Nature Photo taking with T6s

[jameswingert]

I just screwed myself out of a possible nice shot because I realize I'm so still a novice not an intermediate like I thought.  I'm shooting with a T6s EF S 18-135mm STM,  I saw a coyote tonight with a rabbit in his mouth.  Shooting conditions were this: Full Night. Good amount of ambient light from the many parking lot lights around.  Low cloud ceiling reflecting light and snow on the ground.  I'm just not happy with my shots, too grainy from high ISO 12800, too dark from bad choices on aperture and shutter speed 1/60 at f/5.6 but really anything around there isn't giving me light I want.  And shutter speed too slow to still movement.  with the light conditions I describe does a setting jump out at anybody that they would use in that situation...??

[jrhoffman75]

With that lens f/5.6 is wide open - nothing more you can do there.

To avoid camera shake blur recommended shutter speed for crop camera would be 1.5-2 times focal length - for your lens 1/200-1/250 second. Image stabilization would let you lower that by about 2X, so 1/60 is at the limit there. [clarifying edit per cicopo's excellent point] This assumes that the blur was caused by your movement. If the subject was moving IS isn't going to help. I should have been more clear.

If with that shutter speed and aperture combination the camera required ISO 12800 for proper exposure it is what it is.

You need a faster lens; even then what you think is "good amount of light" can be fooled by your brain.

See the thread in Lenses on 70-200mm lens.

[cicopo]

I'd say you did what you could with what you had available. IS helps with camera shake but is of no help with subject motion. Only a faster shutter speed can help there & that would need a faster (more expensive) lens & of course it would have had to be on the camera & ready to go RIGHT THEN.

[jameswingert]

Thank you. A little rodeo saying for your trouble after seeing your quote. "You don't practice till you got it right. You practice till you can't get it wrong." ha! 🙂

[RobertTheFat]

---

@jrhoffman75 wrote:
With that lens f/5.6 is wide open - nothing more you can do there.

To avoid camera shake blur recommended shutter speed for crop camera would be 1.5-2 times focal length - for your lens 1/200-1/250 second. Image stabilization would let you lower that by about 2X, so 1/60 is at the limit there.

If with that shutter speed and aperture combination the camera required ISO 12800 for proper exposure it is what it is.

You need a faster lens; even then what you think is "good amount of light" can be fooled by your brain.

See the thread in Lenses on 70-200mm lens.

---

John's point about the brain's contribution to what you see is very important. The human eye/brain combination has a dynamic range far higher than any camera. The eye even has a separate set of high-gain receptors for use only at night. So you're not going to be able to tell how much light you really have, especially if you've been outdoors long enough for your eyes to become dark-adapted.

If the coyote wasn't too far away, your best bet might have been to use flash. You'd get only one chance, of course; the flash would almost certainly scare him away. But that one shot might have been better than anything you did get. Remember to use a manual flash setting; ETT-L is virtually useless outdoors at night because of its tendency to treat all flash as fill.

[jameswingert]

Yeah, that's great stuff, Robert, thanks. I tried to take a few test shots before I got him in view again to test the light on the camera but also I had to move quick for a shot, he was done with the rabbit and when I first saw him I forgot my camera and raced home to get it. And that's good about the flash. I should have tried that, too much going on to think right.

[jameswingert]

WOW! Fantastic stuff! Thank you! The coyote was moving, so there was some blur. I got one decent shot and then some moody one as he ambled away. What bothered me was the noise. Does shooting with noise reduction help do you think...??

[ebiggs1]

James,

All photographic gear has a range.  You have exceeded yours.  You can try the flash idea but when it doesn't work you can explore some choice that might work.  I do a lot of wildlife shooting and tried the flash trick. It's tough.  The only place I can get it to work is on static or nearly static shots.  Works fairly well for hummingbirds.

Now let's consider your lens. Frankly it is slow.  Very slow for 135mm.  You can get the Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM Lens and instantly improve your chances.  It is three stops faster right off the bat.  Now the other part of the equation is post editing?  Do you?  You need to shoot in RAW and use a post editor.  This can get you another 2 stops easily.

Your T6s shooting in RAW @ ISO 3200 and a f2 lens should do the trick or at least make a great run at it.

[jameswingert]

This isn't the best shot but it was the smallest file I found that I could post.  I got off about five shots, this one is cropped so it's magnified making the noise even worse. BUT, you see the light conditions.  Like I said I took a few test shots before I got him back in view and would spook him to see what I was going to get, I'm glad I did or I would have even missed this.  Sorry I haven't got back to you guys for so long, didn't realize I would actually get such AWESOME wisdom. Thanks.  Off to Hawai'i this morning to shoot Honu, this time with a real camera and not a phone, though it did do well for what it was.

[jameswingert]

ahhhh....that's fantastic info! This was the best image I got.  I wished I had been able to get him with some white behind his head for a better silhouette. But what you said about the lower aperture is good to know.  I'm still just figuring out what I got.