Camera Labs

He is one that I took at the Manassas Battlefield which luckily for me is about 15 minutes from my house.
I am open to any constructive criticism about what I should have done, or what I did not do correctly. This is all new to me.
Camera is a Canon T1i
f 5, 1/160 sec exp, iso 400, exp bias (?) -0.7 step (no idea what that is)

Thanks!


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Hi Yar.... not sure what your focus point was but it looks like it was one of the trees which has put your deer a bit out of focus. Either that or the camera picked up something else as a focus point and not the deer. I dont think it is motion blur as all the animals are blurred. The only way it could be that is if it was camera shake on your end. your shutter speed was 160 with a 400 ISO. For wildlife dont hesitate to jack up the ISO to 800 or more to bring your shutter speed up.

There is a misconception out there that larger animals standing still can be shot with slower shutter speeds and many times this is the case but one needs to understand that the slightest wind can move fur which can create motion blur... even on deer or moose or larger animals. Also.. even large animals can make sudden fast movements which will cause blur... add your shake from an unstable footing or gusting wind or just nerves and slow shutter speeds many times dont cut it.

I was recently on a whale photography trip with 2 pros and we all came to the conclusion that being in a small boat we were best served with getting shutter speeds around 1600. I know that sounds mindboggling when you think about how slow whales move but by getting this shutter speed there was never a concern about any form of motion blur... unless of course you were in the process of taking a pic and got knocked overboard by a wave

Whenever I shoot wildlife I am never really comfortable unless I can get a shutter speed of 800 or more.. I only really get comfortable at around 1600. This doesnt mean you cant get good shots at speeds of 200 or so but any small thing will cause blurring... a trip by you.. a twitch by the animal.. a gust of wind... you get the idea. Lots of times shutter speeds of 1000+ may not be possible so go with what you can but try as best you can to get it up as high as you can. At the end it will give you a lot more consistancy.

May I ask what lens you were using?

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Wolfsong, thanks for the reply.
I was using a Canon EFS 55-250 f4-5.6 IS lens.
The focal point was suppose to be the larger buck, but it did seem to get the larger tree to the left instead. Chalk it up to inexperience.
I really do appreciate the advice, I will try that next time I go over there.
My thought was slower was better, but I see that is not always the case.
Thank you for the help, I figure on making plenty more mistakes but as long as I learn from them I will eventually catch on.
Ray

looking forward to seeing more

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Canon 7D + 50D + EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM + EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Pelican // Black Rapid // Think Tank // Manfrotto // Garmin

Reflections On Canadian Wildlife
My Flickr

Hi yar! Welcome to the forums

To answer your question (or what I think is your question) about exposure bias, this is an effect that the camera applies to deliberate over- or under-expose your shot. Exposure bias of -0.7 means that the camera has deliberately underexposed your photo by 0.7 of a step. I assume you were shooting in a mode where you allowed the camera to make these kinds of decisions - it may have underexposed to avoid blown highlights along the right edge of the photo, which is quite bright.

I know nothing about wildlife photography, so I'll leave that to the very capable hands of the members who frequent this area Composition-wise, the leaves along the top edge of the photo are a tiny bit distracting for me. They could probably be easily cropped out if you felt like it Otherwise, great job!

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Photography noob, please be kind