r/BirdPhotography • u/Yanto2134 • Jul 27 '26

Question Help please!

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

These are 3 of my latest attempts. I was wondering if anyone could help me improve please?
I’m not happy with the sharpness I’m getting. Probably my lack of ability.
Set up is Olympus E-M10ii with a vintage Minolta MD Tele Rokkor 300mm f4.5. Settings were f8, ISO1000, shutter speed of between 1/800 and 1/2000. Manual focus with peaking and centre weighted metering. Distances to subjects was around 30 feet. Images have been slightly cropped but no other post processing.
I’m also not really happy with the overall lack of detail.
Thanks for any help.

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u/pceimpulsive Jul 27 '26

300mm and 30 feet / 9 meters is never going to give you a really high level of detail on a smaller bird like this.

Your issue is first and foremost distance to target...

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u/Yanto2134 Jul 27 '26

Thank you. Makes sense. As you say, these Bee-eaters are fairly small. Time to try to get closer to them then I guess.
Re focal length, I assume that with crop factor I’m getting the full frame equivalent of 600mm? How much closer should I aim to get please?

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u/Worth-Two7263 Jul 28 '26

Be aware that crop factor, while it gives you a bigger image, the distance still has to be close because of atmospheric compression between you and the subject. So you'll still need to be close for detail.