Photography in the gloom

The light today was terrible. The sky was heavily overcast, and the general gloom made it difficult to get enough light for too many photos. It didn't help that I tended to aim for the more naturally shaded areas. The poor light has two main effects on the camera. Firstly it reduces shutter speed, so motion blur (even with image stabilization) is an issue. The second is that to achieve anything at all you need a wide-open aperture, which can lose some of the crispness of the shot. I tend to under-expose a bit, which helps keep the shutter speed at a workable level, and then brighten the shot during the processing. All the daytime shots were taken at ISO 800 and with the lens extended to 400mm (which says something about the usefulness of image stabilization for hand-held shots).

Blue tit taken at 1/60sec, F/5.6

Grey Wagtail taken at 1/250sec, F/7.1, exposure compensation -2

Sparrow taken at 1/100sec, F/6.3, exposure compensation -1.33

Squirrel taken at 1/60sec, F/5.6, exposure compensation -0.66

As for the foxes, it was the turn of the shy one to put in an all too brief appearance. It was lurking at the back of the garden and I grabbed just a couple of shots from distance, hence the bad case of eye-shine.
Fox taken at 1/125sec, F/10 with flash, at 102mm.

Camera note: daytime shots all taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. the fox was photographed with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM.

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This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. Flying Red Fox Blog

    15 Dec 2007

    Nice pics:D The wagtail has a very yellow bottom lol:P

  2. SittingFox

    15 Dec 2007

    I'm very jealous of that wagtail! There is a pair in the local reserve here but I've never seen them during the winter. Sometimes it's amazing to realise just how much an animal can move during a 1/60sec exposure!

    I didn't pick up my camera at all yesterday 🙁

  3. Words

    15 Dec 2007

    I was surprised to see the wagtail down on the ground. It didn't stay there for long, but apparently it's a regular (the same garden area where I photgraph the sparrows). As for the blue tit. At least it kept one foot still to prove it wasn't camera shake 😉

  4. Vulpes vulpes

    16 Dec 2007

    I think the Blue tit could be mistaken for a Hummingbird! :p As usual, nice shots.

  5. Words

    16 Dec 2007

    If only!!! 😆

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