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Praveen Siddannavar
09-09-2009, 02:03 PM
Shot this in Bandipur last month, at that moment it was sunny for a while and probably the turtle was out from the water body taking a sun bath. However after 5-10 mins of my shooting it dived into the water.

Canon EOS 40D, Canon Lens IS 100-400mm
Shutter Speed - 1/1000
Av -5.6
ISO -400

Sabyasachi Patra
09-09-2009, 07:05 PM
You were against the light. So the head is in shade. When light reflects from the waters and you are photographing either turtle or tiger in water, please look at the bright and dark areas in the image. The digital camera sensor doesn't have the dynamic range to see both dark and bright areas unlike our eyes. So When you are composing, it is better to avoid the extremes (bright white and deep blacks) in one frame.

It would have been good if you could have photographed this scene with the sun on your back.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

Mrudul Godbole
09-09-2009, 07:55 PM
Agree about the light. I think the head of the turtle is not in focus, maybe there was a movement. You could have reduced the ISO to 200 since the light was good.

Praveen Siddannavar
10-09-2009, 12:53 PM
Thanks Mrudul and Sabyasachi for the suggestions. But most of the time when I am in forest I keep in servo mode. I am yet to learn using Manual, Tv or Av mode.

Sabyasachi Patra
10-09-2009, 02:42 PM
Praveen,
Set your camera to AI Serve mode (Aritificial Intelligence Serve). That would ensure that the the autofocus would predict if there is any movement by the animal, bird etc and would set the focus accordingly.

Set the mode dial to AV ie. Aperture priority. In this mode, you select the aperture and the shutter speed is selected by the camera. For eg. in your 100-400 lens, when you select its max aperture f5.6, the camera will decide whether the shutter speed should be 1/800 or 1/1000 etc.

Keep an eye on the histogram at the back. You should be careful that the histogram doesn't touch either the left or the right frame. If it touches the right frame then the white portions would be overexposed and would lose details. Similarly, if it touches the left, then the black areas would be underexposed and lose details.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi