Uh, mmm...Hi! My name is Caron..and I birdwatch (1 Viewer)

Hi, Caron,

I live over to the west of you, in Alberta. Nice to see yet another fellow Canadian. Have just had a browse through your art work - beautiful cats, and as for Johnny Depp, well, do I need to say more? Your bird list sounds kind of familiar, though I am still waiting to get a good photo of both a Blue Jay and A Pileated! Look forward to seeing some photos from you in the main gallery. I'm the one who posts a lot of Chickadee and White-breasted Nuthatch photos!

AnneE said:

Hi, Caron,

I live over to the west of you, in Alberta. Nice to see yet another fellow Canadian. Have just had a browse through your art work - beautiful cats, and as for Johnny Depp, well, do I need to say more? Your bird list sounds kind of familiar, though I am still waiting to get a good photo of both a Blue Jay and A Pileated! Look forward to seeing some photos from you in the main gallery. I'm the one who posts a lot of Chickadee and White-breasted Nuthatch photos!

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Nice to meet you Anne...you guys are into some cold weather right now arent you? The blue jays are nice but I do get over run with them at times..they chase away some of the smaller birds and make a mess with the mixed seed feeder. The one I have enjoyed watching(and Im not sure if the others do this) is the Juncos and the way they do this little dance to move around the seed that has ended up on the ground or is in the ground feeder..lol A little scuffle kind of move. I like to think of them as the little Fred Astaires in their black tuxes and top hats! Ive taken many pics of the birds but Im having great difficulty capturing them with my camera. Its a Nikon 4500 and Ive even pulled out the manual to try and manuever around it but the pics still come out the same. Im either not able to freeze it and they come out as a motion blur or the pic is fuzzy? I think I saw here a photopgraphy section so I may venture over for some much needed pointers..Here is an example of a Downy I took yesturday..and this is one of the better pics!

Tervetuloa to Birdforum, Caron. Cool to have more northerners here.

Caron said:

Nice to meet you Anne...you guys are into some cold weather right now arent you? The blue jays are nice but I do get over run with them at times..they chase away some of the smaller birds and make a mess with the mixed seed feeder. The one I have enjoyed watching(and Im not sure if the others do this) is the Juncos and the way they do this little dance to move around the seed that has ended up on the ground or is in the ground feeder..lol A little scuffle kind of move. I like to think of them as the little Fred Astaires in their black tuxes and top hats! Ive taken many pics of the birds but Im having great difficulty capturing them with my camera. Its a Nikon 4500 and Ive even pulled out the manual to try and manuever around it but the pics still come out the same. Im either not able to freeze it and they come out as a motion blur or the pic is fuzzy? I think I saw here a photopgraphy section so I may venture over for some much needed pointers..Here is an example of a Downy I took yesturday..and this is one of the better pics!

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What mode are you using? It sounds like you are in M, A or S mode with a slow time selected. If that's the case then it's very tough to hold it still enough to avoid blurring. It's also possible that you are using the digital zoom which won't help reduce motion. There has been a little bit of talk about the digital zoom on one of the digital camera threads. You should check some of them out.
I'm attaching a downy shot taken witha Coolpix 4500 and a scope. This picture was on M mode but with a fast speed setting and a fairly open aperture.

snowyowl said:

What mode are you using? It sounds like you are in M, A or S mode with a slow time selected. If that's the case then it's very tough to hold it still enough to avoid blurring. It's also possible that you are using the digital zoom which won't help reduce motion. There has been a little bit of talk about the digital zoom on one of the digital camera threads. You should check some of them out.
I'm attaching a downy shot taken witha Coolpix 4500 and a scope. This picture was on M mode but with a fast speed setting and a fairly open aperture.

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Yup, digital zoom was the first thing I thought of too. Caron's photo is exactly how mine look if I use it... consequently, I don't use digital zoom anymore. It's really frustrating too. Why does the camera have it if it's basically unusable??

Hi Dan, Im over in the forum now reading thru for some tips but so far havent found any... I just pulled up the Nikon viewer to see what settings it was on...this is what it says..
telephoto2
focal length 115.2mm
exposure mode: aperture priority
metering mode: spot
1/60.3 sec -f/10.3
exposure comp 0 EV
sensitivity auto
balance: cloudy
AF Mode: AF-S
tone comp Auto
digital zoom ratio 3.60
saturation comp 0
sharpening- High
noise reduction Off
If you guide me thru what mistakes I have set here, maybe I could learn from them?
This is the first and only digital Ive had..got it 2 years ago and use it mainly for taking pics of my paintings and the cats which have been mainly indoor and auto shots....I know, what an expensive camera for such menial use...lol Im hoping to change that..if I can get a handle on how to operate it...

Tammie said:

Yup, digital zoom was the first thing I thought of too. Caron's photo is exactly how mine look if I use it... consequently, I don't use digital zoom anymore. It's really frustrating too. Why does the camera have it if it's basically unusable??

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Frustrating! I was only 3 feet away from this guy and should have been able to take a fantastic shot... Im thinking of go back to my N5005..I know I will have to wait for picture developing but at least I know I will have pictures..

I'm not sure that I'm the right person to help you, though I don't mind trying.
As far as digital zoom is concerned, a lot of experts say that it's just a gimmick.
Optical zoom actually changes the geometry of the image which enlarges it. Digital zoom does the same as you do after you have downloaded the image into your computer and zoom in on it. Depending the sharpness of the original image the quality of the zoomed image goes down very quickly.
When you have your camera set to Aperture-priority Mode, the aperture stays fixed (the lense opening on your 35 mm SLR) but the shutter speed (F-stop on SLR) varies automatically to give you the best shot. Shutter-priority is the reverse.
I find on my 4500 that I get a lot of motion when I press the exposure button unless I'm really concentrating on holding everything still. It's not a problem for scenary or that sort of thing but it does become a problem on birds. I just took a picture of my dog, just holding the camera loosely and in A mode. I had the camera set to BSS (Best Shot Selector). On that setting you need to hold the exposure button in and the camera will take pictures continuosly but will only save the best on (the sharpest one) to memory. It helps the eliminate motion.
I'm going to try something on your picture and get back to you.

I tried sharpening your image a little but I don't think it really helped. I think that you should post your original picture onj the digital camera thread where there are some real experts and invite comments. I'm sure you will get the help you need. I think the problem is camera movemant but I'm not sure. I'll watch for you on that thread or you could start your own thread.

Thanks Dan for your help...I think I will post something over there and hope they dont mind such an amatuer as myself at this. I did find a site http://digiscopingukbirds.homestead.com/DigiscopingTechnique.html and have been trying to follow his settings but still having problems. I get how to chenge the shutter speed now in manual but not the f-stop. According to his site, you shouldnt be taking anything above a 5.1 and mine likes to stick at 10.? I am missing so many great shots here..just within the last hour that I have been working on this I have had a red-bellied woodpecker, a Northern Flicker, a White Breasted Nuthatch, the Downy again as well as the siskins, goldfinches and Juncos....all at the feeders just 4 feet away from the window...

Caron said:

Thanks Dan for your help...I think I will post something over there and hope they dont mind such an amatuer as myself at this. I did find a site http://digiscopingukbirds.homestead.com/DigiscopingTechnique.html and have been trying to follow his settings but still having problems. I get how to chenge the shutter speed now in manual but not the f-stop. According to his site, you shouldnt be taking anything above a 5.1 and mine likes to stick at 10.? I am missing so many great shots here..just within the last hour that I have been working on this I have had a red-bellied woodpecker, a Northern Flicker, a White Breasted Nuthatch, the Downy again as well as the siskins, goldfinches and Juncos....all at the feeders just 4 feet away from the window...

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To change the f-stop in manual first press the mode button and either the f-stop or speed will be highlighted in green. To swithch to the other one, press the mode button again. Once you have f-stop highlighted, rotate the command dial to change the f-stop (that's the round silver know towards the top, back of the camera and I don't mean that to sound patronizing).

Ha! Thanks again Dan...I think I asked the question a bit too early..just after I posted I turned the camera back on and the f-stop was highlighted green instead of the speed..I then realized how it worked....lol I should be feeling like a kid in the candy store with all these new found functions but somehow Im not!

Hola Caron and welcome to BF.