Fish Supper

276 frames shot, tons of great captures but only one that's halfway sharp!

At Chanonry Point this evening.

And wasn't it worth it. Bet you were thrilled by the whole experience

Great capture a real moment in time well done

Cheers guys, there were better pictures but none sharp.

Why weren't they "sharp" ?

Here's an example which would have been a far better shot if it had worked. Problems were mostly that the dolphins were quick, here and gone and never in the same place twice.. Although I was using the monopod you have to take into account my shakey hand too... The blur to the left is the back of someones head, the point was very busy as it is most days now.

I'd say the first shot was worth waiting for

Brilliant shot, inspiring.

ISO 100 !!!!! On a K-3.

I think you have a little headroom there.....I ramp the K-5 up to 1600 often and above if needed although the IQ starts degrading.

Love the shots BTW...

The other thing too, is to dial in a slight underexposure.
I generally have -0.7 dialled in to avoid losing highlights.

I think this will result in a slightly higher shutter speed when shooting in aperture mode.

I agree with Doug and Smeggy. On a shoot like this it's more important to get the shots and ISO 800 to 1600, plus a bit of underexposure shouldn't cause you a problem if it helps to keep the shutter speed up. Despite this, the shots you've posted here are definitely worth keeping.

On my recent trip to Bempton Cliffs I was lucky with the weather and the light, but I was under-exposing by 1 stop to prevent whites burning out.

Regards
David

Cheers guys. I've never been that happy with the results at higher iso settings so tend to keep it at 100 as much as possible. The second shot there was at 1/400th so shutter speed/iso wasn't the problem. The more I look at it the more I think the focus is a bit out and that's probably down to using AF-C, the focus point has caught a wave perhaps.

When I go there I'm usually standing for two to three hours. The K3 plus 300mm plus grip is a fantastic combo but very heavy and if I'm having to hold it for that length of time I get very shaky hands/arms so the monopod is a must (and I have a home made rig that gives me plenty of easy movement at the head). I'd use the tripod but that really does get cumbersome.

The thing I heard in the past was the shutter speed should be at least the inverse of the lens length. So 300mm lens at least 1/300s to avoid blur from shaky hands. I hate hand holding at 300mm as I love coffee. I don't think 1/400 will cut it for action where you are slewing the lens to follow the target. I push the speed way up high using the ISO even when just using a 50mm to shoot the toddler or a 100mm macro.

In lightroom you just slide the NR slider and noise disappears. There is a trade off but only getting a few keepers from 280 shots might be improved by sacrificing a tiny bit of IQ.