Technique and Settings

[perky]

What point were you using which setting? personally i use AV all the time and if i want to slow the shutter down to catch a prop blurring or to blur my background then just increase the aperture to a higher number which in turn brings the shutter speed down. It just saves switching settings between AV and TV.

If you are slowing your shutter down for background blur then you need to be proficient at panning - you need to follow the aircraft perfectly to obtain a sharp subject whilst blurring the background. This example below was shot at 1/80th of a second at F11 and i followed the aircraft as best as i could - this came out ok but it comes down to practising your panning technique - also remember when you are panning to keep following the aircraft after you fire your shutter.

N-294_EGXW_06.07.14_2 by G.Perkin, on Flickr


For fast jets for example you should have a fast shutter speed, over 500 at least.

If it is cloudy and light is not great then up your ISO to let more light into the camera - this will help increase shutter speed but be careful not to go too far as the higher the ISO the grainier the image.

Finally, what are the numbers on your 100-400 lens? are the F4 - 5.6 ish? If so then that means the lens is best up to F 5.6 so if you stick with that in AV mode you should get the best out of your lens quality wise. Obviously changing to get your desired effect as mentioned above.

Can you post a pic or 2 and some EXIF data? if you upload to flickr it will show the EXIF data for you. We may be able to see whats gone wrong for you then.


Hope that helps abit.

[davem]

I'll probably get slammed for this but I leave my camera in 'P' mode which allows me to control shutter speed via aperture changes with the wheel next to my shutter release. I've lost far too many images by leaving the camera in Tv or Av mode and forgetting about it. All I have to do now is remember to keep an eye on the readout in the viewfinder to keep a check on shutter speeds and ISO changes if necessary.

Finally, what are the numbers on your 100-400 lens? are the F4 - 5.6 ish? If so then that means the lens is best up to F 5.6....

Erm... not quite. These are the maximum apertures at the two given zoom settings. So your maximum aperture at 100mm is f4 and your maximum aperture at 400mm is f5.6.

Depending on who you speak to, the 100-400 tends to have a sweet spot of between f8 and f11 which I'd tend to agree with.

[powerslave]

I defo got better results using my 70D at Fairford with my 100-400 at F8 rather than leaving it on F5.6 all the time like i used to.

Ian

[jonny99]

Are you using all focus points or just the centre point? If the latter you only have to 'wander' off-centre a little with the image to get poor focus.

[Nighthawke]

Might sound a silly question but did you have the IS switched on. Not everyone uses it I know but you wouldn't be the first person to leave it off when you wanted it on! As has already been suggested, maybe post a couple of images on here with the EXIF available so that others can try to help further.

[Matt]

Hello everyone,

I am trying to nail down the root cause of bad quality images from my recent visit to FAI#14.
I am at a loss, and hope someone, perhaps with similar / same equipment can help pinpoint whatever mistake I may have made.

My equipment:
Canon EOS 650d / Canon 100-400mm L

The issue:
I took some 800 images, using both aperture and shutter priority, and autoISO - of mainly airborne aircraft.
The images appear soft, or out of focus for the main part.
Can anyone offer any thoughts as to what I may have missed, technique or settings-wise?
I have read the manual, and various posts over an extended period of time, regarding a variety of techniques, so have a decent understanding of what and why. But seem to be missing something, especially when I look at some of the posts in the photographic sections.

Hi DM,

In order to narrow down a potential cause for the softness/out of focus.....

What focus mode was used (One shot, AI Focus, AI Servo or similar for other types)?

What AF point selection (Automatic, Zone, Manual, AF Expansion)?

What F number did you set it at when in AV mode?

What speed did you set it at when in TV mode?

I know its a lot to answer but there's so many variables that its hard to say what would cause it without knowing what settings were used.

[Matt]

Thanks for all your replies so far guys.
I had a go at everything to be honest, here is a list of my various experimental efforts:

1. I used Tv mode, moving from 1/800th to 1/2000th. Auto ISO.
2. As 1. using IS, and without (given shutter speed), including mode 2 IS for panning.
3. Ranges were mostly 300-400mm to be fair.
4. AI Servo at all times.
5. Continuous AF, and for a lot of the time Multipoint, but towards the end I moved onto Tracking & Face.
6. Mainly single centre-point AF, but also had a dip with the ALL points towards the end.
7. In between I also tried Aperture priority mode, and set that to F8.0, as I had read up on the sweet spot before going out. So knew that was what I was looking for.

My guess is likely a camera specific setting, or my panning is total pants, or both, LOL!
I don't consider myself great by any stretch, but think I am capable of better than what I have produced.
Have to say the sky was very bland for the most part, but I expected that to help with the subject being the only object for the camera to look at . . . . . . . ? [ :-/

I will try to put a variety of shots up, not sure about Flickr, but let's see how I get on with that. I will be a day or two probably, workload is high, and it leaves me exhausted at the end of the day.
But I look forward to hearing what everyone says. You may well say what am I complaining about when you see them, but I look at other examples on here, and I must be missing something.

Shameless plug time now; the LensesForHire rep was very understanding of my disappointment, and said they would also take a look, and if they find their lens to be at fault, they will of course compensate me.

From the above it appears that you covered all the bases with the settings available. I know a lot of people prefer to shoot in Av at the 'sweet spot' F number for their lens but I only do this when the lighting is really good. If the lighting at a specific composition point isn't great it's easy for the shutter speed to drop significantly to compensate. I know that with fast shutter speeds the opposite will occur i.e. the aperature will fully open and potentially degrade the shot and/or the ISO will rise creating additional noise but for me, with basic post processing, it's easier to adjust levels than attempt to make a soft image sharp. Will be interesting to see the images once you've had a chance to post them.

Many of the shots on here a stunning and whilst i expect a fare few are taken using entry/mid range gear many are taken using top of the range, high spec glass and bodies, which will by virtue produce flawless detail and clarity.

[C24]

Hello Donmac,
I thought that you might get some comfort but not much help from me stating that I too have similar problems - if I find a solution I'll pm you!
Try looking through your collection for "good" images and then use those on your next shoot and work forwards from there. Another thought, take less shots. That is, track the a/c and let it fly into the frame, click and carry on panning. It might still be a bummer but if you had tried to take several which were no good you haven't lost anything.
Area focusing seems to have solved some of my problems, I used to lose formation shots trying to focus on the space between a/c.
I can claim to have taken more rubbish images than anyone else on FC and still wonder what to do. One thing is for certain in my case, my poor results are due to my lack of knowledge & skill, not the equipment!
Keep trying and good luck.