Novice trying harder

[sleipnerofasgard]

Went out today and tried to get some close ups so i thought i'd try them on here all criticisms are most welcome,even tried to get the mandarin pic into the Gallery










Cheers

[zan]

These are really nice shots, but there are a couple of things you could work on...

Smew_1: Black and white animals are difficult to expose correctly, but the white areas here are overexposed (blown highlights on the head, shoulder and breast). The reflection is really nice, but I'd be tempted to crop closer round the bird to get rid of the distracting reflection in the bottom left corner.

Lapwing: This photo looks a bit dull overall, and I think you could do with brightening the whites and darkening the blacks (levels adjustment in photoshop). It also looks slightly soft, but that might be due to jpg compression or a close crop around the bird. Generally, you want to get the eye sharp.

Flamingo: I like this one - the eye contact and background reflections are good and make quite an interesting photo. I'm not sure about the crop though, and would like to see the legs in the frame. If not all of them, then at least keeping the neck completely in would be better as it looks a bit chopped as it is. Again I think it could do with a bit of brightening overall.

Mandarin: This is a nice shot too. The colours are lovely (although I think the white on the head is a little overexposed again) and the pose could be really cute. If the full reflection had been left in, it would have looked like the duck was admiring itself in the water and would have made for a more interesting shot.

I hope you don't think I'm being too harsh or over-critical, because you've got a really good set of photos here in what looks like pretty dull weather! I don't claim to be an expert by any means, and others are free to disagree with my critique, but you don't need to do much to improve your shots. Basically, a bit more post-processing would sort out most of the problems here. Hope this is some help to you anyway.

Nice set, and keep on shooting!

Zan

[John]

I have to agree with Zan's comments. They are all spot on.

These images I would have thought are all captive. This gives you the opportunity to revisit the place and to retry taking the same photos. This time you need to underexpose a lot more with the Smew.

The Flamingo really needs taking with the legs showing as well.

The Lapwing is a bit dull but it is a bird where you need the right light to bring out the right colours.

The Mandarin is a bit overexposed and needs underexposing a bit more.

Your shutter speed needs upping to make your images that much sharper and you may have to up your ISO to achieve it.

With the Smew & the Mandarin try and photograph them side on as it is easier to try and keep all of the bird in focus.

One other tip (which is actually in your Flamingo & Mandarin photos) is to keep your bird off centre in the photo. The bird needs to be looking into the majority of the photo, as shown in those two photos. Doing this helps give a balance to the image.

Try taking as many photos as you can of each subject, and at the same time changing settings as you go, and hopefully you will get some images to be proud of.

As time goes by you will get used to using different settings for different situations. Your photos will then improve enormously.

John

[HowlinWolf]

As John points out: the flamingo needs the legs in shot. This cries out to have been photographed in portrait format, which would have allowed the legs to be included. Even if the bird is stood in water, leave room for the feet, as the eye psychologically needs to resolve their whereabouts.

HW

[glsammy]

I agree with all of the points raised.

I've done some work on your Lapwing, which improved quite a bit. If I'd had the original and not a low quality copy it would be even better.I'm by no means an expert so no doubt others could have done more.

[big bill]

Hi agree with all the comments made above but you are improving compared to how you were previously,image of Lapwing and flamingo are slightly out of focus and the flamingo needs its legs shoot in Portrait more to include them and cut down on the wasted space around the birds it does nothing to the image only wastes space that could be taken up with your main image otherwise a big improvement on previous pics

[sleipnerofasgard]

Thanks for all those helpful comments and the improvements on the lapwing ,what did you actually do graham as i have had a go myself sharpening and changing the colour temp in my picasa .no doubt you you used photoshop.i tried to put the pics on without messing too much just to see how they looked as most of the time i'm taking pictures from a hide and from a long way away and more for recording purposes but i would like to get a few clean shots but as the weather was awful ,ie no sun i'll count these as practise.i didn't crop any except the lapwing as it wasn't a full frame shot but the others i guess i was just too close therefore no legs.will try again if weather improves any tips for pics of white birds?

cheers

[glsammy]

I balanced the Highlights and Shadows, I also removed some of the over sharpening on the edges of the bird. I adjusted the Colour balance through a Curve layer, before finally running Neat Image over the background to smooth it out.
Yes this was in Photoshop.

If I'd had the original it would have been better.

One point re white birds...COMPENSATE!! Apply at 1-2 stops negative exposure compensation for a white bird, especially if the weather is bright. This means that your shutter speed needs to be higher than the metering suggests. This will of course darken the background, but it's the bird your after!

[sleipnerofasgard]

so crank up the shutter speed till it flashes to say it's too fast then crank it up another notch (Technically Speaking)

[John]

Experiment with it. Go to the same place you took those photos and practice on the white birds, or birds with white in them. Keep changing the settings until you get it right.

As I said earlier, you will get the hang of it eventually and then you will wonder what all the fuss was about.

John

Originally Posted by sleipnerofasgard

so crank up the shutter speed till it flashes to say it's too fast then crank it up another notch (Technically Speaking)