Looking For Love
by Jerry Austin
As I was leaving the Nature Center, I spotted a small group of does in the distance. As I watched them, this big buck materialized. It was obvious that he was in rut and he proceeded to check out the does. I liked this because it conveys his single mindedness and it shows the object of his interest. It also shows a bit of the Texas habitat. This was captured very close to dark. I had the Canon 7D Mark II set on Auto ISO to try to give 1/500s shutter speed while not going above ISO 1600. Well, it was dark enough that the ISO maxed out at the 1600 ISO, but the shutter speed was only 1/320s. I wish I had had more light to work with, but these guys are most active when the light levels are low.
Comments and critiques welcome.
Canon 7D Mark II
Canon 200-400 f4 L IS
f5.6
1/320s
ISO 1600
Focal Length 560mm (Teleconverter Engaged)
Comments
4 commentsI get where you're doing with this shot - and it does show the early stages of an interaction between the male and female white-tails quite well (I think a story is conveyed). So as a documentary shot I think this works fine. From a creative perspective, both the branches/leaves in the upper right corner and the heavy OOF band on the bottom don't work super well for me.
The image - including the main subject - does appear on the soft side. My guess is that the shutter speed just wasn't quite high enough for the task at hand (were you hand-holding this shot or was the camera/lens on a tripod?). I have read one review on this camera that suggested the images were soft (more than suggested actually) - but I don't know the reviewer or his standards and expertise level, so I'm taking that review with a massive grain of salt. What really sticks out for me in the image (when viewing the 1200 pixel version) is the lack of detail anywhere in the grasses. To my eye it looks like excessive noise reduction caused this, but without knowing how you processed this image that is little more than a guess. But just curious how much NR you did use - mainly because at ISO 1600 it shouldn't have needed a ton of NR (unless the sensor is really noisy). Your thoughts? Note that none of this is a criticism of you - really just curious about the output from that new camera.
Cheers...
Brad
I think you were spot on in your evaluation. As I said, this image was taken very close to dark with the camera hand held. I knew the image had some shortcomings when I posted it, but wanted to show the behavior and the size of this particular buck. I did employ some noise reduction, although there was not that much noise to begin with. I played around with the processing after I read your your critique and the noise reduction did indeed blur the details a bit. Thanks for taking the time to offer your advice. I really appreciate it.
Jerry
One further question if you don't mind (about the 7D MkII). With Canons (including the 1Dx) - and unless you specify a fixed shutter speed for the camera to give you - the default shutter is close to 1/focal length of the lens. The hard settings for the other shutter speeds available in Auto ISO (again, on the 1Dx) are in full stop increments (so, for instance, 1/250, followed by 1/500, etc.). I've heard a number of complaints about this - normally when the owner sees that the Nikons are has shutter speeds in 1/3 stop increments available to them while in Auto ISO mode. So...what are those shutter speed increments (in the Auto ISO menu) for the 7D MkII?
Any feeling yet for the max ISO you'd push the camera to for full-resolution shots? Sorry - I guess that's TWO questions!
Cheers...
Brad
In the 7D Mark II, the default minimum shutter speed is 1/lens focal length. However, that can be fine tuned. You can dial in 3 stops faster or slower than the default. In Auto ISO, you can select shutter speeds anywhere from 1s to 1/8000s. (1s, 1/2s, 1/4s……1/4000s, 1/8000s).
I am still experimenting with the 7D Mark II. I can say that the high ISO performance is much, much better than than the 7D. The highest ISO that I have gone to so far is 3200. The images look good even at that high ISO. However, I have never shot with a Canon 1DX or Nikon D4, so I have nothing to compare my experience with. I will say that the focus is very fast and I find it much easier to capture usable flying bird shots with this camera. I will offer more opinions as I shoot and post more images. Hope that answers your questions.
Jerry