to expand...

It would be nice to see what your happy with and what your not happy with,including exif

I shoot the D750 and I can tell you that you can move that ISO up a good bit more. Move it up to ISO3200 and see if that gets the shutter speed and aperture up to where it works better for you and if you still need more then move to ISO6400. As long as you are getting a good exposure (not underexposed) you can get great results at 3200 and even 6400