Hi guys,
I'm new to amateur photography and was wondering if people could help me out with some questions
I took the attached shot at a playground with my new 18-200 LE which I bought before I knew how to use it. It was taken at 1/320 f/6.3 ISO200 according to the properties (actually it was iAuto I think) I was wondering is the bokeh like that because of hand-shake or something else about outdoors? All were taken handheld (not sure if that's a good idea at 200mm?).
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Hi Joel... I'd like to add some comments as well.
General rule of thumb: The bigger the aperture, the more blurred the background (and foreground) will be, because the area that will fall into focus will be shallow. And conversely, the smaller the aperture, the sharper the background (and foreground) will be, because the lens focus will cover a larger area.
With handshake (camera shake), everything in the image will be blurred to some extent. Your photo is quite good actually and doesn't show any signs of handshake. To minimize the risk of handshake with telephoto shots, choose faster shutter speeds in S mode (or similarly, by choosing larger apertures in A mode the camera will acquire faster shutter speeds). Your camera also has a "sports action" setting under the SCN mode which will pretty much do the same thing for you automatically.
What could I do to improve it?
The lens you have has a variable maximum aperture size, meaning at wide angle (18mm) your maximum aperture is f3.5 - however as you zoom towards telephoto (200mm) the max aperture of the lens gradually decreases to f6.3 (pro zoom lenses maintain the same aperture sizing but are much larger, heavier, and far more expensive).
The photo you've taken at 200mm was already at the maximum aperture opening for that lens, so there's nothing more that can be done if you want the background to be more blurry (softer bokeh). If you wanted the background to be sharper, you can select a smaller aperture (say f8 or even f11) but be aware that this will make your shutter speed slower.
The only area that you an improve in that photo is the composition. It is a common occurence for beginners to unknowingly crop people's feet (I see it often in family or large group shots). In this case, you could either lower your aim to include their feet, or zoom out a little bit if you like to keep the rope swing pivots within your composition.
In portraiture, there are times when the composition has to showcase closer personal features so the cropping of the person's body is necessary (heads and shoulder shots for example). General rule of thumb: When cropping the human form (or animal form), avoid placing the cropped boundary of your composition at the anatomical joints - neck, elbow, wrist, waist, knee, ankles, etc. Try to place the crop along the torso, arm, forearm, thigh, leg, etc. An canvas/oil-paint artist taught me that.
Also do a Google or Youtube search on the "Rule of Thirds" with regards to composition. Read up on that too.
Also, would love to hear any other tricks for shooting at tele distances... I'm going on safari at the end of the year and want to learn how to do it "right"
Thanks
I see you've already bought a tripod. You're going to need that... but sometimes setting up a tripod can take too long and you could miss a fleeting-moment shot. Other quicker alternatives are a monopod or a small rice bag. The camera can be left mounted on the monopod as you move around and explore, you carry it like a staff or walking stick... and rest it on the ground to take a telephoto shot. It's not as stable as a tripod but it's quicker and lighter. You could also use your tripod similarly but it's more cumbersome. The rice bag you can make yourself (just don't get it wet!)... use small plastic beads and a nylon pouch for a waterproof version. Use it like a pillow and rest your lens on it to shoot. You can place the rice bag on top of rocks, a fence post, car fender, etc. If there's nothing around, genuflect and use one of your knees (tilt screen on the 5N is perfect for this). Make it small enough so you can carry it around in your pocket. You don't need to have all of these, but you might just want to try it out to see if it suits your style.
You can buy a cheap infrared remote trigger for your NEX if you want to be in some of your shots...
... and oh, don't stress about it all, just have fun! Watch out for those lions though...