Sher Khan

[Partha Misra]

Sher Khan a.k.a Gabbar a.k.a Leopard face(Ma7) - 8 year old adult male of Tadoba range. Territory spans across Panchdhara, Jamunbodi, Tadoba lake, Pandharpauni, Jamni Village (Sitting at Pandharpauni waterhole no.2)

Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve

(EXIF: Canon EOS 7D/Sigma 150-500mm @500mm/Aperture Priority/Av-F6.3/Tv-1/640s/ISO1000)

[Vipin Sharma]

Light is harsh , image looks over exposed , surprised that even at ISO 1000 you are getting shutter speed of 1/640 only. higher shutter speed would have got this shot better on exposure wise.

[Partha Misra]

Hi Vipin..

Thanks for the comments. Indeed the light was harsh in the surrounding, but the tiger was sitting in the shade. I had to bump the shadow details and exposure values in post processing to get the details on the face.

Would like you to share some tips on handling the Sigma 150-500. I find it really difficult to get good pictures out of it, particularly at 500mm. Maybe my technique is not upto the mark. I have to do lot of post processing on the images shot with the lens. It would be great help.

Regards,

Partha

[Vipin Sharma]

150-500mm is a good lens in good lighting condition , though I would not prefer this lens for bird photography b'cose of its slow response , otherwise a good lens to work with.
For mammals photography, this lens works excellent and I've always used it for same purpose.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Partha,
Welcome to IndiaWilds!

Nice to see a tiger image from Tadoba. I like the pose. You need to tell us how much of a crop is this image as cropping affects the image.

The way I calculate the crop percentage is:

Original image size in pixels: A*B
Cropped image size: a*b
Percentage Crop= {(Original image -cropped image)/Original image}*100 = {(A*B-a*b)/(A*B)}*100
For 7D the original image size = 5184x3456
Say you cropped the image to = 3000x2000
Now the crop percentage is = {[(5184x3456)-(3000x2000)]/(5184x3456)} = 66.5%
ie. you have cropped off 66.5% or two thirds of the image.

Since the Sigma 150-500 is a small lens people don't realise that the 500mm focal length is a long tele focal length. 500mm focal length like all long focal lengths magnifies any mistake you make. So one needs to ensure good shutter speed and/or good hand holding techniques and/or good support...This tutorial may be of help http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?268-Improving-sharpness-of-your-photographs

The sigma 150-500 lens is made in a budget and hence cannot compete with the top notch telephoto lenses of Canon and Nikon interms of sharpness, colour rendition, bokeh etc. In this shot you had use f6.3 aperture which is the widest aperture at 500mm. Try stopping down to f8 and it improves.

Wildlife photography is one area where equipment plays a big role. Also one needs to understand the limitations of equipment. A telephoto lens is not a sniper rifle that one can fire from a kilometer away and achieve great results. One has to realise that even after have a tele lens there will still be situations where the subject may be very far away. In such situations, wait and enjoy the beauty. Apart from good equipment one has to be a good naturalist to understand when to click and what to click.

Look forward to more images.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Partha Misra]

Hi Sabyasachi Sir,

Thank you so much for your valuable advice.

The crop percentage comes to around 37%. I will improve my technique using the methods listed in the link.

If you could advise if I should go for the Canon 400mm F5.6L lens instead of the Sigma.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Partha

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Partha,
Quality wise the 400 f5.6 L lens is a good lens. I would prefer to use it rather than the sigma. With the 400 f5.6 L lens shoot anything which is in range and the image comes out good. However, if you need to shoot distant scenes and crop a lot, then no lens will stand up to it.

You can also use a 1.4x TC along with the Canon EF 400 f5.6 L lens. The resulting combination will give you 560mm f8 focal length. The quality drops a bit and you won't be able to do autofocus with most of the cameras except the 1 series cameras and the 5D III (after the autofocus upgrade).

Also remember that good lenses cost more and they hold their value well ie they depreciate less.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Partha Misra]

Sabyasachi Sir,

Thanks for the recommendation.


Regards,

Partha