starting again with digital

[richardallen]

I started with a d-70 and that wasnt fast enought. I went to a d-200, picked up a 70-200 2.8 lense. I do out door and sports pictures mostly. my eye sight must be gone, my shots just don't have the sharpness I desire. I have gone manual and program. I did notice that I may move just a little when I shoot. I got a tripod and used the timer, helped a little. But I can't use that all the time.
Will enjoy reading other problems and fixes.

[e-mailsucks]

Hi Richard. It's obvious that you've got a nice DSLR & fast lens. If your shutter speed is as fast as possible with your aperture setting, then have you increased your ISO a little just to give you a slightly faster Shutter? Is your aperture setting set a little high which will slow down your shutter speed as well. Try using your aperture set at 2.8, even though your depth of field will be shallow.

Brian

[JulieM]

Welcome, Richard. I know you'll get lots of help here...

[Joe M]

Originally Posted by richardallen

I started with a d-70 and that wasnt fast enought. I went to a d-200, picked up a 70-200 2.8 lense. I do out door and sports pictures mostly. my eye sight must be gone, my shots just don't have the sharpness I desire. I have gone manual and program. I did notice that I may move just a little when I shoot. I got a tripod and used the timer, helped a little. But I can't use that all the time.
Will enjoy reading other problems and fixes.

Welcome Richard.

I know exactly how you feel and that's why I went with Shake Reduction when I got a DSLR. I've also been applying techniques used in shooting rifles and pistols. Take a deep breath, let out about half, hold and gently press the shutter release button. It's been working for me.

[NickLewis]

Hi Richard,

There are two issues to bear in mind to achieve a sharp result when handholding.

The first is shutter speed, to minimise camera shake. In 35mm film days, there was a rule that your shutter speed should be the reciprocal of your focal length. Put simply, that meant that if you had a 50mm lens, you shouldn't handhold the camera at a speed slower than 1/50th of a second. A 200mm lens, not less than 1/200th. Your D-200 has a sensor smaller than 35mm film, by a factor of 1.5, so I personally would err reasonably substantially on the faster side of that rule, probably by a factor of 1.5. So use a speed of 1/300th when shooting at 200mm, for example.

(I'm not sure that this is strictly correct, because of the different structures of film and a sensor, and pixel dimensions are relevant, but it should get you in the ballpark.)

Secondly, are you sure that the camera is actually focusing on the object you are photographing? Autofocus is a wonderful invention, but cameras have an unerring ability to focus on somewhere just slightly different from the intended spot!

Other than that, practise holding your camera steady - shots will not be sharp if you move while shooting - and follow Joe's excellent advice. Do not snatch at the shutter release - press it firmly but gently.

Nick

[richardallen]

i have wanted to keep the grain down so i use 100, in basketball games i jumped to 600.
I did find out the hard way that the focus jumps around so much (unless you lock it down, i found out). i change it around for the different areas of shooting.

thanks for all the help

[NickLewis]

Richard: I think you'll be struglling at ISO 100, with a 200m lens, and its probably not necessary with the camera you've got. Try 200 or 400. You need a decent shutter speed, even if you have image stabilisation.

Nick

[photoshopsusieq]

Hello and welcome. Your hawk photo is great. I look forward to seeing more of your work.