Image improvement

[2daysoldrndirt]

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I just purchased a new T3i with two kit lenses, 18-55 MM and 55-250 MM, and I would like a reommendation on how I may improve on my image quality.
A bit of background, I am 69 years old, suffering terrible tremors, and currently traveling without my tripod or monopod. I am finding it hard to get sharp focus on my bird photos. Any recommendations gratefully accepted.

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[scoundrel1728]

Because I often shot under low light with my bridge camera, I skipped the kit lenses altogether and bought a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens as my first lens when I bought my first dSLR. I therefore have next to no firsthand experience with the kit lenses that you are using. However, from all reports, the 55-250mm kit lens, like its competition in its focal length and price range, this lens' general performance is not at its best wide open at the extreme telephoto end. Closing down to f/8 or even f/11 can improve its resolution when zoomed in at full telephoto. Backing off a bit to 150-200mm can also improve its resolution markedly. However, when stopping down the lens, you will also need to slow down the shutter by a corresponding amount, which leaves you more vulnerable to spoiling your pictures with motion blur, or cranking up your camera's ISO, which increases pixel noise and reduces dynamic range. Considering your tremor, you really need some kind of auxiliary mechanical support when shooting at full telephoto. If a monopod won't do it for you, a beanbag and a convenient boulder or tree limb just might.

[WesternGuy]

If you are travelling without your tripod or monopod and you don't have any IS lenses, then I can suggest two things to try:
1) As has been suggested, get a "bean bag" and use this on something like your car window or door, or a fence post or rail to provide additional support. Doesn't have to be a real bag or even beans, ordinary rice will do in place of "beans" and a large, resealable, plastic bag will do to hold them, you just have to be a little more careful with it so that the seal doesn't come open (did I say duct tape?).
2) Increase the ISO to maybe 600 or 800 so that you can increase the shutter speed. I can't say how this will generate noise from your T3i, as I have never used one, but I know on my 5D that I can often shoot at an ISO 0f 800 or 1000 without too much noise creeping into the picture.

Hope this helps.
______________
WesternGuy

[bobobird]

Provided the exposure is right there is little noise even at 1600 on the T series Canons. By overexposing slightly actually the noise reduces a bit. However at the high ISOs there will be some softening of the pic but that can be fixed in post.

[Max@Home]

Originally Posted by 2daysoldrndirt

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I just purchased a new T3i with two kit lenses, 18-55 MM and 55-250 MM, and I would like a reommendation on how I may improve on my image quality.
A bit of background, I am 69 years old, suffering terrible tremors, and currently traveling without my tripod or monopod. I am finding it hard to get sharp focus on my bird photos. Any recommendations gratefully accepted.

View image in gallery

...buy a piece of rope, make a loop on one end and put that over the lens, let the rope dangle down, and put your foot on the end that drops on the floor, pull the camera up to put stress on the rope, & voilà, you have an instant travel monopod...

...use HighISO (up to ISO1600 should not be a problem with T3i) to get your shutterspeed as high as possible, shoot as 'thin' a DoF as possible to get the aperture as open as possible which again ups the shutterspeed...

...€0.02...

Kindest regards!

Max@Home

[etaf]

i notice you are on spot metering
and
1/250 F6.3 ISO100 - Manual Exposure FocalL235
1/320 F6.3 ISO 200 - Auto Av FocalL250

so you may want to increase the ISO and that would allow the speed to be increased
ISO 400

I wonder why you choose spot meter , looking in DPP at the AF point

[2daysoldrndirt]

Thank you for your recommendations, I will be going out again this morning and I will try your recommendations regarding raising the camera's ISO and aperture and see how I do. I will be back home in a week and will then have access to my monopods and tripods so I will be able to better utilize the potential of this camera. I am already thrilled with the results I am getting thanks to the IS of these two lenses. My previous cameras, while bridge cameras, offered no IS, so without the aide of my monopods or tripods I kept very few photos. I will upload my images today and see what improvements I can achieve. With your guidance and advice I will get this down, thanks.

[scoundrel1728]

Originally Posted by Max@Home

...buy a piece of rope, make a loop on one end and put that over the lens, let the rope dangle down, and put your foot on the end that drops on the floor, pull the camera up to put stress on the rope, & voilà, you have an instant travel monopod...

This is a variation of a technique I've heard of before, but the idea of putting a lot of torque on the lens by putting a heavy side load on the lens mount gives me the willies: you risk bending the lens mount this way, messing up your camera body's focus and lens alignment. Repairing a bent lens mount with adequate precision isn't particuarly easy. If you loop the rope around the base of the lens instead to reduce the torque, you then risk forcing fibers of your rope between the flange on the lens and the mounting seat on the body. I don't know what the consequences would be if fibers actually did get between the flange and the seat, but they can't be good for your camera system. For this reason, I recommend the more usual variants of fastening the rope or string to a 1/4" x 20 UNC bolt screwed into your camera's tripod socket instead. Such bolts are readily available in hardware stores in the U.S.; less so in countries with metric hardware. You might also need a couple of jam nuts and washers if you want to get fancy, or you can try to find an eyebolt to loop your string around.

[2daysoldrndirt]

Scoundrel1728, that one scared me as well, since the lens and the mount were not engineered to be significant stress points. Like you I had heard mention of attaching the rope to the tripod mount.

[stef@apl]

You're not putting much stress on it. It's just enough to stabilize, probably 2 lbs max. If your hand will be on the other side holding the lens (for larger ones) then there won't be any stress at all.

I regularly use a tripod mount that holds the lens itself, supporting the camera and grip by the mount. Camera is a good 2-3 lbs (maybe more... 7D with grip and 2 batteries).