Dusk photography

I have recently come upon a few owls perched just before dark. The photographs are disappointingly soft. Although the image in the camera appears brighter and more detailed than the naked eye, all the pics are out of focus. I use a Canon 7D with a Sigma 120-400mm lens. The settings on this picture are Av 5.6, ASA 400, 1/100 sec., 352mm lens. How can I make such pics better w/o more expensive eqpt? I appreciate your help.

Are you using a tripod?? It is possible to get a sharp image at 1/100 with proper technique. You could also boost the ISO on your camera above 400. If you would have shot this at ISO 1600 the shutter speed would have been 1/400 rather than 1/100. Yes, it will introduce more noise, but I'd much rather have a noisier sharp image than a soft / OOF image.

Same question as Keith.

Owls sit still enough that 1/100th second should give a sharp image as long as the camera and lens are well supported with a solid tripod.

I don't particularly care for the noise and loss of resolution above ISO 400 on my D200, but I'd definitely go up to ISO 800 if that was the only way to deal with subject motion.

Another possibilty is a result of the wide aperature and resulting shallow depth of field, particularly if the camera was set to focus the scene in general. It may have misread what you were trying to do. I usually set my focus to spot focusing, in which case I would set it on the owl and not really care about the rest of the scene. A useful technique is to set the focus to respond to the AE botton on the camera back. With this you can set the focus and then compose the photo and when you hit the shutter, the focus doesn't change. This works well with subjects that are not moving too much.

Peter

You don't mention it in your list of equipment, but I can get similar results with long lenses when I don't use a cable release, even at 1/100. Tripod issues could be mixed in there, but can be overcome by adding weight to the bottom of the center column in most cases.

You already got some excellent suggestions here Joseph. I would like to add two more:
1- with a stationary subject you can use mirror lock-up and manual focus to ensure better results;
2- alternatively, especially when shooting hand-held, you can use high continuous shooting mode to increase the chances of making at least one sharp exposure. (see also my last post in the wildlife gallery - 'In the pouring rain'.

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. I was driving by and came upon this owl. I turned around and drove back. He was still there and I was able to snap three quick shots from my truck window before he flew away. There was no chance to set up a tripod under the circumstances. However, I was so excited that I neglected to change camera settings and check shutter speed before I returned to take the picture. I won't be so careless next time and will periodically adjust settings as the afternoon sun wanes to be better prepared for such photo opportunities...a lesson well learned. I did use spot focus and center weighted averaging for this photo. I opened the aperture to the max (5.6) to let in the most light. But the I think the shallow DOF contributed to the OOF face because I focused on the shoulder in order to get the whole bird in the frame. Any additional comments or suggestions would be welcomed..Thank you very much, Joe

LOL! How many times I came across a great bird or other wildlife and got so excited I forgot to even think about my camera settings. I hope to grow out of that some day!

One thing you can do to help is to get a camera bean bag for your car window. They make them to sit right over the window and then you can rest your lens on it to steady it very similar to a tripod. I do carry that in my car with me now.

The bean bag is a great suggestion Walt. I've got a full fledged "window pod" that mounts a ballhead, but it's so bulky that I often leave it home. It's also slow to mount, and it was expensive. The bean bag doesn't cost an arm and a leg, is easy and effective, and can stay under your seat and ready for use 24/7.

Joseph, one additional suggestion to go with the ones above. I shoot a lot from a vehicle using both a Kirk window mount and a bean bag.If you are shooting from your vehicle make sure you turn the engine off. The engine vibration will cause softening of the image even at a fairly high shutter speed.