Great Horned Owl - Advice Please

[Moira]

Here is one of many pictures I took today around 5:00p.m. in a local wooded area.  I recognize that's late in the day, but my job seems to be interfering with my birding!  My camera exposure for this shot was 1/100, aperture f/8.0 and I set the manual exposure (not sure what to call it) to +1 to try to compensate for low light.  I also took some shots of a red-breasted nuthatch in slightly better lighting conditions, and results were poor with blurred images.  I'm not sure I'm going to get the opportunity for better lighting for these particular birds.

Can someone enlighten me (no pun intended!) what I can do to get better results?   I am going to go back this weekend earlier in the day to try for my third time (with the nuthatches).  

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/40798812@N03/4018096876/

Thank you for any advice/assistance.

Moira

[JTF]

I looked at the owl on your flickr at large size & its not to bad. I do not know you camera, but for shooting birds I use centre weighted metering instead of matrix or multi depending on what you camera menu calls it. When not set spot or single etc the camera will focus an many points instead of just the bird resulting in a not so sharp image most of the time on your main target as it is focusing on various points instead of just on the bird itself. The branch in the front didn't help. As for adjusting you exposure,  +1 is pretty high for that time of day, I would make smaller changes and take a picture using each change until your happy with your pic. If you can't tell from you camera LCD check them all later at home and you may be surprised what works.
Heres a pic  I took this evening of a Junco with the following basic settings. It was fairly dark in the area I shot. Image does have some digital noise but its hard not to have some this late in the day.
Exposure: 1/30 seconds F5.66 Metering Mode: Center Weighted AF-C No Flash Time Taken: 6 pm
Exposure: -0.33 ( I sometimes try this even if its dark and this is the result) oppposite of your exposure of +1.0. Try both it can work sometimes.

[Brian Bailey]

You have several technical challenges in this situation.  Even if it's an image stabilized lens, 1/100 just won't be fast enough for hand holding at 400mm.  You might be okay with a monopod and IS.  With a tripod it wouldn't be an issue.  If you have to shoot with a slower shutter than you would like, take lots of exposures:  it increases the chances of getting a few sharp ones.

Try increasing the ISO.  My Rebel XT was good to 800, my 40D is very good to 1600.  I don't know about the XTi.

A flash would help, but it raises some other potential issues like disturbing the bird, etc.

In extreme contrast like this with a very dark subject and very bright background, you should probably try +2 exposure compensation.  Even then, those sharp black/white transitions will bring out the worst in any lens.

What photo software are you using?  Photoshop has several tools for helping reduce highlights and lighten dark areas, but any other software should have some tools to help.  Shooting in RAW format will help if your software supports it.

BB

[accwai]

Others have provided good advise.  The only one I want to reiterate is the focus sensors.  Your EXIF says you have all sensors enabled.  And if I'm not mistaking, there is a very dark branch way in the foreground.  If there's more light on that branch, the AF system will goes for the closest match.  So you're lucky that you're able to focus on the owl at all.  It's probably better to use single AF point in most situations.

The other thing that might help is to learn to recognize a bad situation.  In this case, you have black foreground and completely blown background.  The latter is causing purple fringe all over the place.  The 400/5.6 isn't normally prone to fringing so this might be sensor bloom.  +1 exposure compensation is a good call for bringing out the owl properly, but overall contrast is just too high.  Fill flash might help the scene overall but the branch in front will be blown.  Sometimes, you just have to recognize the situation is impossible, take a shot for personal record and move on.  There's always a more interesting subject around the next corner...

Andy

[Moira]

Thanks so much for the information.  I have made some adjustments and am going out to try again.  For clarification, I do shoot from a tripod.  I don't use any photo software.  I only crop with the software that came with the camera to download your pictures.  I have a long way to go ....!  Thanks again.

[JTF]

Thanks so much for the information.  I have made some adjustments and am going out to try again.  For clarification, I do shoot from a tripod.  I don't use any photo software.  I only crop with the software that came with the camera to download your pictures.  I have a long way to go ....!  Thanks again.

Download a free program called "Irfanview" this is what I use for cropping; sharpening; enhancing colours etc and is an excellent one to start with seeing you don't use any right know.

[Moira]

I will be sure to try it.  Thanks JTF.

[bernie2112]

There are several challenges to this lighting situation. Probably the only solution is to use a flash to even out the lighting (and that has its own problems).

If you don't have access to Photoshop then GIMP (no kidding) is a good, free, alternative. You can get a copy at http://www.gimp.org

Cheers,

Bernie
http://www.flickr.com/photos/berniemonette

[bernie2112]

There are several challenges to this lighting situation. Probably the only solution is to use a flash to even out the lighting (and that has its own problems).

If you don't have access to Photoshop then GIMP (no kidding) is a good, free, alternative. You can get a copy at http://www.gimp.org

Cheers,

Bernie
http://www.flickr.com/photos/berniemonette