Another Old Image From The Archives
The other night went scrolling through an old hard drive of image files. I came across a folder of bird photos from when I was testing my new little Sony a6000 camera three or four years ago. I scrolled through the entire folder before realizing it was difficult to choose just one photo so I simply went back to the first photo in the folder.
There are a few things to point out about this particular photo:
1. Song birds... in this case, a Dark Eyed Junko... flit around quickly, unexpectedly jumping from branch to branch so they are difficult to capture even when seemingly statically perched on a branch. These birds are never static even if they appear that way in a still photo.
2. Getting a camera to focus on something jumping around quickly and taking flight unexpectedly every couple of seconds is difficult enough but having to focus on this bird when it is hiding behind twigs, leaves and branches is even more difficult. The camera often will focus only on the nearest high contrast object rather than where you want it to focus.
3. Separating your subject (in this case, the bird) from the background is often desirable. You don't want your subject getting lost in background objects. You don't want the background to distract from your main subject either. Quite often, you will find that you want your background to mostly disappear. Of course, there are exceptions... landscape photography is one and an environmental portrait is another. For instance, if you photograph someone at work you want to be able to make out their work environment even though the main subject in the photo is actually the person. Or, if you are traveling and shooting a photo of your loved one, you'd like to be able to see this photo in 10 or 20 years and still know exactly where you were when the photo was shot. For this bird photo, I wanted the busy background clutter to disappear and I was successful in accomplishing that here.
4. Also worth noting is how I am able to use all sorts of lenses with my new Sony cameras. This is not something I was able to do with my older dSLRs. In this case in the above photo, I used a Canon L lens. At other times, I've used older Canon FD lenses, Pentax lenses and Konica AR lenses. And sometimes I use Sony lenses. Sometimes I even find myself reaching for a couple of Hasselblad lenses. I have more lens choices with these Sony mirrorless cameras. There is no doubt that using this Canon L glass helped me capture such a sharp image though.
Until this point, I had been shooting primarily using digital SLRs (dSLR) and the affordable ones I used were dog-slow at focusing. I should also point out that these older dSLR cameras were big and heavy and consequently a major burden for my spinal injuries. I was constantly in pain when using those big, heavy cameras. Switching over to smaller mirrorless cameras was definitely the way to go for me.
I think my main camera before I switched to Sony mirrorless cameras had only 11 focus points compared to this little Sony camera sporting 204 focus points. The dSLR focused very slowly but it was still possible to capture fast birds by predicting where they would be and pre-focusing. My new little Sony camera body had a few significant advances in focus which are not found in most cameras though. The day I shot this photo, above, I realized how archaic shooting with an older dSLR seemed.
In addition to all the extra focus points available, these focus points went all the way to the edge of the frame. In older dSLRs, the few focus points were mostly confined to the middle of the frame. With this many focus points covering almost the entire frame with my Sony mirrorless cameras, it was easier to place my subject anywhere within that frame. Unfortunately, you would still need to overcome the problem of the camera choosing to focus on the nearest and highest contrast object in the frame... which is usually not what you want to be in focus.
Fortunately, the Sony a6000, although an older camera by today's standards, has an incredibly powerful tracking feature. I could choose an object and the camera will track it and keep it in focus. It will track your object even after it disappears behind twigs, branches or any other obstacles. I've seen this camera track a lone snow skier zig-zagging between hundreds of other skiers and never losing focus! In the case of the above photo of the bird, the camera successfully tracked the bird through branches and twigs. Of course, you still need to learn how to use this feature and practice but this feature significantly helps in action photography. This photo, above, was one of my first attempts at practicing using this feature and it worked quite well. I think I said, "WOW' about hundred times this day.
I suspect this sounds like you just press a button and snap... you have a perfect photo. No, it isn't that simple. You need to change a number of settings to the correct combination for your particular scene. So, you definitely need to learn about every one of the camera's settings, what each setting does, how each setting behaves in varying situations, and how each setting behaves when combined with other settings. You need to know your tools, inside and out.
Needless to say, I did a lot of reading about this camera. I watched a lot of videos on how to use this camera properly. And, I learned how to set up this camera to complement my other Sony camera body.
So, whenever I see one of my bird photos from this first day of testing the focusing capabilities of this little Sony a6000 camera, I am reminded of how powerful these newer mirrorless cameras have become rendering dSLRs obsolete except for nostalgic purposes.
There are a few things to point out about this particular photo:
1. Song birds... in this case, a Dark Eyed Junko... flit around quickly, unexpectedly jumping from branch to branch so they are difficult to capture even when seemingly statically perched on a branch. These birds are never static even if they appear that way in a still photo.
2. Getting a camera to focus on something jumping around quickly and taking flight unexpectedly every couple of seconds is difficult enough but having to focus on this bird when it is hiding behind twigs, leaves and branches is even more difficult. The camera often will focus only on the nearest high contrast object rather than where you want it to focus.
3. Separating your subject (in this case, the bird) from the background is often desirable. You don't want your subject getting lost in background objects. You don't want the background to distract from your main subject either. Quite often, you will find that you want your background to mostly disappear. Of course, there are exceptions... landscape photography is one and an environmental portrait is another. For instance, if you photograph someone at work you want to be able to make out their work environment even though the main subject in the photo is actually the person. Or, if you are traveling and shooting a photo of your loved one, you'd like to be able to see this photo in 10 or 20 years and still know exactly where you were when the photo was shot. For this bird photo, I wanted the busy background clutter to disappear and I was successful in accomplishing that here.
4. Also worth noting is how I am able to use all sorts of lenses with my new Sony cameras. This is not something I was able to do with my older dSLRs. In this case in the above photo, I used a Canon L lens. At other times, I've used older Canon FD lenses, Pentax lenses and Konica AR lenses. And sometimes I use Sony lenses. Sometimes I even find myself reaching for a couple of Hasselblad lenses. I have more lens choices with these Sony mirrorless cameras. There is no doubt that using this Canon L glass helped me capture such a sharp image though.
Until this point, I had been shooting primarily using digital SLRs (dSLR) and the affordable ones I used were dog-slow at focusing. I should also point out that these older dSLR cameras were big and heavy and consequently a major burden for my spinal injuries. I was constantly in pain when using those big, heavy cameras. Switching over to smaller mirrorless cameras was definitely the way to go for me.
I think my main camera before I switched to Sony mirrorless cameras had only 11 focus points compared to this little Sony camera sporting 204 focus points. The dSLR focused very slowly but it was still possible to capture fast birds by predicting where they would be and pre-focusing. My new little Sony camera body had a few significant advances in focus which are not found in most cameras though. The day I shot this photo, above, I realized how archaic shooting with an older dSLR seemed.
In addition to all the extra focus points available, these focus points went all the way to the edge of the frame. In older dSLRs, the few focus points were mostly confined to the middle of the frame. With this many focus points covering almost the entire frame with my Sony mirrorless cameras, it was easier to place my subject anywhere within that frame. Unfortunately, you would still need to overcome the problem of the camera choosing to focus on the nearest and highest contrast object in the frame... which is usually not what you want to be in focus.
Fortunately, the Sony a6000, although an older camera by today's standards, has an incredibly powerful tracking feature. I could choose an object and the camera will track it and keep it in focus. It will track your object even after it disappears behind twigs, branches or any other obstacles. I've seen this camera track a lone snow skier zig-zagging between hundreds of other skiers and never losing focus! In the case of the above photo of the bird, the camera successfully tracked the bird through branches and twigs. Of course, you still need to learn how to use this feature and practice but this feature significantly helps in action photography. This photo, above, was one of my first attempts at practicing using this feature and it worked quite well. I think I said, "WOW' about hundred times this day.
I suspect this sounds like you just press a button and snap... you have a perfect photo. No, it isn't that simple. You need to change a number of settings to the correct combination for your particular scene. So, you definitely need to learn about every one of the camera's settings, what each setting does, how each setting behaves in varying situations, and how each setting behaves when combined with other settings. You need to know your tools, inside and out.
Needless to say, I did a lot of reading about this camera. I watched a lot of videos on how to use this camera properly. And, I learned how to set up this camera to complement my other Sony camera body.
So, whenever I see one of my bird photos from this first day of testing the focusing capabilities of this little Sony a6000 camera, I am reminded of how powerful these newer mirrorless cameras have become rendering dSLRs obsolete except for nostalgic purposes.
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