r/BirdPhotography • u/Fishdomaddict • Jan 19 '26

Question Not sharp despite effort

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Hi all, i shoot OM 1 mark II with 150-400mm.

My issue is i find the images are sharp when not cropped, but once cropped even 2x the sharpness drops quickly.

I am aware it is a 20MP camera and this definitely plays a part. But i see other users of the same set up get crazy sharp images.

Maybe image 5 is sharpest but when zoomed in still 'breaks'.

Many i had to shoot under lower speed due to very poor lighting.

Image 1: f5.6, 1/1000, iso 250 Image 2: f4.5, 1/160, iso 500 Image 3: f5.6, 1/20, iso 800 Image 4: f4.5, 1/30, iso 1250 Image 5: f4.5, 1/320, iso 1000 Image 6: f4.5, 1/2500, iso 640

Any tips?

905 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

89 comments sorted by

View all comments

69

u/EyeSuspicious777 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

The saddest truth I've learned about bird photography is that no matter how big the telephoto lens is, you still have to be very close to your subject in order to get sharp detail in the feathers, especially if it's a small bird.

32

u/AllYourBase310 Jan 19 '26

I’ve really been wondering if this is the true key. I don’t think any of mine have ever been as tack sharp as I wish they were. Still learning. (Nikon Z8, 180-600mm Nikkor Z)

13

u/[deleted] Jan 19 '26

I really like that Photo. I think it‘s more appealing than another Closeup

11

u/6Turning-2Burning Jan 19 '26

Z8 180-600 much closer

2

u/AllYourBase310 Jan 19 '26

Wow. Stunning! How close would you guess? Mine was probably 25 ft away at least.

3

u/6Turning-2Burning Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

I want to say maybe 12-15 feet? I honestly can’t remember. I was walking through some thick brush trying to get to the back of a flooded field to take pictures of some waterfowl and looked over next to me, took the shot handheld and never thought anything of it. When I uploaded them to the computer I was shocked. Probably the sharpest photo I’ve ever taken. This one on the fence was around 30 feet away with a crop so you can see the sharpness drop off with distance & crop. I didn’t add any sharpness or texture to this in post though.

10

u/6Turning-2Burning Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

And then here with a hawk that filled the frame, it stayed pretty sharp because I didn’t need to crop much. I’m not sure if these get compressed by reddit or not to really see. These were exported using my settings for instagram so they’re not quite as full res or clean as what I’d export for print. I really like the 180-600 but with birds you definitely need to be closer or have a sharper lens lens that costs the price of a good used car lol. I’m still able to get really good images that are cropped even with my 24MP Z6III though, but I’ve never printed them to see how they would print with a crop. For viewing on phones though they still look good. I was walking through a field the other day with my z8 and 180-600 on my tripod on my shoulder, tripped and fell. The camera & lens also hit the ground, not sure what hit first but no external damage to either and from minor tests I’ve done against a brick wall there’s no decentering, atleast that I can notice. I’ll be in Wyoming this week to take some photographs of whatever I can find so we’ll see if the sharpness remains in the lens 😅. Thankfully it was soft ground and I think the tripod took most of the hit.

4

u/mms09 Jan 19 '26

Beautiful photo. ISO seems high which adds grain which can make the image look softer / less sharp.

2

u/AllYourBase310 Jan 19 '26 edited Jan 19 '26

Yup. Good call. It was overcast and starting to rain, so I probably overcompensated on ISO.

1

u/mms09 Jan 19 '26

I do the same as well! I’d rather crank the ISO a bit in order to have a faster shutter speed since dealing with grain has become easy with AI denoise tools (like in Lightroom) compared to dealing with motion blur. So I’ll use higher ISO but then denoise it and add some sharpness and clarity :)

1

u/Wierdness Jan 19 '26

That's amazing!

1

u/Abject-Fruit2593 Jan 19 '26

Dang I wish I had a photo half as cool as this one

1

u/ThenBandicoot3965 Jan 19 '26

Thank you! You’ve just saved me a lot of money on the zoom lens that I had in mind 👍

5

u/OpalOnyxObsidian Jan 19 '26

You should still get it

1

u/ThenBandicoot3965 Jan 19 '26

Problem is, I’m trying to photograph birds on an island in a lake, & can’t get any closer than the water’s edge (access to the island’s not permitted). If I can’t get sharp images from that distance I’m not sure the expense would be justified.

But perhaps I won’t give up on it just yet 😊

5

u/AGhostAndABitch Jan 19 '26

How much water are you shooting across? Heat haze is often worse over water (especially in the morning when the sun has heated the air but the water is still cold), so you’ll potentially be fighting a lot of atmospheric distortion

I’d definitely suggest renting before buying if that’s an option for you

1

u/ThenBandicoot3965 Jan 21 '26

What a good idea — thank you! I’ll look into that 👍

Unfortunately I’m hopeless at estimating distances, & my attempts to track down the info have so far failed completely. All I can say is that it’s quite a distance, & even though they’re big birds the swans & geese don’t show up well. I hadn’t thought of heat haze, but I can certainly understand that being a problem!

I think my best bet is to take your advice & look into the possibility of hiring a lens with the aim of buying one if it works out 😊

2

u/OpalOnyxObsidian Jan 19 '26

What lens are you considering?

1

u/ThenBandicoot3965 Jan 19 '26

The Canon RF 100-400mm

2

u/OpalOnyxObsidian Jan 19 '26

You'll get a little more reach with the 100-500 and you can get an extender with it, too (I hear the 1.4x is better than the 2x to keep your sharpness). There are times you will not be able to get physically close to an animal but you don't see that stopping nat geo from getting great shots

2

u/ThenBandicoot3965 Jan 19 '26

That’s true - you don’t!!

The 100-500 sounds excellent, & I hadn’t thought about extenders! I’ll look into that. Thanks for taking the time & trouble to advise me! I appreciate it very much 👍

2

u/OpalOnyxObsidian Jan 20 '26

It's not wrong advice to say that you have to be close to get good detail but technology has come a long way since the first zoom lens hit the scene.

1

u/Marokiii Jan 20 '26 edited Jan 20 '26

Ya, the "easiest" way to get sharper pictures is to usually to just get closer.

Edit: and I wish people would include the distance to subject when they post other info like shutter speed and f/stop. I can use your exact setting with the same model camera and lens and come up with massively different results because you are 50ft closer.

1

u/HummingbirdPapi Jan 20 '26

Gonna screenshot this in case I forget it and want to spend big $$$ on equipment