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i think its a kestrel took when walking a long the river .how could i have got it a bit clearer as he was moveing a bout a lot i ust my 75 300 lens re gards christine 
| Brand: | Sony |
| Camera: | Sony Alpha SLT-A55V |
| Lens: | 75 300 |
| Recording media: | JPEG (digital) |
| Date Taken: | 22 Mar 2012 - 1:41 PM |
| Focal Length: | 300mm |
| Lens Max Aperture: | f/5.6 |
| Aperture: | f/5.6 |
| Shutter Speed: | 1/500sec |
| Exposure Comp: | -0.7 |
| ISO: | 200 |
| Exposure Mode: | Program AE |
| Metering Mode: | Spot |
| Flash: | Off, Did not fire |
| Title: | kestrel |
| Username: | 
christinecilia |
| Uploaded: | 23 Mar 2012 - 3:06 PM |
| Tags: | Wildlife / nature |
| VS Mode Rating |
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| Votes: | Voting Disabled |
 | Critique Wanted |
| Modifications Welcome (Upload a Modification) |
Comments
Hi Christine,
To be fair if you have a 300mm lens and it's hand held you are never really going to get this type of shot sharp. You need to set up with a tripod and ideally remote or selftimer release to help eliminate camera shake, then up your ISO for a faster shutter speed. I notice you have used f/5.6 and your lens as a max aperture of f/5.6 so you really need to stop down a touch. If you look on EPZ you will find many good bird photographers which I would advise you to send them a message and they will be willing to pass on some of their knowledge. These shote are not often taken at the drop of a hat, it takes a lot of patience.
Posted a mod with some slight adjustments
Good luck with your next one.
Take care
Martin
Hi Christine.
This shot looks both underexposed, and soft/blurred.
Shooting ird in motion requires you to develop a technique, - the basics I will explain:
I would not recommend using spot metering unless you have a lot of experience with it, as it usually is a guide, and may need to be altered; birds in flight are moving, so you need two things: the ability to pan, - move with the bird while keeping a SINGLE focus point on it ( dont use multiple points, - see you manual on how to select a single focus point); and your autofocus mode needs to be set to a continuous mode, - might actually be called Continuous or Servo. Dont use you normal AF mode.
This allows the camera to keep the bird in focus as it moves closer to, or further away from the camera, which will always happen under these circumstances.
An IS lens can help, - dont know if you were using one at this time. Use Shutter priority, not Programme, set your speed to at least twice your focal length (using 300mm, set you shutter to 1/600 minimum). leave ISO on auto, and practice!
Hope this is helpful,
Regards
Willie
good capture christine,good advice from willie.ray
Great shot! You've done a great job of capturing the bird so it doesn't just look like either a blur or a black dot! If you were to go back and take this again, bumping up the ISO a bit to speed up the shutter speed and consequently sharpen the birds wings up a bit may have been good. To be honest though taking into account the lens that I presume this was taken on (Something with a reasonably high F. stop) You've done a great job Well done, brilliant photo and I'm really liking the rest of your work. 
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