Diapasonbill's photos

[diapasonbill]

Hi All,
My first attempt at placing a few of my photos on any forum.
Please feel free to tell me what you think.
I use a Panasonic FZ30 normally with the 1.7 x Telconverter on the front of it.
Software: Adobe Lightroom Beta 4.1.











I Think I need to play some more with JPG save quality, I followed the guidlines and saved 75% quality, but some of these full frame images are over 250K.


I will now submit this and see if I have got it right.

Cheers,
Bill

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by diapasonbill

Hi All,
My first attempt at placing a few of my photos on any forum.
Please feel free to tell me what you think.
I use a Panasonic FZ30 normally with the 1.7 x Telconverter on the front of it.
Software: Adobe Lightroom Beta 4.1.











I Think I need to play some more with JPG save quality, I followed the guidlines and saved 75% quality, but some of these full frame images are over 250K.


I will now submit this and see if I have got it right.

Cheers,
Bill

in camera you should definitely save it at maximum quality uncompressed, then when you are saving it for display here i would reccomend that you resize to 600x800 pix at 72dpi and save it at quality setting 7 - that normally does the biz for me

in terms of critique of the images ,

top one - its okay but you could have got a more powerfull shot if you'd got down to his head level - kneeling or lying on the ground - its always good to take a bin liner out with you for this purpose. also I would recomend getting or cropping in closer in portrait format to exclude the half goose in the background

second one down is nice - but the eye/head doesnt look quite sharp , a touch of USM in photoshop ought to sort that out

Third one doesnt do a lot for me , its a technically competent shot of a swan , but so what ? framing it on thirds could have made it a bit more interesting but really you needed to get closer and have better light.

4+5 are both nice shots though again they would have benefited from better light (out of your control I know) to be hyper critical the grass across its beak in 4 is a little distracting - you could try cloning this out in photoshop.

hope that you find this helpful

[matt_xyz]

nice images Billl. I agree with Eeyore's suggestions above as to how they could be improved. One other comment though, images 2, 4 and 5 appear to be very grainy. I imagine this is noise, but I can't see why they would be so noisy, especially the one taken in good sunshine. Do you use a high ISO setting? I also own an FZ30 and 1.7 converter and am aware that it is a potentially noisy camera. But it's normally fine at ISO 80 or 100. Alternatively, are you over sharpening them maybe? If so, I would suggest using less sharpening and only applying it to the actual bird so that the backgrounds aren't so grainy. Failing that, they may just have been cropped heavily which would partly explain the grainyness.

I hope the above doesn't sound over-critical (you did ask for feedback!). As I say, they're nice images and I look forward to seeing more from you.

Matt

[glsammy]

I agree with the general comments made so far, but please don't let any of this put you off, the shots are by no means bad, better light on a few of them would have made a huge difference.
Most of them would have been perfectly acceptable in the main galleries if you'd have wished to upload them.
A bit more work would improve them a fair amount, de-noise and despeckle improves them a lot, plus a little localised sharpening and burning.

[diapasonbill]

Hello All,
Sorry for the delay in replying - busy time of year!!!!!

Thanks to you all for the comments.

eeyore - I dont think I could have got down to face level with the black swan - it was surrounded by Mute Swans & Canada Geese and I didnt wish to disturb them or have my 'ass-pecked' (Sorry!) So I had to grab the photo when I had a clear(ish) view of the bird.

The Tunstone in Photo 2 - Yes your right about the head - Oh Dear, I think maybe lack of depth of field - I magnified it & had a look and it is out of focus so I dont think USM will improve a bad photo.


I put the white swan up because its one of the few times I have managed to capture the feather detail so well, but I have to agree with the comments about the framing of the shot.

The young Blacktailed Godwit (I think) in No's 4 & 5 yes I know the lights not good and the grass is fuzzy - I have now had a play with these 2 shots and will upload them soon for comparison.

Matt,

For your info - 2 was at 400 ASA & 4&5 at 200 ASA. They are aroung 1/5 frame crops.
The noise is interesting - it looks a lot less on my CRT monitor at home, but is really quite bad when viewed on this LCD monitor I have here at work.

Glsammy,

Thanks also for your comments - not put off, in fact you have all given me the sort of feedback I was seeking.

Got to stop now - Lunchtime is over!

Cheers

Bill

[matt_xyz]

Hi Bill,

I've noticed myself that noise can look a lot worse on some monitors than others. As a general rule though I always try to avoid ISO400 on the FZ30, the noise is normally just too severe. Also, I only use ISO200 as a last resort, instead using 80 and 100. That is the one main drawback of the FZ30, which in all other respects is an excellent camera. It's not too hard keeping the ISO low though, because at least the image stabilization allows the use of slower shutter speeds.

I look forward to seeing more photos from you.

Matt