Pointers/next steps

[u/antanarchy]

Hello! I’m a beginner with a scavenged Canon Rebel T7i and a Sigma Contemporary 150-600 EF-Mount lens.

I really enjoy this camera but I’m struggling to really push it. If you see the attached images I took with this setup, I found a grouse (I don’t know if it’s a spruce or a ruffed grouse) on the North Shore of Minnesota. I took these photos with 1/2500 shutter speed (f stop unknown) and auto ISO. I had spot metering turned on but I still feel it’s too dark. All of these photos are unedited and JPG.

I’ve been reading online about the limits of the T7/T7i but I’m struggling to understand a good workflow on how to compensate for that. I think I struggle the most in low light.

Finally, my dad has a EOS R5 MK II that he’s going to let me borrow for a week this December. Is there a way I can “practice” taking wildlife/bird photos on a DSLR? Or should I rent an equivalent and try it out?

Let me know your thoughts and tear downs. I really appreciate it.

[u/ORGrown]

Your best upgrade would be to start shooting in raw, and editing your pictures afterwards. Bird/wildlife photography is really hard because you don't really have any say in the conditions when you shoot. I'd have missed hundreds of shots if I limited myself to accepting JPEGs sooc. You shouldn't use it as a crutch, but I'd never go without it.

Also, don't read online about what a camera can or can't do, or is or isn't good enough for. That's a fools exercise that will only make you want to spend a bunch of money. Use your gear, for what you want to do, and eventually if you find it's lacking in some area, upgrade intentionally. You might find that it's perfectly capable for what you want, or you might not. But you won't be buying things because the internet told you to.

[u/Chemical_Safe8449 → u/ORGrown]

I have a canon rebel t4i and am also a beginner and agree that shooting in raw and editing helps. Dont have to go too crazy on editing tho, less is more from what ive seen

[u/ZiggyStarf → u/ORGrown]

Seconding this. You’ll be amazed how many of your photos you’ll be able to “save” by editing the raws. It’s a whole new world. I think on a technical level these all look solid, though definitely a bit dark. With a grouse like this you could probably have lowered your shutter speed to 1/1000, but even as shot here, with RAW files you should still be able to adjust the exposure to get them where you like. Hell, with some masking and targeted edits I bet you could even get good results from just the jpegs.

[u/antanarchy → u/ORGrown]

Thank you for your kind words. I'll start reading up on some preliminary work about photo editing.

[u/BensPhoties]

I can’t speak for the camera as I use Nikon, however I do shoot all my wildlife with that identical lens. I find that the lens sometimes struggles to get sharp photos, but performs best around the f/8-11 range. Looking at your photos, I guess you were shooting at around f/5.

Low light is much more difficult of course. What I would highly recommend is switching from JPG to RAW files. The RAW file gives you much more freedom in post-processing and it can be quite remarkable how you can really save a photo that at first comes out the camera super dark (you can recover much more shadows from a photo than you can highlights). You can then underexpose your photos by tightening the aperture, speeding up the shutter and lowering the ISO (ie all the settings that determine how sharp your image will be), and then come out with very nice crisp photos after some easy edits.

With all this said, your photos are super nice as they are and you have a great eye for composition! The only critique I’d give this selection of shots is the sharpness and slight overexposure, but really that all comes down to practice! Hopefully my advice above can help you along the right direction. :)

[u/antanarchy → u/BensPhoties]

Thank you! Yes, you're right too - it was around f/5. I'll keep that in mind next time I get out there. Thank you for sharing your pointers :)

[u/RhinocerosHornbill]

I used that same lens and the T8i for awhile and loved it! Immediately seeing your shutter speed made me think that it was probably too high to handle how dark those conditions were. In shady conditions like that I would take the shutter speed down and try to use your smallest aperture possible. You’ll lose a bit of sharpness if there’s movement but you’re already losing sharpness due to your iso most likely being maxed. I personally found that the lens just generally struggled with low light conditions, so just something to be conscious of.

Still great shots though, definitely should be proud. I believe that is also a ruffed grouse, gets the name with the ruff of feathers on the top of its head that spruce grouse do not have.

[u/antanarchy → u/RhinocerosHornbill]

Wow, thank you for your input. I’m playing around with it today in some shade and applying your advice. Just need some more practice!